Question:
I lost a bunch of weight by eating healthy and using artificial sweetners instead of sugars...?
Angel Eve
2006-10-02 09:52:31 UTC
I use an artificial sweetner in water to make it taste like fruit punch (crystal light), and an artificial sweetner in coffee instead of sugar(sweet n low). I've lost a bunch of weight, but in all the fitness magazines, they say to avoid artificial sweetners... But they dont say why. If I lost a bunch of weight from using them and giving up regular sugars... wouldnt you think they'd be a good thing? Does anyone know why they say not to use them if you are trying to lose weight?
Twelve answers:
The Dude...
2006-10-02 09:58:13 UTC
Well for starters, artificial sweetners like Sweet N Low have shown studies that they are carcinogenic. Equal has not finished their studies, but people figure that if one does, the other will, too. Plus they are highly processed. Anything highly processed ingested in large amounts cannot be good for you.



Splenda is made from real sugar, not man made, but long term studies are not available yet.



If you were able to lose wieght while using artificial sweetners, then it had to be somewhere else in your diet that you were able to eliminate your sugar intake.



Again, it's the "artificial" part of the stuff you eat that prompts a warning from "they"...
green is clean
2006-10-02 09:57:27 UTC
The cancer thing that was mentioned above is true (not that it does, but that it might). Health nuts really should try to stay away from anything unnatural. Refined sugar is unnatural too. Really the way I see it...everything in moderation. If you are using it a lot...cut back a little.



Congrats on the weight loss. That's a tough hill to climb!
2006-10-02 10:00:18 UTC
Artificial sweeteners have been shown to damage some people's livers. When my friend Vicki was at the Mayo Clinic visiting her cousin who had a liver transplant, the nurse saw Vicki put an artificial sweetener in her coffee and warned her to quit using that stuff. The nurse said it was better to learn to do without or just use less real sugar but that artificial sweeteners are hard on the liver.



My doctor says artificial sweeteners are bad because they encourage us to still crave sweet foods and drinks. He said if I could go low carb for 3 weeks, I'd quit craving sugar and sweets.



On the other hand, my mother's used artificial sweeteners since God created the earth and she's going strong, no sign of liver damage.
JustMe
2006-10-02 10:32:11 UTC
Aspartame can cause, worsen, and mimic so many health conditions - it's just not worth taking such a chance with your health. Here's one website where you can read about some of the dangers. http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame



Might want to consider using Stevia - a sweet herb and not a manufactured additive.
2006-10-02 10:00:13 UTC
most artificial sweetners contain aspartame which can cause cancer (at least in lab rats)
Barbiq
2006-10-02 10:03:08 UTC
Too much of anything is not good for you, and it is my understanding that artificial sweeteners effect your body's chemistry the same as real...who really knows what is right...just check in with your doctor....and congrats on loosing weight. It is really hard work.
precious
2006-10-02 09:56:13 UTC
I'm Happy for you with your weight loss!
2006-10-02 09:55:17 UTC
They have said there is a chance of cancer. They also cause gas.
2006-10-02 09:57:01 UTC
If i were you, I would have changed my picture in this site.



Good luck.
Annette J
2006-10-02 09:54:36 UTC
People think they cause cancer.
ScubaGuy
2006-10-02 10:11:26 UTC
Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names, NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspartame was discovered by accident in 1965, when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company was testing an anti-ulcer drug. Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr John W. Olney and Consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 as well as investigations of G.D. Searle's research practices caused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold (December 5, 1974). In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.



Aspartame is, by far, the most dangerous substance on the market that is added to foods. Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death as recently disclosed in a February 1994 Department of Health and Human Services report.(1) A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include:

Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain.



According to researchers and physicians studying the adverse effects of aspartame, the following chronic illnesses can be triggered or worsened by ingesting of aspartame:(2)

Brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes.



Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: Aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. The book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by James and Phyllis Balch, lists aspartame under the category of "chemical poison."



If you want to read more about this and see exactly why they call it "chemical posion" you can read the entire article by following this link http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/aspartame.html.



Of course, eating sugar is another non-attractive alternative. Best selling author, nutritional authority Gary Null calls processed sugar "poison" too. So, I guess if we really want to be as healthy as possible the only sweet things we would eat would either have been picked from a tree or a vine.
2006-10-02 10:07:40 UTC
There is ongoing controversy over the supposed health risks of artificial sweeteners such as saccharin and aspartame. Some studies have shown that they cause brain tumors as well as lymphatic cancers in laboratory animals. Multiple scientific study has demonstrated health risks of saccharin to humans. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined in 1981 that aspartame is safe to use in foods, but only after it was denied for many years and only when an industry friendly director was placed in power after Ronald Reagan's election. It has also ruled that all products containing aspartame must include a warning to phenylketonurics that the sweetener contains phenylalanine (as do many foods).



