Artificial Sweeteners Once Again Linked to Weight Gain
Foods and beverages that contain no-calorie artificial sweeteners may be ruining your ability to control your food intake and body weight, according to new research by psychologists at Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center.
In their study, when compared with rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar), rats that ate yogurt sweetened with the zero-calorie artificial sweetener saccharin:
The researchers also measured the rats’ core body temperatures, which typically rise after eating. However, after eating a sweet, high-calorie meal, rats that ate saccharin had a lower rise in body temperature than rats that ate glucose.
The researchers believe that this blunted biological response led the rats to overeat, and made it harder to burn off the calories later. They concluded that consuming foods sweetened with saccharin would lead to greater weight gain and body fat than eating the same foods sweetened with sugar.
Although further research needs to be done, the researchers believe that consuming other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame K would have similar effects.
Sources:
Eurekalert February 10, 2008
Behavioral Neuroscience February 2008, Vol. 122, No. 1, 161-173
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted from a Cooking OilBefore you cook with oil again, consider making Fresh Shores Extra Virgin Coconut Oil part of your regular diet. With its numerous health-supportive benefits and delicious taste, you’ll wonder why you ever used any other oil.
Learn More
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
The evidence just keeps pouring in that consuming artificial sweeteners will likely wreak havoc on your body by impairing your ability to regulate your appetite naturally.
Just take a look at last week’s article that found drinking diet soda increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and, ultimately, heart disease. Folks, the belief that eating artificially sweetened foods and drinking artificially sweetened beverages will help you to lose weight is a carefully orchestrated deception. So if you are still opting for diet choices for this reason, you are being sorely misled.
In reality, these diet foods and drinks ruin your body's ability to count calories, thus boosting your inclination to overindulge.
Unfortunately, most public health agencies and nutritionists in the United States recommend these toxic artificial sweeteners as an acceptable alternative to sugar, which is at best confusing and at worst harming the health of those who take their misguided advice.
Consider what the research says:
Diet sodas may double your risk of obesity
Artificial sweeteners can stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain Yet, gaining weight is only one of the side effects of consuming these man-made chemical sweeteners.
The Toxic Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners
There is enough evidence showing the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners to fill an entire book -- which is exactly why I wrote Sweet Deception. If you or your loved ones drink diet beverages or eat diet foods, this book will explain how you've been deceived about the truth behind artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose -- for greed, for profits ... and at the expense of your own health.
What’s wrong with those tiny pink, blue and yellow packets? Well, take aspartame for instance. The phenylalanine in aspartame dissociates from the ester bond and increases dopamine levels in your brain.
This can lead to symptoms of depression because it distorts your serotonin/dopamine balance. It can also lead to migraine headaches and brain tumors through a similar mechanism.
Furthermore, the aspartic acid in aspartame is a well-documented excitotoxin. Excitotoxins are usually amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate. These special amino acids cause particular brain cells to become excessively excited, to the point they will quickly die.
Excitotoxins can also cause a loss of brain synapses and connecting fibers.Then the ester bond in aspartame is broken down to formaldehyde and methanol, which have their own toxicities. So it is not surprising that this popular artificial sweetener has also been found to cause cancer.
So aside from causing you to gain weight, artificial sweeteners may cause all sorts of nasty side effects to your health.
How to Kick the Artificial Sweetener Habit
If you consume a lot of diet foods and beverages, it’s likely because you have sweet cravings (yet you think you are making a healthy choice by avoiding sugar).Your body, however, is craving sweets because you are not giving it the fuel it needs.
Finding out your nutritional type will tell you exactly which foods you need to eat to feel full and satisfied. It may sound hard to believe right now, but once you start eating right for your nutritional type, your sweet cravings will disappear.
Meanwhile, be sure you address the emotional component to your food cravings using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings and helps you reach dietary success.And, if diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short period of time.
If energy psychology techniques do not work, then you might want to consider a medical hypnosis program I have evaluated and found to be highly effective. It has direct suggestions to replace soda cravings with cravings for pure water.
