Kind of a dumb question but what are the harmful biological side effects of energy drinks/artificial sweeteners? Bang and Alani Nu have 0-15 calories and 0 sugar per can. Other than messing up sleep schedule, what harmful things do they do to your body? How do the chemicals in artificial sweeteners actually affect you?
Some sweetners such as sucralose can detrimentally effect your gut microbiome but having a bit of sweetener here and there is fine. I personally avoid artificial sweetners but it won’t have any significant side effects
> what are the harmful biological side effects of […] artificial sweeteners?
There aren’t any. You couldn’t physically consume enough aspartame to actually affect you. The FDA’s “safe limit” is 35 cans per day for life. And that’s the “safe limit” which is usually several times lower than the actual limit. Disregard the fearmongering.
Energy drinks are an IQ test, as one wastes money on something that does nothing at best and contains harmful/stimulatory ingredients at worst. And honestly, you can’t even verify what else it has.
Most Artificial sweeteners are also garbage and worse than sugar. Pro-aspartame lobbies and a corrupt FDA do not make for a convincing counterargument. These things are toxic to the nervous system, negatively modulate gut bacteria, and cause oxidative stress.
You can have it, but when people are surprised about what’s giving this cancer or that disease and whatnot, it’s all a ‘big mystery’ - or is it.
I don’t remember all the details but there are studies that show high consumption of energy drinks can affect your liver. There are some brands that are cleaner than others, you just need to do your research.
GI discomfort is the only known harmful issue but doesn’t impact everyone.
The issue from a diet perspective is that they can make you crave sugar. When we taste sweetness the pancreas will secrete insulin in response, how much varies person to person but is generally fairly small. Without any new glucose you are just eliminating existing blood glucose so you start craving sugar. If you have it with a meal this probably wont even be noticeable.
Great question. I stopped consuming those types of drinks years ago. My personal side effects included in rapid, heart rate and bladder issues. My doctor told me that she treats dozens of people a week with heart issues and the artificial sweeteners are like paint thinner - they eat away at the lining your bladder! They gave me a burning sensation so intense that I had to go to the emergency ward! I’m done! May I suggest a more natural approach to clean energy - Macha green tea! Namaste
About 15 years ago I had to do a paper on artificial sweeteners, aspartame in particular. The U.S. considers it safe as long as you stay within the safe daily allowance. There’s no way of knowing how much you have taken in though because it is in everything.
However, some Italians scientists, led by a guy named Mondavi (I believe), performed the most comprehensive experiment on the subject. They had 400 rats and they fed them the safe daily limit every day until the rat died. Then they autopsied the rats. The incidents of cancer were incredibly elevated compared to the rats not fed the aspartame.