How on earth could any food additive which has absolutely no calories, and which is used only in tiny amounts actually lead to obesity? It defies common sense. It flies in the face of everything we know about nutrition, or biology, or physics for that matter.
But, as strange as it may seem at first glance, a slew of recent research has shown that in fact, artificial sweeteners may fundamentally alter the way our brains gauge the caloric content of food, causing us to overeat; and recent research indicates that if we introduce artificial sweeteners into the diets of our children, it may permanently alter their ability to regulate calorie consumption, possibly setting them up for a lifetime of dietary struggles.
Researchers from the University of Alberta’s Institute of Human Nutrition recently conducted a series of elaborate experiments designed to test whether artificial sweeteners in the diet altered the eating patterns of young rats.
What they found was that artificial sweetener consumption early in life did in fact lead to excessive calorie consumption in both lean and obese rats, and the team surmised that artificial sweeteners may cause the brain of young animals to build a distorted connection between the sweetness and calorie content of food, predisposing them to a lifetime of overeating.
Diet Foods for Kids?
With the dramatic rise in childhood obesity in recent years, feeding children lower calorie “diet foods” with artificial sweeteners may seem to be a good idea, but the researchers involved in this study warn that substances like artificial sweeteners which have now been shown in several studies to stimulate appetite and encourage overeating, may be particularly harmful for children who are already overweight.
Like a snowball rolling downhill, growing steadily larger and larger as it picks up momentum, it’s well known that the more bodyfat a person carries, the EASIER it is for them to gain fat. This “vicious cycle” is part of the reason why EVERY effort should be taken to prevent childhood obesity, but the researchers who conducted this study strongly emphasized the importance of balanced meals and exercise for children, and stated that, “Diet foods are probably not a good idea for growing youngsters.”
David Pierce, a sociologist at the University of Alberta and lead author of the research paper published on this experiment noted that the “taste-conditioning process” which artificial sweeteners alter may explain seemingly “puzzling results” of previous studies which found that even diet soft drink consumption was directly related to obesity risk.
We told you about this research in a previous Integrated Supplements Blog entry.
And The Controversy Continues
The safety of artificial sweeteners has been a subject of scientific debate ever since the first of them was discovered and introduced into our food supply over a century ago. Most notably, the artificial sweetener aspartame, which has been in widespread use for decades, is only now starting to crack under the weight of independent scientific scrutiny. In previous Integrated Supplements Blog posts we told you about the Italian researchers who have in recent years repeatedly shown aspartame to cause cancer in laboratory animals:
The Aspartame Studies:
Results of long-term carcinogenicity bioassay on Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to aspartame administered in feed.
First experimental demonstration of the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered in the feed to Sprague-Dawley rats.
Quote from the first study:
“The results of this mega-experiment indicate that APM [Aspartame], in the tested experimental conditions, is a multipotential carcinogenic agent.”
And a quote from the second study shows that even low doses of aspartame caused cancer:
“The results of this mega-experiment indicate that APM [Aspartame] is a multipotential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, much less than the current acceptable daily intake. On the basis of these results, a reevaluation of the present guidelines on the use and consumption of APM is urgent and cannot be delayed.”
What Can be Done?
But the food industry, which obviously stands to benefit greatly from the sale of artificial sweeteners (especially if these sweeteners stimulate our appetite and cause us to eat more food), is quick to downplay such negative independent research with PR-driven “research” of its own. Luckily, though, you don’t have to be a scientist to see for yourself the danger of artificial sweeteners; you only have to look around you.
When we do this, we can state one thing with absolute certainty:
By and large, artificial sweeteners have turned out to be complete and total failures in helping us to control our weight or improve our health. In the years since artificial sweeteners were first introduced, our overall calorie consumption, sugar consumption, bodyweight and rates of diet-related diseases have all increased significantly, and more and more research continues to validate what many of us have suspected all along - that artificial sweeteners may very well share part of the blame for the epidemics of obesity and diet-related disease currently gripping this country.
But don’t take our word for it, the abstract to the University of Alberta study published in the scientific journal Obesity can be found here:
http://www.obesityresearch.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/8/1969
At Integrated Supplements we’re proud to give you the tools you need to take control of your health. By turning you on to cutting-edge research like this, and by producing the highest quality, all natural nutritional supplements we envision a day when the American public will be able to make truly informed decisions with regard to how they nourish their bodies. We hope to create an educated and passionate following of health-conscious people who refuse to be at the mercy of the processed-food industry any longer.
In our August 2007 Integrated Supplements Newsletter we looked at how the large scale production of processed food in this country has forever changed our nutritional landscape, and how we as a nation are currently paying the price by way of our rapidly growing waistlines, and rapidly declining health.
In the coming months, we’ll be going into greater detail on the steps you can take to not only make more nutritious food choices, but to also counter the “mind-altering” and addictive effects of processed food through proper nutritional supplementation.
We’ve got some great things planned here at Integrated Supplements, so stay tuned. You’ll see what we mean when we say that Integrated Supplements is dedicated to Nutrition For Your Full Human Potential.
