How Artificial Sugars Are Fattening Us Up – and Why

Just when you thought you were behaving and making healthy choices for your body, technology throws in another plot twist. Your favorite diet soda, coffee creamer or lemonade is kicking you right in the ass it’s making bigger!

All those artificial sweeteners that you have been consuming to cut down on your sugar intake are doing the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to. You thought you were making smart decisions to get lean and mean but really these fakers end up making you look like a cream puff. WTF? Right? This is especially evil if you are going through menopause and already noticing that buttoning your pants now qualifies as a mini cardio workout.

Get this: On April Fools’ Day 1998, the FDA announced its approval of the artificial sweetener sucralose,1611 sold as Splenda. It only took us an additional 20 or so years to get the joke. How could there be a ‘healthy sugar’? Irony at its finest. Since then, there have been a number of artificial sweeteners joining the market, including:

• Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet)

• Acesulfame K (Sunett)

• Stevia (Truvia, PureVia, SweetLeaf)

• Advantame (no brand name)

• Sugar alcohols, which include mannitol, sorbitol, and xylitol

What’s the “Skinny” on Sweeteners?

Artificial sweeteners are sweet like sugar but have a low glycemic index.This means that they don’t interact with our bodies the same way that sugar does. They don’t spike your blood sugar. Sounds dreamy, right? Finally we get to have our cake and eat it too! Um, no. Nope. Uh-uh.

These sweeteners are marketed to the health-conscious as a clean-eating alternative to sugar. They have been touted as a safe way to cut calories for those that need to lose weight. They even have been promoted to diabetics and individuals with other illnesses as a way to enjoy food and beverages without destabilizing your sugar levels.

The zero-calorie rug has been ripped out from underneath us all.

How Artificial Sweeteners Work:

Artificial sugars are recognized by “sweetness receptors” on the tongue. This causes them to taste pleasant, while tricking your body into thinking it’s getting the real thing. In the last 10 years, these types of “sweetness” receptors have now been found in the bladder, lungs and bones. It makes you wonder how much your body is really being affected by fake sugars.

Your body can’t break them down, the same way it does sugar, and this is why artificial sweeteners “contain zero calories”… This is also why they don’t raise your blood sugar – or so it would seem….

What is Really Going On Here?

Scientists discovered an insidious side effect of artificial sweeteners: sucralose (Splenda) causes an insulin increase by triggering sweet taste receptors in the mouth (Pubmed). This effect is called cephalic phase insulin release. This release of insulin causes a drop in blood sugar levels. Recent research suggests the other sweeteners have the same effect.

“What’s wrong with that?” You might say. When your blood sugar decreases, it signals to your brain that it is time to eat! Artificial sweeteners are the catalyst to a vicious cycle that causes your body to believe it needs more calories (aka more food), which leads you to eat more and store more fat. Research suggests that fake sugars may prevent us from associating sweetness with caloric intake. As a result, we may crave more sweets, often choose sweet food over nutritious food, and gain weight. As a bonus, when insulin levels are high it triggers our bodies to store fat.

As if it couldn’t get worse….Further studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may be just as addictive as some hard drugs. In one study, rats were exposed to cocaine and then given the choice between cocaine and saccharine, they chose the artificial sweetener a majority of the time.

The Trickery Continues

These chemicals can also affect how we taste food. “Overstimulation of sugar receptors from frequent use of these hyper-intense sweeteners may limit tolerance for more complex tastes,” explains Dr. Ludwig, an obesity and weight-loss specialist at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital. In layman’s terms, people who often use these sweeteners might find other “less-sweet” foods like fruit less appealing. As if anyone needed another barrier to their daily intake of spinach, fake sugar can potentially make you lose your appetite for vegetables (Gasp!). It can cause you to opt for foods with more sweeteners and less nutritional value.

Stop Faking It:

Artificial sweeteners have a plethora of negative side-effects, from insulin release to sugar addiction to causing the body to store fat. These sweeteners are more deceitful than they might seem- affecting your bodies ability to self-regulate calorie intake, and changing your taste for healthy foods. Fake sugars cause cognitive distortions, tricking us into eating more than we should. Though it might be tempting to reach for your next “0 calorie, 0 carb, 0 sugar” beverage or sweetener, your body will thank you if you think twice.

When life hands you lemons, your lemonade might as well have real sugar in it. Cue “Pour Some Sugar on Me” soundtrack.