Artificial Sweeteners - Diet Friend or Foe?

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Sep 4th 2009 5:00PM

Photo: Bekathwia, Flickr

If you're trying to lose a few pounds, trading your regular soda for the diet version could be doing more harm than good. True, swapping a can of Coke Zero for the regular kind slices 139 calories from your daily intake, but research from the University of Liverpool in England suggests that your body processes artificial, calorie-free sweeteners the same way it does regular sugar.

Just as your taste buds can't differentiate between regular and artificial sweeteners (aside that chemically aftertaste), the receptors in your intestines aren't able to tell the difference either. Once the intestines sense sweetness, they seek out glucose to absorb. So even though that Equal is calorie-free -- your body may still take calories from somewhere else if these receptors are activated.

"Artificial sweeteners can also activate the glucose sensor and increase the capacity of the intestine to absorb more sugar," Soraya Shirazi-Beechey, lead author of the study and a professor of Molecular Physiology and Biochemistry at Liverpool University, tells the Daily Mail. "If someone wants to lose weight, I don't think artificial sweeteners are going to help," she says. "My recommendation is to eat natural foods, but to eat less of them."

It's unclear from Shirazi-Beechey's research whether the amount of glucose absorbed after sensing an artificial sweetener would equal the calorie-equivalent of a regular soda.

Although this research is preliminary, it is part of a growing body of evidence that sweeteners are not a fool-proof alternative to regular sugar. Other studies have found that sweeteners don't satisfy the cravings in the brain the way real sugar does, meaning that after that diet soda you may still be craving something sweet.

But for soda addicts in particular, the switch to diet may cut significant calories and be a good stepping stone to healthier beverages, such as water and occasional fruit juices.

In fact, the jury is still out on artificial sweeteners, as a recent study found they may help prevent weight gain. So while science continues to debate, cut back on sugar and sweeteners all together -- everything in moderation is the real key to weight loss.

Comments (9)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

u262f 9-04-2009 @ 6:38PM

I completely agree with the last sentence. The "real sugar" (which sugar proponents seem to call refined white sugar) vs. sweeteners debate is merely a distraction from the fact that both are bad for you. What we seem to be finding is that refining and concentrating things is bad. We are biological creatures, and we exist only in a very fragile, limited, messy balance of many factors. When we strip one thing out of its setting and concentrate it heavily (like extracting sugar crystals from the cane or beet or fruit or corn or anything else), we're making it much harder to maintain that healthy balance. This is why eating natural foods that hasn't been processed very much tends to work. When the sugars are inside the cane (or beat or corn or fruit), they come balanced with vitamins, fiber, water, and other nutrients, many of which we probably don't understand or haven't "discovered" yet.

joyce 9-07-2009 @ 9:26PM

I have lost 90 lbs and keept it off for three years. Love Splenda and use it often leave the white bread alone and sugar it is adective i can have spelenda and not crave seconds.

Christoph 9-08-2009 @ 7:44AM

Fairly accurate summary

syam 9-05-2009 @ 10:44AM

agree on this article. we should take Artificial Sweeteners as a sugar's substitute.

deadharbor 9-06-2009 @ 10:37AM

There are no free stuff in this world. All I know is that why I overdid artificial sweeteners, my diet was a mess and my weight kept going up. Now I eat better.

thirdpartyvote 9-07-2009 @ 9:33PM

I don't use artificial sweetener. I use a little bit of sugar...not much.. I am 56, weigh 126, have 22% body fat, exercise five times a week.. I eat brown rice toast with a tsp of butter and 1/2 tsp sugar for breakfast, usually another slice of toast with tofu salad for lunch, a salad and canned wild salmon for dinner (or if my friends drag me to a restaurant, I'll have chicken). I eat dark chocolate, coffee, green tea, dark chocolate sorbet, sometimes, but rarely a cookie. Sugar does not cause so much weight gain. It is that High Fructose Corn Syrup, aka HFCS, aka "invert sugar" that has been hiding in all our foods (jus about all breads, including all the healthy brands). That stuff was forced on Americans in 1985 due to corporate pressure. It makes the appetite rage. Don't eat HFCS.

maxiesmom067 9-07-2009 @ 10:18PM

My husband is a (non-insulin dependent) diabetic and has been using Splenda for years with great success. I have finally given up eating or drinking anything with cane sugar in it, and while my weight still requires watching, I feel better! (Less sluggish, more alert, and this may sound weird, but I feel cleaner!) Splenda took me about 5 minutes to adjust to and I haven't looked back. My new treat is FUZE fruit beverages. Low carb and only 5-40 calories (depending on flavor) per serving! All I need to find now is a healthy, low cal crunchy snack that tastes just like Lay's Potato Chips and I'll be in heaven!

lakewobegone 9-08-2009 @ 5:18PM

The big question is who is funding the "Scientific Research".

Follow the money.......

Mike 10-04-2009 @ 2:00PM

Took me a minute to figure out the pattern in the picture of the sweetener packets. They're arranged in groups of 8, so that at the center of each group of 8 is an octagon--the shape of a stop sign.