Non-nutritive Artificial Sweeteners (NAS) cause weight gain!
Non-nutritive Artificial Sweeteners (NAS) cause weight gain!
Your body is not "fooled" by sweetness with 0 calories!
People who consumed high amounts of artificial sweeteners
were found to have higher blood sugar levels
A 2014 study
(Nature, 2014 )
revealed a direct cause and effect relationship between consuming
Non-nutritive Artificial Sweeteners (NAS) and developing elevated levels of HbA1C ( a long-term measure
of blood sugar) compared to non-users or occasional users of
NAS. This eye-opening study with both mice and humans found
that NAS directly modulate the microbiota to induce glucose intolerance (i.e.
prediabetes).
Artificial non-nutritive sweeteners
(NAS) are toxic to gut bacteria, increasing risk of prediabetes
Artificial sweetener use correlates with an increase in
obesity
Percentage of U.S. population using artificial sweeteners
rising with adult obesity rate
whilst sugar intake per capita on the decline since the late
90's
ASB and SSB beverage consumption associated with percentage of obesity /
being overweight in U.S. population
Graph indicates changes in per capita consumption of artificially
sweetened beverages (ASB; red squares), sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB; black
triangles), and the rise in percentage of population being overweight. Obesity data adapted from
National Center for Health Statistics Health E-stats, September .
Beverage data adapted from
Beverages Worksheet. USDA Economic Research Service .
Although rate of increase in both artificial and sugar sweetened beverage
consumption has much declined since the mid-90's, obesity rates continue to rise
sharply, indicating additional factors are involved.
Studies showing how artificial sweeteners affect body
weight
Artificial NNS cause weight gain in humans:
Many people find it easier to lose weight by
cutting out nutritive sugars instead of replacing them with artificial
sweeteners
Several large scale
prospective cohort studies found a positive correlation between artificial sweetener
use and weight gain (Qing Yang, 2010)
- The San Antonio Heart
Study:
• 3,682 adults over 7-8 yrs during 1980's
had consistently higher BMIs at the follow-up. Average BMI gain was +1.01 kg/m2 for control and 1.78 kg/m2 for people in the
third quartile for artificially sweetened beverage consumption.
• Participants who drank more than 21
diet
drinks per week were almost twice as likely to become overweight or obese as people
who didn't drink diet soda.(Fowler et al, 2008)
- The American Cancer Society study
• 78,694 women in early 80's
• At one-year follow-up, 2.7 - 7.1 % more
regular artificial sweetener users gained weight (although <2#) compared to non-users
matched by initial weight. (Stellman & Garfinkel,
1986)
- Another American Cancer
Society study
• Saccharin use was also associated with
eight-year weight gain in 31,940 women from the Nurses' Health Study conducted in
the 1970s
- Increased
diet soda
consumption in children associated with increased weight gain
(Colditz et al, 1990)
• 166 school children over 2 years
• Higher BMI Z-scores (indicating weight
gain) found at follow-up
(Blum et al, 2005)
- "Growing Up Today"
study (Berkey et al, 2004) reported
diet soda
consumption by boys (but not girls ) associated
with weight gain:
• 11,654 children aged 9 to 14
• Each daily serving of diet beverage increased
BMI by 0.16 kg/m2
- A cross-sectional
study of young people (Forshee & Storey, 2003)
found diet soda
drinkers had significantly elevated BMI
• 3,111 children and youth
- Interventional
studies suggests that
artificial sweeteners
do not help reduce weight
when used alone (Mattes & Popkin, 2009; Brown et al, 2006)
• BMI did not decrease after 25 weeks of
substituting diet beverages for sugar-sweetened beverages in 103 adolescents in
a randomized controlled trial, except among the heaviest participants(Ebbeling et al, 2006)
Aspartame causes weight gain in hamsters
Low Intake of Aspartame Induced Weight Gain and Damage of Brain & Liver Cells in Weanling Syrian Hamsters
Artificial NNS cause weight gain in rats
One study fed rats yogurt sweetened with
saccharin, aspartame or sucrose
for 12 weeks + normal rat food . Rats
fed zero calorie artifical sweeteners had increased weight gain compared to sucrose
(table sugar)
fed rats. The no-cal sweeteners caused them to increase
their appetites for normal food (Fernanda et al, 2012)
Rat feeding study found that breaking the link between
the sweet taste of saccharin and the anticipated high calorie food changed the body's
ability to control food intake .
• Rats were
fed either saccharin or glucose sweetened yogurt. The rats
that ate the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, put on more weight,
gained more body fat, and did not cut back on their calorie consumption in the longer
term (Swithers & Davidson, 2008)
At the end of a 24 week study, rats consuming sucralose
gained weight compared to the ones that didn't.
(Qing, 2010)
Substitution of artificial sweeteners for sugars in drink
prevents weight gain and promotes weight loss in rats eating food without restriction.
This 16 week study seemingly supports
the use of artifical sweeteners for weight loss. However, here are the details:
81 rats eating food at will gained the
same weight as controls when also drinking saccharin solution, but
gained significant weight when drinking 11% sucrose solution instead
of saccharin solution. When the sweetened solutions
were switched, obese sucrose-drinking rats lost weight during the next 8 weeks while
rats previously on saccharin gained weight rapidly .
It is fairly obvious that weight gain
(weight loss)
would occur if adding (or removing)
extra sucrose calories.
(Porikos & Koopmans, 1988)
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PubMed
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Abstract
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