Why Hollywood is ditching sugar: celebrities switching to monk fruit

It is easy to roll your eyes at a Hollywood diet trend. But cutting refined sugar is one of the few that has genuinely stuck, and for once the reasons hold up: the payoffs people talk about, steadier energy, clearer skin and better long-term metabolic health, line up reasonably well with what the research shows. Monk fruit fits into that shift as a natural, whole-fruit-derived way to keep the sweetness while dropping the added sugar. The catch is that most "monk fruit" on the shelf is really an erythritol blend, so what you buy matters as much as the switch itself.

Before you blame the hype

• Cutting refined sugar is a mainstream wellness habit, and the reasons people give (energy, skin, weight and metabolic health) are broadly backed by evidence.
• Public figures who have spoken about quitting or cutting sugar include Alec Baldwin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson and Miranda Kerr, for their own health reasons, not for any brand.
• Monk fruit works as a natural sweetener with no added sugar and negligible calorie and glycaemic impact at the small amounts typically used.
• Most supermarket "monk fruit" is mostly erythritol, so it is worth checking the label, because whole-fruit-derived options are a different thing.

Is "quitting sugar" really a Hollywood thing, or just hype?

It is genuinely widespread, and it has been building for well over a decade. Several public figures have talked openly about cutting refined sugar for health reasons rather than as a crash diet. Alec Baldwin has said he gave up sugar after a prediabetes diagnosis, describing sugar as "the real killer" for him. Gwyneth Paltrow has written about sugar's links to chronic disease and later published low-sugar recipes. Kate Hudson has described craving sugar "like an addict" in the late afternoon, and model Miranda Kerr has spoken about largely avoiding refined sugar in favour of whole foods.

One thing worth being honest about: these are people cutting sugar, not endorsing any particular product or brand. There is no credible reporting of a named celebrity endorsing a specific monk fruit sweetener, and you should be sceptical of anyone who claims otherwise. The trend is cultural, not a product placement.

The wider picture beyond celebrities

The celebrity habit mirrors what ordinary shoppers are doing. In consumer surveys, sugar is consistently the number one ingredient people say they want to cut, ahead of fat and salt. It reflects official advice too: the NHS recommends adults have no more than 30g of free sugars a day, roughly seven sugar cubes. Market data points the same way: sales of monk-fruit-sweetened products have grown sharply, and monk fruit is one of the fastest-rising natural sweeteners as people move away from both sugar and older artificial options. Hollywood is riding the same wave as everyone else, it just gets more headlines. We look at that shift in more detail in our piece on the rise of monk fruit in wellness culture.

Why do people cut sugar? What the evidence says

The motivations people cite are not vague. Three come up again and again, and each has a reasonable basis.

• Energy. Large, fast-absorbing hits of sugar can produce a spike-and-crash pattern in blood glucose. Many people report steadier energy through the day after cutting back on sugary drinks and snacks.
• Skin. A 2022 systematic review of diet and acne in JAAD International concluded that a high glycaemic index and increased glycaemic load have a modest but significant effect on breakouts. High sugar intake is also linked to the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are associated with premature skin ageing.
• Metabolic health. Research links higher intakes of simple sugars and refined grains to greater risk of metabolic syndrome, the cluster of factors behind type 2 diabetes and heart disease. As Diabetes UK notes, cutting free sugar through simple swaps is one of the most consistently recommended dietary changes.

None of this means sugar is poison or that a slice of cake will ruin you. It means added refined sugar is the part most worth trimming, and that is exactly where a natural sweetener earns its place.

Where does monk fruit fit in?

Monk fruit (luo han guo) is a small melon native to southern China. Its sweetness comes largely from natural compounds called mogrosides, which the body does not use for energy the way it uses sugar. That is why monk fruit can sweeten food and drink with no added sugar and negligible calorie and glycaemic impact at the small amounts typically used.

