A sweetener is a food additive which adds the basic taste of sweetness to a food. It is a best substitute to sugar to sweeten foods without extra calories. Sweeteners are considered "free foods" because they contain very few calories and don't count as a carbohydrate, a fat or any other food in your meal plan. Sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar, hence it takes a much smaller quantity of them to create the same sweetness. In addition to the sweetening power, sweeteners may be used for such processes as food preservation, fermentation, baking, and food browning and carmelization. Some sweeteners are natural while some are synthetic. Those that are not natural are referred to as artificial sweeteners. Dates, resin, fruit juice, fructose, honey etc are some of the examples of natural sweeteners and are healthy alternative to sugar. Acesulfame potassium, Aspartame, Sucralose etc are some of the examples of artificial sweeteners.