Sugar, sucralose, stevia, aspartame, etc.
I would like to occasionally treat myself to a dessert, something a bit sweet, but I want to do it in a smart way without missing out.
I ordered the Freestyle Precision Neo to start checking my insulin levels before and (30 min?) after to see if, for example, my protein or amino acids that include sucralose are spiking my insulin/negatively impacting my weight loss for the last week.
What do you all do? It feels impossible to totally avoid any sweetener.
Short answer: no. They’re all chemically different and your body responds to each one in different ways.
Longer answer: the metabolic effects of artificial sweeteners aren’t fully understood. This is a nuanced issue with many confounding variables. Go to google scholar and search for “aspartame insulin” or “stevia insulin” and you’ll see what I mean. Many studies are done exclusively on diabetics or on obese patients. Many studies are done under conditions other than fasting. Some studies contradict each other. Like most hot areas of current scientific inquest, there’s no clear-cut answer (yet).
Do it in your eating window only. When I do chose a treat it’s either honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar sweetened. I don’t trust nor like the taste of the synthetic sugars and I’m just getting into being able to like stevia (found this fabulous probiotic stevia sweetened drink fuzzy soda wannabe called OLLIPOP) There’s a great protein powder at Costco coconut sugar sweetened but I take that only once in a while (hi cal) like a treat but make it super high protein +healthy fat (added hemp, mct oil)
After you get off the sugar wagon you’ll find yourself saitieted with simple healthy sugars like fruit. I love my daily honey and tea with cream after I break my fast. Totally feels like dessert 🍮
But just to reiterate in your fasting window I would totally obstain from it all to avoid your bodying responding with insulin