Are Artificial Sweeteners Making You Fat?

You may be using artificial sweeteners to save the extra calories but researchers are now finding that artificial  sweeteners can actually make you fat.  How so, you may ask?  According to a CBS article entitled “Can Diet Soda Make You Gain Weight”?  University of Texas, Health Science Center’s Epidemiologist Sharon Fowler, conducted research on American soda consumption for the American Diabetes Association. She found that the more diet sodas an individual drinks, the more weight they are more like to gain. The journal Behavioral Neuroscience of Purdue University also did a study on artificial sweeteners and found that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given just sugar filled food.

ABC News Dr. Marie Savard reports that artificial sweeteners can actually alter a person’s metabolism. Savard goes on to say that in a recent study of  18,000 people, healthy adults who consumed at least one diet drink a day could greatly increase their chance for weight gain. Shocking!  She concludes that the reason for this is related to brain chemistry.  “Taste buds taste sweet, but there’s no calorie load that comes with it. There’s a mismatch here.”

So how does this work exactly? Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, Indulge, Equal-Measure are brand names for Aspartame. When ingested,  Nutrasweet breaks down into aspartic acid ( a chemical found in the brain) phenylalanine (amino acid) and methanol (wood alcohol), which converts into formaldehyde, which at high levels can can brain damage, toxic overload which can also lead to obesity and even possible blindness. Monsanto – former manufacturer of NutraSweet and FDA argues that in small amounts, it poses no health risk to the American public. However, Americans are now consuming higher levels of food additives and chemicals that is associated with our daily food supply. In fact most studies on the effects of chemicals such as food coloring agents assume a daily intake of 25 mg., but certain members of our American population are taking in an excess of 350 mg daily.

Toxic Overload Can Lead to Obesity

According to Dr. Bauman,  acclaimed San Francisco Bay Area Nutritionist and Expert, today’s American is suffering from “total body load”.  This means the body’s detoxification mechanism may not be able to handle the high amount of detrimental chemicals and stress that Americans are exposed to on a daily basis. Thus leading to chemicals being stored in fat tissues thus causing weight gain, intestinal disorders and discomfort, and much more.

The solution: drink purified water and organic fresh juices. Give your body a break and rid your body of toxins. . Read labels, be aware of “low-fat”, “sugar-free”, “diet” products. For more information on how you can detox, lose weight and feel great, contact Mandisa Fabris, San Francisco Bay Area Nutritionist for a free consultation.