Natural or artificial sweeteners?

This post will discuss table sugar, honey, aspartame, sucralose and saccharin.

A topic that has been discussed ALOT is if it is better with artificial sweeteners than natural sweeteners.
On one side there are the people who prefer "natural sweeteners" such as common sugar (table sugar, sucrose) and on the other side there are the people who thinks that artificial sweeteners are better, like aspartame. 

These two groups are then divided into smaller fraction; some of the promoters of artificial sweeteners prefer stevia instead of sucralose and some of the people from the natural sweeteners-group think that agave-syrup is better than table sugar. 

Refined fructose is most often considered bad in both groups. 

The natural sweeteners group often uses arguments such as "sugar is natural and aspartame is not". "Aspartame promotes cancer". "When the body breaks down aspartame it turns into methanol". "We have eaten sugar for so long, and our bodies are not used to aspartame, so it is considered toxic". Etc. Taking aspartame vs table sugar as example.

My opinion on the matter, based on what science know today: 

Aspartame is one of the most studied substances in the world. It is considered safe, unless the dose is ridiculous high (everything is toxic in a certain dose, even water). It does not promote cancer. It does not promote obesity. Yes the body breaks it down to methanol, but the amount of methanol is so small, and a glass of orange juice will give you much more methanol than a glass of aspartame sweetened soda. Our bodies does not recognize it as toxic, it is simply two amino acids and our body has no problem in breaking it down.
There are studies that connected aspartame with all kinds of things, promoting cancer to promoting obesity. However, all these studies are large cohort studies with bias and/or reversed causality. There is not one single randomized controlled study that can credit aspartame for any harm on human beings, when used in proper doses.
Aspartame, just like everything that tastes sweet, might trigger cravings.
If I had to choose between table sugar and aspartame, I would choose aspartame every day of the week. 

With other artificial sweeteners I am more restrictive. Saccharin is a very old sweetener and there are studies that has connected saccharin with altering the gut microbiota in a negative way. Our gut microbiota is extremely important to us, in many ways. So my advice is a big no-no to saccharin.

Sucralose is a sweetener that the body barely breaks down. The most part of it goes straight through our bodies. The molecule also goes straight through the treatment plants and into our waters. There it breaks down, very slowly, by microorganisms. Little is known of its long term effect on nature, but we see that it enrich our waters. There are some studies that claim sucralose has a negative impact on humans, and there are studies that claim sucralose has a positive impact. The common thing these studies have is that the dose is extremely high.
So even if sucralose isn't bad for humans when we eat or drink it, it could be bad for us in the long term, not knowing its long term effect on nature. I think it is better to be safe than sorry, and we should try to avoid this sweetener. 

Stevia is considered "natural" by many. Im not sure if I agree, it is not stevia leaves that is used, it is a highly processed powder. Stevia has been used for a very long time and is considered safe in quite large doses. Im not a fan of stevia however, there is a bitter taste that is hard to get rid of. There are some brands with stevia mixed with another sweetener (erithrytol, which is a sugar alcohol) that taste ok, but it is usually very expensive.

Table sugar is known to be bad for your teeth, it contains calories but has no nutritional value (other than just calories of course). There are also a lot of studies regarding table sugar and its negative effects on humans. The scientific evidence of this is huge and ranging from promoting obesity, cancer and maybe most of all diabetes mellitus II.

Then there is honey. It is the only natural sweetener if you ask me. Honey contains calories just as table sugar, but it also contains minerals, antioxidants and vitamins.
But, and there is always a but, there is a risk that your honey isn't honey. It might be just glucose, syrup and flavors. There are a lot of money in the honey business, and bad people are trying to cheat to make money. I suggest you buy your honey from a small, local bee farmer. In that way you know you get the real deal, and you support a small entrepreneur.

So, what of the above do I use? I prefer honey. I like the taste, and I like that it really is the only natural sweetener (unless you chew stevia leaves or sugar beetroot). It also contains minerals and vitamins, unlike all other sweeteners. And last of all, when buying real honey, you help to maintain, or even increase the bee strain, which is a threaten species today.