My take on artificial sweeteners

Among the many misconceptions that people seem to have about nutrition and food safety is the notion that artificial sweeteners are essentially poison and must be avoided in order to be healthy. This one really gets my goat because despite the fact that it is not backed up by any credible science, a large proportion of the population readily believes it. This behavior strikes me as incredibly hypocritical, given how arbitrarily Americans seem to decide which products they are going to be wary of and demand the highest level of proof of safety and
which they will accept and use regardless of the
harm they are likely to cause.

For example, we have an abundance of evidence about the dangers of the typical American diet: one that is high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and refined carbohydrates and low in fiber. Yet, this is not enough to convince anyone to abandon their typical American eating habits, save for the first week of January. On the other hand, a few unsubstantiated rumors about artificial sweeteners show up on some conspiracy-theory websites and everyone immediately swears them off!

All of the artificial sweeteners currently on the market have been approved by the FDA. Obtaining this approval is a long and rigorous process, entailing the meticulous conduct of numerous safety studies. But this is apparently not enough to convince the American public, who believes that the research demanded by the FDA is not sufficient. On the other hand, diet pills, vitamin and mineral supplements, and herbs, including the natural sweetener Stevia, are happily embraced despite the fact that they have not received FDA approval and are largely unregulated. (A product containing Stevia has recently received FDA approval, but it has been used by many for decades prior to this).

Another thing I think many people don't realize is that artificial sweeteners have been approved for use by adults, children, and pregnant women. If you use artificial sweeteners normally, there is no need to stop using them when you become pregnant or to prohibit your children from having any foods or drinks containing them. There is simply no scientific reason to ban them from your diet ever.

Even the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a well-known "whistle-blowing" organization often referred to as the "nutrition police" because of their rigid approach to consumer safety standards, has given sucralose (Splenda) its seal of approval, describing it as "safe." CSPI is not so kind to other sweeteners, but it does call aspartame and acesulfame potassium, two of the most commonly used sweeteners, "probably safe." Read their assessment of all sweeteners here.

Some studies have suggested that drinking diet beverages may actually lead to weight gain. I believe this to be a gross misinterpretation of research findings. The studies that have found an association between overweight and diet drink consumption were cross-sectional, non-experimental designs. In other words, they just looked at one group of people and compared those who drink diet beverages to those who don't. One can never determine causation with this type of study design. There are too many other factors at work. Researchers have theorized that artificial sweeteners may increase one's desire for sweets, leading to excess consumption of sugar later. It has also been postulated that the perception of sweetness actually triggers a hormonal response similar to what would occur if actual sugar were consumed.

I have read a number of experimental studies on artificial sweeteners (the ones that never make it to mainstream media because their results are not controversial enough), and these have found no difference in weight or in hormonal response (e.g. glucose and insulin levels, among others) when people were given a sugar-sweetened beverage compared to an artificially-sweetened beverage. Therefore, I have different theories about why people who drink diet beverages seem to be more likely to be overweight:

1. People who are overweight are simply more likely to drink diet beverages. Think about it, if you've never been overweight, it might not occur to you to buy diet anything. Whereas, if you are overweight, switching from regular to diet soda might be the first thing you do.

2. When people drink diet beverages, they feel free to eat more food. Be honest, how many times have you justified eating a larger portion of something or indulging in something high in calories because you a.) had a light lunch, b.) skipped breakfast, c.) ate really healthy yesterday, etc. ? When you eliminate calories you might otherwise be drinking, it's easy to think you can "afford" calories from something else (like that extra scoop of ice cream or the larger sized order of fries).

The easy way to avoid gaining weight when using artificial sweeteners is to make sure that your total calorie intake is within the range it should be for weight loss. If you write down what you eat and don't exceed your daily allotment, you will not have trouble losing weight even if you drink a gallon of diet soda daily. If any doubt remains in your mind, I use anywhere from 25-40 packets of Splenda a day (no, I'm not exaggerating) and I drink at least one 12-oz. can of diet soda, and I am underweight. If artificial sweeteners truly caused weight gain, this would not be possible.

The bottom line is that artificial sweeteners are probably going to do much less damage, if any, to your health than regular sugar would, especially if you are prone to drinking a lot of sweetened beverages or eating a lot of desserts.