I'm going to touch on a highly debated subject today. If you come to a different conclusion than I do after giving it some good thought and doing some research, so be it.

The topic: artificial sweeteners. My stance: avoid them.

I haven't always felt this way. There was a point in my life when I consumed artificial sweeteners on a regular basis. That was when I was trying to battle my sweet tooth and my weight but still eat sweets every day. That was when I would diet really hard and restrict my calories really low, then break and binge. That was when I had horrible self esteem, horrible eating habits and was incredibly unhealthy. That was when my weight yoyoed and I came to be at my heaviest weight ever. That is also why the results and conclusions drawn from a study published in the journal Obesity make perfect sense to me.

Age, education, socioeconomic index, exercise, and dieting were greater in AS [artificial sweetener] users, who were more likely to be female and OW/OB [overweight/obese]...Total calories, calories from carbohydrates and sucrose, and alcohol consumption were lower among AS users (P < 0.0001), whose sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption was one-fourth that of nonusers...Percent of calories from protein, total fat, and saturated fat were significantly higher in AS users (P < 0.0001).

We observed a classic, positive dose-response relationship between AS beverage consumption and long-term weight gain. Such an association does not, by itself, establish causality. But it raises a troubling question, which can be answered only by further research: are ASs fueling—rather than fighting—the very epidemic they were designed to block? Further research is needed to evaluate the possible impact of AS use on the risk of obesity—and its metabolic sequelae—in the next generation, as well as our own.

A review done in the Yale journal of biology and medicine has this to say about the topic:

A rise in the percent of the population who are obese coincides with an increase in the widespread use of non-caloric artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame (e.g. Diet Coke) and sucralose (e.g. Diet Pepsi), in food products....While people often choose diet or light products to lose weight, research studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may contribute to weight gain.

So to recap: those who use artificial sweeteners consume less sugar but more calories from other sources than those who don't and, therefore, are still more likely to be overweight or obese even though they are also more likely to diet and exercise. That way of dieting is what I never want to go back to. Replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners just so that you can have sweets without the calories from sugar is a bad idea. When your body tastes something sweet it expects there to be sugar released into the blood stream, but no sugar comes, so you crave something sweet again. If you are addicted to sugar, switching out regular sweets for ones sweetened with artificial sweeteners isn't going to do you much good. (Trust me, I know. I've tried it!) You aren't going to break your craving cycle that way, and you may even make it worse.

Preload experiments generally have found that sweet taste, whether delivered by sugar or artificial sweeteners, enhanced human appetite...Aspartame also increased subjective hunger ratings compared to glucose or water...artificial sweeteners, precisely because they are sweet, encourage sugar craving and sugar dependence.

Did you catch that? Artificial sweeteners cause you to want to eat more and cause you to crave sugar! I used to think that artificial sweeteners were healthy but again a review in the Yale journal of biology and medicine has this to say:

Whether due to a successful marketing effort on the part of the diet beverage industry or not, the weight conscious public often consider artificial sweeteners "health food". But do artificial sweeteners actually help reduce weight? Surprisingly, epidemiologic data suggests the contrary. Several large scale prospective cohort studies found positive correlation between artificial sweetener use and weight gain.

The American College of Sports Medicine states that "while artificial sweeteners are thought to be safe, there is no health benefit to consuming them".

I have said it before and I will say it again: eat whole foods! Artificial sweeteners are not whole foods. In fact, they aren't even foods at all — they are chemicals. It's interesting how several of them were discovered:

We owe the discovery of several artificial sweeteners to a few brave scientists who violated the code of laboratory hygiene and tasted their samples, often inadvertently. Saccharin, the oldest artificial sweetener , was discovered by Constantine Fahlberg at Johns Hopkins in 1879 while working on coal tar derivatives.

A scientist in a lab using chemicals accidentally licked his fingers and discovered that the mixture of chemicals on them happened to be sweet, and voila, artificial sweeteners were born. Gross! What was the intended use? Should that really be ingested? Again, gross!

Not only that, but the other ingredients that are associated with artificial sweeteners are artificial colors, artificial flavors, and highly refined carbohydrate sources. None of that is good for you! Even if it does somehow help you lose weight, what is it doing to your insides?

I know what it used to do to mine and it wasn't pretty. I used to have severe stomach problems that were something like IBS symptoms. It was awful! The more I have gotten away from processed foods and started eating whole foods[^gf], the fewer symptoms I have had.

Rid your body of foreign substances! Stop ingesting artificial foods because they aren't foods at all! And read food labels carefully because they are now hiding the stuff in everything. I was surprised to learn that it's even in Pedialyte.

If you are wondering how to get your sweet fix if you can't have artificial sweeteners, the answer is: sugar, honey or maple syrup in moderation. Everything in moderation.

In my next post I will talk about cutting back on sweets, whether they be naturally or artificially sweetened. The American College of Sports Medicine believes that "You can reduce your salt and sugar intake by eating fresh fruits and vegetables, limiting the sauces and toppings you put on food, and reading the labels on prepackaged items." I tend to agree. It is possible to reduce sugar and overall caloric intake without artificial sweeteners!

[^gf]: I also switched to a gluten free diet which has helped a lot.