[MadRiverTurtle]

Cutting the connection between sweets and calories may confuse the body, making it harder to regulate intake


Washington — Want to lose weight? It might help to pour that diet soda down the drain. Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their intake and body weight. The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Psychologists at Purdue University's Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn't make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.

Authors Susan Swithers, PhD, and Terry Davidson, PhD, surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body's ability to regulate intake. That change depends on experience. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. It also might explain why, says Swithers, scientific consensus on human use of artificial sweeteners is inconclusive, with various studies finding evidence of weight loss, weight gain or little effect. Because people may have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners, human studies that don't take into account prior consumption may produce a variety of outcomes.

Three different experiments explored whether saccharin changed lab animals' ability to regulate their intake, using different assessments – the most obvious being caloric intake, weight gain, and compensating by cutting back.

The experimenters also measured changes in core body temperature, a physiological assessment. Normally when we prepare to eat, the metabolic engine revs up. However, rats that had been trained to respond using saccharin (which broke the link between sweetness and calories), relative to rats trained on glucose, showed a smaller rise in core body temperate after eating a novel, sweet-tasting, high-calorie meal. The authors think this blunted response both led to overeating and made it harder to burn off sweet-tasting calories.

“The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar,” the authors wrote.

The authors acknowledge that this outcome may seem counterintuitive and might not come as welcome news to human clinical researchers and health-care practitioners, who have long recommended low- or no-calorie sweeteners. What's more, the data come from rats, not humans. However, they noted that their findings match emerging evidence that people who drink more diet drinks are at higher risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome, a collection of medical problems such as abdominal fat, high blood pressure and insulin resistance that put people at risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Why would a sugar substitute backfire? Swithers and Davidson wrote that sweet foods provide a “salient orosensory stimulus” that strongly predicts someone is about to take in a lot of calories. Ingestive and digestive reflexes gear up for that intake but when false sweetness isn't followed by lots of calories, the system gets confused. Thus, people may eat more or expend less energy than they otherwise would.

The good news, Swithers says, is that people can still count calories to regulate intake and body weight. However, she sympathizes with the dieter's lament that counting calories requires more conscious effort than consuming low-calorie foods.

Swithers adds that based on the lab's hypothesis, other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame K, which also taste sweet but do not predict the delivery of calories, could have similar effects. Finally, although the results are consistent with the idea that humans would show similar effects, human study is required for further demonstration.

Article: “A Role for Sweet Taste: Calorie Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats,” Susan E. Swithers, PhD and Terry L. Davidson, PhD, Purdue University; Behavioral Neuroscience, Vol. 122, No. 1.

(Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases...8-swithers.pdf )

Susan Swithers can be reached by email or by phone at (765) 494-6279.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

[camster626]

Dude...I read this this morning and was blown away. I am a Diet Pepsi fiend(the only soda mom had in the house)...but after reading this...I'm done. It's back to Green Tea and Water only...probably gonna have some wicked withdrawls...lol...but hey if I get a caffien headache...the Kush can handle that.


Anyhow...Interesting read.

Thanks-

[satchmo]

it may have something to do with the " have to grunt to stand up, cant feel my feet, elastic waistbanded" individuals drinking 3-4 ltrs of "diet" soda per day thinking its diet so i can have as much as i want. extend this thought to the rest of their lives and holy fat ass bat man.
tin foil hat alert...... i can see the evil powers that be throwing another msg type thing at us. it does make sense if you think about it tho. over weight? by diet stuff, it costs a bit more but its healthy and will help you trim down!
not working buy more.
but on a more real note. we were designed to eat raw foods. not foodstufs made from initials. there has to be some repercussions. if i put dirt in the gas tank the old ford isnt gunna run so hot. im a little more complex than a 4 stroke motor so.....
oh damn my microwave burrito just dinged. sets down super big gulp o' slurpy.
bfn.

[MadRiverTurtle]

the study was on rats, not humans. but i understand the point you're trying to make. i think its common for dieters to eat a "low fat" food, yet eat more than the serving size alloted, and etc. many bad habits with the whole "low calorie", "low fat", special diet food, and the like.





(note- i think some of my postings get confused by readers (not in this thread but others. just bc i post articles that doesn't mean i'm in full agreement with the authors. just posting for discussion :))

[Zabiela]

I guess i'm biased because i'm underwieght, but I cant stand artificial sweeteners and diet sodas.
First of all, they taste horrible... horrible...
Second, the soda is still very bad for you health wise, you might skip a few calories but you're still intaking synthetic chemical cancer causing elements. blech
(heres the bias)Third, I dont care if it makes me fatter, i would rather a sugar that came from the sun and mother earth than a test tube and chemicals.

I'm glad to hear it acutally establishes incorrect eating and absobtion habits, one more thing I can use to convince people to give them up.

I think this saying applies well here:
"America (as a general consumerist term) will do anything to lose weight, except for proper diet and exercise."
Including putting vile weight loss chemicals in pills, and fake chemical sugars in drinks and food.

