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Are Hidden Sweeteners Sabotaging Your Fat Loss? |The Truth About Sweeteners and Insulin

Myprotein
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In case you are unaware, there is a constant raging debate regarding the use of sweeteners (sugar substitutes) and their influence on weight gain/ loss and their link to issues such as obesity and diabetes.

sweeteners and insulin resistance

On one side the use of sweeteners is suggested to be a calorie-free alternative to sugar (which the media has now latched upon to following the “revelations” that fat is not the terrible nutritional devil many thought it was).

On the other side, the effect of sweeteners on the release of insulin makes us consider whether these substitutes which aim to assist weight loss, actually do the opposite and promote weight gain!

In this article we will aim to dispel some of these myths and give clarity to an area which is downright confusing!

Sugar vs Sweetener

As a society, we love sugar! Consumption of added sugars in the US has grown by 20% in the past few decades (1.)

It’s not just in our fizzy drinks, and our sweets and our cakes; but it is in all of the meals which pack the supermarket shelfs, in bottle sauces and in breakfast cereals. Even snacking on fruit comes into question due to high contents of fruit sugar!

hidden sugars

...So much so that the area of health and nutrition science have for decades focused on alternatives to its use in our nutrition plans.

High amounts of table sugar in our diets have been found to cause weight gain (2). Such high sugar diets have also been found to have negative effects on our bodies’ tolerance to glucose (3).

Diets high in fructose (sugars found in fruit) have also been shown to increase insulin sensitivity, fatty accumulation around your organs and cellular fat tissue collection (4-5).

Why Insulin Sensitivity Can Make You Gain Weight... 

Well... let's just say - when you eat carbohydrates the digestive system breaks them down chemically. This leaves a greater amount of saccharides (simple sugars such as glucose and fructose) and disaccharides (large sugar molecules such as sucrose and lactose) in your blood.

The body reacts to higher sugar amounts in your blood by asking the pancreas to release a specific hormone, insulin, which prompts our organs (e.g. the liver and muscle cells) to pull in the sugars to use for energy (needed for all that training!)

insulin resistance energy

Just as our bodies can become accustomed to a certain amount of coffee or alcohol, the same can be said for consuming carbohydrates.

If there is a regular supply of sugar into our bloodstream then the resulting release of insulin has less and less of an effect on our bodies to pull the sugars into our tissues for fuel. We then need to release more insulin for the same effect, and if left untracked, this can lead to us being unable to use our glycogen (stored sugar) stores appropriately and we gain weight - to put it simply...

Hidden Sugar Substitutes

Let's be honest - we live in world where many of the population want to satisfy their sweet tooth, in which a lot of time and money has been spent by companies in developing artificial sweeteners which are calorie free. (those lovely words!)

Unfortunately, it has been theorised that sweeteners ALSO have a detrimental effect on insulin sensitivity!

sugar and sweetener

It is thought that approximately 15% of the US population consume these types of “non-nutritive” sweeteners regularly (6). The most commonly known “non-nutritive” sweeteners are:

? Aspartame* ? Sucralose* ? Acesulfame K (acesulfame potassium)* ? Neotame* ? Saccharin* ? Stevia

*These are all approved by the US Food & Drug Administration for use in foods and beverages for public purchase and consumption.

There are also sugar alcohols which are termed “nutritive” sweeteners (such as glycerol) which are directly created from sugar but do not have the same high calorie energy values than sugars...

"I Thought Sweeteners Would Help Weight Loss?"

Studies suggest the use of some of the above low calorie sugar alternatives can actually ASSIST weight management! For example:

Aspartame has been shown to:

? Reduce food intake

? Assist control of body weight (7)

However, most review recommendations make conclusions which suggest that there are no official recommendations for their use for this purpose (8).

There are even studies which suggest the contrary and that aspartame may stimulate appetite leading to weight gain (9-10)... the science of it is literally a minefield!

fat loss

What about our trusty Stevia?

Whilst the use of Stevia is not FDA approved in the US, it is seen stocked on the shelves of most supermarkets in the UK. This sugar substitute is slightly different from other artificial sweeteners in that it is a natural extract from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant.

SO...Will Sweeteners Promote Weight Gain Or Not?

Artificial sweeteners can trigger a range of reactions causing insulin to be released, even when a sugar is not consumed. As such this insulin release and subsequent glucose storage leads us to weight gain and potentially on the brink of diseases such as diabetes.

weight loss

This may be also supported in argument by studies which identify that those whodrink more diet soda gain more weight than those who do not. Although this is also debated as it may be more due to alterations in your psychological behaviour and the activation of sweet taste cravings by such beverages (11).

