Artificial Sweeteners
When I went to the diabetes clinic the nutritionist told me that if I wanted to drink soda, it should be diet soda. Most use aspartame as the sweetener. I drank gallons of diet soda for years but had always been told it is bad for you, so research time.
Is it safe?
The FDA deems Aspartame as “fit for human consumption“. Numerous studies conclude that it would take the equivalent of about 18 cans of diet soda a day before you would experience adverse effects from it. Other artificial sweeteners that have been previously approved by the FDA were later deemed unsafe (Sweet’N Low and Sucaryl) so FDA approval in my opinion doesn’t make it safe or nutritious. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has sited many studies showing problems with aspartame.
Artificial food products may be safe enough to consume but there are no real studies to show if there are long term effects. From personal experience I found diet soda addictive and it didn’t take 18 cans a day to get tremors, heart palpitations and clouded thinking. When I went more than a day without drinking it I had headaches. In moderate amounts, I am sure you wouldn’t experience these symptoms. I drank as much as 6 cans in a day. One can per day is believed to cause type 2 diabetes and weight gain. This article has more information on it.
Do artificial sweeteners help you lose weight?
It is very easy to find many articles on how bad artificial sweeteners in general are for you. The one thing that seems to be undeniable though is that artificially sweetened products (diet products) have the exact opposite effect of helping lose weight. It seems they fool the brain into thinking that you just ate something sweet but there is nothing there so your body tells your brain to eat something. It makes you hungry.
I have read enough that “fit for human consumption” is not a good enough recommendation for me to eat it. My experiences with aspartame along with the research I have done have led me to believe that it was a key reason for my development of type 2 diabetes. I have thankfully been able to kick my diet soda habit and do not eat anything with artificial sweeteners anymore.
Artificial sweeteners & disease
This Globe and mail article talks about the mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners and type 2 diabetes are linked. There also seems to no longer be any argument that weight gain and artificial sweeteners are linked. If you do a search for a link between artificial sweeteners and disease you will find an endless number of articles. My own experience has been enough for me to believe it but as always you should use your own judgement.