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The Takehome: Rats that consumed the artificial sweetener saccharine had greater caloric intake, greater weight (fat) gain, reduced core body temperature increase after consuming sweets, and an impaired ability to compensate (reduce) calorie intake in meals after a meal where increased calories (sugar) were consumed. In other words, although the artificial sweetener saccharine does not have appreciable calories and does not spike insulin like glucose does, the study suggests that because it is still registered as “sweet” by the body, negative biological effects can result. For example, when sweets without calories are consumed on a regular basis, your body may get confused as to what it is consuming. A result is increased feeding (overcompensation) in subsequent meals for calories expected, but not consumed. It also appears that your body may not then properly register actual sweet foods with calories as having those calories, thus leading you to eat the same amount of food (or even more food) in subsequent meals, even though you don’t need all those calories anymore. The lack of a proper core body temperature increase is not entirely understood, but it may indicate that your body is not burning the normal amount of energy (calories) for the digestion process. All of these results present a mechanism by which the rats, and potentially humans, can either gain fat or be unable to lose fat while consuming artificial sweeteners on a regular basis. More work clearly needs to be done in this area (especially with humans), but the findings here are very important. They are a good example of how we need to have a broad understanding of physiology and remember that there are many interacting processes. There are seldom quick fixes to biological problems and if you are using artificial sweeteners as such a fix, you may not be getting the benefit you’ve been expecting.
The Takehome: Rats that consumed the artificial sweetener saccharine had greater caloric intake, greater weight (fat) gain, reduced core body temperature increase after consuming sweets, and an impaired ability to compensate (reduce) calorie intake in meals after a meal where increased calories (sugar) were consumed. In other words, although the artificial sweetener saccharine does not have appreciable calories and does not spike insulin like glucose does, the study suggests that because it is still registered as “sweet” by the body, negative biological effects can result. For example, when sweets without calories are consumed on a regular basis, your body may get confused as to what it is consuming. A result is increased feeding (overcompensation) in subsequent meals for calories expected, but not consumed. It also appears that your body may not then properly register actual sweet foods with calories as having those calories, thus leading you to eat the same amount of food (or even more food) in subsequent meals, even though you don’t need all those calories anymore. The lack of a proper core body temperature increase is not entirely understood, but it may indicate that your body is not burning the normal amount of energy (calories) for the digestion process. All of these results present a mechanism by which the rats, and potentially humans, can either gain fat or be unable to lose fat while consuming artificial sweeteners on a regular basis. More work clearly needs to be done in this area (especially with humans), but the findings here are very important. They are a good example of how we need to have a broad understanding of physiology and remember that there are many interacting processes. There are seldom quick fixes to biological problems and if you are using artificial sweeteners as such a fix, you may not be getting the benefit you’ve been expecting.
So do you still think diet soda is better?