Diet cola may not be slimming, just synthetic.
Did yesterday’s diet soda (saving you 150 calories) set you up for consuming 300 extra calories by the end of the day?
How about those calorie free cookies, or sugar free yogurt?
In 2003, with the release of The Mars and Venus Diet and Exercise Solution, MarsVenusLiving.com’s John Gray wrote: “Probably the best thing Americans can do for their diet is to stop eating so much refined sugar.” He also went on record cautioning readers regarding the use of artificial sweeteners.
Yet another instance in which John’s instincts were ahead of the curb. Here’s why.
Aspartame is commonly marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, or Canderel, while Sweet ‘N Low is a different sugar substitute known as saccharin. In addition to being packaged for baking and individual packets for coffee and tea sweetening, the most common way we encounter the use of these artificial sweeteners is in no-calorie soft drinks and sugar free cookies, candies, yogurts, puddings, and other products.
In the March 2009 issue of Popular Science, an article theorizing the roots of the world’s obesity crisis calls out one possible suspect: these very sugar substitutes that have been “helping” us to lose weight and stay thin.
Citing a 2008 study by Purdue University neuroscientist Terry Davidson and first reported in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience, the premise advanced is that sugar substitutes may blunt the brain’s natural ability to measure calories, causing us in turn to overeat.
Davidson and his colleague, psychologist Susan Swithers, fed one group of rats artificially sweetened yogurt, and another group yogurt that was sweetened with refined sugar. Both groups were fed rodent chow as well. The rats fed the artificially sweetened yogurt consistently ate more of their feed allotment, and consequently gained more weight.
Davidson theorizes that all animals use taste to predict caloric impact. Davidson and his research team suspect that, when we experience a sweet taste with no accompanying caloric intake, it disrupts our bodies’ ability to calibrate the consequences of what other foods we consume.
In fact, when commenting about that year’s best selling book Sugar Busters, John went on to say, “I was surprised when diet drinks and sugar replacements containing aspartame were recommended instead.” John acknowledged that there has been a long-running debate regarding the safety or wisdom of sugar substitutes and he concluded: “I come down on the side of caution, and do not recommend aspartame as an alternative to sugar.”
All involved in the sugar substitute study acknowledge that further research is needed. There is also the possibility that the reaction of rats to artificial sweeteners could be different to that of humans. Broader testing is also needed to examine whether any or all five commonly used sugar substitutes would create similar results.
Dr. Davidson, however, notes that his work to this point poses an intriguing question. “Most people have assumed that as people gained weight, they increased consumption of artificial sweeteners. Our data suggests that the cause and effect could be the other way around.”
Other MarsVenusLiving.com Health & Happiness Articles
Further Reflections on Freedom
Our True Desires: The First Four Building Blocks
Jackson Story Reveals that Both Mars and Venus Jump Online
The Best Relationship Stress Buster: Exercise
Processing Your Negative Feelings
Michelle Obama’s Garden of Hope
From Bonnie’s Garden: Feed Your SOL, One Ingredient at a Time
Both Mars and Venus Need a Good Breakfast
Sugar Substitutes Prove to Be a Not So Sweet Deal
When the Search for the Perfect Diet Goes Too Far
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i read somewhere on the internet that long term consumption of Aspartame is not really good for the health. *-*