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Acesulfame Potassium

Artificial Sweeteners–WHY Are They Still Around?

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artificial sweeteners and diabetes
Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/wyscan/

Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?  Why did the chicken cross the road?  Why are we still using artificial sweeteners?

All timeless questions that never seem to have the right answer.  Artificial sweeteners were initially used with the premise of cutting calorie intake and fighting off weight gain and diabetes.

They were never designed to actually improve the taste of food, candies and snacks.  Think about it–did you actually LIKE the taste of artificial sweeteners right off the bat?  Most that I’ve talked to say it’s a taste you have to get used to.  Why would you continue to take in a chemical that you have to “get used to” unless you believed there was some positive benefit to your health?

The belief that the use of artificial sweeteners was good for your health was continually promoted by doctors, massive marketing campaigns by the chemical companies that produce them and national organizations like the American Diabetic Association.  The brainwashing went on for decades and still continues.

It was so powerful that, despite mounting evidence that these chemicals PROMOTE the very things they were supposed to protect (diabetes and obesity), artificial sweeteners are still found everywhere you turn.

And the manufacturers have been getting very sneaky at putting them in products.  Terms like “low sugar,” “low carb” or “zero calories” can be your first clue.  But sometimes the approach is way more devious.  You may see on the front of the container for some drink that it is advertised as “no artificial flavors” and think that it’s ok.  But buried in the ingredient label, however, is that sneaky little sucralose chemical.  All of the wording on these products is very, very carefully chosen to deceive you.

So why the Rant?  Because there is yet another article looking into how artificial sweeteners contribute to obesity and diabetes.  In this particular article, researchers looked at the effects of artificial sweeteners on the gut bacteria in mice.  Here’s what they found:

  • Artificial sweeteners creates prediabetes by making changes to the types of gut bacteria as well as the way they function.
  • These artificial sweetener changes are blocked by antibiotic treatment.
  • Once the artificial sweeteners change the gut bacteria, transferring the bacteria  into another mouse will lead to prediabetes.
  • The researchers identified these same changes to the gut bacteria and risk of diabetes in humans.

This is not the first study to link changes in gut bacteria to artificial sweetener use.  Combine this with mounting evidence that gut bacteria may play a critical role in the development of obesity and diabetes and you’ve got a time bomb ticking.  Our kids are being fed artificial sweeteners like candy (pun intended) and parents, in general, are oblivious to the dangers posed by their use.

Even more subtle is the exposure of our kids to artificial sweeteners by well-meaning parents who don’t diligently label shop.  Do you realize that almost every gum in your typical grocery stores’ checkout counter has artificial sweeteners?  Do you know that most mints have these chemicals in the ingredient labels?  Have you checked out your “weight loss drink” lately?  Many of the most popular ones (even ones offered in doctors’ offices) contain artificial sweeteners.  Your protein drink?  I’ll bet it’s got artificial sweeteners.

With all of this said, I will end this article with the same question I began it with…”Why are we still using artificial sweeteners???”

 

Childhood Obesity Statistics: Blame Artificial Sweeteners

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I know I’ve written frequently on childhood obesity statistics lately, but are you really paying attention to everything your child is putting in their mouth?

You’ve banned artificial sweeteners. No more diet soda. You read one of my blog posts on just how unhealthy artificial sweeteners are, and you instantly tossed what you had in the house into the garbage. You’ve scrapped the plastic water bottles and cheap soup cans to ban BPA as well.

You’ve even searched out the labels where artificial sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda) lurks; some juices, “energy” drinks, even drink “enhancers” like Mio. You’ve vowed to not use any of the Nuun Active Hydration during your Susan Komen 3-day hike because of the acesulfame potassium. You’ve told your primary care doctor that Medifast is not going to help you lose weight in the long run.

Your family is all set and your children are happily chewing their gum in the back seat, artificial sweetener free.

Wait…chewing gum?

You slam on the brakes as you pull the car to the side of the road and demand to see the pack of Trident that your son is chewing from.

You guessed it. Almost every major brand of gum available now has artificial sweeteners in it. Actually, most seem to have multiple types (Yes-that Trident sugarless gum has acesulfame potassium AND aspartame in addition to the naturally occurring sugar alcohol sorbitol–apparently Trident couldn’t decide just which sweetener it was going to use so it through them all in…).

But it’s just a little amount.

That’s what I hear. It’s just a little. Or it’s just one can of diet soda per day. Or just a few pieces of gum per day. I remember hearing one distributor for a direct marketing “health” company stating that the sucralose in their drink was “just a little.”

Make no mistake–“just a little” is enough for us to taste or it wouldn’t be in there.

Which brings us to this particular article.

Researchers looked at a group of obese children aged 6-18 and compared them to a similar group of normal weight children. They were specifically looking to see if there was a difference in the taste sensations between the two groups. There findings give us some insight into the problems our children are facing:

  1. Obese children were less able to identify salty, bitter and umami (savory) tastes.
  2. Obese kids rated 3 of 4 test strips (with increasing sweet concentrations) as being less sweet.
  3. The greatest difference was in the lowest concentration of “sweet.”
  4. Only at the sweetest concentration did the two groups of children agree on the degree of sweetness.
  5. Overall, girls and older kids were better at picking out the right tastes.

Basically, the obese children seemed less sensitive to “sweet” until the concentration became strong. To me, this would seem to identify a type of tolerance for sweet sensations, much like a drug.

Giving our children sweet this and sweet that, including artificial sweeteners with sensations 1,000 times stronger than table sugar will do nothing but cause problems. I remain very strong of the opinion that giving artificial sweeteners to our children AT ALL, at any age, begins to disassociate taste from our body and brain’s response to sweet. This process can only lead contribute to the worsening childhood obesity statistics as time goes on.

If your child is already stuck in this loop, the first step is to cut out any and ALL artificial sweeteners.   Today. If your family chews gum, switch to a xylitol based gum.

From there, begin to cut back on the “sweet” that they are exposed to. That could mean smaller serving sizes. We have frozen yogurt stores here in Arizona that sell by the ounce–you basically fill up as much as you’d like and then top it off with the selections such as bad stuff, fruit and nuts. I can tell you that, for 4 of us, we frequently pay just a little more than most of the cups that get filled and dropped on the scale. Do you really need to fill the whole thing?

You can also begin to substitute unsweetened items for the sugary stuff. If they can’t drink tea without a 50:50 sugar:tea mix, begin to gradually cut back on the amount of sugar being added until it’s gone. And do you really need the largest size Starbucks with whipped cream?

What have you done to cut back on your child’s “sweet” intake?