From the Orlando Sentinel: Equal, Sweet'N Low, Splenda, Truvia: All have been touted as the holy grail for those who want to indulge in sweets but dodge the calories and other repercussions of sugar.
But a growing body of science is finding
that, although the artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages may
lower calories, consumers pay for the trade-off in other ways.
Recent scientific studies are finding that consuming artificial sweeteners may actually pad on pounds and contribute to metabolic syndrome, an unhealthy combination of excess belly fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance, which is epidemic in this country.
For starters, dieters often wrongly rationalize that if they have a diet soda, they can eat another slice of pizza or cake, so they wind up overcompensating, said Dr. Devendra Mehta, a gastroenterologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.
"As a diet aid, many studies have shown that artificial sweeteners don't help," Mehta said.
And they actually stimulate rather than curb sweet cravings.
"Overstimulation of sugar receptors from frequent use of these hyperintense sweeteners may limit tolerance for more-complex tastes," said Dr. David Ludwig, obesity expert and professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Ultimately, consumers may find less intensely sweet foods, like fruit, less appealing and vegetables downright appalling."
But scientists think the problem goes beyond the tongue.
Sweet trap
Most Americans know that consuming too much sugar leads to health problems, specifically diabetes and obesity. That's because dietary sugar — and that includes table sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, honey, agave syrup and the like — turns to glucose quickly in the blood. If that energy source isn't burned right away, it gets stored in the cells as fat....
"Mice
studies have shown that non-nutritive sweeteners make mice more
efficient at absorbing sugar from their diet." Although this hasn't been
proved yet in humans, "we have the same setup for it," he said.
In human terms, that would mean if two identical people ate the same diet with the same number of calories, except one person drank diet soda and the other drank water, the diet-soda drinker would take up more glucose from the diet than the water drinker.
"This likely explains why diet-soda drinkers don't lose weight and often gain weight," he said. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-29/health/os-artificial-sweeteners-20120829_1_artificial-sweeteners-blood-sugar-metabolic-syndrome
Even though I am a fatter guy than when I was in high school, I rarely drink or use artificial sweeteners. Mainly because they are too sweet and the ingredients of the fake sweeteners make me scared to put them in my body.
Recent scientific studies are finding that consuming artificial sweeteners may actually pad on pounds and contribute to metabolic syndrome, an unhealthy combination of excess belly fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance, which is epidemic in this country.
For starters, dieters often wrongly rationalize that if they have a diet soda, they can eat another slice of pizza or cake, so they wind up overcompensating, said Dr. Devendra Mehta, a gastroenterologist at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children.
"As a diet aid, many studies have shown that artificial sweeteners don't help," Mehta said.
And they actually stimulate rather than curb sweet cravings.
"Overstimulation of sugar receptors from frequent use of these hyperintense sweeteners may limit tolerance for more-complex tastes," said Dr. David Ludwig, obesity expert and professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "Ultimately, consumers may find less intensely sweet foods, like fruit, less appealing and vegetables downright appalling."
But scientists think the problem goes beyond the tongue.
Sweet trap
Most Americans know that consuming too much sugar leads to health problems, specifically diabetes and obesity. That's because dietary sugar — and that includes table sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, honey, agave syrup and the like — turns to glucose quickly in the blood. If that energy source isn't burned right away, it gets stored in the cells as fat....
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In human terms, that would mean if two identical people ate the same diet with the same number of calories, except one person drank diet soda and the other drank water, the diet-soda drinker would take up more glucose from the diet than the water drinker.
"This likely explains why diet-soda drinkers don't lose weight and often gain weight," he said. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-08-29/health/os-artificial-sweeteners-20120829_1_artificial-sweeteners-blood-sugar-metabolic-syndrome
Even though I am a fatter guy than when I was in high school, I rarely drink or use artificial sweeteners. Mainly because they are too sweet and the ingredients of the fake sweeteners make me scared to put them in my body.
I'm a heavy diet soda drinker. Have been for decades. I maintain that it's better than drinking massive quantities of high fructose corn syrup. If this stuff is gonna kill me, it's much to late to moderate. But I think when they say that artificial sweeteners will make you fat, and then go to the rationalizations that you can eat more if you have a diet soda? That's just bad logic. And the comparison of "diet soda drinker" to "water drinker" isn't very American either, is it? Think Big Gulp of full-sugar Coke!
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