The truth about sugar subsitutes

icemaiden17_uk

Morning all!! I got sent this via email this morning and it basically told me things that I already know from my Chemistry background but I thought I would share it to see what you all think!! Have fun! But keep the comments clean!!

Dear Laura,

Everyone thinks that sugar is a nutrition baddie. Well sometimes the replacements are even worse!

Most artificial sweeteners – eg: NutraSweet and Equal – are made of a chemical called aspartame. It took many years for these products to come to market because of the bad side effects. The United States Federal Drug Administrations lists some of the side effects of aspartame to be: memory loss, nerve cell damage, migraines, reproductive disorders, pain lesions, joint pain, hair loss, food cravings and weight gain.

Sweet & Lo contains saccharin, a coal-tar compound affiliated with cancer that is illegal in many countries. Splenda which is “derived from real sugar” is made by chlorinating sugar, changing it to sucralose. Each molecule of sucralose contains three atoms of chlorine which makes it 600 times sweeter than a natural molecule of sugar which contains no chlorine.

And there is even worse news: studies have consistently shown that artificial sweeteners actually promote weight gain. A sweet taste induces an insulin response which causes blood sugar to be stored in tissues and fat. But artificial sweeteners do not actually increase blood sugars, so you actually can become hypoglycemic which leads to an increase in food intake.

islandjumper

Thank you for posting this....I've been saying this stuff for years but people have stopped listening to me and chew their sugar free gum and drink their diet sodas anyway. Did you know aspartame has close to 100 known side effects - one of which being death! and was rejected by the FDA the first several times through, and only passed when leadership changed. Now it's in everything!

becka63

I take medication that contains aspartame!!

icemaiden17_uk

If it is prescribed don't worry too much but it may be an idea to speak to your doctor about an alternative that doesn't contain it! The issue I have with it is that it is in loads of soft drinks! Esspecially the diet ones!! That is why I have never really drunk them! Asparteme is converted into fomaldihide (can't spell) in you digestive system so it embalms you from the inside! Not cool!!

UponThisRock

Diarrhea
Face flushing
Fatigue
Sleeping problems
Nausea
Kidney stone
Skin rashes
Mouth ulcers
Bloating
Foot cramps
Joint pains
Increase the stomach acid
Increase urination
PMS
Headache
Insomnia
Hypoglycaemia


^^^symptoms of vitamin c overdose

tnrunningnurse

Excellent post. I do not do artificial sweetners at all.

icemaiden17_uk

Diarrhea
Face flushing
Fatigue
Sleeping problems
Nausea
Kidney stone
Skin rashes
Mouth ulcers
Bloating
Foot cramps
Joint pains
Increase the stomach acid
Increase urination
PMS
Headache
Insomnia
Hypoglycaemia


^^^symptoms of vitamin c overdose

Do you know how much Vitamin C you would have to injest to suffer and overdose? The amount is huge! The thing we are talking about take less than half that amount!

Dexy_

Diarrhea
Face flushing
Fatigue
Sleeping problems
Nausea
Kidney stone
Skin rashes
Mouth ulcers
Bloating
Foot cramps
Joint pains
Increase the stomach acid
Increase urination
PMS
Headache
Insomnia
Hypoglycaemia


^^^symptoms of vitamin c overdose

Do you know how much Vitamin C you would have to injest to suffer and overdose? The amount is huge! The thing we are talking about take less than half that amount!

I think his point was that you'd probably have to binge on artificial sweeteners in order to get the affects you've posted.

blueham5

But sweetener is my best friend

singledj

Excellent post. I do not do artificial sweetners at all.

^^ Me either. I wish they would outlaw aspartame all together. I would much rather eat a little bit of real sugar than polute my body with that artificial crap.

coquette87

"Study reaffirms safety of aspartame

By Deborah Halber
News Office

Even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being, a visiting scientist at MIT reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week.

"We conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population," said Paul A. Spiers, visiting scientist in the Clinical Research Center (CRC).

Mood, aggression and selected cognitive functions were tested during a study in which some of the subjects consumed doses of aspartame nearly 20 times the daily amount taken by the vast majority of the general population.

