We use an increasing number of low-calorie sweeteners as we attempt to reduce the calories in our daily diets. Intense sweeteners, which are several hundred to several thousand times sweeter than table sugar, are used by themselves and also in a wide variety of low-calorie foods and beverages.

Those that are in use today have undergone extensive clinical testing and have received approval from the Food and Drug Administration. Still, misinformation about them persists. Here are the facts behind some of the myths:

• Low-calorie sweeteners DO NOT increase appetite and cravings for sweet foods.
• Foods and beverages sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners DO NOT cause disease.
• Pregnant women and children can safely use low-calorie sweeteners unless their physician advises against it.
• Low-calorie sweeteners DO NOT cause cancer. Tests in the 1970s that raised questions about bladder cancer in laboratory animals given saccharin were done with unrealistically high doses: equivalent to 750 cans of soft drinks or 10,000 saccharin tablets per day, every day, for a lifetime.

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