Artificial Sweeteners Increase Appetite — and Cause Disease by Joan Kent, PhD

U.S. sales of diet soda are down, and that’s good.

 

According to Mother Jones, University of Sydney researchers found that fruit flies eat 30% more calories after consuming Splenda (sucralose) over an extended period of time when given access to sugary food. Based on the flies’ neural activity, the sweet taste makes the brain reward centers expect calories.

 

The theory is artificial sweeteners, which have no calories, spur seeking and consuming of calories not delivered by sugar substitutes. U of Sydney researchers attributed this to the pleasure response triggered by sucralose. That makes the brain think it’s starving – or at least not getting the calories it thinks it should have.

 

This response reversed once the flies were taken off sucralose.

 

Mice did the same thing on sucralose:  they ate more food. The Mother Jones article didn’t specify whether it was more sugary food or just any food offered.

 

That ‘Sweeten & Stuff’ Thing Is Familiar

 

Back in 2008, rats fed artificially sweetened yogurt consumed more food over 14 days than rats eating sugar-sweetened yogurt. They also gained more weight and body fat – and showed decreased core body temperature, indicating a metabolic slow-down.

 

Years ago, the New York Times Magazine ran an article linking artificial sweeteners with increased appetite. Sugar triggers insulin release, but the sweet taste of fake sugar can trigger insulin in people who are susceptible to it. That causes blood glucose to drop, and that causes hunger – for the calories they didn’t get from the diet soda or what-have-you.

 

Why might the food selection go toward sugar? I’ll go to my brain chem research.

 

Like sugar, artificial sweeteners trigger the release of endorphins (beta-endorphin) in animals and humans. Endorphins do two things.

 

1. They block the brain’s center of satiety – the feeling that we’ve had enough food and don’t need another meal for a while.
2. They change food preferences – toward foods that trigger more endorphins. Those foods are high in sugar, fat, or both.

 

So. Is it the expectation of calories – or a lack of satiety plus a preference for sugar and fat? I say it’s the second one. BUT, either way, we’ll probably eat more after using artificial sweeteners.

 

More Bad News About Fake Sugar

 

According to Mother Jones, people who drink diet soda regularly have higher risk of stroke, heart attacks, and type 2 diabetes. Diet sodas can also change gut microbes, the bacteria in the intestines.

 

In fact, the change in gut microbes may be the way the above diseases develop. A 2014 study on mice, done at the Weitzmann Institute of Science, showed that artificial sweeteners led to glucose intolerance. That’s a first step toward metabolic disorders, including type-2 diabetes.

 

This appeared to be due to microbe changes associated with obesity and diabetes.

 

And when the changed microbes were transferred to germ-free mice not exposed to sweeteners, glucose intolerance was fully transmitted, as well.

 

Doesn’t Matter If You’re Man or Mouse

 

Human volunteers who don’t eat artificial sweeteners were given sweeteners for a week. Many of them started developing glucose intolerance after just that one week.

 

Researchers’ theory:  the bacteria that brought on glucose intolerance had provoked an inflammatory response. Inflammation is currently recognized as a root cause of most, if not all, disease.

 

In 2013, researchers studied 17 participants who were obese but not diabetic and had normal insulin sensitivity. Two tests occurred one week apart. In Test 1, participants drank only water before a glucose tolerance test. In Test 2, participants drank water plus the amount of sucralose in a 12-ounce diet soda.

 

The sucralose in Test 2 provoked these changes:
• 12% higher peak blood glucose levels
• 20% higher total insulin secretion
• 22% faster insulin secretion rate
• 7% slower clearing rate of insulin from the blood.

 

These are factors that lead to insulin resistance.

 

Sweeteners Worse for Women?

 

Women may be more sensitive to effects of sweeteners. For example, artificial sweeteners seem to bring on menstruation at an earlier age in girls.

 

NIH and George Washington University researchers found sweeteners in breast milk, even in women who don’t drink diet beverages. That may be due to their use in foods labelled “light”, reduced-sugar, or reduced-calorie.

 

Sweeteners are even in toothpaste, so that should encourage label reading.

 

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a 14-year study of 66,000 women. Results suggested that artificial sweeteners are more addictive than sugar. Diet soda drinkers tend to drink twice as much soda as regular soda users.

 

A weight-loss client of mine was addicted to sugar – but even more addicted to aspartame. She couldn’t stay away from it, then kept binge eating and not losing weight.

 

Another client once ate a sport bar she thought was “safe” because it had no sugar. Sucralose was the last ingredient on the label. She couldn’t stop eating the bars once she started and kept going back for more.

 

What to Do? Take the Hint!

 

• Avoid artificial sweeteners. If that sounds like a perfect excuse to eat sugar, it’s not meant to be.

 

Sugar’s terrible – for many of the reasons described above. But sugar substitutes are just as bad, and sometimes worse.

 

• Get away from sweet foods and sweet tastes. If you need something sweet, limit yourself to 1 or 2 servings of fruit per day. A serving is 1/2 cup of berries or 1 medium-size fruit.

 

Stay cautious with fruit. It’s quite addictive for some people. And it contains fructose, arguably the worst sugar to eat (and a topic for its own article). If you’re sugar-sensitive, the vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients in fruit will not override the fructose horrors.

 

• Ultimately, train yourself not to expect sweet food. The freedom you’ll achieve is worth the change.

 

Looking to get away from the negative effects of sugar or sweeteners? Perfect! That’s what I do. Just visit www.LastResortNutrition.com  and grab your free Power Eating Consult. Discover how easy it is to shift your moods, your energy & your health so you feel fantastic every day!

 

Brought to you by Dr. Joan Kent, best-selling author of Stronger Than Sugar:  7 Simple Steps to Defeat Sugar Addiction, Lift Your Mood, and Transform Your Health.