During a four-month period, subjects received either aspartame, sugar or a placebo and underwent physical and psychological testing. Some subjects were given doses of up to 45 milligrams per kilogram of body weight--the equivalent of 17 to 24 12-ounce diet beverages for males and 14 to 19 12-ounce drinks for females."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050207034647/http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/sep16/aspartame.html

icemaiden17_uk

But my point was that these sweetners are in everything and a lot of people are binging on them every day! It is a cumulative effect that has very bad results in much smaller doses than the example he used. That was the point I was making!

LabRat529

AND.... for every "truth" about sugar substitutes being harmful or bad, there's an equal number of "truths" about sugar substitutes being harmless.

Soooo.... I think it would be AWESOME if people were LESS inclined to CHERRY PICK their "truths".

And I think it would be even AWESOMER if fewer people presented scientific hypotheses as "truth" when they are in fact just one of many competing hypotheses that may or may not hold true over the next 25 years of scientific testing.

I choose to drink sugar substitutes. I've dug through pub-med rather extensively on the issue. In my personal opinion, the benefits (yummy, refreshing beverage and/or stick of gum with few calories) far outweigh the possible, but disputable "negative consequences".

But that is my personal choice. If you choose not to partake because you're concerned about the possible risks, great! But, you know, it'd be really cool if people didn't try and present something as fact when it's not fact just to support their choice.

SammyPacks

I use truvia... ._. and I'm still going to use it.

FearAnLoathing

Excellent post. I do not do artificial sweetners at all.

^^ Me either. I wish they would outlaw aspartame all together. I would much rather eat a little bit of real sugar than polute my body with that artificial crap.

So then YOU dont usde it,but dont tell the rest of us that are not falling for the scare tactics what to do with our bodies

Nopedotjpeg

Scare Mongers gonna scare monger.

icemaiden17_uk

This is turning into an interesting debate! I have to state that my personal view is that I dislike these sugar substitues. This is my own choice and I do not force it on anyone else. I started this post to get peoples thoughts on something that was emailed to me which I did state on my original post. For every theory there is another contradicting it and I just wanted to see what others thought about the information I posted. I in no way sugested that it was scientific fact so please be aware of this when posting. I have no wish for this to turn into a free for all bashing anyone!

FearAnLoathing

I like how people are always crying about the awful chemicals,yet probobly use deoderant,makeup,hair dye,toothpaste all get absorbed into your body

AZKristi

Asparteme is converted into fomaldihide (can't spell) in you digestive system so it embalms you from the inside! Not cool!!

Please let me preface this post by saying that I do not advocate the use of artificial sweeteners or artificial much of anything.

Regardless, low levels of formaldehyde in will certainly not embalm you from the inside out. Formaldehyde is something that occurs naturally in the human body and is actually necessary for human life. See the following quote from the Philadelphia Children's Hospital website "formaldehyde is essential in human metabolism and is required for the synthesis of DNA and amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Therefore, all humans have detectable quantities of natural formaldehyde in their circulation (about 2.5 ug of formaldehyde per ml of blood).

This doesn't mean you should intentionally increase your exposure, it just means that a little bit of formaldehyde is actually a good, normal part of your biochemistry.

gp79

The paper which the OP's 'email' came from states at the bottom...

But most of the studies have limitations such as effects shown only in animals not in human, small sample size, high doses, statistically non-significant or borderline significant, etc.

I'm not defending artificial sweeteners, I'm just saying...Alarmist.

If you want to read the whole thing, here's the link. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198517/?tool=pubmed

icemaiden17_uk

"Study reaffirms safety of aspartame

By Deborah Halber
News Office

Even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being, a visiting scientist at MIT reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week.

"We conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population," said Paul A. Spiers, visiting scientist in the Clinical Research Center (CRC).

Mood, aggression and selected cognitive functions were tested during a study in which some of the subjects consumed doses of aspartame nearly 20 times the daily amount taken by the vast majority of the general population.

During a four-month period, subjects received either aspartame, sugar or a placebo and underwent physical and psychological testing. Some subjects were given doses of up to 45 milligrams per kilogram of body weight--the equivalent of 17 to 24 12-ounce diet beverages for males and 14 to 19 12-ounce drinks for females."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050207034647/http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/sep16/aspartame.html

An old article but very interesting! Thank you for posting this!!