For some people at least, the price of a sweet tasting, low calorie snack, is much higher than a few calories here or there – the price is their health.

“I’ll have a diet coke, please”

You’re watching your weight – so every opportunity you get, you opt for the diet option. As far as you are concerned, artificial sweeteners are a god send. You can enjoy your sweet treat, while avoiding the consequences of your little indulgence.

And…………… you can indulge a little more.

By plopping a packet of Canderal®  in your coffee – you can now accommodate the calories in that slice of lemon meringue pie. Isn’t chemistry great ?

Artificial sweeteners allow you to enjoy a FREE LUNCH.

Free lunches are not really free

Hang on a minute………….. didn’t your Mom warn you, there is no such thing as a FREE LUNCH. Someone is ALWAYS paying for the LUNCH.   And, the someone is invariable YOU. You’re paying………. not with money, but with something else. Your time. Your ear. Your influence.

Oops…..

As with most things, she’s right.

Artificial sweeteners are not the free ride we’ve been led to believe. A group of researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science have just discovered, who is paying the bill.

The good news……………….. it’s not you.

Who is paying for your free lunch ?

The scientists gave mice water, sweetened with commonly used artificial sweeteners. The team were careful not to give them TOO MUCH, ensuring that the amount of sweetener the mice received, was in line with levels that would be encountered by human dieters.

The artificial sweeteners used in this study, were sucralose, saccharin and aspartame.

The team did not look at what happened to the mice, instead they looked at what happened to the   thousands of bacteria, living in the digestive tract of the mice i.e. the gut microflora.

The gut flora showed a mixed response……

Some like it “artificial”

Some bacteria found the artificial sweetener, more than they could handle. While others, found artificial sweeteners, rather tasty.

The result……………..there was shift in who is who, in the gut zoo.

The shift happened quickly and quietly.

In fact, the artificial sweetener guzzling mice, looked perfectly healthy on the outside, but, when the team tested their ability to handle glucose – things were not quite “right”.

Officially, the mice showed signs of being glucose intolerant.

Eish !

The artificial sweetener guzzling mice had the metabolic troubles associated with metabolic syndrome aka. obesity. Ironic ?

Rather…………

Of mice and men

Maybe you’re thinking, it is just a mice thing…..nothing to worry about.

Curious, the research team took their study one step further. They found 7 healthy human volunteers, who were not in the habit of eating artificial sweeteners and made them guzzle artificial sweeteners for a week.

They tested the impact of this diet change, on the volunteers gut flora, as well as going for the juggernaut – the impact on their glucose tolerance.

And…………………it mattered, for some of the volunteers.

Here comes the bad news…….

You might be paying a fortune for your free lunch

For some people at least, the price of a sweet tasting, low calorie snack, is much higher than a few calories here or there – the price is their health.

Instead of protecting them from themselves, the artificial sweetener actually puts them at risk of packing on the pounds. It does this, by making them more insulin resistant. And since insulin resistance, aka. metabolic syndrome, underpins many of the lifestyle diseases, including obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular troubles – routinely consuming lots of artificial sweetener ends up being THE PROBLEM.

Not the SOLUTION.

Know the cost of your lunch

The bill for a free lunch, can be rather pricey.

It might be time to go easy on those sweet cheats – especially, if you’re still young and impressionable.

Further reading