on the news this morning they talked about artificial sweeteners

they said that artificial sweeteners actually make you GAIN weight rather than lose. they said that there were studies done and i guess the artificial sweeteners make your body crave food rather than save the calories you actually eat more? i don't get it. the point in using them in the first place is to lose weight.

this is what i have a day.

5:39am coffee with sweet n low

7:30 another coffee with sweet n low

12:00 diet coke

1pm tea with sweet n low

3pm coffee with sweet n low

sometimes i have sweet n low in my cereal in the am also.

maybe this can be part of my problem in not losing my last 10 lbs. they are just not coming off even though i am burning more than i am eating every week.

i'm going to try and cut out the artificial sweeteners for a week and test it. so far my coffee tastes bitter and BAD

let me know your thoughts. has anyone else tested this theory?

thanks, kat 

Just from what you said that wouldn't  make a difference unless you where not sticking to lower calories....and eating above maintanence.......

I've been using equal since I started eating better (well over a year), and now I'm over 40lbs down.  My body doesn't "crave" any more food than it used to - as matter of fact, I'm very satisfied with normal portion sizes now than I ever was before using artificial sweetener. 

Perhaps they are saying that feeding a person's "sweet tooth" only makes them continually think of eating sweet things and it results in a binge.  However, that hasn't happened to me either, and I have a wicked sweet tooth.

Obviously everyone is different, and I'd need to see the studies to find out more, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a chemical/biological standpoint.  If you burn more calories than you consume, it shouldn't matter if you're using Equal or natural sugar.

I had done some pretty extensive research on artificial sweeteners - when i quit smoking i used sugar free mints and they were all aspertame (sweet n low) and then i started looking into getting back on the healthy eating train and read a lot of books and they all say that aspartame and sucrolose (basically all artificial sweeteners) are terribly bad for you - aspartame turns to formaldehyde in the blood stream (however that is spelled) and sucrolose in several tests have caused cancer in lab animals (evil bad testers!) - anyway, also, i read that if you eat/drink enough of those things that your body reacts to them the same as sugar, so its not helping if you are attempting to curb any sugar reaction ... i stick to very little sweeteners but i use all natural stuff like turbinado sugar or agave nectar or evaporated cane juice ...

I saw the same thing this AM.

What the study showed is...in rats provided with a calorie conscious diet when given the artificial sweetener in diet soda made the body react as it would if given real sugar, then when we (rats) ate anything it would store it as fat as it was prepared to do with the false trigger of a sweet. That our bodies are not sure what to do with this false trigger without calories so it waits for calories.

I don't drink diet soda. I believe the artificial sweetener in these not to be splenda or equal which I do have in my morning coffee.

 

lol i saw this last night on global news

Original Post by psynn:

 aspartame turns to formaldehyde in the blood stream (however that is spelled)

So does fruit juice.  Formaldehyde is the result of the breakdown of methonal, which is a natural by product of human metabolism. 

Oh, and Sweet n Low is saccharine, not aspartame.  And there have been studies that show saccharine to be cancer causing in lab rats, but not in humans.

i don't know about the weight part of it but those artificial sweeteners are really not good for you... there's been a lot of information put out there about aspartame in particular and how it probably really shouldn't even be approved it's so bad for you.   i know when i drink something with it i get a headache immediately which just further proves to me it's not something i should be consuming.  so aside from the weight part, you might want to consider cutting back on it for other health reasons as well. 

I only use splenda, and as little as possible.

I understand having diet soda's...but a tsp of REAL sugar only has 16 calories.  So if you have 2 tsp in your coffee 2x a day that is only 64 calories.  For that tiny amount, I will take something REAL over something man made ANYDAY! 

I agree above, for that small amount I'd just use real sugar. Sometimes I'll buy jello or pudding that has aspartame, for the reduced calories but also because it's amazing how much more powder is in the regular packets, and it's all sugar, ick. I don't know how bad artificial sweeteners are, but I try not to use them except for those above items, or occasionally diet pop but I rarely drink pop.

