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Artificial Sweeteners

Jo_the_boat said:
Another article!

Relevant to diabetics and interesting.

The last paragraph recommends what's best but the discussion seems well researched.
My biggest problem with artificial sweeteners is the taste!
Click to expand...
Can't get past the Subscribe Now screen. Is there an alternative access or an archived research paper behind the paywall?

I use sweeteners by choice. My preferred one is Sucralose as I find the taste acceptable and I get no fight back from it. I avoid Aspartame even though I am not allergic to it, I might offfer it to a viaitor by mistake, and they might react badly. I find Stevia tastes funny, and Xylitol forces me to change my underwear. I used to eat saccharine tablets as a kid, but then kids do stupid things sometimes. Then there was the saccharine causes cancer scare and I was deprived suddenly and dealt with my withdrawal symptoms by eating soda mints instead. I was weird even then.

What was the gist of the article? Is is the sweeteners can trigger an insulin response? Or they kill off good bacteria in the gut story?

I do note with alarm that Sucralose sweeteners are becoming as scarce as rocking horse do-do and been replace by Aspartame sweetener in most stores I shop in. Even Stevia is in short supply too.
 
I’ve hopefully attached the pdf for you.
One thing it does say, which is important to you is that sacralose can reduce the helpful gut bacteria by 50%. I don’t use sweeteners except for chewing xylitol gum, which I’ve been doing to help relieve tension in my jaw, but it looks like I’ll be cutting that out and finding a different method.
 

Attachments

I used to believe what Dr Mercola spouted and he made sense. Bur he seems to have lost the plot in recent years. I no longer have faith in his practices and cures, and think that his views can be misleading snd sometimes quackery especially where he is selling his own products. So I wonder what his tie into Merisant is, since he strongly promotes their products. (Merisant is part of Whole Earth Brands)

Thank you for posting this PDF. It has a list of refenced papers that I have read some of, and there are some that I found to be making suspect claims, especially the one printed in PLOS regarding cancer,

I note that at the end the pdf article promotes Stevia and Dextrose as being safe alternatives. It offers no evidence in support and seems to be personal viewpoint rather than proper evidence. Dextrose for me as a T2D is not safe except as a rare hypo treatment. It is pure glucose after all, so the criticism regarding obesity would also apply to it IMO.

The section that discusses ASBs (artifically sweetened beverages) ignores a possible confounder - phosphoric acid and high potassium content in most Diet sodas which could also be linked to heart and stroke events,

There is a classic comment where it basically states that artificial sweeteners trick the body to expect energy, so that it consumes muscle tissue instead. Does the author not understand the function of the liver and de novo glucogenesis process to provide this and that muscle scavenging only really happens in extreme ketosis where lipid energy is also unavailable. So what the author is saying seems to be that regular coke is good because it has sugar in it, diet one is poison because that sugar is taken out and the body is suddenly running on empty. Surely that is what "diet" means?
 
Oldvatr said:
I used to believe what Dr Mercola spouted and he made sense. Bur he seems to have lost the plot in recent years. I no longer have faith in his practices and cures, and think that his views can be misleading snd sometimes quackery especially where he is selling his own products. So I wonder what his tie into Merisant is, since he strongly promotes their products. (Merisant is part of Whole Earth Brands)

Thank you for posting this PDF. It has a list of refenced papers that I have read some of, and there are some that I found to be making suspect claims, especially the one printed in PLOS regarding cancer,

I note that at the end the pdf article promotes Stevia and Dextrose as being safe alternatives. It offers no evidence in support and seems to be personal viewpoint rather than proper evidence. Dextrose for me as a T2D is not safe except as a rare hypo treatment. It is pure glucose after all, so the criticism regarding obesity would also apply to it IMO.

