Artificial sweeteners have gained immense popularity in the era of the obesity epidemic. In many products, they replaced sugar and were to be an ideal solution for people who are slimming and caring for their figure - they allowed you to feel the pleasure of eating sweet products without worrying about calories. However, on the basis of many years of analysis, it has been shown that in the long term, artificial sweeteners contribute to an increase in body weight, not to a decrease in it, affect the appetite and lead to an increased consumption of calories from food.

Saccharin - the oldest artificial sweetener - was discovered in 1879. For decades, it was only available to diabetics. The times of great sugar shortages and the increased popularity of saccharin fell during the Second World War. The later fashion for a very slim figure contributed to its more and more frequent use. Women willingly changed their caloric sugar into a calorie-free sweetener.

Other popular sweeteners include cyclamate (synthesized in 1937),aspartame(1965),acesulfame K(1967 .) and sucralose (1979). The US Food and Drug Administration considers all sweeteners safe for he alth. Specific carcinogenicity studies have been carried out on some substances, and cyclamate has been withdrawn from the market for 30 years. However, the allegations of carcinogenicity have been countered as a result of research analysis and now artificial sweeteners are considered harmless to he alth in this respect.

The number of products containing artificial sweeteners continues to grow. Several decades ago, they were targeted at diabetics and people who need to control their blood sugar levels. Currently, the "light" and "sugar free" products are available everywhere and for everyone.

In the United States, over 6,000 new sweeteners were introduced to the market between 1999 and 2004. They are most often found in carbonated drinks in the "light" version, but also in fruit drinks and nectars, yoghurts, sweets, and even baby food.

Caring for a slim figure, we often replace sugar in hot drinks with a sweetener tablet.

Do artificial sweeteners help you lose weight?

Low-calorie or calorie-free artificial sweeteners rose in popularity as sugar was hailed as a major culprit in the obesity epidemic in the developed world.They have replaced sugar and its other high-calorie counterparts in ready-made foods and in many kitchens.

Their main advantage is the ability to limit the calories consumed with the diet without giving up their sweet taste. Replacing sugar with sweeteners was to contribute to weight loss in society and reduce the risk of diseases related to overweight and obesity.

Following the recommendation of sweeteners as a fight against obesity, the consumption of "light" soda drinks has risen from 3 percent in 1965 to 20 percent today.

Overuse of artificial sweeteners may promote weight gain.

It turns out, however, that in the long termconsuming artificial sweeteners is not conducive to losing excess body weight, and may even contribute to weight gain . Such conclusions were drawn on the basis of large-scale epidemiological studies.

Examples of research on the effect of artificial sweeteners on body weight

  • The San Antonio Heart Study in the 1980s examined 3,682 adults. The observation lasted from 7 to 8 years. It was found that people who drank beverages containing artificial sweeteners had a greater increase inBMI(body mass index) compared with baseline BMI measured at the start of the study than in those who did not drink such beverages . BMI increased on average by 1.01 kg / m2in the group without consuming sweeteners and by 1.78 kg / m2in the group consuming sweeteners.

  • In the 1980s, the American Cancer Society conducted an annual survey of 78,694 women of similar age, ethnicity, and material status. It has been shown that women who regularly consumed artificial sweeteners increased body weight by an average of 7.1 percent, and women who did not use sweeteners increased body weight by 2.7 percent.

  • In 2006, a 10-year study on 2,371 girls was published. They were 9 years old at the start of the study. Drinking sodas, both sweetened with sugar and artificial sweeteners, has been shown to be associated with an increase in daily caloric intake.

  • A 25-year study published in 2005 found that drinking beverages with artificial sweeteners increases your risk of obesity more than drinking sugar-sweetened beverages. The sweetener group was 65 percent more likely to be overweight and 41 percent more likely to be obese.

  • An analysis by scientists from the National He alth and Nutrition Examination Survey of 1999-2010 found that overweight people who drink sweetened beverages consume a similar amount of calories to overweight people who drink sweetened beveragessugar. This means that the sweetener group eats more solid foods, both in the form of meals and snacks.

How do artificial sweeteners affect your appetite?

It turns out that "sweetness without consequences" does not exist. With the growing popularity of artificial sweeteners, the belief that they are an ideal sugar substitute has spread - it allows you to experience the pleasure of sweet taste without the calories that are inherent in sugar.

