- in Nutrition , Weight Loss by Todd
Diet and Exercise Myth #2: Artificial sweeteners help you lose weight
Artificial sweeteners were first marketed to consumers in the 1950s, and have been controversial ever since. Scientific research is now telling us that artificial sweeteners have many dangerous side effects.
They can lead to weight gain, not weight loss.
Participants in a recent heart study who drank more than 21 diet drinks per week were twice as likely to become overweight or obese as people who didn’t drink diet soda.
The journal of the Canadian Medical Association recently published a meta-analysis of high-quality trials relating to artificial sweeteners and body weight. The review found little connection to weight loss, except in a couple of long-term trials that were sponsored by the artificial sweetener industry itself.
Another review of a large number of observational studies found that people who used artificial sweeteners over time gained weight and had a larger waist circumference.
They also had higher rates of high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular events. Researchers discovered that daily consumption of artificially sweetened drinks led to a 35% increase in the risk of metabolic syndrome and a 67% increase in the risk for type 2 diabetes.
How and why does this happen?
- 1We replace the lost calories: People who use artificial sweeteners may replace the lost calories through other sources, offsetting the reduction in calories from using artificial sweeteners. E.g. “I’m drinking diet soda, so it’s OK to have a few biscuits”.
- 2We lose our association between sweetness and caloric intake: Artificial sweeteners can break down the association we normally maintain between sweetness and caloric intake. As a result, we may crave more sweets and tend to choose sweet food over nutritious food.
- 3We retrain our taste buds: Artificial sweeteners retrain our taste buds to prefer sweeter foods, potentially leading to a form of addiction. They can also alter the way we perceive the taste of food, because they’re so much more potent than normal sugar that they over-stimulate our sugar receptors. This can limit our desire for more complex tastes, and cause us to find less intensely sweet foods like fruit to be less appealing. Savoury foods like vegetables can eventually seem quite unpalatable.
- 4We become glucose intolerant: Research has suggested that consuming lots of artificial sweeteners can mess with the bacteria in our gut, and cause them to make our bodies glucose intolerant – in turn causing other dangerous metabolic conditions that come from having high blood glucose.
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