There is new research published which looks at the effects of artificial sweeteners such as in Diet Coke on us. And it finds that for some of us, it will lead directly to great fatness. And diabetes and heart attacks – rather than the promised slimness whilst still quaffing the sweet stuff.
An article about it was published in New Scientist, 20th Sept 2014 and I have managed to track down the original research, which is called Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota ((Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature 17th Sept 2014. Suez J, Korem T, Elinav E et al.)). Using both mice and men the researchers found that the presence of certain gut flora meant taking artificial sweeteners worsened glucose response or in other words, not dealing with glucose efficiently is the path to fatness and diabetes. They found that saccharin was the worst culprit of all the man made sweeteners. The main basis for the research is:
Most NAS [Non-caloric Artificial Sweeteners] pass through the human gastrointestinal tract without being digested by the host and thus directly encounter the intestinal microbiota, which plays central roles in regulating multiple physiological processes…….
Which means that we can’t digest artificial sweeteners normally, leaving them to enter our colons, a place where undigested food should not be. And there they party with the multitude of resident bacterium. And, for many, wreak havoc, causing diabetes, and related health problems such as heart attacks.
Artificial sweeteners were extensively introduced into our diets with the intention of reducing caloric intake and normalizing blood glucose levels without compromising the human ‘sweet tooth’. Together with other major shifts that occurred in human nutrition, this increase in NAS consumption coincides with the dramatic increase in the obesity and diabetes epidemics. Our finding suggest that NAS may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight.
It seems to be the curse of humanity: to love sweetness. We just can’t get enough of it. In a truly wild state, sweetness is rare and treasured. I watched with fascination the Channel 4 series, The Island, in which a dozen men were cast onto a desert island with a couple of knives and a day’s survival training. They did survive – but looked much thinner and haggard at the end. Towards the end of their stay, one of them discovered a bee’s nest which they raided for the honey. The men’s expressions as they sucked on their sweet fingers! Eating it was likened to taking a line of whizz. Which nearly blew me off my chair – I have previously written about research showing how rats, given the choice, choose saccharine and sugar over cocaine. ((https://www.clareharding.com/how-much-sugar-in-a-can-of-coke-the-addictive-power-of-sugar-would-you-give-your-child-cocaine/)) Worrying stuff.
So how does saccharin and so on bring on diabetes? Well in our guts live a multitude of bacteria, some good and some bad, ideally living in balance with each other. What the researchers found was that in some of us, there is a preponderance of the Bacteriodes group and not enough Clostridiales. Interestingly, the bacteriodes group lives in the colon and is the group that causes most troubles when it escapes, causing thrush, abscesses and bacterial infections. It is also the group most resistance to anti-biotics. See footnote for link to a review that talks about them more ((http://cmr.asm.org/content/20/4/593.full)). The Clostridiales group: not all are nice. Some give us tetanus, gangrene, food poisoning, C diff or botulism – although some seem to think injecting this poison into the face is a good idea. Bonkers, if you ask me. Anyway, others of group are good, some of them help process alcohol, for example. For the bacteria geeks out there,the study found that the people whose response to glucose got worse showed a ten fold increase in the Bacteroides Fragilis and Weisella cibaria along with a ten-fold decrease in Canditus Arthromitus (of the Clostridiales group).
Having done relevant tests on mice and having looked at the results of 381 people taking part in a long term study on the effects of Non-caloric Artificial Sweeteners on their health, which confirmed the researchers hunch that they actually make you fatter and iller rather than thinner and happier, the researchers decided to test a group of seven people, five men and two women, who had never eaten much saccharin before.
Finally, as an intial assessment of whether the relationship between human NAS consumption and blood glucose control is causative, we followed seven healthy volunteers (5 males and 2 females, aged 28 – 36) who do not normally consume NAS or NAS-containing foods for 1 week. During this week, participants consumed on days 2-7 the FDA’s maximal acceptable daily intake of commercial saccharin (5 mg per kg body weight as three divided daily doses equivalent to 120 mg, and were monitored by continuous glucose measurements and daily GTT [glucose tolerance test]. Notable, even in this short-term 7 -day exposure, most individuals (4 out of 7) developed significantly poorer glycaemic responses 5-7 days after NAS consumption, compared to their individual glycaemic response on days 1-4. None of the three NAS non-responders featured improved glucose tolerance.
Well, that’s scary. In only one week, four of the seven handled sugar worse than before the test began. Imagine what happens when we consume this stuff for years! The changes in glucose handling were confirmed by transferring the human’s poo into mice’s sterile colons. And indeed, the mice receiving the stool of the those whose glucose tolerance was compromised also did not handle the sweet stuff as well as the other’s receiving the non-responders stool, thereby confirming the researcher’s suspicions.
What can we do? Well, the simplest thing is to not eat these artificial sweeteners in any way. If need be, eat ordinary sugar or honey. Then the body recognises it and digests it normally. And if we have been sucking down the Slimline Tonic? Hopefully the next line of research will be in what happens when we rebalance the gut bacteria – will this alone improve glucose tolerance? Let’s hope so – mind you, it won’t help with those sugar cravings.
Well now we know. Light??? Lies, all lies.