Are Artificial Sweeteners Sabotaging Your Weight Loss Efforts?
Gail Davis
July 07, 2008
Artificial Sweeteners are either the greatest inventions known to dieters or major contributors to the obesity epidemic. Which is it? Do you want to know the truth or do you want to bury your head in the sand and hope this controversy goes away? It´s a tough call for me…especially as much as I love diet soda!
The addition of artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages as a way to reduce calories started in the 1950s with Saccharin. Since a regular-sized can of soda contains nine teaspoons of sugar, companies were under pressure to come up with low-calorie alternatives. Saccharin had been around since 1879 and was widely used during both world wars because of its low production cost. It was a natural to be the first sugar substitute and was commonly used as Sweet and Low. The public was so fond of their new low-calorie products that Aspartame was added in 1983 and Sucralose in 1999.
The purpose of artificial sweeteners, of course, is to trick your taste buds into thinking that you have satisfied your sweet tooth. Research is now indicating that while artificial sweeteners are pulling a fast one on our taste buds, they´re also confusing our systems when it comes to appetite control and caloric intake.
A study at Purdue University conducted on rats had alarming results! Rats that ate food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more food overall and gained more weight in a two-week period than rats that ate food sweetened with glucose, a natural sugar found in fruit.
The rats that ate food sweetened with saccharine consumed up to ten percent more calories. They also gained twenty percent more weight and increased their body fat by five percent!
Now about that diet soda…a recent study found that individuals who consumed even one soda a day, diet or otherwise, had a 50% increased risk for metabolic syndrome over a four-year period. Metabolic syndrome is a phrase used to describe a collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure are just a few of the risk factors referred to as "metabolic syndrome."
To help put this information in perspective, a typical American diet, composed of fried foods and red meat, only provides an 18% increased risk for metabolic syndrome. But this is where it gets really interesting…adding even one diet soda a day to this type of diet raises the risk to 34%!
While the diet soda itself does not make you gain weight, it is becoming clear to researchers that the artificial sweeteners are affecting our natural ability to control our appetites. Sharon Fowler of the University of Texas Health Science Center states that for each diet drink consumed per day, the obesity risk increases by 41%. That´s a compelling argument against artificial sweeteners. There´s no question that our nationwide obesity problem is significantly worse than the 1950s. Are artificial sweeteners the hidden saboteurs of our weight loss efforts?
For more information about artificial sweeteners and weight lossvisit Easy Weight Loss Tipsfor practical weight loss advice.
The addition of artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages as a way to reduce calories started in the 1950s with Saccharin. Since a regular-sized can of soda contains nine teaspoons of sugar, companies were under pressure to come up with low-calorie alternatives. Saccharin had been around since 1879 and was widely used during both world wars because of its low production cost. It was a natural to be the first sugar substitute and was commonly used as Sweet and Low. The public was so fond of their new low-calorie products that Aspartame was added in 1983 and Sucralose in 1999.
The purpose of artificial sweeteners, of course, is to trick your taste buds into thinking that you have satisfied your sweet tooth. Research is now indicating that while artificial sweeteners are pulling a fast one on our taste buds, they´re also confusing our systems when it comes to appetite control and caloric intake.
A study at Purdue University conducted on rats had alarming results! Rats that ate food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more food overall and gained more weight in a two-week period than rats that ate food sweetened with glucose, a natural sugar found in fruit.
The rats that ate food sweetened with saccharine consumed up to ten percent more calories. They also gained twenty percent more weight and increased their body fat by five percent!
Now about that diet soda…a recent study found that individuals who consumed even one soda a day, diet or otherwise, had a 50% increased risk for metabolic syndrome over a four-year period. Metabolic syndrome is a phrase used to describe a collection of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Abdominal obesity, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure are just a few of the risk factors referred to as "metabolic syndrome."
To help put this information in perspective, a typical American diet, composed of fried foods and red meat, only provides an 18% increased risk for metabolic syndrome. But this is where it gets really interesting…adding even one diet soda a day to this type of diet raises the risk to 34%!
While the diet soda itself does not make you gain weight, it is becoming clear to researchers that the artificial sweeteners are affecting our natural ability to control our appetites. Sharon Fowler of the University of Texas Health Science Center states that for each diet drink consumed per day, the obesity risk increases by 41%. That´s a compelling argument against artificial sweeteners. There´s no question that our nationwide obesity problem is significantly worse than the 1950s. Are artificial sweeteners the hidden saboteurs of our weight loss efforts?
For more information about artificial sweeteners and weight lossvisit Easy Weight Loss Tipsfor practical weight loss advice.
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