Sweeteners are added to foods for flavoring. Sweeteners other than sugar are added to keep the food energy ( calories ) low, or because they have beneficial effects for diabetes mellitus and tooth decay and diarrhea. These are the substances that sweeten food, beverages, medications, etc, such as sugar, saccharine or other low-calorie synthetic products. They in general can be termed as sweetening agents. They all are called artificial sweeteners as they are usually not a component of the product they are added to. As per the source, these substances can be classified as natural and artificial sweeteners. Natural sweeteners are obtained from the natural sources like sugarcane and sugar beet and from fruits ( fructose) and the artificial ones have a chemical origin. Artificial sweeteners are further of two type namely non-caloric sweeteners and sugar alcohols. Noncaloric sweeteners do not add calories to foods. They are used in snack foods and drinks. Sweeteners like saccharine and aspartame fall under this category. Sugar alcohols are used in chewing gums and hard candies and have almost same calories as sugar. Examples of sugar alcohols are sorbitol and mannitol.