Artificial Sweeteners Could Be Sabotaging Your Diet

Artificial Sweeteners Could Be Sabotaging Your Diet

by | Jun 24, 2010 | Areas of Weight Loss Resistance, Uncategorized

 

This article came in today and I HAVE to re-post it. It is from Dr. Mark Hyman. Artificial sweeteners are so addictive and so tempting to use. I know I struggle with eliminating diet sodas and all artificially sweetened things (especially since I have a food sensitivity to regular sugar) This has inspired me to re-commit to NO FAKE FOODS!

There’s no doubt about it. Artificial sweeteners cause obesity.

I always thought it was funny to see a very large person order a Big Mac, large fries — and top it off with a Diet Coke. I also found it peculiar that I rarely saw thin people drinking diet sodas. So I began to wonder if there could be a link between diet beverages or artificial sweeteners and obesity. As I began to explore this notion, I discovered a number of different research findings that pointed to this very phenomenon.

First, our current obesity epidemic has coincided perfectly with the introduction of large amounts of artificial sweeteners into our food supply. Although we cannot say for sure that this means artificial sweeteners cause obesity, it certainly makes me wonder.

Next, a body of research indicates that just the thought or smell of food initiates a whole set of hormonal and physiologic responses that get the body ready for food. This is familiar to us from Pavlov’s dog experiment, where he trained dogs to salivate by associating the ringing of a bell with the presentation of food. By doing this repeatedly, he eventually trained the dogs to salivate in anticipation of food simply by ringing the bell — without any food at all.

Think of diet sodas and artificial sweeteners as ringing the bell for your physiology. Today I will explain how that happens and review some of the research that indicates artificial sweeteners may not be all they are cracked up to be.

The Problem with Ringing Your Physiological Bells

Ringing the bells in your body with artificial sweeteners is not a good thing. It’s even worse when you ring the bells with artificial sweeteners and then not provide any sugar. Here’s why …

Our brains know how to get our bodies ready for food. It is called the cephalic (for “head”) phase reflex. Your brain is preparing for food even before your fork or cup crosses your lips. This allows you to anticipate and prepare for the arrival of nutrients in your intestinal tract, improves the efficiency of how your nutrients are absorbed, and minimizes the degree to which food will disturb your natural hormonal balance and create weight gain.

So in a way, your body is already preparing to regulate your energy balance, metabolism, weight, calorie burning, and many other things — just by thinking about food. Any sweet taste will signal your body that calories are on the way and trigger a whole set of hormonal and metabolic responses to get ready for those calories.

When you trick your body and feed it non-nutritive or non-caloric sweeteners, like aspartame, acesulfame, saccharin, sucralose, or even natural sweeteners like stevia, it gets confused. And research supports this.

Studies Show Artificial Sweeteners Lead to Weight Gain

An exciting study in the Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience has shown conclusively that using artificial sweeteners not only does not prevent weight gain, but induces a whole set of physiological and hormonal responses that actually make you gain weight. ( i)

The researchers proved this by giving two different groups of rats some yogurt. One batch of yogurt was sweetened with sugar. The other was sweetened with saccharin. They found that three major things happened over a very short period of time in the rats that were fed artificially sweetened yogurt.

First, the researchers found that the total food eaten over 14 days dramatically increased in the artificial sweetener group — meaning that the artificial sweetener stimulated their appetite and made them eat more.

Second, these rats gained a lot more weight and their body fat increased significantly.

And third (and this is very concerning) was the change in core body temperature of the rats fed the artificial sweeteners. Their core body temperature decreased, meaning their metabolism slowed down.

So not only did the rats eat more, gain more weight, and have more body fat, but they actually lowered their core body temperature and slowed their metabolism. As I have said many times before, all calories are not created equal …

The most astounding finding in the study was that even though the rats that ate the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed fewer calories overall than the rats that ate the sugar-sweetened yogurt, they gained more weight and body fat.

These findings turn the conventional view that people will consume fewer calories by drinking artificially sweetened drinks or eating artificially sweetened foods on its head. Despite their name, these are not “diet” drinks. They are actually “weight gain” drinks!

