Allulose vs Aspartame

The biggest difference between allulose and aspartame is that allulose is a natural sweetener while aspartame is artificial. Aspartame is a low cost sugar substitute used in many mainstream soft drinks such as Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Diet Pepsi.

Allulose is a natural sweetener that is derived from fruits and vegetables. Interestingly, it has the same molecular structure as Glucose but bonded slightly differently so your body does not metabolize allulose. That means that the taste is identical to sugar but your body does not process in the same way and allulose does not raise your blood sugar. That is why on nutrition labels, products with allulose are considered zero grams of sugar. While the taste profile is identical to sugar, it is about 70% as sweet. So if you are using pure allulose at home in your kitchen, you would need 30-40% more to be comparably sweet. Subjectively, we've experimented with 1:1 ratios and have enjoyed the slightly less sweet versions of drinks and baked goods.


Aspartame technically contains 4 calories per gram but because it is 200 times sweeter than sugar, you only need a tiny bit of aspartame to reach desired sweetness level so it's basically considered zero calories. Drinks made entirely with aspartame as the sole sweetener tend to have higher viscosity since they lack the fibers of traditional sugar or allulose. This is what is often referred to as "mouthfeel" and contributes to our mind's interpretation of a traditional soft drink.

In the past, there were some studies showing harmful effects of aspartame. Some of the older studies linking aspartame to cancer were done at very high doses and on mice. In general, those studies were viewed as flawed. However, there are also recent studies that are once again re-linking causality to cancer and other health issues such as disruption of your gut microbiome. While aspartame does not cause a spike in blood sugar immediately, there is growing evidence that with long-term consumption, your microbiome shifts and you increase your level of insulin resistance over time which is not good.

Some more recent studies of some of the health issues of Aspartame include:


In fact, there are enough negative studies that aspartame is on the Whole Foods banned ingredient list. Artificial ingredients and processing just have too many unknowns to us that we avoid them entirely. Something may be deemed safe in moderation but with above average use over long periods of time, there seems to be greater potential for health issues. At AlluSoda, we do not use any artificial ingredients. Allulose is a very expensive ingredient and almost 10x more expensive than aspartame but we feel the taste and health reasons alone make it worthwhile to use as an ingredient in our soda's.