The Truth About Artificial Sweeteners

My clients at Prime Performance in Totowa, New Jersey, are pretty savvy about the dangers of too much sugar, and in most cases, they’re also aware of the health issues from artificial sweeteners. While it might seem like drinking a diet Coke is far better than drinking the original, since there’s no sugar, that’s not necessarily true. In fact, diet drinks may actually be worse, depending on the drink and type of sweetener.

Artificial sweeteners have side effects.

Some sweeteners can cause rashes, while others can cause digestive upsets, which include explosive diarrhea and gas. Sorbitol, maltitol and mannitol are probably the worse offenders, but there’s a whole list of others that can cause problems. There are links from artificial sweeteners to life altering diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, MS, autism, Parkinson’s and systemic lupis.

There are some natural sugars that don’t create health issues and discomfort.

Stevia is one of those products that are sugar substitutes, but not artificial. It’s actually the juice taken from the leaves of a plant called Stevia rebaudiana. The Stevia plant comes from South America and not only touted for its sweetness, but also used as medicine. In fact, the compounds that trigger your taste buds to let the brain know something is sweet are hundreds of times sweeter than table sugar. It’s been used to help lower blood sugar levels in diabetics as well as lower elevated blood pressure, by as much as 14%.

Recent studies show that drinking diet drinks with artificial sweeteners, may be worse for weight.

One study showed that people who drank diet soft drinks developed more fat around their middle than those that didn’t. The study showed that the circumference of diet soft drink consumers was far bigger than people who never or seldom drank diet drinks. One of the reasons may have been because of the potential for glucose intolerance and other metabolic conditions. One study showed that using artificial sweeteners frequently interfered with metabolic functioning. It’s not just the calories that can cause harm. Tricking the body can be a problem, too.

• Xylitol and Erythritol are from sugar alcohol from fruit, but have also been known to cause some digestive problems. That complaint isn’t lodged as frequently. Be aware, xylitol is extremely dangerous for dogs.
• It won’t occur overnight, but take time to get your taste buds back to normal. Since, like any drug, the more sweetness you get, the more you need. Once you do, you’ll find that fruit is extremely sweet and great as a dessert.
• Watch your children’s health products and foods. Artificial sweeteners are in everything from chewable vitamins to cough syrup and toothpaste. It pays to read labels.
• Artificial sweeteners are now being identified as dangerous and some companies are replacing them with different ones. For instance, one company replaced its aspartame with sucralose and Ace-K (Acesulfame Potassium), which also create serious health concerns.

For more information, contact us today at Prime Fitness