Those Artificial Sweeteners Just Might be Making You Fat

This country is struggling with a problem of obesity of epidemic proportions.  In 2004, something like 60% of Americans are overweight, and around 30% are classified as obese.  This situation is actually worse today, with no end in sight.  There are many factors that play into this — including the use of SSRI medications — but here is something you might not have thought of.

Taking another look at artificial sweeteners

In an attempt to lose weight, many people drink diet sodas, or use artificial sweeteners in other things, with the idea that they are saving calories.  "Calories equal pounds" — or so the thinking goes; so these alternatives to sugar must be the answer to weight loss.  Right?

Well, maybe not.

A failed model of weight management

The fact is: most people who rely on artificial sweeteners to cut calories fail in their attempts at weight loss.  Why is that?

For one thing, calories aren't the only thing that count.  Other factors play important roles in weight management.  But by diverting attention to calories as the only thing to look at, artificial sweeteners give their users a false sense of control.  (They also give users a false concept of caloric-economy, encouraging the impression that, since they used a "diet" product here, they can "cheat" over here without doing any harm.)

But, a new study gives another possible explanation of why people who attempt to control their weight with artificial sweeteners so often fail.

This study, by two researchers at Purdue University (see below), found that the consumption of artificial sweeteners may impair your body's natural ability to monitor calories.  These researchers concluded that this unconscious ability to monitor caloric intake helps to control overeating; therefore, the loss of that ability could lead to overall weight gain.

Sweets and the breakdown of caloric intake monitoring

The basic mechanism for this breakdown in the ability to monitor caloric intake for those who use artificial sweeteners is this: When you eat something sweet, the sensation of the sweet taste triggers the body to expect quick energy.  (Things that taste sweet are supposed to contain readily accessible carbohydrates — sugars — that the body converts into energy.)  When the sweet taste is not followed by a quick energy source, the body goes on the hunt for something to take its place.  This generally means binge eating, to a greater or lesser degree.

This isn't a matter of will-power; it's just how we're hard-wired.

Artificial sweeteners: a bad idea all around

This study is yet another blow to the artificial sweetener industry.  Decades of research have shown that these sweeteners contain dangerous neurotoxic chemicals, and are extremely detrimental to human health.  (See Aspartame: What you don't know can hurt you — Why isn't the FDA protecting your health? and Aspartame Disease: An FDA-Approved Epidemic for more detail on this.)

Use Artificial Sweeteners and Get Fat

The bottom line is this: Don't put your health at risk using artificial sweeteners with the idea that it's an acceptable trade-off for weight loss.  Chances are, you won't lose weight anyway; and then you have this greater weight to carry around: the damage caused by these toxic chemicals.

The Purdue University studies

In these studies, recently performed at Purdue University, researchers gave rats two different liquids for ten days.

• One group received sweet liquids that contained real sugar, so the relationship between taste and calories was consistent.
• The other group received sweet liquids that contained the artificial sweetener saccharin, so the relationship between the sweet taste and the actual calories was inconsistent.

After ten days, researchers allowed the animals to eat a sweet chocolate snack.  The rats that were given the drinks sweetened with saccharin were less able to tell how many calories were in the snack, and at mealtime ate 3 times as much as the rats given the drinks sweetened with real sugar.

This study demonstrates that, if you can't tell how many calories you need to feel satisfied, you're going to eat more.

People are working against their attempts at weight management when they order non-caloric foods that taste like they have calories.  It throws their systems totally out of balance.

Explanation of the study's Author

Susan Swithers, one of the study's authors, interprets the results as follows: "What we're actually suggesting from our study is not that artificial sweeteners are going to make people gain weight.  They're actually losing an unconscious ability to measure their food intake when they consume artificial sweeteners.

"So, if people do consume artificial sweeteners, they have to be more conscious of the calories involved when they do eat sweet things."

I guess she means that, if you're going to use artificial sweeteners, that you must be even more conscious of the types of food you eat and the calories they contain.  It would seem to me that avoiding artificially sweetened foods altogether would be a more practical answer.

If you have the ability to muscle test on any food containing an artificial sweetener, you'll probably find that you get a stress reaction.  Your body knows what it shouldn't have.