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The artificial sweetener pitfall that packs on pounds and leads to disease
Isn’t it funny how when big corporations start selling something that’s supposedly good for your health, it so often turns out to be far worse for you than your original problem?
Well, that’s exactly the case when it comes to artificial sweeteners.
Yup, adding those sweeteners to food and drinks to help people lose weight has grown to a $2.2 billion industry.
Yet, according to a new review of study after study on the sweeteners, if you drop products with them into your grocery basket on a regular basis in order to drop a few pounds, you could be doing some serious damage to your health (while getting no closer to your original goal of weight loss).
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Soaring popularity leads to serious health consequences
Researchers from the University of South Australia were concerned about the huge rise in the popularity of artificial sweeteners over the past two decades.
According to the team, there has been a whopping 200 percent increase in the use of low-calorie sweeteners among children and a 54 percent increase among adults in the past 20 years.
Are you ready to hear what the researchers found? Well, hold on to your hat!
Despite controlled clinical trials that are touted as showing that the sweeteners do lead to weight loss, in the real world, things are a bit different.
In fact, a study of 5,158 adults over a seven-year period found that people who consumed large quantities of artificial sweeteners actually gained more weight than non-users — the exact opposite of what you’re going for when you choose to use them.
But, how could that be? If they are truly low-cal, why would you gain weight?
“Consumers of artificial sweeteners do not reduce their overall intake of sugar. They use both sugar and low-calorie sweeteners and may psychologically feel they can indulge in their favorite foods,” says lead author of the study, Professor Peter Clifton.
And, that’s not all.
The sweeteners have also been found to cause negative changes to your gut bacteria (or microbiome), which in and of itself can lead to weight gain and increase your risk of type 2 diabetes.
If that not enough to get you to give up artificial sweeteners for good, you should know that artificially sweetened beverages have also been linked with an increased risk of death, heart disease, stroke, and dementia.
Related: 7 food additives to always avoid
Yup, not so sweet after all.
“A better option than low-calorie sweeteners is to stick to a healthy diet, which includes plenty of whole grains, dairy, seafood, legumes, vegetables and fruits, and plain water,” Professor Clifton says.
A sweeter, healthier option
But, if plain water doesn’t work for you, don’t despair…
You can go sweet without turning to sugar or those artificial sweeteners that wreak so much havoc on your health by using stevia instead.
Stevia gives you all of the sweet taste you’re looking for with none of the calories or chemicals in artificial sweeteners. In fact, it’s all-natural and comes from the stevia leaf.
Only use 100 percent pure stevia with no fillers, being especially careful to avoid erythritol.
You can use plain stevia or even try flavors, like coconut, hazelnut, root beer, peach and more.
I use them in my coffee and to add some fun flavor to my water throughout the day, without adding extra calories.
So, start kicking the artificial sweetener habit starting today to lower your risk of everything from weight gain and diabetes to heart disease, stroke, and dementia.
Sources:
By Dr. Adria Schmedthorst
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