Many years of research have shown, however, that sweeteners have a strong effect on the body. Artificial sweeteners, found in large amounts especially in carbonated drinks, are responsible for greater activation of the brain's reward center than sugar.

It is dangerous for the control of energy intake because one of the mechanisms influencing the amount of food consumed is the action of the reward center. This center is stimulated by the sweet taste of food, and then reacts to the body's energy supply.

In the case of sweeteners, sensors in the brain are stimulated, but no energy appears, which stimulates us to continue eating. The measure of energy consumption and the control of appetite is thus distorted by sweeteners.

Artificial sweeteners activate the brain's reward center more strongly than sugar.

Studies have shown that the consumption of sweet-tasting foods affects the appetite, whether the flavor comes from sugar or a sweetener.

Water sweetened with aspartame caused an increased subjective feeling of hunger in he althy adult men of normal body weight, and also - unlike water with glucose and pure water - an increased feeling of hunger.

The earlier administration of glucose decreased the feeling of pleasure resulting from the consumption of the product with sucrose. Such a phenomenon was not observed with the previous administration of aspartame.

Another study on artificial sweeteners found that consumption of sweeteners resulted in increased motivation to eat and marked more foods on the list of preferred foods.

The phenomenon was tried to explain in a study on rats. The animal model can be even more accurate because it excludes subjective evaluation and voluntary dietary control, important factors related to human studies.

An animal study found that rats fed saccharin had a higher caloric intake and body fat than those fed glucose. In addition, a sweet saccharin meal served before the main course did not reduce consumption of this dish.

Showingthe fact that the lack of calories associated with sweet taste can cause compensatory overeating and lead to a positive energy balance.

See the gallery of 9 photos

Artificial sweeteners and metabolism disorders

One recent study investigating the effects of artificial sweeteners on appetite was conducted at the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney. On its basis, it was found that artificial sweeteners cause disturbances inmetabolismand induce a state of hunger in the brain, which in the long term translates into an increase in body weight.

A study found that fruit flies fed on artificial sweeteners ate 30 percent more calories than those on the sugar diet. After excluding sucralose from the diet, caloric intake decreased to values ​​similar to those in the group of sugar-fed flies.

The analysis found that sucralose consumption increased the motivation of flies to eat real sugar. The sensitivity of taste receptors to sweet taste also increased, which resulted in greater pleasure felt after eating sugar.

Dr. Greg Neely's group of fruit flies has identified a network of neurons in the brain that appears to be responsible for the mechanism of the feeling of hunger caused by artificial sweeteners.

Sweeteners disrupt the very ancient relationship betweeninsulin , the taste-related nerve cells and the brain's reward center, which naturally propel the body to seek food in case of energy shortages and nutrients.

The researchers obtained analogous results in an experiment with mice. Artificial sweeteners influenced the activity of an important neurotransmitter: in fruit flies - neuropeptide F, and in mice: neuropeptide Y, which increases hunger in the fasting period.

Humans also have this neurotransmitter, hence the conclusion that sweeteners affect the human brain similarly to research animals.

Summary

Epidemiological studies show the effect of artificial sweeteners on weight gain, not, as might be expected, on weight loss.

Animal studies on appetite control also show that artificial sweeteners are not indifferent to the functioning of the body and can interfere with metabolic processes and signals related to the feeling of hunger and satiety.

Sources: 1. Qing Yang, Gain weight by "going diet?" Artificial sweeteners and the neurobiology of sugar cravings, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 2010, 83 (2), 101-1082. Sara N. Bleich, Julia A. Wolfson, Sienna Vine and Y. Claire Wang,Diet Beverage Consumption and Caloric Intake Among US Adults Overall and by Body Weight, American Journal of Public He alth, 2014 3. Bret Stetka, How Artificial Sweeteners May Cause Us to Eat More, Scientific American, 07/12/2016, https: // www. scientificamerican.com/article/how-artificial-sweeteners-may-cause-us-to-eat-more/4. How Artificial Sweeteners Confuse Your Body into Storing Fat and Inducing Diabetes, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/12/23/artificial-sweeteners-confuse-body.aspx

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Slimming