overview
If you are using artificial sweetener to reduce sugar intake in your diet then, you aren’t alone.
Artificial sweeteners are found in a variety of food and beverages marketed as “sugar-free” including soft drinks and baked goods. Just what are all these sweeteners? And what’s their role in your diet
What are artificial sweeteners?
Artificial sweeteners are sweeteners that are use instead of regular table sugar (sucrose). These are the chemicals used to sweeten foods and beverages which provide virtually zero calories.
When it comes to Artificial sweeteners Everything is muddied!!!
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates Artificial sweeteners as food additives to be use in food and beverage products. They must be reviewed and approved by the FDA before being made available for sale.
ADI is the maximum amount considered safe to consume each day over the course of a lifetime. The FDA has established an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for each artificial sweetener
How do artificial sweeteners work?
A perfect fit between a taste receptor and molecule (sweetener) sends a signal to your brain, allowing you to identify the taste.
For example, the sugar molecule fits perfectly into your taste receptor for sweetness, allowing your brain to identify the sweet taste.
However, artificial sweeteners are generally too different from sugar for your body to break them down into calories.
Some manufacturers call their sweeteners “natural” even though they’re processed or refined. Stevia preparations are one example. And some artificial sweeteners are derived from naturally occurring substances — sucralose comes from sugar.
Zero calorie sweeteners are not zero calorie because they contain nothing, they are zero calorie because human have no way to digest them and get fuel from them. They simply irritate our body as they pass through. Artificial sweeteners cause inflammation, whether they are actually toxic or not. It’s because they are the substance our body can’t digest so there is inflammatory response to try to deal with the foreign substance (inflammation = pain).
Even large intake of sugar can cause inflammation because it’s hard to digest by our body.
They cause the same reaction in the brain and body that cane sugar does and won’t feed those little buggers in your gut.
WHY PEOPLE DON’T USE ???
- They don’t taste the same as sugar (SOURCE: my mouth).
- They don’t work the same way in many recipe as it don’t caramelize.
- Almost all of them have aftertaste.
- Should/can not be taken on daily basis as it is also more expensive than cane sugar.
- Not everyone has the gut fortitude for artificial sweeteners as they may cause some irritating bowl syndrome, diarrhea and excessive gas formation.
- Some artificial sweeteners have been linked to cancers like aspartame and acesulfame k.
- A lot of controversies made People scared of them, they think that artificial sweeteners might be bad for them.
- People complain to have headache and migraine after consumption.
- Potential long term side effects on your body.
- Artificial sweeteners (fake sugar) cannot be 1:1 substituted for table sugar.
It’s hard to believe any information you see anywhere, because of large corporations lobbying to skew results, a government that is “for people and by the people” but only if you are considered “people”. Media drivel pitting everyone against one other.
It is advised by Chefs and Dietician to stop eating more sweetened food to get used to natural taste of food products. It’s really easy kill the natural taste and “get addicted” to sweet taste. Our body is pretty resilient when it comes to cane sugar similarly with alcohol, if you consume it with moderation you should be fine.
Conclusion
It’s a much easier choice to substitute sugar with natural sweeteners instead of just eliminating it completely from your diet, especially if people are use to adding massive quantities of it to their meals, drinks etc.
The point of this article is to open people’s minds to the fact that large intake of any sweetener whether table sugar or artificial sweetener can have adverse effect on our body. something we individually need to decide what we go for either table sugar, artificial sweetener or natural sweeteners.