Interestingly, despite the evidence already demonstrated, in healthy human subjects such changes in blood insulin levels are not clearly apparent. 

Let's just take a closer look at two of the most popular sweeteners, mainly labelled as...

Stevia VS Aspartame[/su_heading]

Recent studies show that consumption of stevia and aspartame both show reduced glucose and insulin blood levels comparedto sugar (8). This study measured effect of pre-meal preloading with stevia, aspartame and sucrose to assess whether each substance consumed prior to meals would alter the subsequent food intake during the day, appetite satiation or the level of insulin/ glucose released.

stevia sweetener

Their results indicate that consumption of stevia and aspartame maintains the degree of “fullness” after eating (compared to a meal plan including carbohydrate) with a reduced effect on insulin and glucose levels!

They also showed that reduced calorie intake by use of sweeteners in one meal, had no negative effect on the degree of calories consumed later in the day, supporting the conclusions of previous studies (12-13).

Additionally, they found that Stevia had a greater benefit than aspartame and that both substances caused the food to taste better (sweeter) than just sugar. Sweeteners are generally 300-800 times sweeter than sucrose (14).

Take home message

Answering whether artificial sweeteners cause detrimental effects on insulin sensitivity and weight gain is difficult for a couple of reasons.

1) A lot of the scientific studies contradict each other2) There are lots of different studies examining different things in different types of sweeteners3) What happens in laboratory and animal experiments doesn’t not entirely seem to correlate with what actually happens when humans ingest these substances.

fizzy drinks sweeteners

However, it seems that generally most people will not see a significant insulin release by consuming artificially sweetened products. However, if you are obese or have type II diabetes you may be more susceptible to weight gain from these products.

Use of sweeteners in moderation should be fine, and is no excuse for reverting to full sugar products!

1. Wells HF & Buzby JC. (2008). Dietary assessment of major trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970–2005 (Rep. No. 33). Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture.

2. Laville M & Nazare JA. (2009). Diabetes, insulin resistance and sugars. ObesityResearch, 10(Suppl. 1), 24–33.

3. Cohen AM., Teitelbaum A, Balogh M & Groen JJ. (1966). Effect of interchanging bread and sucrose as main source of carbohydrate in a low fat diet on the glucose tolerance curve of healthy volunteer subjects. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 19, 59–62.

4. Le KA, Ith M, Kreis R, Faeh D, Bortolotti M, Tran C et al. (2009). Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ectopic lipid deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type 2 diabetes. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(6), 1760–1765.

5. Stanhope KL, Schwarz JM, Keim NJ, Griffen SC, Bremer AA & Graham JL. (2009). Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/ obese humans. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 119, 1322–1334.

6. Mattes RD & Popkin BM. (2009). Non-nutritive sweetener consumption in humans: Effects on appetite and food intake and their putative mechanisms. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89, 1–14.

7. De la Hunty A, Gibson S, & Ashwell M. (2006). A review of the effectiveness of aspartame in helping with weight control. Nutrition Bulletin, 31, 115–12

8. Anton SD, Martin CK, Han H, Coulon S, Cefalu WT, Geiselman P, Williamson DA. (2010). Effects of stevia, aspartame, and sucrose on food intake, satiety, and postprandial glucose and insulin levels. Appetite. 55(1):37-43.

9. Blundell JE & Hill AJ. (1986). Paradoxical effects of an intense sweetener (aspartame) on appetite. Lancet, 1, 1092–1093.

10. Swithers SE & Davidson TL. (2008). A role for sweet taste. Calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behavioral Neuroscience, 122, 161–173.

11. Hill SE, Prokosch ML, Morin A, Rodeheffer CD. (2014). The effect of non-caloric sweeteners on cognition, choice, and post-consumption satisfaction. Appetite, 83:82-8.

12. Levitsky D. (2001). Macronutrient intake and the control of body weight. In A. Coulston, C. Rock, & E. Monsen (Eds.), Nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease (pp. 499–516). Sand Diego: Academic Press.

13. Rolls BJ, Hetherington M, & Laster LJ. (1988). Comparison of the effects of aspartame and sucrose on appetite and food intake. Appetite, 11(Suppl. 1), 62–67.

 

 

Our articles should be used for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to be taken as medical advice. If you're concerned, consult a health professional before taking dietary supplements or introducing any major changes to your diet.

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