Dr Mercola.com
In their study, when compared with rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar), rats that ate yogurt sweetened with the zero-calorie artificial sweetener saccharin:
- Consumed more calories (and didn’t make up for it by cutting back later)
- Gained more weight
- Put on more body fat
The researchers also measured the rats’ core body temperatures, which typically rise after eating. However, after eating a sweet, high-calorie meal, rats that ate saccharin had a lower rise in body temperature than rats that ate glucose.
The researchers believe that this blunted biological response led the rats to overeat, and made it harder to burn off the calories later. They concluded that consuming foods sweetened with saccharin would lead to greater weight gain and body fat than eating the same foods sweetened with sugar.
Although further research needs to be done, the researchers believe that consuming other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame K would have similar effects.
Sources:
Eurekalert February 10, 2008
Behavioral Neuroscience February 2008, Vol. 122, No. 1, 161-173
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted from a Cooking OilBefore you cook with oil again, consider making Fresh Shores Extra Virgin Coconut Oil part of your regular diet. With its numerous health-supportive benefits and delicious taste, you’ll wonder why you ever used any other oil.
Learn More
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
The evidence just keeps pouring in that consuming artificial sweeteners will likely wreak havoc on your body by impairing your ability to regulate your appetite naturally.
Just take a look at last week’s article that found drinking diet soda increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and, ultimately, heart disease. Folks, the belief that eating artificially sweetened foods and drinking artificially sweetened beverages will help you to lose weight is a carefully orchestrated deception. So if you are still opting for diet choices for this reason, you are being sorely misled.
In reality, these diet foods and drinks ruin your body's ability to count calories, thus boosting your inclination to overindulge.
Unfortunately, most public health agencies and nutritionists in the United States recommend these toxic artificial sweeteners as an acceptable alternative to sugar, which is at best confusing and at worst harming the health of those who take their misguided advice.
Consider what the research says:
Diet sodas may double your risk of obesity
Artificial sweeteners can stimulate your appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain Yet, gaining weight is only one of the side effects of consuming these man-made chemical sweeteners.
The Toxic Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners
There is enough evidence showing the dangers of consuming artificial sweeteners to fill an entire book -- which is exactly why I wrote Sweet Deception. If you or your loved ones drink diet beverages or eat diet foods, this book will explain how you've been deceived about the truth behind artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose -- for greed, for profits ... and at the expense of your own health.
What’s wrong with those tiny pink, blue and yellow packets? Well, take aspartame for instance. The phenylalanine in aspartame dissociates from the ester bond and increases dopamine levels in your brain.
This can lead to symptoms of depression because it distorts your serotonin/dopamine balance. It can also lead to migraine headaches and brain tumors through a similar mechanism.
Furthermore, the aspartic acid in aspartame is a well-documented excitotoxin. Excitotoxins are usually amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate. These special amino acids cause particular brain cells to become excessively excited, to the point they will quickly die.
Excitotoxins can also cause a loss of brain synapses and connecting fibers.Then the ester bond in aspartame is broken down to formaldehyde and methanol, which have their own toxicities. So it is not surprising that this popular artificial sweetener has also been found to cause cancer.
So aside from causing you to gain weight, artificial sweeteners may cause all sorts of nasty side effects to your health.
How to Kick the Artificial Sweetener Habit
If you consume a lot of diet foods and beverages, it’s likely because you have sweet cravings (yet you think you are making a healthy choice by avoiding sugar).Your body, however, is craving sweets because you are not giving it the fuel it needs.
Finding out your nutritional type will tell you exactly which foods you need to eat to feel full and satisfied. It may sound hard to believe right now, but once you start eating right for your nutritional type, your sweet cravings will disappear.
Meanwhile, be sure you address the emotional component to your food cravings using a tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings and helps you reach dietary success.And, if diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short period of time.
If energy psychology techniques do not work, then you might want to consider a medical hypnosis program I have evaluated and found to be highly effective. It has direct suggestions to replace soda cravings with cravings for pure water.
Dr Mercola.com