GREAT topic but I do have a question regarding artifical sweetners....

Is it JUST me, or does anyone else get HORRIBLE after taste in their mouths afterwards?  I just started to drink crystal light and soon after my last drink I develop a rather gross taste in my mouth....really hard to describe but it makes me want to drink tons of water to get rid of it!

~H~

thanks guys! just got out of my monday meeting. good to get back to all the replies. it was the rats on the news. fed the same amount of food just the ones with the art. sweetener got fat and the other ones didn't. i use splenda i just said sweet n low out of generic purposes as i think they are all about the same really.

i am going to try it for a week. if you want to know how i fair, hit me up next monday

kat

crap! i just remembered i chew sf gum too! about a piece a day! ARGH!! 

i am listening to CNN at work and they just mentioned the same study. they had someone from the american dietetic on and she said that our bodies naturally crave sugar. so when we eat an artificial sweetener, our bodies are not fooled by it and therefore crave it all the more and actually eat other things to try and stop the craving of the sugar.

of course someone from the artificial sweetener company called it total bs and you can't compare the human body with rats.  

Bodybuilding.com

"Diet Coke is lower in calories than the normal conventional Coke it carries other sweeteners, which the body cannot recognize. The body recognizes sugar; it's just up to you to burn it off. The body doesn't know what a sweetener is and considers it a toxin, thus it cannot process it, therefore storing it around the fat cells and preventing stored fat from being transported into the blood stream to be burned off."

I'm an avid diet coke drinker, so i'm going to limit myself to 1 every other day (to start off with) and see if it makes a difference.  I have been at the same weight for about 3 weeks and am getting frustrated.  I have also started weight training, so that might be why to.

wow, lizshuler you are brilliant!

what a precise and no-nonsense way to explain this to all.

They have been saying this for sooooooooo long.  Surprisingly, last night the news had it again!

Drinking diet coke in moderation is okay, its when you have it with a #5 that it gives you a false sense of security about how many calories you plow into your mug.  I have to say, I use artificial sweetners, in moderation of course and don't see a significant change in dietary issues.  If you get enough natural sugars in your diet or just once in a while have that something special then I don't see what the hub bub is. And again humans to rats...apples to oranges.

Diabetics are getting unhealthier from artificial sweetners?  Faithful diet watchers (diabetics) are pleased to have such an alternative.

The artificial sweeteners pose a problem because you think you are getting a sugar, but your body knows you are getting a chemical instead. 

Your body has certain requirements and urges you to eat until you fulfill what it wants.  So when you eat artificial sweeteners, your body is still craving the actual sugar (which is only 10 calories per teaspoon anyway, so not that bad).  What's worse, is that there is confusion between your mind and your body because your mind thinks you ate sugar when you did not.  I think your body tries to then reconcile that.

Plus, artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause some crazy side effects, some of which I have suffered from.  Try Googling "aspartame side effects" and similar entries to see what it out there as a reference to your decisions.

It is hard to completely avoid these chemicals, and I would recommend a diet coke over a real coke, but I would say go with real sugar when you can to avoid the problems.

From what I understand they think it is slowing our metabolisms because it is confusing our bodies.  I try to stay away from it because it is not natural (same with hyrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrups).

And Sportstergirl, sugar free gum can be bought with just Zylitol- which is naturally found in the body, but you should be wary of having too much (like 20 + pieces a day) as it can give some unwanted side affects (gas, etc).

I started using Splenda a couple weeks ago when I'm craving sweet tea and I've lost 4 pounds. I found out that it's not good in brownies, though. YUCK! 

Original Post by kae03:

I understand having diet soda's...but a tsp of REAL sugar only has 16 calories.  So if you have 2 tsp in your coffee 2x a day that is only 64 calories.  For that tiny amount, I will take something REAL over something man made ANYDAY! 

And what would you say to someone who can't have sugar? Like me?