Hello all,
Artificial Sweeteners Once Again Linked to Weight Gain
Just last week the Venezuelan governments’ health minister Jesus Mantilla said the zero-calorie Coke Zero should no longer be sold and stocks of the drink should be removed from store shelves.
"The product should be withdrawn from circulation to preserve the health of Venezuelans," the minister said in comments reported by the government's news agency. So what are the possible health risks the minister is talking about?
Foods and beverages that contain no-calorie artificial sweeteners may be ruining your ability to control your food intake and body weight, according to research by psychologists in Behavioral Neuroscience (Feb 2008)
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
It’s thought that consuming artificial sweeteners breaks the connection between a sweet sensation and a high-calorie food, thereby changing your body’s ability to regulate intake.
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.
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. Another article published recently found drinking diet soft drinks 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, a lot of public health agencies and nutritionists 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 soft drinks 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
Take Aspartame for instance which is a common ingredient in “Diet” and “Low fat” foods.
The phenylalanine in aspartame 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. These special amino acids cause particular brain cells to become excessively excited, to the point they will quickly die.
Furthermore the ester bond in aspartame is broken down to formaldehyde and methanol in the body, 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 Sweet Habit
Table sugar is just as dangerous in my opinion as long term use can cause a myriad of health conditions. A Nutritionist will be able to guide you through a program to curb sugar and sweet addiction. There are natural sweet foods that when consumed in moderation are perfectly fine. These include Fruits, Stevia leaf, Honey, Maple syrup and vegetable juices. There is no reason for us to poison our body with heavily processed or artificial sweet foods.
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Gabriel