Artificial Sweeteners Found More Weight-Promoting Than Sugar

Artificial Sweeteners Found More Weight-Promoting Than Sugar

Dees Illustration

Sayer Ji, Contributor
Activist Post

A new study published this month in the journal Appetite revealed that when rats* were given the synthetic sweeteners saccharin and aspartame, compared to sucrose (table sugar), they gained more weight even at similar total caloric intake levels.[i]

The researchers set out to experimentally confirm the suggestion that
the use of nonnutritive sweeteners can lead to weight gain, noting that
"evidence regarding their real effect on body weight and satiety is
still inconclusive."

In the study design, twenty-nine male rats received plain yogurt
sweetened with 20% sucrose, 0.3% sodium saccharin or 0.4% aspartame, in
addition to chow and water without restriction. After measuring their
cumulative body weight gain, total caloric intake, caloric intake of
chow and caloric intake of sweetened yogurt weekly for 12 weeks, they
concluded "greater weight gain was promoted by the use of saccharin or
aspartame, compared with sucrose, and this weight gain was unrelated to
caloric intake. We speculate that a decrease in energy expenditure or
increase in fluid retention might be involved."

Satiety, that is, the ability to satisfy the appetite, should be a
function of how nourishing something is. Artificial sweeteners, which
divorce sweetness from caloric content (i.e. nourishment), leave the
cells without the monosaccharides -- primarily glucose -- they need and
crave, and which is why the sensation of sweetness is hard-wired in our
bodies to illicit a feeling of pleasure.

Ultimately, nonnutritive synthetic sweeteners could
be considered neuroendocrine disruptors, breaking, altering or
amplifying the intimately connected feedback loops between pleasure and
nourishment, deprivation and fat-storage, exertion and inactivity, some
of which are as ancient as life itself.

The fact that the rats in both the artificial sweetener and sugar groups
consumed the same amount of calories, highlights how chemicals
(aspartame and saccharin), much like pesticides, may actually poison us into gaining weight.[ii] [iii] [iv]

The challenge for millions of consumers around the world is clearly recognizing the dangers of artificial sweeteners like aspartame,
given it is safety approved in 90 nations. Despite reassurances from
many world governments, manufacturers and marketers, the research itself
does not lend unequivocal support to the view that they are entirely
safe.

For those interested in viewing the 'other side' of the evidence, you
will find peer-reviewed and published research on our site linking
aspartame to over 40 adverse health effects, including fibromyalgia,
brain cancer, kidney damage, urinary tract cancer, leukemia and many
other serious conditions.[v] Saccharin has also been linked to urinary tract cancer, DNA damage, aging, atherosclerosis, and hyperinsulinism.[vi]

Source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/artificial-sweeteners-found-more-weight.html