We’re surrounded by low-calorie, “health conscious foods” and diet soft drinks that contain sweeteners. As a result, the number of Americans who consume products that contain sugar-free sweeteners grew from 70 million in 1987 to 160 million in 2000.

At the same time, the incidence of obesity in the United States has doubled from 15 percent to 30 percent across all age groups, ethnic groups, and social strata. And the number of overweight Americans has increased from about 30 percent to over 65 percent of the population. The fastest growing obese population is children.

Here’s the bottom line: Avoid artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, acesulfame, sucralose, sugar alcohols such as malitol and xylitol (pretty much anything that ends in “ol”), as well as natural artificial sweeteners like stevia.

Stop confusing your body. If you have a desire for something sweet, have a little sugar, but stay away from “fake” foods. Eating a whole-foods diet that has a low glycemic load and is rich in phytonutrients and indulging in a few real sweet treats once in a while is a better alternative than tricking your body with artificial sweeteners — which leads to wide scale metabolic rebellion and obesity.

So, put that teaspoon of sugar in your tea and enjoy!

Mark Hyman, M.D.

References

(i) Swithers SE, Davidson TL. A role for sweet taste: Calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behav Neurosci. 2008 Feb;122(1):161-73.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzJ6ZbQN9mY&feature=player_embedded

HAPPINESS IS VOYAGE

by | May 27, 2010 | Uncategorized

 

©By Friedrich Poyer

We convince ourselves that life will be better once we are married, have a baby, then another.

Then we get frustrated because our children are not old enough, and that all will be well when they are older.

Then we are frustrated because they reach adolescence and we must deal with them. Surely we’ll be happier when they grow out of the teen years.

We tell ourselves our life will be better when our spouse gets his/her act together, when we have a nicer car, when we can take a vacation, when we finally retire.

The truth is that there is no better time to be happy than right now. (more…)

Treat Yourself Cooking Class Tonight!

by | Feb 15, 2010 | Uncategorized

Here are the recipes for tonight’s cooking class! MmmmMmmmm!

Cashew Candy Bars

 

– Makes 4 bars 6 tbs. raw cashews (about 3 oz.)

4 dates, pitted and roughly chopped (about 4 oz.)

Place cashews in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the S-blade. Process until finely ground like a powder. Add dates and process until very finely “pasted” and incorporated into the cashews—about 25-35 seconds.

Divide dough into two equal portions, then divide those portions in half. You should have four mounds of dough of equal size. Shape each quarter of dough into a rectangular bar and chill in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes until firm. Wrap each bar tightly in plastic wrap or store bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Cinnamon-Apricot Balls

 

– Makes 12-15 balls ¾ c. raw walnuts

1 tbs. ground flaxseed, optional

4 large dates, pitted and roughly chopped

1/3 c. dried Turkish apricots, chopped

¾ tsp. cinnamon

Sesame seeds, for rolling

Grind nuts to a powder in the food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Add flaxseed, dates, apricots, and cinnamon and process until a dough begins to form. Mixture should hold together when pinched with your fingers but not be too sticky. If it seems too dry, add more dates. If too wet, add more nuts.

Form into small bite-sized balls and roll in sesame seeds. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Cocoa Balls

 

– Makes 12-15 balls ¾ cup raw walnuts

5 large dates, pitted and roughly chopped (about ½ cup)

¼ cup raisins

2 tbs. unsweetened, good quality cocoa powder

In a food processor fitted with the S-blade, grind walnuts until they are a grainy powder. Add dates and raisins. Process 20-25 seconds, or until combined and very finely chopped. Add cocoa powder and process until incorporated and the mixture holds together when you pinch it with your fingers.

Shape the date-nut mixture into bite-sized balls, placing in candy cups if desired. Keep refrigerated in an airtight container up to 1 week. Serve at room temperature.

 

Salmon-Salad Stuffed Tomatoes

 

– Makes 6 stuffed tomato halves

1 (6 oz.) can wild salmon, drained and flaked with fork

3 tbs. parsley, finely chopped

2 scallions, white and light green parts finely chopped

1 tbs. red wine vinegar

1 tbs. olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

3 Roma tomatoes, halved lengthwise and seeded

Combine salmon, parsley, scallions, vinegar, oil, and salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Spoon mixture into tomato halves and garnish each with sprig of parsley, if desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

 

 

Artificial Sweeteners Could Be Sabotaging Your Diet

I’ve always hated oatmeal.

by | Nov 9, 2009 | Uncategorized

yuck-vegetables

That’s right. Always AND Hated. I know  –  strong words.

