Why artificial sweeteners make you fat

However, with a supply of new, natural sweeteners on the market, such as stevia and monk fruit, we have plenty of them to choose from. These are based on fruit extracts and are aimed at providing a more natural approach to improving the tastiness of food and drink compared with their artificial counterparts. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Post a Comment. But before you reach for that diet soda or zero-calorie packet of sweetener, you may want to ask yourself: Are artificial sweeteners really helping me lose weight, or doing just the opposite?

Popular FDA-approved sweeteners include acesulfame potassium, aspartame, saccharin and sucralose. But does being calorie-free really make them a better option? Research over the past 30 years has shown that, while containing zero or few calories, artificial sweeteners actually encourage weight gain by stimulating appetite, increasing cravings for carbohydrates, and promoting fat storage.

When the body tastes something sweet, regardless of the calorie count, your appetite is enhanced. In other words, artificial sweeteners make you more likely to feel hungry. Certain artificial sweeteners have also been found to rapidly increase the production of insulin and leptin, which are hormones that regulate metabolism and fat storage. Nearly half of study participants randomized to avoid sucralose, for example, still turned up positive, thought to be due to exposure from nondietary sources, such as toothpaste and mouthwash.

Another way artificial sweeteners can lead to metabolic disturbance is via the disconnect that develops between the amount of sweetness the brain tastes on the tongue and how much blood sugar actually ends up reaching the brain. Your brain may end up feeling cheated by the artificial sweeteners, figuring you have to consume more and more sweetness in order to get enough calories.

Those who drank the artificially sweetened soda were nearly three times more likely to take the candy than either those who had consumed the sugar-sweetened soda or the unsweetened drink.

There appeared to be something about noncaloric sweeteners that tricks the brain into wanting more junk. The same researchers performed another study in which every subject was given Oreos and then asked how satisfied the cookies made them feel.

Again, those who had drunk the artificially sweetened Sprite Zero reported feeling less satisfied after eating the Oreos than either the subjects who had had normal Sprite or sparkling water. These results are consistent with brain imaging studies demonstrating that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners can alter the reward pathways responsible for the pleasurable response to food.

What about the natural, plant-based sweeteners derived from stevia and monk fruit? Researchers randomized people to drink a beverage sweetened with sugar, aspartame, monk fruit, or stevia. Blood sugars were measured over 24 hours, and surprisingly, there was no significant difference found among any of the four groups.

Wait a second. The sugar group was given sixteen spoonfuls of sugar, the amount in a ounce bottle of Coke, so the other three groups consumed 16 fewer spoonfuls of sugar—yet all four groups still had the same average blood sugars? How is that possible?

Table sugar causes a big blood sugar spike. In contrast, after drinking a beverage sweetened with aspartame, monk fruit, or stevia, nothing immediately happens to blood sugars, which is what we would expect.

These are noncaloric sweeteners. In other words, use of artificial sweeteners can make you shun healthy, filling, and highly nutritious foods while consuming more artificially flavored foods with less nutritional value. Artificial sweeteners may play another trick, too.

Research suggests that they may prevent us from associating sweetness with caloric intake. As a result, we may crave more sweets, tend to choose sweet food over nutritious food, and gain weight. But you say you can give up diet drinks whenever you want? Animal studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may be addictive. In studies of rats who were exposed to cocaine, then given a choice between intravenous cocaine or oral saccharine, most chose saccharin.