Sugar?
 

What's the best sugar substitute? Way back in the day when I first started South Beach (2004), it was splenda. THat's what I've been using all of these years, but is there another one that is recommended?

I don't know that any artificial sweetener (i.e. Splenda) would fall under the umbrella of "whole foods" or "natural lifestyle". If you're looking for a more natural alternative to white sugar, I'd recommend raw cane sugar, agave, honey, or maple syrup.

Definitely Stevia! I love it. Use it all the time. I try to avoid splenda. I think it slows weight loss down. However, I will find products every now and again that I will use that has it in it.

I've used both liquid stevia extract and truvia. I love both and have had no problems with either. The only downside I know of is that the track record isn't well established (yes, people have been eating it for a long time, but not in large quantities and not with careful long term health follow up).

In the past I used splenda as a substitute. Lately though, if I want something sugary sweet, I have it. Generally I drink my coffee black, sometimes I want it sweet so I add a bit of sugar to it. I notice I don't crave as much sweet stuff as I used to.

There are a lot of healthy 'alternatives' as mentioned about honey, agave nectar, molasses, etc. It was pointed out slightly that sugar substitutes don't exactly fall under a whole food lifestyle. This would be a better post under nutrition or something like that...

I second what peanutt says. A more whole foods lifestyle would not use artificial sugars. Stevia works, but it tastes bitter to me.

Clean Eating magazine uses a lot of organic evaporated cane sugar, which is basically a powder. And honey and maple syrup are tasty too. I've never tried agave but I want to do so in the near future.