Why Artificial Sweeteners Are Making You Fat

Although low-calorie sweeteners are a dietary staple for many people trying to maintain or lose weight, according to a study published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) an emerging body of evidence suggests artificial sweeteners offer little help to dieters and may even help promote weight gain.

Yup, you read that correctly.  Studies have suggested that low-calorie sweeteners may actually increase appetite for sweet foods, promote overeating, and lead to weight gain.

Sweeter Than Sucrose (table sugar)

Artificial sweeteners are a hundred times sweeter than sucrose (table sugar). By getting ourselves used to so much sweet, normal sweet flavors, of fruit for example, become bland and so do other healthful foods such as grains and vegetables, thus reducing our willingness to consume them and ultimately compromising the quality of our diet.  If you struggle with sugar cravings, any healthy eating plan will be difficult because you will constantly be craving “sweet”.

Psychologists at Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn't make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.

Artificial Sweeteners Confuse the Body

The dissociation between sweet taste and calorie intake may put the regulatory system that controls hunger and body weight out of sync, thus sabotaging weight loss plans.  Sweet foods provide a "salient orosensory stimulus" that strongly predicts someone is about to take in a lot of calories. Ingestive and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn't followed by lots of calories, the system gets confused. Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would.

Related Links:

Beware of Artificial Sweeteners  http://fittalknews.blogspot.com/2010/01/beware-of-artifical-sweeteners.html

Sources:

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/extract/299/18/2137

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hemi-weingarten/artificial-sweetners-3-re_b_410041.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080210183902.htm

Resources:

http://www.aspartamesafety.com/