Obesity sufferers have, for quite some time relied on artificial sugars to satisfy their sweet teeth as well as to keep their body weight under control. But not all is good news regarding this.
Professor Terry Davidson and associate professor Susan Swithers, both in the Department of Psychological Sciences, found that artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s natural ability to “count” calories based on foods’ sweetness.
The body’s natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners. Without thinking about it, the body learns that it can use food characteristics such as sweetness and viscosity to gauge its caloric intake. The body may use this information to determine how much food is required to meet its caloric needs.
Their hypothesis is that experience with these foods interferes with the natural ability of the body to use sweet taste and viscosity to gauge caloric content of foods and beverages. When you substitute artificial sweetener for real sugar, however, the body learns it can no longer use its sense of taste to gauge calories. So, the body may be fooled into thinking a product sweetened with sugar has no calories and, therefore, people overeat.
Increased consumption of artificial sweeteners and of high-calorie beverages is not the sole cause of obesity, but it may be a contributing factor,” Swithers said. “It could become more of a factor as more people turn to artificial sweeteners as a means of weight control and, at the same time, others consume more high-calorie beverages to satisfy their cravings.
There are a couple of obvious lessons here. First of all, do not use artificial sweeteners. Second, drink water and get all your calories for semi-solid and solid foods. This is wise advice for other reasons anyway. You are better off eating an apple than drinking apple juice because the solid apple has more vitamins, minerals, antioxidant compounds, and fiber. The same holds true for other fruits and vegetables versus their juices in the vast majority of cases.
