As far as I can tell, those packets of raw sugar have the same calories as refined sugar, with 1/10th the ability to sweeten. So if you wish to sweeten your coffee, for example, you end up consuming about 5x the sugar, than if your stupid coffee shop just offered regular damn white sugar. Why? Why does this stuff exist? Who prefers it?
People are going to eat and drink things that arent the best for them. Thats the reality. And if theyre going to do that, it makes sense to minimize the harm in a practical way.
As for artificial sweeteners being harmful, testing them at levels hundreds, thousands of times what is actually used is not the way to do it. Give me a mechanism for harm to occur that makes sense and evidence of harm that reflects their actual use.
Eating sweet things triggers a subconscious urge in the brain to eat more regardless of whether what you’re eating next is sweet in the hope that you get to eat more sugar for energy. This is seen with both sugar and sweeteners, so eating or drinking sweetened things make your appetite significantly bigger and so you eat more energy than you use and gain weight… Sounds like a mechanism for harm to occur to me, but whatever