Why artificial sweeteners cause you to gain weight by Dr. Shallenberger

Why artificial sweeteners cause you to gain weight

Volume 14 | Issue 67 June 16, 2017

If you eat sugar regularly, you have a greater chance of becoming overweight. No surprise there. As a result of this simple reality, many people go to sugar-free sweeteners as a substitute. But here's the catch. According to the authors of a recent study, "Population studies have shown that people who regularly use sugar-free sweeteners have been associated with an increased chance of obesity." But that's not all. The researchers go on to describe how previous studies have shown something you need to know. They found that when people eat a diet sweetened with regular sugar and then switch to the same diet sweetened with a sugar-free sweetener, the sugar-free diet causes more weight gain! How does that happen? The authors reasoned that it might have been because sugar-free sweeteners cause a decrease in metabolism. So, they set out to find out. To do the study, the researchers hired 24 rats, the four-legged kind. For the next 17 weeks, they gave half the rats a regular diet with added saccharin-sweetened yogurt. They gave the other half the same diet with sugar-sweetened yogurt. They used an "indirect calorimetry system" to measure their metabolisms before the study started, at the five-week and 12-week points, and at the end of the experiment. This is the same technology that doctors using BioEnergy Testing use to determine metabolism. During the 17 weeks, they also monitored their weight, total calorie intake, and calorie intake from the yogurt. Here's what happened.

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The body weights and metabolisms were similar in both groups at the beginning of the study. And the total calorie intake was similar throughout the study. At the end of the study, the sugar-free group "increased total weight gain significantly more in relation to the sugar group." At the 12-week point, the metabolism was already lower in the sugar-free group compared to the sugar group. And when the researchers analyzed the relationship between the increase in weight and the decrease in metabolisms they were able to determine that the weight gain was specifically due to the metabolic suppression of the saccharin. The researchers reached two conclusions. One, sugar-free sweeteners decrease the metabolic rate and cause weight gain that way. Two, sugar actually increases metabolic rate, and results in less weight gain than the sugar-free substitute. Here's my conclusion. One, nobody should be doing either. For the most part, we should all be avoiding not only sugar but also sugar-free sweeteners. There's no problem occasionally indulging in either. But don't make the mistake of thinking that sugar-free foods are going to help you lose weight. The opposite is likely to happen. By the way, you can find a doctor who can use BioEnergy Testing to determine your metabolism at www.bioenergytesting.com. Knowing your metabolism is critical for long-term weight control results.

Yours for better health,

Frank Shallenberger, MD

Source: Pinto DE, Foletto KC, et al. Long-term intake of saccharin decreases post-absorptive energy expenditure at rest and is associated to greater weight gain relative to sucrose in wistar rats. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2017 Feb 20;14:18.