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Academic article on artificial sugar

Avidkeo
Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
in Debate Club
Can anyone access the actual article on this

Eloi Chazelas, Charlotte Debras, Bernard Srour, Léopold K. Fezeu, Chantal Julia, Serge Hercberg, Mélanie Deschasaux, Mathilde Touvier. Sugary Drinks, Artificially-Sweetened Beverages, and Cardiovascular Disease in the NutriNet-Santé Cohort. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2020; 76 (18): 2175 DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2020.08.075

Though I see it's a letter, not an actual article...

Replies

  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
    The doit didn't work for me but the title brought me to Google Scholar with a PDF download.

    Only a super short abstract.

    If you're looking for the full study and you're alum at a post-secondary institution, then check in with the librarian. They may be able to get you free access to the full version (assuming there's a cost attached)
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    Thanks. From my research, I think that's it lol. It's made headlines the last few days and I prefer to read the actual article, not the media hype.

    So many questions!

    I suspect that the reason is that people compensated, like they didn't just swap the sugary drink for the artificial sweetened version, but also added something extra because of the feel good factor of swapping. So it's not the artificial sweetener causing the issues, but the surrounding food choices. Sadly as this isn't actually a full article, there is no way to know.
  • cremorna1
    cremorna1 Posts: 133 Member
    edited October 2020
    I can see a slightly longer abstract. Both sugary and artificially sweetened drinks have similar risk of disease. I don't think they have data on everything the subjects eat (over 100,000 subjects over 10 years). They suggest the explanation of "metabolic effects through gut micro-biota perturbation and body weight gain", but they cannot assess causality.

    Edit: You could just email the corresponding author and ask for the study. It's worth a shot.
  • threewins
    threewins Posts: 1,455 Member
    If you want an academic paper you ask on twitter with the hashtag #icanhaspdf giving the paper name, hopefully someone replies. After you get it you delete all tweets which is why there are so few tweets with that hashtag.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited October 2020
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Obv I haven't read the article but my experience with artificial sweeteners is that they mess with my taste buds or flavor preferences. Back in the day when I ate a lot of really sweet things (whether sugared or artificially sweetened) my flavor preferences were not happy unless I had really sweet things. I HAD to have it.

    When I quit eating that stuff on a regular basis my entire taste preferences changed. Now a bowl of blueberries tastes so sweet. A carrot or potato - I can taste the sweetness.

    I believe eating really sweet things (regardless of whether it's artificial) just leads to eating sweet things and craving sweet things. Life for me is much easier and I eat a far more balanced plan in general when I don't have those cravings and when the sweetest thing I might eat all day is a banana.

    People differ, I'm sure, but this isn't my experience. For most of my life I've rarely eaten sweet things and certainly don't crave them -- when I was getting fat I rarely had any dessert or sweet snack type food -- but for large parts of those times I drank diet soda pretty regularly. (For a period of time when losing I had ice cream after dinner about 3 times a week, 200 cals or so, and then I wasn't drinking diet soda and it didn't affect what I wanted otherwise, but since then I've lost my sweet tooth mostly and rarely have dessert.)

    I drink diet soda now occasionally, but generally otherwise prefer savory foods to sweet and don't normally have sweet foods at all. (I've had lots of leftover Halloween candy since last Halloween and it hasn't crossed my mind to eat it, as that type of sweets doesn't appeal to me, and I generally don't think to buy dessert type foods when ordering from the grocery store.)

    Sweet foods taste sweet to me, whether or not I drink diet soda, and always have. I've always enjoyed fruits and found them sweet, and also enjoyed veg.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    I usually have a cup of coffee or tea with Splenda each day, as well as a diet soda. Fruit still tastes incredibly sweet to me (I had some grapes with lunch, for example, and they were almost too sweet) and I have no trouble picking up the sweetness in foods like carrots. I only crave candy rarely and I'd almost always rather spend my calories on savory foods rather than dessert.

    I think this is one of those things that could be important for an individual, but isn't a general rule.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    edited October 2020
    cmriverside wrote: »
    Obv I haven't read the article but my experience with artificial sweeteners is that they mess with my taste buds or flavor preferences. Back in the day when I ate a lot of really sweet things (whether sugared or artificially sweetened) my flavor preferences were not happy unless I had really sweet things. I HAD to have it.

    When I quit eating that stuff on a regular basis my entire taste preferences changed. Now a bowl of blueberries tastes so sweet. A carrot or potato - I can taste the sweetness.

    I believe eating really sweet things (regardless of whether it's artificial) just leads to eating sweet things and craving sweet things. Life for me is much easier and I eat a far more balanced plan in general when I don't have those cravings and when the sweetest thing I might eat all day is a banana.

