Has anyone heard of the term “health halos?” It is so important that everyone is aware of what this term implies! Read the following article and visit the blog soon for our upcoming series on “healthy” food marketing.
http://bit.ly/bjK3c1
A first lunch idea sent in by an OBB client. Enjoy!
Eggs, celery, onion, mayo , grapes , lettuce and brown rice tortilla. All organic!
Here we are; the final post on artificial sweeteners and the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Why do artificial sweeteners, which contain no calories, lead to weight gain?
In 2008 Purdue University released a study that shocked the artificial sweetener world. The study showed that animals fed artificially sweetened foods and beverages had a harder time regulating their calorie intake and body weight. The animals who were fed foods with the artificial sweeteners ate more and gained more weight than animals who were fed foods sweetened with glucose which is a natural, high-calorie sweetener.
Why did the animals end up eating more when they were given artificially sweet foods? Because, the body knows that sweet foods naturally have a lot of calories. When we eat something sweet and the body doesn’t get the expected amount of calories, it sends out signals for us to eat more calories. So eating artificially sweet foods leads to increased eating.
The body also secretes a hormone called insulin when we eat foods with artificial sweeteners. Insulin takes sugar out of our blood, where it goes after we eat it, and into the cells so it can be either used for energy or stored. Because with artificial sweeteners there isn’t actually any sugar for insulin to move, the cells start to ignore insulin — they become insulin resistant. In the future, this means that more calories will be stored as fat because the insulin resistant cells won’t be accepting as many calories from insulin to use as energy.
These reasons in addition to the changes listed in earlier posts that correspond to individual sweeteners lead to unexpected weight gain. Instead of these sweeteners, you should really drink water! I know it sounds boring but it is essential to healthy living; our body is made up of 50-75% water and it is used for so many important things such as transporting nutrients, removing wastes and digestive processes. You should drink at least 8 glasses a day. Are you getting enough? In addition to water, some healthy alternatives are fruit and vegetable juices, spritzers (half juice, half seltzer) or Emer-Gen-C drinks. If you have to have an alternative sweetener, try stevia. Stevia is not man-made, it comes from a plant and is naturally calorie free. It is available as Truvia and SweetLeaf.
Any other suggestions out there? We’d love to hear them!
In the last post we started discussing artificial sweeteners with a focus on aspartame. This post will focus on sucralose, also known as Splenda, and acesulfame K.
Splenda is a relatively new sweetener that has become very popular and is advertised as being “made from sugar.” What Splenda is, is a sugar molecule with three chlorine molecules attached to it. The attached chlorines, make Splenda too large for our bodies to break down properly, so we are unable to get any calories from it. Because Splenda is engineered so that it doesn’t break down, it travels through your digestive tract whole. The molecule is irritating to the digestive tract and can cause immune reactions and diarrhea among other discomforts. On the other hand, if the Splenda does break down, which inevitably some of it will, chlorine is released into your body which can cause health problems such as reduced growth rates, enlarged liver and kidneys and cancer. A lot more research and testing needs to be done on Splenda. There have only been SIX human trials to date with the sweetener and the longest one only lasted THREE months! Another concern with Splenda is that at least 15% of the sweetener is not excreted by the body in an appropriate time. Meaning it’s still in the body somewhere but we don’t know where it goes or what it does. Yikes!
Acesulfame K is another sweetener with very limited human studies. This sweetener contains methylene chloride which is a carcinogen. Methylene chloride can cause headaches, depression, nausea, mental confusion, liver effects, kidney effects, visual disturbances and cancer in humans. That is a pretty heavy list.
Even more concerning is the use of artificial sweetener blends containing multiple different kinds of sweeteners in one product. No research has been conducted on what effects these blends could have in our bodies and there’s no way to tell how these compounds will react with one another. Time and money would be well spent in further research of these sweeteners. Until that research has been conducted it might be a good idea to steer clear of artificial sweeteners.
What are your thoughts are artificial sweeteners? Do you use them? Avoid them? Keep an eye out for our concluding post about why these sweeteners cause weight gain and some great alternatives to artificial sweeteners.
When trying to lose weight, the majority of people will opt to replace their favorite sodas with the diet versions to cut calories out of their daily intake. In theory, this makes sense and sounds like a good idea. BUT when you look at the research, studies have shown over and over again that drinking soda, both regular and diet, encourages weight gain! What is it about diet sodas that is contributing to weight gain? The artificial sweeteners. Sugar is what gives regular soda its calories, in order to be a diet soda, the sugar has to be removed and it is replaced by artificial sweeteners. These sweeteners are engineered compounds that don’t give us any calories. Aside from unexpected weight gain, artificial sweeteners have many other negative health effects.
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is found in a wide variety of food and drink. It is also known as Equal, Nutrasweet and Sugar Twin. Aspartame does provide calories when consumed but it is up to 220 times sweeter than sugar. This means very very small amounts are used for sweetening in food products and amounts this small provide virtually zero calories. Even though teeny tiny amounts are being used, aspartame is the most controversial artificial sweetener. 70 % of complaints to the Food and Drug Administration are due to aspartame. Aspartame causes neurotransmitter imbalances. Neurotransmitters are chemicals in your brain that travel to different parts of your body and tell it what to do. They also affect mood, sleep, weight and concentration. Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter which means it calms the brain and creates balance. Aspartame decreases serotonin levels leading to cravings for carbohydrates (sugar!), insomnia, body temperature changes, headaches and migraines, seizures and moodiness. It also causes an increase in the excitatory neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters stimulate the brain. An increase causes anxiety, dizziness, memory loss, spasms, muscle pain, tinnitus (a ringing in the ears) and blurred vision.
When consumed during pregnancy, aspartame can have lasting effects on the baby. It can lead to mental retardation, impaired vision and birth defects as well as behavioral, emotional and learning difficulties.
In the OBB program, we know that one of the main areas of weight loss resistance is neurotransmitter imbalances. Having the wrong balance of neurotransmitters with not only prevent you from losing weight but also could be causing you to gain more weight. Even if you are not trying to lose weight, knowing about the negative effects of aspartame should make you reconsider some food and beverage choices.
Check back soon for more information on artificial sweeteners — spenda/sucralose and acesulfame K — as well as an explanation of what goes on in your body when you consume these sweeteners and some suggestions on what you should try in place of diet soda!
You always wonder….hey….how are they doing NOW?! Everytime I look at before and after pictures (usually I’m bawling my eyes out because I LOVE success stories) I wonder – did they keep the weight off?
Happy to announce that Jacquie T. is now down 19 inches and 17 1/2 pounds of fat off. You can check out her story on this video – but she has new bragging stats! Way to go Jacquie!!!!!
Give the gift of health!
