News
Top blogs
Podcast
Topics
EventsAnother reason to be skeptical of artificial sweeteners
in Non-caloric sweeteners 
Bad for your blood sugar?
According to exciting new research, several common artificial sweeteners may have a previously unknown side effect. They affect the gut flora and may thereby elevate blood sugar. Not only in mice, but also in humans.
Forbes: Could Artificial Sweeteners Be Contributing To The Obesity Crisis?
The study:
Nature: Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota
This is of course a result that needs to be repeated in more and larger studies in order to learn more about its significance. But it’s already another reason to play it safe and use caution when it comes to artificial sweeteners. Personally, I almost never use them. This is truly a matter of habit. More than a decade ago I used to drink diet soda regularly. Now I never do and I don’t miss it one bit.
Do you use artificial sweeteners and if so, for what?
30 comments
Top comment
All comments
I am ordering a blood glucose testing kit to experiment with it.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/artificial-sweeteners-may-leave-you-ab...
Having now read it, I don't think it can be dismissed with the usual skepticism regarding typical confounding that plagues most nutrition trials. Plus, it wasn't just mice - they did test people. And it appears they did use pure saccharin for some tests (and not just the commercial product, which is mostly a sugar). And they isolated the suspected effect via FMT (in the mice, anyway).
I'm going to conjecture that they'd get very different results in a low-carb human cohort who are paying attention to the status of their gut biome. But for typical moderate to high-gly consumers, who think a can of Diet Croak cancels out the Krispy Kreme they're having with it, this paper is bad news that probably explains why their weight isn't budging.
The AS products they tested (aspartame, sucralose and saccharin) are the most popular in processed foods. They are in general probably not the AS products most careful eaters consume.
I've been avoiding aspartame since shortly after its introduction, and nothing would surprise me about risks from it. I've likewise avoided saccharin, for no particular reason. I do consume a trace amount of sucralose, present in some some Quest bars, and have considered it to be a minor biome hazard (which concern is consistent with what this paper reports).
I don't drink sweetened beverages at all, sugar or "diet", for multiple reasons. So on the whole, this paper is just very interesting.
However, my family uses recipes with stevia, erythritol, monk fruit and more rarely xylitol, and this paper signifies that testing these sweeteners specifically for glucose tolerance and biome effects would be quite worthwhile. I'm not even sure I have a guess at the outcome.
I've had great success with LCHF, all while chugging tons of diet soda, and using Splenda in my coffee. I can understand the idea that sweeteners have a psychological effect that stimulates eating, but not for mysterious and spontaneous blood sugar.
Why use fake when stopping real sugar?
Once off the adiction the ability to dedect sweet taste improves.
Cream has a sweet taste
sometimes sugar is added to meat dishes or green vegetable dishes
Being sugar and fake sugar free improves the ability to avoid these always lurking carbohydrate sources.
Eric
First one needs to liberate him/herself from the addiction to sugars and grains. This normally results in a significant decrease of cravings for sweet foods. At that stage I just said no and stayed away from all kinds of sugary stuff except for the occasional fruit. Which I tend to have more and more often with mascarpone cheese btw. :o))
Just as Boundless I'd love to see a follow-up study including common naturally occurring polyols. Some of these seem to have an adverse effect by providing fermentation raw material to "good" bacteria.
First of all I would like to see very firm evidence that anything bearing "artificial" in its name is safe.
You are not convinced about the results of this study, so I'm wondering how much evidence you assessed to get convinced about the safety of consuming artificial junk instead of "natural" junk? Also, while I agree that ASs might be helpful in getting rid of one's addiction to sweet taste, why should anyone keep the AS long after this process? The gradual removal of AS seems to be a good approach, but not over years, rather months.
I am only fully convinced about the safety of drinking spring water, but at least that one can easily go up to 2 gallons/7 liters per day if needed. :o)
Because they are junkies.
I live in the tropics and sweat in a gym each day and till about 5 months ago used to drink about 2 litres of aspartame added water... Cos it tastes OK and its a lot to drink!
I have been low carb for two years dropping from 195 pounds to 175, but I still have a teeny bit of stomach fat. Thats 88 kgs to 79 kg
For the last year or so my fasting Blood Glucose has been above 120/6.5 and been told its in the diabetic range. So I bought a glucose meter and spear my pinkies mulitple times per day.
My average Blood Glucose over the last 14 weeks is 117/6.49.
After one week on Norfloxacin is its averaging 107/5.94. :)
The drop occured within 2 days and I have had my first sub 100 BG!!! Now I have had 3 sub 100/6. Thats normal range! And only one was fasting, the other two were day and before bed.
I used Norfloxacin as it was all I had.
Today I will start on a probiotic replacement and start potato resistant starch.
I hope it stays down!
Obviously , I am keeping charts of it all but can't see how to post it here.
Anyway, as a lab rat I feel great so don't hassle me about self administering antibiotics without prescription... They were out of date as well :)
However, I have often noticed a hunger spike when I use them, but, it's just time to avoid aspartame as I have sugar. Oh well.
It sure feels good not to be heavy anymore and not recoil at pictures of myself.
http://www.karenhurd.com/pages/healthtopics/currenthealthtrends/ht-ch...
I've never used a lot of sweeteners of any sort, so for now, a bit of saccharin and some erythritol will suffice.
Aspartame - Consumed in Coke Zero, Crystal Light
- Didn't prevent weight loss while doing LCHF
- Hasn't caused weight gain now that I'm in my normal weight range.
- Hasn't kept carb cravings alive
I can give up aspartame, but I'm going to wait for more evidence before I give up liquid sucralose.
Then do you believe that Sparkling Water is bad for us since it is also Soda? as in "Soda Water" ?
I do drink carbonated water occasionally, but prefer squeezing some lemon juice into the regular spring water if I feel the urge for supporting acidity in my stomach.
Back to sweeteners, I don't see the reason why some chemicals should be preferred over low amounts of sugar. A 100 g bar of dark chocolate with 90 % cacao contains 9 g of sugar. Eating 20 g at a time loads you with as much as 1.8 g. I rather take that risk over substituting with chemicals.