artificial sweeteners detrimental to our diets?

I've heard this before, could it be true?

I can't live without mine!

Well, depending on who you're talking to/what you're reading and what sweetener you're considering, they're poison altogether and responsible for everything from seizures to reproductive abnormalities to symptoms of MS.  None of these claims are backed up by reputable scientific studies.

There is a theory that artificial sweeteners "trick" your body into thinking it's ingesting something sugary, and when it doesn't get the expected amount of calories, it somehow winds up making you gain weight, or affects your metabolism.

I take that claim with a grain of salt - I've lost 40 pounds while using things like Aspertame on a daily basis, and have kept it off for over a year, and I feel fine.

Nope

Original Post by santonacci:

Well, depending on who you're talking to/what you're reading and what sweetener you're considering, they're poison altogether and responsible for everything from seizures to reproductive abnormalities to symptoms of MS.  None of these claims are backed up by reputable scientific studies.

Many scientific studies, be they reputable studies by your standards or not, have proven that aspartame for one is a excitotoxin, meaning it kills nerve cells.  These studies were reputable enough for the senior toxicologist of the FDA.  Another reputable study published in the Nutrition Research Newsletter proved phenylalanine, a component of aspartame, has a negative effect on the cellular activities of the brain.  There are loads of reputable studies on this if you would like me to cite more.  I have to wonder where you got the idea that none of the claims were backed up by reputable studies but you should check the sources cited in wherever you read that, and look to see how outdated it may be.  Honestly, hearing stuff like this is so disappointing because it spreads wrong information and causes people to make dangerous choices under false pretenses. 

As far as the effect of artificial sweeteners on weight loss, that is one thing that I don't believe has been proven yet although I will do further research.  Even if they don't prevent weight loss though, they aren't worth destroying your body for, especially with new calorie free natural sweeteners on the market.

I have cut them out almost completely. Found I was bloated and gaining weight and started reading more about them.

 http://www.emaxhealth.com/11/586.html

http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/spl enda.aspx

http://naturalmedicine.suite101.com/article.c fm/sugars__the_ugly

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Story?id=427 1246&page=1

My problem is not with artificial sweetners per se but with the type of product they tend to appear in.  Usually marketed as 'diet' or 'low-calorie' or something similar, the artificial sweetner will be just one in a very long line of hard-to-pronounce ingredients.   A bit of a witches' brew rather than real food.

Original Post by darcyskywolfe:

 I have to wonder where you got the idea that none of the claims were backed up by reputable studies but you should check the sources cited in wherever you read that, and look to see how outdated it may be.  Honestly, hearing stuff like this is so disappointing because it spreads wrong information and causes people to make dangerous choices under false pretenses. 

 

"At this time, our position that aspartame is safe is based on the large body of information previously reviewed," Tarantino says. "Our conclusions are based on a detailed review of more than 100 toxicological and clinical studies on safety."

(from the FDA website, article dated 2006, quoting the director of the Office of Food Additive Safety in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.)

I'm not sure how outdated 2006 is "by your standards."

And I'm flattered that you think my anonymous little post on CC will cause multitudes of people to make "dangerous choices", but honestly - you're slightly overestimating my powers of persuasion and influence.  The OP asked a question, I offered an answer, one that is not totally unsupported, BTW.  There's no "pretense" here, false or otherwise.

But to be safe - To the OP:  Feel free to disregard what ever I post.  Use sweeteners, don't use them - totally up to you, of course.