Mark Hyman, MD on diet drinks:
Seems you can’t outsmart Mother Nature. Tricking your brain into
thinking you are getting something sweet plays dirty tricks on your
metabolism. Artificial sweeteners disrupt the normal hormonal and
neurological signals that control hunger and satiety (feeling full). A
study of rats that were fed artificially sweetened food found that their
metabolism slowed down and they were triggered to consume more calories
and gain more weight than rats fed sugar-sweetened food.
In another alarming study, rats offered the choice of cocaine or
artificial sweeteners always picked the artificial sweetener, even if
the rats were previously programmed to be cocaine addicts. The author
of the study said that, “[t]he absolute preference for taste sweetness
may lead to a re-ordering in the hierarchy of potentially addictive
stimuli, with sweetened diets . . . taking precedence over cocaine and
possibly other drugs of abuse
The use of artificial sweeteners, as well as “food porn,” the sexy
experience of sweet, fat, and salt in your mouth, alters your food
preferences. Your palate shifts from being able to enjoy fruits and
vegetables and whole foods to liking only the sexy stuff.
My advice is to give up stevia, aspartame, sucralose, sugar alcohols
like xylitol and malitol, and all of the other heavily used and marketed
sweeteners unless you want to slow down your metabolism, gain weight,
and become an addict. Some may be worse than others like aspartame that
is what we call an excitotoxin that can cause neurologic symptoms like
brain fog, migraines or worse. And some may just give you bad gas
because they ferment in your gut, like the sugar alcohols (anything that
ends in “ol” like xylitol). Others like stevia, which comes from a
South American plant, may be slightly better and could be enjoyed from
time to time, they all keep us yearning for more and more – so our
brains get confused, we eat more food and we get fatter. There are ways
to cut cravings by naturally balancing your blood sugar.
Read the full article here: Diet Drinks: Helpful or Harmful to Kick the Sugar Habit?
Hey Alex:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the original article Mark Hyman is referring to that you're referring to?
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Michael,
DeleteIt's the "Read the full article here: 'Diet Drinks: Helpful or Harmful to Kick the Sugar Habit'" link at the bottom. Let me know if you have any trouble accessing it. Happy reading, exploring and healthying!
Alex
I apologize, I was unclear. I mean the original scientific paper (article) published in a peer-reviewed science journal. It isn't cited in the original article. It would be helpful to read the original work.
DeleteI don't currently understand the reasoning behind why artificial sweeteners would impact metabolism, as they don't provide energy and are not recognized as chemical energy by the body. They also do not activate release of insulin, retarding metabolism and promoting energy storage as glucose-sources do. Though, I don't rule out any suggestion and I would like to read the original work.
I enjoy the nature of your posts and appreciate surprises like this one. I would like to further investigate this, nonetheless.
I understand, thank you for clarifying. I'm not positive they are available online, but these same studies are sited in Dr. Hyman's book The Blood Sugar Solution as such:
DeleteSwithers SE, Davidson TL. A role for sweet taste: calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behav Neurosci. 2008; 122(1):161-73.
Lenoir M, et al. Intense sweetness surpasses cocaine reward. PLoS One. 2007;2(1);e698.
Ludwig DS. Artificially sweetened beverages: cause for concern. JAMA. 2009 Dec 9;302(22):2477-78.
Hope that helps!