I don’t know if it is the color or the texture that has been the biggest issue. Both are pretty bad. That beige – y color is way to similar to when you’ve mixed all the play-doh together. Then there is the texture – slimey – gooey – doughy – with chance of possible clumps.  It causes the same reaction to ‘wet bread’ or undercooked food items. Gag. I’ve always had to put equal amounts of brown sugar to oatmeal ratio to get it down – and then where are the health benefits to that? I don’t even like oatmeal cookies. Really.

Maybe it’s the fact that it was one of the meals that my Dad would make for us kids and he always said that it would ‘Stick to your Ribs’. I’m sure he meant metaphorically -but I had the visual of huge oatmealy clumps to your mid-section. Ugh-oh and blegck.

It’s not that I haven’t tried it through the years – mostly by force. Either you are staying with friends or family and that is what they offer. Or if you are traveling and need to carb-o load for hiking or climbing – oatmeal is usually the first option.

So, I was on a web-site that I love and she mentioned pumpkin oatmeal made with steel cut oats and it looked so delicious. I thought – let’s give it a try. I went out and bought a small amount of steel cut oats from the bulk bin (I’m no dummy) and brought it home to take a gamble. If you don’t know, steel cut oats look like teeny tiny pellets – they are just less processed than rolled oats and have much more food value than instant oats. I made them like to would make pasta. I boiled water, added the oats and then drained the excess water off after about 10 minutes. At that point I added the other ingredients. Guess what?! NOT MUSHY! In fact, like pasta should be they were Al Dente. They are beautiful little grains that hold their shape and are not slimey because I washed all of the goo off.

I’ve tried a few different combinations for the oatmeal and really love to add a 1/2 tablespoon of almond nut butter, 1/2 scoop of protien powder(vanilla), 1 teaspoon of maple syrup and a splash of rice milk. It is warm, creamy, nutty and metaphorically ‘sticks to your ribs’.

So. I’m an oatmeal eater. Can you believe it? I can’t.

When I talk to clients about adding in variety of foods, eating the rainbow, mixing it up we eventually come to the conversation of foods that peopel don’t like. Won’t eat. Haven’t tried. Can’t stand the idea of. Hate the texture. My Mom forced me to eat it – now can’t stand it. It smells like dirt. (OK, OK, the last one is my own excuse. I now love beets but for years I could’t get over the fact that they smell like dirt.) You get the idea. We work with what they will eat and go from there.

What we all need to do is keep trying.  A little at a time, different times of year, a new recipe. Keep in mind that food can be prepared hundreds of ways, different methods, pared with different foods or combos. Some foods taste good only at certain times of year. Maybe roasting brings out the sweetnes of veggies that you’ve never tried. Maybe pureeing it and sneaking it into a food you already love. If you have a friend or a family member that says they love a certain type of food…ask them how they make it, what about it do they like, when does it taste the best, etc. That is what happened with beets for me. My friend Jodie loves beets and makes them often – she had us over for dinner and had roasted beets with toasted sunflower seeds. Because she’s one of my closests friends she forced me to eat some. Once I got them past my nose (remember-dirt smell?) I LOVED them. Roasted beets are sweet, full of great flavor and have a great texture, too.

So, how to start? Add one new thing in each week. Only buy a small amount, so you don’t feel like you’ve wasted anything. Try cooking/baking it several different ways to see what appeals to you. Keep your eye out for new recipes that have a little bit of it in a recipe – so you can try it. Be creative. Ask a helpful customer service person at whole foods or at your local co-op. I’m sure they can point to someone who knows how to use Jicama or Ginger or Sweet Potatoes.  You need to try new foods at least 5 – 6 different times before you can decide to put it on the ‘No Way’ list. It may or may not work with everything. I’ve always hated bell pepers. Green, orange, yellow. All of them. I always will – but at least I know I’ve tried them 10 – 15 times in different ways, different times of year, with other foods. It for sure is on the “No Way’ list – but I’ve tried my best.

Good luck, Be brave.