Just read this paper published in late February, by Roselyn Zhang et al. in Nutrients, that surprised me in concluding from 36 trials, 472 participants, that artificial sweeteners have no uncoupled effect on the body (that is, by confusing the body with sweetness).
“Conclusions: The available evidence suggests that NNS beverages sweetened with single or blends of NNS have no acute metabolic and endocrine effects, similar to water. These findings provide support for NNS beverages as an alternative replacement strategy for SSBs in the acute postprandial setting.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36839408/
This contradicts some preceding work tying artificial sweeteners into weight gain, but I’m always game to see how fuller scientific study expands our understanding of related phenomena. Any thoughts?
(There’s at least one of you who extended fasted with nothing but Diet Mountain Dew, so I’m guessing this is sweet sweet vindication, no? 😅)
I’ve ditched the artificial and natural alt sweeteners because it just keeps my sweet tooth cravings, and I feel like my body doesn’t need it. I think my fasting and being low carb is so much easier when I can really deaden that sweet tooth. But as always, to each either own, do what works for you!
My experience supports previous studies because of the deleterious impact of artificial sweeteners on my microbiome. When my gut is unhealthy, I can’t efficiently get the fuel where it needs to go, and I retain body fat. Just me?
Honestly I couldn’t care less about the study because I know exactly how my body feels when I try to fast drinking them.
One minute I’m feeling unstoppable, the next minute after consuming them I’m wavering.
You are an N of 1 study.
We’re not all built on the same assembly line and genetics (nature) does matter. What makes this harder is in our effort to stamp out racism we ignore the fact that there are not insignificant genetic differences between races and even ethnicities. Then there is the fact that a lot people with mixed races and ethnicities.
I can say that artificial sweeteners (at least the ones I’ve tried) don’t effect my blood glucose levels.
With that said, they are heavily processed substances which probably do have at least some impact on your gut microbiome, and some may be cytotoxic.
I try to minimize my consumption of them. But they don’t effect my GKI. But again, we’re not mass produced machines. We’re not all the same. Genetics matters, and what doesn’t effect me, might effect you. At the end of the day you have to look at yourself as an N of 1 study. That takes data, and effort.
I was listening to a podcast guest on the Huberman show who claimed that artifical sweeteners don’t kill your gut flora and fauna and there is a study out in which the people that drank diet drinks lost more than those on water. There are many reasons why that could have happened but I am embracing sugar free for a while.