Do no-cal sweeteners really make you crave sugar?

Nedra19455
Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have heard this from my MIL, but I don't know if it's true. I don't buy soda at the store, but if I am at a restaurant or a party, my beverage of choice is a Coke Zero. I have never noticed any particular cravings for sugary foods afterwards, but I am curious as to why it would cause them, if this is true. And is it that it causes you to crave sugar specifically? Or just carbs in general? Tell me everything you know! Would it have the same effect if it is "natural"? Like Nectress or Stevia?

I have been considering subbing out the sugar in my baked goods for Splenda, but I don't want to make my friends go on sugar binges because of eating my cookies!

Anyone have links to the research behind this? Or personal experience with sugar cravings when using no-cal sweeteners?

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    Seems to me like that is way to subjective a question to have an objective answer.

    Do no-cal sweeteners make you crave sugar? I imagine that totally depends on the person. Personally I don't experience that but I would believe someone who said that they do experience that. Cravings are very much in your own head.
  • SomeNights246
    SomeNights246 Posts: 807 Member
    Is this anything like the picture floating around that claims diet coke causes obesity? (I'm still waiting for that, btw)

    I use sweeteners. The only time I 'crave' sugar is when I'm on my TOM.

    Correlation =/= causation. Maybe the peope who crave sugar are the ones who craved sugar before they switched to artificial sweeteners? Just as maybe the people who gain weight while drinking diet coke are the people who think they can eat more just because they switched from regular coke to diet?
  • scubasuenc
    scubasuenc Posts: 626 Member
    There are articles claiming to show that artificial sweeteners increase sugar cravings, however I have not found that to be the case for me. I drink diet coke and use artificial sweeteners regularly. I have not found it to increase my sugar cravings.

    I have found that by reducing my total number of carbs and spreading them out through the day, I don't crave carbs or sweet stuff nearly as much as I use too.

    I will continue to use my artificial sweeteners. :smile:
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Personally no. They may do with some people though. Although about the only thing I have with artificial sweetener is Pepsi max. Anything else in cooking etc I use an appropriate sugar so it fits in with my daily goals. I have no problem with sweetners just the taste of things like stevia I find unpleasant so I stick with sugar (normally Coconut palm sugar)
  • AwesomeGuy37
    AwesomeGuy37 Posts: 436 Member
    The only experiments I've seen were on people who were exercising and then one group were given diet drinks, and the other group were given regular drinks. Then a little while later each group were given a spread of food and the ones from the diet drinkers ate a little more. I don't think it really proves anything, but it would be nice to see it done repeatably.
  • rm33064
    rm33064 Posts: 270 Member
    I doubt they do, they don't for me. My doctor told me they are horrible for you health wise though. He says you'd be much better of drinking a regular coke.
  • PennyVonDread
    PennyVonDread Posts: 432 Member
    Maybe. There is no conclusive evidence one way or the other to know for sure.

    We discussed this in my nutrition class a few times. It seems more likely that people who are keen on using them instead of cutting back on sweets are more likely to have a food addiction, making them "crave" but not necessarily as a result of eating alternative sweeteners.

    I guess it's something you should determine for yourself, if you keep track of whether you feel satiated or ravenous after using them.

    I personally don't have a problem with them.
  • Fit_Chef_NE
    Fit_Chef_NE Posts: 110 Member
    I think the theory is that you trigger your sugar receptors (I'm not a scientist or doctor, so whatever registers sweetness in the food in your brain) but don't actually get the sugar. Your brain is often left looking to get the sugar fix it believed it was getting. On the occasion that I eat artificial sweeteners, I don't see the change.

    Once I found out what those sweeteners were actually made of, I lost my appetite for them altogether.
  • Yagisama
    Yagisama Posts: 595 Member
    I use no calorie sweeteners and it never makes me crave sugar. In fact avoiding sweets is not very difficult for me. Fats and Carbohydrates on the other hand? My very own Kryptonites.
  • donjessop
    donjessop Posts: 186
    There are two sides to every story so I'm not sure that you are going to get a definitive answer on this one due to the fact that everyone is different. While there are some studies pointing out that consumption of artificial sweeteners increases the body's desire for calories (not specifically sugar) this seems to be a short term effect and not a long term effect. The biggest problem is that people assume that by drinking something with artificial sweeteners that this will magically absorb the calories of the double Big Mac that they are having at the same time. You still need to eat sensibly, regardless of whether you are drinking milk, fruit juice, Coke Zero or sugar filled Dr. Pepper.

    I, personally, cannot consume artificial sweeteners as I get headaches from most of them so I have substituted my usual Dr. Pepper for "sparkling water". But, if artificial sweeteners have no impact on you and you find that you are still eating sensibly then I see no problem with you putting them in your recipes.
  • Nedra19455
    Nedra19455 Posts: 241 Member
    I doubt they do, they don't for me. My doctor told me they are horrible for you health wise though. He says you'd be much better of drinking a regular coke.

    Did he say why they are bad?
  • KaleeCat
    KaleeCat Posts: 152 Member
    Certain artificial sweeteners make me crave carbs, not necessarily sugar. I don't know about any research behind any of it, but that has been my personal experience.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I used to drink diet coke all the time, stopped, never noticed a decrease in my cravings. But again, I've always craved sweets, so there's nothing new there.

    I avoided artificial sweeteners for a long time though, just because I like the taste of sugar better, but I've been taking stevia lately (and some splenda in a few things) and frankly haven't noticed any difference either since I started using it.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,149 Member
    I don't get the carb/sugar cravings other people talk about. Sugar /honey make me happy while stevia makes me pukey.
  • clockworkgeisha
    clockworkgeisha Posts: 48 Member
    I've been off diet drinks for a week, and I can honestly say that I have not craved carbs the way I did when I was drinking 2/3 pints of diet coke a day. I work in a kitchen and it's hard to resist the lure of the chips, but I've not had any problems doing so in the last week. Just my 2 penn'orth!
  • Simone_King
    Simone_King Posts: 467 Member
    I'm living proof of this. I have dropped all diet drinks that contain aspartame (and other such fake sugar). Once managing to drop all of that I realized on how much my body didn't crave.

    So yes. It does make you crave sugar. More so it makes you crave all the fake sugars even worse.
  • EllieB_5
    EllieB_5 Posts: 247 Member
    Sweeteners don't make me crave sugar, but they often make me thirsty.
  • ravenmiss
    ravenmiss Posts: 384 Member
    I drink diet coke frequently and have done for several years, it doesn't make me crave anything.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member

    Once I found out what those sweeteners were actually made of, I lost my appetite for them altogether.

    ??? What are they "made" of that you find concerning? The ones I'm aware of seem fine to me. Aspartame for example is just a methly-ester of aspartame and phenylalanine, two amino acids common to all proteins.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    I'm living proof of this. I have dropped all diet drinks that contain aspartame (and other such fake sugar). Once managing to drop all of that I realized on how much my body didn't crave.

    So yes. It does make you crave sugar. More so it makes you crave all the fake sugars even worse.

    You are living proof that it is true for you personally. That doesn't make it objectively true.
  • tracydr
    tracydr Posts: 528 Member
    I think the theory is that you trigger your sugar receptors (I'm not a scientist or doctor, so whatever registers sweetness in the food in your brain) but don't actually get the sugar. Your brain is often left looking to get the sugar fix it believed it was getting. On the occasion that I eat artificial sweeteners, I don't see the change.

    Once I found out what those sweeteners were actually made of, I lost my appetite for them altogether.
    Stevia is a natural herb. In fact, I use the whole leaf in my herbal tea mix. It should be very safe.

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