It sounds counter-intuitive, but people who opt for beverages sweetened with artificial sugars are just as likely to develop the same problems that strike those consuming beverages sweetened with real sugar, including excessive weight gain, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease. That’s the topic of a new opinion paper in which researchers combed through recent literature on the subject matter. The authors note that a common critique of this correlation is the thinking that only those with elevated body mass indexes (BMI) switch over to beverages sweetened with fake sugars, thus skewing the results. However, even studies that have tracked individuals with normal BMI show the same results. That is, individuals who started off with healthy weight but drank artificially sweetened beverages went on to become overweight and develop diseases related to obesity. While the cause of this paradox is not yet known, in studies with rodents, the animals given artificial sweeteners lost their ability to stop eating sweet foods at an acceptable threshold. The authors propose that artificial sweeteners dampen the body’s ability to recognize energy rich foods. Brain imaging studies further show that sucrose, but not sucralose, activates the brain’s pleasure centers. Sucralose, meanwhile, resulted in a lower activation of other taste-related pathways. The bottom line, the researchers say, is to be mindful of consuming too much sweet stuff, regardless of the source of the sweet. Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements. Cell Press. 2013. bit.ly/13FHbY2
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:28:48 +0000
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