For someone cutting refined sugar, that is a useful trade. You keep the sweetness in your morning coffee, your porridge or a fruit sauce without the spike-and-crash and without the added-sugar load that the skin and metabolic research is concerned with. If you want the full background, our guide to what monk fruit sweetener is walks through the basics, and Monk fruit vs sugar compares them side by side.

Not all "monk fruit" is the same thing

Here is the part the marketing tends to skip. Most monk fruit products in shops are not really about the fruit at all. They are erythritol blends, where a bulking sugar alcohol makes up the vast majority of the weight, with only a hint of concentrated monk fruit extract for sweetness. That is why so many "monk fruit" tubs measure spoon-for-spoon like sugar: you are mostly scooping erythritol.

There is nothing sinister about erythritol, and it is an approved sweetener sold widely across the UK and EU. But it is not what everyone assumes they are buying, and the sugar alcohols in these blends are a common cause of bloating and digestive discomfort for some people. If your reason for cutting sugar is to feel better, it is worth reading the back of the pack rather than the front.

What to look for when you buy

• Read the ingredients, not the front label. If erythritol (or "sugar alcohol") is the first or main ingredient, it is a blend, not a whole-fruit product.
• Understand sweetness strength. Highly concentrated extracts can be listed as many times sweeter than sugar; whole-fruit-derived powders are far less concentrated. Zilch, for example, is a decoction that is around 3 times sweeter than sugar, so a little goes a long way without being an isolated extract.
• Consider how it is made. A whole-fruit-derived infusion retains more of the fruit's naturally occurring compounds (mogrosides, fibre, plant compounds and small amounts of naturally occurring sugars) rather than stripping everything back to a single purified molecule.
• Match it to your goal. If you are cutting sugar for gut comfort, avoiding sugar-alcohol blends is a sensible move.

If the wellness hype leaves you wondering whether any of this is more than marketing, it is a fair question, and we tackle it head-on in is monk fruit the next superfood trend.

Where Zilch fits in

At Zilch, we came at this from one angle: keep the sweetness, drop the sugar, and skip the sugar alcohols that leave a cooling aftertaste and unsettle some stomachs. Zilch is a monk fruit infusion powder made by decoction, with a soluble tapioca fibre carrier, so it is whole-fruit-derived rather than a purified extract. It has no added sugar, no erythritol, no sugar alcohols and no artificial additives, it is high in fibre, and at around 3 times the sweetness of sugar a little goes a long way in coffee, tea or porridge.

What it is not: a cup-for-cup baking sugar. It does not caramelise or add bulk the way sugar and erythritol do, so for cakes you usually adjust the recipe rather than swap spoon for spoon. That is the honest trade. If you are joining the shift away from refined sugar and want a natural option that leans on the fruit rather than a bulking agent, it is a reasonable place to start.

Related reading

• The rise of monk fruit in wellness culture: how a niche fruit became a mainstream swap.
• Celebrity nutritionists' best sugar alternatives: what the experts behind the trend actually recommend.
• Monk fruit without erythritol: why the blend question matters, and why we made ours differently.

FAQ

Do celebrities actually use monk fruit?

Plenty of public figures have talked about cutting refined sugar, and monk fruit is a popular natural sweetener within that wider movement. But there is no verified reporting of a specific celebrity endorsing a particular monk fruit brand, so treat any such claim with caution.

Is cutting sugar actually good for your skin?

The evidence is suggestive rather than absolute. A 2022 systematic review linked high-glycaemic, refined-carbohydrate diets to more acne, and high sugar intake is associated with skin-ageing AGEs. Cutting added sugar is a reasonable, low-risk change, though skin is influenced by many factors.

Is monk fruit better than an erythritol blend?

It depends on what you want. Whole-fruit-derived monk fruit powder gives you sweetness without sugar alcohols, which suits people prone to bloating from erythritol. Blends measure more like sugar spoon-for-spoon but are mostly bulking agent, so read the label and choose for your goal.