Are Artificial Sweeteners Helping or Harming Us?
Artificial Sweeteners became widely used just around the time that Americans started experiencing serious obesity problems. Are these two things related or is the timing a coincidence? Could Saccharin, our first artificial sweetener of the 1950s, be to blame or is it actually the greatest gift to dieters?
Unfortunately, that question remains unanswered as both sides duke it out. Studies are being conducted, but the results often contradict one another.
The production of artificial sweeteners follows an interesting timeline. Used in both world wars because it was cheaper than sugar, Saccharin has been around since 1879. It was first marketed as Sweet and Low and pretty much had a monopoly on the business until 1983, when Aspartame became popular. Sucralose was added in 1999.
The public couldn’t get enough of these substances that were being used in low-calorie foods and beverages. The problem is that the artificial sweeteners meant to trick us into thinking that we satisfied our sweet tooth, may be actually confusing our bodies when it comes to controlling calories and our appetites.
An often-quoted study at Purdue University, which was conducted on rats, showed that the rats that ate foods containing artificial sweeteners consumed more food and gained more weight than those who ate foods containing glucose, a natural sugar found in fruit.
The University of Texas Health Science Center conducted another disturbing study that examined the effect of diet soda on weight loss. Their results showed that people who drank even one diet soda a day, over a period of four years, had a 50% increased risk of metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a word used to characterize the risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Some of the more common ones are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and abdominal obesity. One statement that was made, as a result of the study, was that drinking even one diet soda a day increases the risk of obesity by as much as 41%.
The Calorie Control Council, an international association representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry, is one of the organizations that find these studies flawed. They point out that tests on rats may not apply to humans, and further fault the size of the group sampled. In addition, it was noted that Saccharin was often used as a reward for rats, which would possibly skew the results. Finally, they believe that larger portion sizes and inactivity were omitted as possible causes for weight gain.
In regards to the second study, the Calorie Control Council reports that there were no definitive conclusions or reasons given as to why diet soda would increase the risk of metabolic syndrome. “The researchers did not control for weight gain, which is related to the development of metabolic syndrome, nor did they exclude overweight individuals from the study.” The Council goes on to report several major studies that showed artificial sweeteners to be beneficial to weight loss, and stated, “Leading health groups agree that low-calorie sweeteners and the products that contain them can help people manage their weight as part of an overall healthy diet.”
So, are artificial sweeteners the hidden saboteurs of our weight loss efforts? Can we blame them for the obesity epidemic or will be have to accept the blame ourselves for leading sedentary lives that revolve around food? You’re going to have to decide…
