And You Thought You Could Lose Weight With Artificial Sweeteners

A study has recently warned that consuming artificial sweeteners while dieting may increase the amount of calorie intake. Fake sugars are made up by chemicals that our bodies can't break down and we gain no nutritional value from them. Several researchers from University of Sydney in Australia offered fruit flies with various artificial sweeteners and carbohydrates and checked their food intake. Flies that consumed a low carbohydrate diet along with artificially sweetened food showed an immediate increase in food intake. Researchers said, that the increased intake of food was not observed in flies consuming unsweetened food.

Another study in the past had shown that the intake of artificial sweetened foods along with high carbohydrate diet reduces the food intake and in turn helps reduce the calorie consumption. Researches also examined, that flies that took both high carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners did not reduce their intake of food. Also, people who ate fake sugars along with carb-heavy meals, their bodies produced more insulin than needed which has been connected to diabetes.

An associate professor at University of Sydney, Greg Neely said "Distorting the perceived energy value of food, by manipulating sweetness through artificial means, has unanticipated consequences in these animal studies."

Further, Neely added that "Although originally considered benign, a growing body of research including our own makes clear a connection between artificial sweeteners, hunger and food intake."

In order to understand the impact of artificial sweeteners on overall health, we need to further investigate its effects on metabolism. Past studies of flies and mice revealed that intake of artificially sweetened foods increases hunger due to a complex neuronal network that responds to artificial sweeteners by telling that the animal has not eaten enough energy.

Therefore, there is no clear benefit of weigh loss but a possible association with weight gain when it comes to artificial sweeteners.

With inputs from PTI

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