“All natural sweetener.”
“Just like sugar.”
“Zero calories.”
Artificial sweeteners have been billed as the perfect alternative to sugar – a way for weight-conscious adults to have their cake and eat it, too. Yet more and more, a modicum of restraint is certainly advised when reaching for those packets of aspartame or sucralose.
While it’s true that sugar alternatives are much sweeter than table sugar, requiring smaller amounts to achieve the same level of sweetness, they won’t necessarily help you lose weight and keep it off. Simply taking the sugar out of a slab of chocolate cake doesn’t miraculously transform it into a low-calorie, high-nutrient food. At the end of the day, it’s still a slab of chocolate cake, with calories from flour, shortening, eggs, and other ingredients like nuts. So if you eat too much of it, your body will be the worse off from the encounter, regardless of which sweetener is used.
In fact, a growing body of evidence suggests that, when compared with sugar, no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their body weight.
In one recent study on lab rats conducted by Purdue University researchers, rodents given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin ended up consuming more food (and therefore, more calories) than rats given sugar-sweetened yogurt. They gained more weight, put on a higher level of body fat and had no natural sense that they should cut back on their eating.
“The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar,” the study authors said.
Of course, rats aren’t people. But human studies have suggested there is a link between increasing obesity rates and our increasing consumption of diet soda.
Artificial sweeteners, scientists say, actually appear to carry a bitter paradox , with the intense sweeteners potentially serving to increase a person’s craving for sweet foods, promoting overeating. This is probably not what you expected when you put your money in the vending machine and thought you were making a “healthier” choice.
As a practicing physician for 30 years, I always reminded my patients that a teaspoon of sugar is only 15 calories—though a cup is 770. So, when consumed in moderation, sugar really isn’t the diet disaster it is made out to be. A teaspoon of sugar in an occasional cup of coffee, for instance, is not going to tip you – or the scales – over the edge; and it may be healthier in the end than an artificial sweetener. Diabetics, whose condition makes them sensitive to sugar, need to discuss the use of artificial sweeteners versus sugar with their physicians. They have issues that go beyond weight control when it comes to sugar. But the American Diabetes Association makes note of an interesting point: “Research studies show that, gram for gram, sugars, like table sugar, do not raise blood glucose any more quickly than do other carbohydrates, like potatoes, rice or pasta. “
if you’re really concerned about your weight, skip the sweets altogether the next time your stomach is grumbling. Opting for a protein-rich snack, such as a slice of low-fat cheese, will curb your appetite longer and better.