Artificial Sweeteners Can Make You Fatter
If you are on a diet, artificial sweeteners seem like a reasonable answer to cutting calories. Using artificial sweeteners instead of real sugar to get the sweet flavors that we crave without the extra calories is a popular answer. New research suggests that the body is not easily tricked, and that artificial sweeteners are not helping weight reduction — this may be why in spite of many low calorie foods we now have to choose from, obesity continues to increase in the population
Scientists at Purdue University studied weight gain and eating habits in lab rats who ate food containing either low calorie saccharin or regular sugar. The report, in Behavioral Neuroscience, shows some unexpected results:Rats fed with saccharin sweetened yogurt over a 14 day period ate more calories and gained more weight — i.e. fat — than the rats eating yogurt flavored with regular sugar. Scientists at Purdue University in 2004 reported that animals consuming saccharin-sweetened foods ate more than animals eating high-calorie, sugar sweetened foods. Scientists believe this is further evidence that how we eat may depend on unconscious, conditioned responses to food that we have limited control over.
Normally, sweet foods contain many calories. If an animal eats a saccharin-flavored food with no calories the animal tends to eat more and gain more weight, the new study shows. The physiological response that animals given artificial sweeteners had to their food compared to animals eating normal high-calorie sweetened foods was examined. The sugar-fed rats, for example, had an increase in body temperature. The saccharin-fed rats, showed no such increase in body temperature. The artificial sweetener group had a different anticipatory response. The metabolism of the artificial sweetener rats don’t anticipate as many calories arriving so the net result is a slower metabolism that stores fat, rather than burning, extra calories.
It appears that regular sugar consumed in smaller amounts would be better for weight loss than lots of low calorie artificially sweetened foods.
