If you like to cook and you like sweets and you are a human being and not a superhero, artificial sweeteners will probably suck at you, but you have no idea how to decently replace sugar without losing the taste, but cutting the calories.

In eight years of writing about nutrition, I have bought the most unlikely things, and I can tell you that: nothing, in fact, is like sugar.

Especially if you are used to the sweetness of sugar, you will find a strange and often unconvincing taste in natural or artificial sweeteners. So my advice is to try various options before choosing the definitive one, or, as I do, vary the sweeteners according to use or mix them together.
Here is the best I was able to find (and try).

NATURAL SWEETENERS, A GUIDE

1. Fructose.
   The calories are the same as sugar, but a tip of a teaspoon is enough for coffee because it has greater sweetening power. Great for coffee and tea in moderation. NOT good for cooking, it becomes less sweet in cooking.
2. Lucuma.
   Derived from the South American fruit of the same name. It does not contain gluten and appears to be better suited for diabetics than fructose. It is slightly less caloric than sugar, is sold in powder form, has a yellowish color and costs a bang. Problem is, it doesn’t sweeten, I wouldn’t call it a sugar substitute, it does flavor.
3. Coconut palm sugar.
   The coconut palm is not the same as the oil palm, rest assured. The nectar of its flowers, pulverized, is very sweet, moist and slightly spicy. Reminiscent of brown sugar, but it’s as natural as honey.
4. Monk fruit.
   Similar to stevia, it is the extract of a fruit that creates a calorie-free sweetener. But it is not in Italy. You can order it online.
5. Erythrol .
   Excellent sweetener of the polyol family. On the market you can find it as Sukrin. It is perfect for baking cakes, because it has the same consistency as sugar and a sweet and fresh taste (it does not cause tooth decay), but zero calories. Be careful not to overdo it. Together with xylitol and other polyols, it causes intestinal fermentation.
6. Stevia .
   It is a sweetening product that comes from a plant, the Stevia rebaudiana. The result is a very light white powder, which in combination with some hot drinks tastes of licorice. In cooking it is good for cakes and desserts that do not exceed 180 degrees in the oven. It has zero calories. One gram of authentic stevia sugars like 100 gr. of sugar.