[Nitemoon]

Haven't you all read about how dangerous Aspartame is? Read the following article for some alarming news:

In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in so much pain. By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies and was on 24 various prescription medications.

The doctors could not determine what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain and so sick. She just knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc., in her oldest daughter's name and made sure that her younger children were to be taken care of.

She also wanted her last hoorah, so she planned a trip to Florida basically in a wheelchair) for March 22nd. On March 19, I called her to ask how her most recent tests went and she said they didn't find anything on the test but they believe she had MS. I recalled an article a friend of mine e-mailed to me and I asked my sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment. I told her not to open it and to stop drinking the diet soda! I e-mailed the article to her that my friend, a lawyer, had sent me.

My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk! The muscle spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but she sure felt a lot better. She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would call me when she got home. Well, she called me and said her doctor was amazed! He is going to call all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweeteners of any kind. In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet soda... and was literally dying a slow and miserable death.

When she got to Florida March 22, all she had to take was one pill and that was a pill for the Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery. And she is walking! No wheelchair! This article saved her life.


* * *


If it says 'SUGAR FREE' on the label DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT DRINKING/ EATING IT!
* * *

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on "ASPARTAME," marketed as 'NutraSweet,' 'Equal' and 'Spoonful.' In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus. It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to be rampant. I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject.

I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous:

When the temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and systemic lupus. Many people were being diagnosed in error.

Although Multiple Sclerosis is not a death sentence, Methanol toxicity is! Systemic lupus has become almost as rampant as Multiple Sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the culprit. He or she continues its use; irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening condition. We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic, once taken off diet sodas.

In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, most of the symptoms disappear. We've seen many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly. This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia.

During a lecture, I said, "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision or memory loss, you probably have ASPARTAME poisoning!"

People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I have some of these symptoms. Is it reversible?" Yes! Yes! Yes! STOP drinking diet sodas and be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with it! This is a serious problem. Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence!

Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight! These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve "tissue specimens." Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!

Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the "diet products" and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.

Aspartame is especially dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact, had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out of control. Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the other amino acids necessary for a good balance.

Treating diabetes is all about BALANCE. Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain; causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage.

Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics as well. Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior when these chemicals have been removed from their diet. So called "behavior modification prescription drugs" (Ritalin and others) are no longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place! Most of these children were being "poisoned" on a daily basis with the very foods that were "better for them than sugar."

It is also suspected that the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame for the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.

Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e. mental retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy. Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should NEVER be given artificial sweeteners. There are many different case histories to relate of children suffering Grande mal seizures and other neurological disturbances due to the use of NutraSweet.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to convince people that Aspartame is to blame for their child's illness. Stevia, which is a sweet herb, NOT A MANUFACTURED ADDITIVE, helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics. The FDA has now approved it as a dietary supplement. It is known that for many years the FDA outlawed this true sweet food," due to their loyalty to MONSANTO Chemical Company."

Books on this subject are available:

EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS written by Dr. Russell Blaylock
(Health Press 1-800-643-2665) AND:
DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE-written by DR. H. J. Roberts, also a diabetic specialist.

These two doctors will soon be posting a position paper on the Internet with case histories on the deadly effects of Aspartame. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the us of this deadly poison."

Herein lies the problem: There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was included 100 different products and strong objection was made concerning its use. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings and still nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED! There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this deadly chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a "piece of the Aspartame pie." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds, among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians? This has been recently exposed in the New York Times.

These [organizations] cannot criticize any additives or convey their link to MONSANTO because they take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their products.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially regarding pregnant women, children and infants. The bill would also institute independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the general population regarding seizures, changes in brain chemistry, neurological changes and behavioral symptoms. The bill was killed. It is known that the powerful drug and chemical lobbies are responsible for this, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting and uninformed public. YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW!

[Nitemoon]

Quick Response to your question:

Diet soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM (salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight! These products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and is used primarily to preserve "tissue specimens." Many products we use every day contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT store it IN our body!

Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the "diet products" and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost an average of 19 pounds over a trial period.

Organic & Natural is best.

[Absynthe]

Urban legends about Aspartame is just that: a Myth
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

I can't believe that 1998 paper is still circulating. Sometimes they change the names, to make it sound more official, for the Drs. names. When I've cross-referenced it, it referenced back to the make believe people in the article.

Healthy skepticism is good - but believing something just because it says a doctor said so, not good.

As for the artificial sweeteners, I use everything in moderation. I happen to be Reactive Hypoglycemic, and can't use full sugar anything. Ergo, I use half sugar and half Splenda, and make my own Kool Aid flavors. And for me, 25 calories vs 120+ for fruit juice, well I'd rather not get sick on the sugar rush. Eating whole fruit doesn't do it to me, but fruit juice puts me into la-la land.

[zackiam_777]

What about apartame changing to formaldehyde after injested?