    Well this is a lovely anecdote, if you actually read the article, it is looking at cardiovascular disease and if it is related to sugary drinks. They found those who drink artificially sweetened drinks were as likely to get CVD as someone who drinks beverages sweetened with sugar, compared with those who didn't drink either.

    It's an interesting finding, but I suspect there is more to the story. I'd want to know the average weight of people in each group for example.

    But it doesn't look like this is a proper article, it's simply a letter with an abstract atm. Hopefully the full article comes out.

    PS my anecdote, I have no problem eating sweet things and keeping my cravings under control. I love sugary food. Its my kick. I eat chocolate every day and have a diet Coke almost every day. I have lost 45lb and kept it off for 3 years.

    See anecdotes are fun!
  • MaltedTea
    MaltedTea Posts: 6,286 Member
    threewins wrote: »
    If you want an academic paper you ask on twitter with the hashtag #icanhaspdf giving the paper name, hopefully someone replies. After you get it you delete all tweets which is why there are so few tweets with that hashtag.

    Not to get on a high horse or soapbox (mainly because there is some acknowledged debate on this topic, sometimes by the writer themselves) but this can be considered a copyright infringement/violation.

    I'd tread lightly with this approach.
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    MaltedTea wrote: »
    threewins wrote: »
    If you want an academic paper you ask on twitter with the hashtag #icanhaspdf giving the paper name, hopefully someone replies. After you get it you delete all tweets which is why there are so few tweets with that hashtag.

    Not to get on a high horse or soapbox (mainly because there is some acknowledged debate on this topic, sometimes by the writer themselves) but this can be considered a copyright infringement/violation.

    I'd tread lightly with this approach.

    Yeah there is a good reason why they keep deleting the requests. Not going down that path.
  • AndreaTamira
    AndreaTamira Posts: 272 Member
    edited October 2020
    cmriverside wrote: »

    When I quit eating that stuff on a regular basis my entire taste preferences changed. Now a bowl of blueberries tastes so sweet. A carrot or potato - I can taste the sweetness.

    I believe eating really sweet things (regardless of whether it's artificial) just leads to eating sweet things and craving sweet things. Life for me is much easier and I eat a far more balanced plan in general when I don't have those cravings and when the sweetest thing I might eat all day is a banana.

    Interesting experience you describe.

    I eat baked sweet stuff and things sweetened with natural sugar-free sweetener (stevia-based, mostly). I love sweet stuff.

    And I always thought fruit was very sweet, carrots taste sweet to me, too. As do red and yellow capsicum and some other vegetables.

    I dont especially crave sweet things. I love sweet stuff, but I never feel like I need it if that makes sense. (I generally also am very good with rationing any sweets I buy... now, unhealthy savory foods that come in large packages, like pizza? Uhm... yeah, working on that ...)

  • mariomicro
    mariomicro Posts: 74 Member
    Is this the one you're looking for:

    https://www.jacc.org/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.08.075

  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,211 Member
    mariomicro wrote: »
    Is this the one you're looking for:

    https://www.jacc.org/doi/pdf/10.1016/j.jacc.2020.08.075

    Thanks. And yep that confirmed that it's not robust. For one, all the results touch the 1 line, and the confidence intervals are huge. Also, when you look at the numbers there was about 1% of participants who had a CV event while in the study, so pretty much the number you would expect.
  • ElioraFR
    ElioraFR Posts: 91 Member
    edited November 2020
    My personal experience is that eating sweet foods, example cookies, candy will curb my fondness for fruit and vegetables. Weirdly enough, I admit it, artificial sweeteners do the same; they leave a strange taste in my mouth and if I drink a Diet Coke before a meal the food seems tasteless to me.

    I think people differ in their reaction to sweets, as exemplified on this thread. 🍦🧁🥧🍰🎂🍪🍩🍫🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍓🍇🍉🍌🍑🍒🥝
  • tictoerest
    tictoerest Posts: 9 Member
    threewins wrote: »
    If you want an academic paper you ask on twitter with the hashtag #icanhaspdf giving the paper name, hopefully someone replies. After you get it you delete all tweets which is why there are so few tweets with that hashtag.

    icanhas lol
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited November 2020
    deadenddiva wrote: »
    My problem with artificial sweeteners is that ever since I had a frightful case of Covid-19 (back in February! ) artificial sweeteners taste metallic, they leave me with a burning sensation in my mouth, and they leave a funky feeling on my tongue, like the gritty "fuzz" on figs or peaches, but stronger.

    Interestingly, I've ALWAYS had this happen with the big artificial sweeteners. (Although what you are describing sounds more intense than what I get - it's more YUCK than burning, etc.)

    Maybe Covid flipped a switch for you that has always been on for me?

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