The News On Artificial Sweeteners
Research is finding that drinking lots of diet drinks sweetened with artificial low calorie sweeteners leads to numerous detrimental health issues along with weight gain and actually stimulating your appetite and more effective fat storage. Not what anyone who is trying to lose some weight needs at all !
Other links have been found to diabetes, arthritis, brain tumours, migraines & headaches, lymphoma, depression, chemical sensitivities, ADHD, alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, birth defects, chronic fatigue syndrome and general tiredness, allergic reactions fibromyalgia, hearing loss, blurred vision, blood sugar increases, seizures, dizziness, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, parkinson’s and short term memory loss.
Not Really Helpful For Weight Loss
Because of this, you need to be wary of the toxicity of consuming diet sodas, as they are far from a healthier alternative to regular sugar-sweetened soda and are not the weight loss champion their marketing claims them to be.
Professor of psychological sciences and a behavioral neuroscientist at Purdue, Susan E. Swithers, Ph.D. says we should limit the intake of all sweeteners, including no-calorie sweeteners.
After reviewing recent studies, which found that, 30 percent of American adults and 15 percent of American children consume artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin whilst consuming diet soda.
She says: “There is a lot of pressure from the public health sector to find solutions to counter the rise of obesity and chronic disease, and there is a lot of money and business at stake for the food industry as it develops and promotes these products.
Aspartame
Aspartame, which is a common artificial sweetener in these drinks, has been found to damage the brain’s antioxidant defense system, so its long-term intake causes an imbalance in the antioxidant/pro-oxidant status in the brain.
Sucralose (Splenda)
A study published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health found that as well as weight gain, the sweetener had reduced the amount of good bacteria in your intestines by 50% as well as increasing the PH level. You only need 7 little packets of splenda to have this result.
By 2006 only 6 human trials have been published before it was deemed fit for human consumption. The longest trial was 4 days !!! and had 36 people in it !!! Only 6 were men and some of those were given placebos….
It was looking at whether sucralose caused tooth decay, not human tolerance !!! In just 4 days !!!
The longer studies on animals showed it caused anaemia as well as increasing male fertility. In larger doses brain lesions occurred. Some animals had enlarged and calcified kidneys. Spontaneous abortions in nearly half the rabbits given it plus a 23% death rate compared to 6% in the control. The control group had no problems with fertility and pregnancy.
Other sweeteners
Other sweeteners fare no better. Many that are allowed in one country are banned in another.
A published a 2009 study in the journal Diabetes Care showed that the consumption of diet soda is related to a 67 percent raised risk of type 2 diabetes and a 36 percent higher risk of metabolic syndrome.
More Studies
More studies show that artificial sweeteners interfere with the gut-brain connection; experts at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel found that these drinks change the gut microbes by raising the risk of metabolic diseases. They fed mice with zero-calorie sweeteners found in these drinks, such as saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose, and they developed glucose intolerance and various other metabolic derangements.
Other research shows drinking more than 4 cans of soda a day is related to a 30 percent higher risk of depression.
Lung Problems…
These drinks can compromise your lungs. They raise the risk of developing asthma and COPD symptoms. Experts at Harvard examined people who consumed soda drinks for more than 20 years and showed that the long-term diet soda-drinking leads to a 30 percent greater reduction in kidney function.
Another study conducted at the University of Miami and Columbia University involved over 2,000 adults for 10 years and found that those who consumed these drinks had a higher risk of heart attacks and stroke, and had more chances to die due to heart disease.