The section that discusses ASBs (artifically sweetened beverages) ignores a possible confounder - phosphoric acid and high potassium content in most Diet sodas which could also be linked to heart and stroke events,

There is a classic comment where it basically states that artificial sweeteners trick the body to expect energy, so that it consumes muscle tissue instead. Does the author not understand the function of the liver and de novo glucogenesis process to provide this and that muscle scavenging only really happens in extreme ketosis where lipid energy is also unavailable. So what the author is saying seems to be that regular coke is good because it has sugar in it, diet one is poison because that sugar is taken out and the body is suddenly running on empty. Surely that is what "diet" means?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips about the article. I did mean to check the referenced papers too, but I have a short concentration span for reading(I’m only half way through the article), so it’s helpful to know which bits check out. I try not to use sugar or sweeteners, I don’t like the taste of soft drinks with sweetener in (plus a couple have bad effects on my digestion) but it’s not a big sacrifice to drink water or tea and coffee for me. I’ll check out the rest of it later.
 
I don't ingest artificial sweeteners. One of my aunts who was a nurse talked about seizures in at least one user. Then there's the cancer scares, and the digestive upsets.
Besides all those, they taste bad.
 
I know what damage sugar has done to me. I take a fistfull of medications to compensate for that damage.

I am taking a medication that increases my insulin output, and it works well for me. If my sweetener is increasing insulin output too, then that for me appears to be a benefit, but it is not at the level at which I can stop my medication and take sweeteners instead.

Most of my medications come with potential for harmful side effects, which I have to live with daily. A sweetener seems quite benign compared to them. So I choose to continue using it There are no free lunches.
 
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Aspartame is a greed driven poison
I have PKU and Phenylalanine the main ingredient causes the same things to us in a greater degree
Aspartame causes seizures ADHD OCD Schizophrenia depression Bipolar and all sorts of dangerous things just more so in PKU
the information is out there.

[Mod edit to remove derailment.]
 
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Dax1973 said:
Aspartame is a greed driven poison
I have PKU and Phenylalanine the main ingredient causes the same things to us in a greater degree
Aspartame causes seizures ADHD OCD Schizophrenia depression Bipolar and all sorts of dangerous things just more so in PKU
the information is out there
Click to expand...
Do you personally suffer ftom diabetes? if so what variant.

[Mod edit.]
 
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So is there any safe sweetener out there? I've just started using Stevia and don't find much difference in taste from brown sugar. Most of the others I've tried for me have a strange after taste. Now not sure what is safe and what isn't :confused:
 
Hi,

A few posts have been edited or removed for throwing the topic.
Please keep any sources relevant to the subject matter.

Kind regards. (On behalf of the Mod team.)

Jaylee.
 
valann said:
So is there any safe sweetener out there? I've just started using Stevia and don't find much difference in taste from brown sugar. Most of the others I've tried for me have a strange after taste. Now not sure what is safe and what isn't :confused:
Click to expand...
Research I did soon after my T2 diagnosis over 8 years back suggested erythritol (found in certain fruit, e.g. pears, in small quantities) and stevia (extracted from Stevia Sweet Leaf plant) are both safe for diabetic use, and I use these both individually and in combination. I think of them as alternative/natural type sweeteners not artificial/chemical type ones. But check out Diet Doctor too.
 
valann said:
So is there any safe sweetener out there? I've just started using Stevia and don't find much difference in taste from brown sugar. Most of the others I've tried for me have a strange after taste. Now not sure what is safe and what isn't :confused:
Click to expand...

If you don't notice any difference between stevia and brown sugar I would suggest you make sure you have real pure stevia and not something they sold a couple of years ago over here as being stevia which was maltodrextrose with a bit of added stevia. I know there now are good pruducts with a amount of stevia sold as table sweeteners (correct word?) But I myself have been using stevia for about 15 years now and always bought the purest form I could get. First 96% and nowadays even 98% pure stevia powder. It tastes nothing like sugar, brown or not. I really had to get used to the taste and the only reason I did was because I paid a lot of money to get it so I darn well was going to use it! :).
Now I'm addicted to the taste and can't do without in my thee!
 
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