Cyclamate controversy

In the United States, the FDA banned the sale of cyclamate in 1970 after lab tests indicated that large amounts of cyclamates caused bladder cancer in rats (a disease which rats are particularly susceptible to, also caused by drinking sugar water). The findings of these studies have been challenged and some companies are petitioning to have cyclamates reapproved. Cyclamates are still used as sweeteners in many parts of the world. They are used with official approval in over 55 countries.



Saccharin controversy

There have been worries about the safety of saccharin since its introduction.



Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener and was originally synthesized in 1879 by Remsen and Fahlberg and its sweet taste was discovered by accident. It had been created in an experiment with toluene derivatives. A process for the creation of saccharin from phthalic anhydride was developed in 1950 and currently saccharin is created by this process and the original process by which it was discovered. It is 300-500 times as sweet as sugar (sucrose) and is often used to improve the taste of toothpastes, dietary foods, and dietary beverages. The bitter aftertaste of saccharin is often minimized by mixing it with other sweeteners.



Fear about saccharin increased when a 1960 study showed that high levels of saccharin may cause bladder cancer in lab rats. In 1977, Canada banned saccharin due to results from animal research. The FDA in the United States considered banning saccharin in 1977, but after a moratorium was placed on the ban to study the safety of saccharin, the ban was withdrawn in 1991. Likewise, in 2000, the United States repealed a law requiring saccharin products to carry health warning labels. Most other countries also permit saccharin but restrict the levels of use, while other countries have outright banned it.



Aspartame controversy

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter at the G.D. Searle company (later purchased by Monsanto). He was working on an anti-ulcer drug and spilled some aspartame on his hand by accident. When he licked his finger, he noticed that it had a sweet taste. It is an odorless, white crystalline powder that is derived from the two amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine. It is about 200 times as sweet as sugar and can be used as a tabletop sweetener or in frozen desserts, gelatins, beverages, and chewing gum. Its chemical name is N-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine-1-menthal ester and its chemical formula is C14H18N2O5. Though it has no bitter aftertaste like saccharin, its drawback is that it might not taste exactly like sugar because it reacts with other food flavors. When eaten, aspartame is metabolized into its original amino acids and has a relatively low food energy.



Initial safety testing suggested that aspartame caused brain tumors in rats; as a result, the additive was held up in the United States for many years in the FDA's approval process. In 1980, the FDA convened a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) consisting of independent advisors charged with examining the purported relationship between aspartame and brain cancer. The PBOI's conclusions were unclear whether aspartame causes brain damage, and recommended against approving aspartame at that time, citing unanswered questions about cancer in laboratory rats. In 1981, FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes, newly appointed by President Ronald Reagan, approved aspartame as a food additive. He was closely associated with the artificial sweetner industry having several close friends, most notably Donald Rumsfeld, the current Secretary of Defense, and then the CEO of G.D. Searle. Hayes cited data from a single Japanese study that had not been available to the members of the PBOI, as his reason for approval.



Since the FDA approved aspartame for consumption, some researchers have suggested that a rise in brain tumor rates in the United States may be at least partially related to the increasing availability and consumption of aspartame. However, more recent research has failed to find any link between aspartame and cancer or other health problems.



One of the many hypotheses about the causes of Gulf war syndrome is that soldiers, after drinking gallons of aspartame-containing soft drinks in the extreme heat, accumulated toxic doses of methanol, formaldehyde, diketopiperazine and formic acid from the breakdown of the sweetener into its component molecules. However, the symptoms do not greatly resemble those of classic methanol poisoning, and the body, in its normal metabolism, produces methanol in quantities comparable to or greater than would be ingested via aspartame, so this theory does not have wide support.



Sucralose controversy

Sucralose is a modified sugar compound that is about 600 times as sweet as sugar. It is produced from sucrose when three chlorine atoms replace three hydroxyl groups (OH). This modified molecule can be used in beverages, frozen desserts and gum. Unlike the others, it is stable in heat and can be used in baked and fried goods. Sucralose is minimally absorbed by the body and passes out unchanged.



The FDA approved sucralose in 1998.



The first significant rumblings were in 2000, when osteopathic physician Joseph Mercola wrote an article entitled "The Secret Dangers of Splenda (Sucralose), an Artificial Sweetener". Since then, many others have chimed in.



In December of 2004, five separate false advertising lawsuits were filed against chemical sweetener manufacturer Johnson & Johnson/McNeil for claims made about its artificial sweetener Splenda.



On January 10, 2005, the "Truth About Splenda" website was created by The Sugar Association, an organization representing sugar beet and sugar cane farmers in the United States, in an effort to educate the public on their views.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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