Study: Artificial Sweeteners May Raise Blood Sugar
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Looks like no more Splenda for me. According to a new study, if you’re drinking diet soda or consuming other products with artificial sweeteners to cut your risk of obesity and diabetes, a new study published in Nature has some bad news: You might be doing more harm than good. Researchers found that sweeteners such as saccharin, Sucralose, and aspartame can interact in a complex way with bacteria in our gut and lead to higher blood sugar levels, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Scientists say studies on both mice and people back up the assertion, though the findings may not apply to all. In one of the human experiments, for example, researchers gave foods with such sweeteners to seven people who normally never consumed them, and found that four of the subjects had markedly higher blood sugar levels in just four days.
“In other words: some people are more susceptible to the effects of artificial sweetener than others,” explains theVerge. It all depends, apparently, on your particular microbiome, which the Washington Post describes as the “vast and enigmatic ecosystem of bacteria in our guts.”
The sweetener industry is already disputing the research, but “the scope of our discovery is cause for a public reassessment of the massive and unsupervised use of artificial sweeteners,” says a study co-author at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. Far more research is needed before it’s definitive, but NPR grabs this quote from the director of the Human Microbiome Program at New York University: “I can just tell you … as a middle-aged man who’s concerned about his diet and his waistline—and [as] somebody who drinks diet soda—I didn’t drink any yesterday.”
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Stevia actually helps lower your blood glucose levels by making your cells more receptive to glucose uptake. Aspartame, on the other hand , makes your cells more resistant to glucose uptake! Aspartame will also make you crave simple carbs , having the opposite affect on your weight you were hoping for!
Now I have to find it 🙂
Gosh, I told you that years ago! Lol
LOL! I seem to remember that. I guess I should have paid more attention 🙂
I’ve not knowingly used these artificial sweeteners in years, although they do get sneaked into lots of products. I have been using Stevia for some time, since it is a very potent natural sweetener. My blood sugar has remained stable thus far. I have also lost 15 pounds since I started using it! (Long walks with our used Beagle, yoga, and having the good sense to select skinny parents may also have played a role.)
I do hope the so called natural sweeteners, such as Stevia, are shown to be benign.
Sir William Osler, a great 19th century physician and early day internist, once opined “In the case of new drugs; use them while they still work.” Perhaps the same could have been said about artificial sweeteners.
Interesting. Stevia…I’m going to check it out 🙂 Thanks.