Artificial sweetener could actually be making you fatter as we will explain.

The Body

Your body is not programmed to recognise where a sweet flavour is coming from, whether it be sugar or artificial sweetener. We all know how addictive sugar can be – we are born to love sweet, our mother’s breast milk is sweet. So when we consume artificial sweetener we are creating or feeding our sugar addiction. This will increase sugar cravings often leading people to increase their sugar intake which, in turn will cause your body to store the excess energy as fat. There have been recent studies to show that when we skimp on calories by consuming ‘diet foods’ we will often overcompensate later on in the day by consuming many more calories than we need.

The Science

A study in the journal Behavioural Neuroscience published by the American Psychological Association Feb 2008 concludes that animals use sweet taste to predict how many calories they should expect to consume following that sweet taste. Using Rats as their subject matter, they fed artificial sweetener to 50 % of the rats and fed the other 50 %, sugar. The rats that consumed artificial sweetener suffered from increased body weight and obesity from eating greater calories than the rats that consumed sugar.

The reason? The body gets confused that the calories it has predicted have not followed the sweet taste, so we crave more calories to compensate. There are many other theories in the news and on the Internet about artificial sweeteners, claiming they cause or contribute to a wide range of diseases. The truth is many of these claims are not backed up by scientific research.

However I am of the opinion that when there is so much doubt and controversy around a product that will most likely cause you to gain weight anyway, why would you want to consume it? My advice is leave artificial sweeteners out of your life, and furthermore,  we don’t know the full effects of them just yet, but it could be bad news. As always it is up to you to find your own truth, but I have seen firsthand how addictive artificially sweetened sodas can be.

Be Diligent

We also have to be very diligent as to just what we are eating. Artificial sweeteners such as Equal and Splenda are in many foods from soft drink to low fat ice cream, to gum, and all manner of ‘diet’ foods. No matter how many times ‘they’ tell you it is safe, you have to decide for yourself. Like all foods, ‘one mans poison is another man’s food’ however I am convinced many people ignore the side effects of this product.

Recently a well know T V personality who has had many appearances as a dietitian on our screens in New Zealand, came out in all manner of magazines in the form of a large advertisement for a large soft drink manufacturer in favour of Aspartame and telling us all how safe it was. I was really surprised at the talk about the campaign and it seemed her credibility went out the window as people of all walks of life started telling their negative stories of diet soft drink. Headaches, flaking nails, cravings, dizziness – the list went on and on. However diet soft drink is still sold by the truck loads – incredible.

What to Have Instead?

On the DietDitch program we like the good old standby a glass of filtered water with some lemon, cucumber, kiwi or lime slices or plain unflavoured soda with fresh lime. You will feel so much better.