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Artificial sweetener tied to weight gain
Herald Sun ^ | February 11, 2008 | Reuters

Posted on 02/10/2008 9:22:11 PM PST by neverdem

USING an artificial, no-calorie sweetener rather than sugar may make it tougher, not easier, to lose weight, US researchers said today.

Scientists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studied rats that were fed food with the artificial sweetener saccharin and rats fed food with glucose, a natural sugar.

In comparison to rats given yogurt sweetened with glucose, those that ate yogurt sweetened with saccharin went on to consume more calories and put on more weight and body fat.

The researchers said sweet foods may prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, but when sweetness in the form of artificial sweeteners is not followed by a large amount of calories, the body gets confused, which may lead to eating more or expending less energy than normal.

"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with high-calorie sugar,'' Purdue researchers Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson wrote in the journal, Behavioural Neuroscience, published by the American Psychological Association.

"Such an outcome may seem counterintuitive, if not an anathema, to human clinical researchers and health care practitioners who have long recommended the use of low- and no-calorie sweeteners as a means of weight control.''

Other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame that also taste sweet but do not lead to the delivery of calories may have similar effects, the researchers said.

"Animals may use sweet taste to predict the caloric contents of food. Eating sweet noncaloric substances may degrade this predictive relationship,'' the researchers wrote.

"With the growing use of noncaloric sweeteners in the current food environment, millions of people are being exposed to sweet tastes that are not associated with caloric or nutritive consequences,'' the researchers added.

The...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aspartame; calories; diabetes; glucose; health; nutrition; obesity; saccharin; sugar; sweetener
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To: AFreeBird

Dear God it has been a long cold brutal winter....

Visions of ocean summer breezes and Old fashion Rocky Road Ice cream.

Since we are homebound as of the last year perhaps I might get enough time to make some home made ice cream...but that would be a whole nother thread on how to. ; )


81 posted on 02/11/2008 6:52:51 PM PST by Global2010 (Election 2008 like playin Shoots and Ladders (ages 5 and up))
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To: Arthur McGowan
The “dangers” of aspartame are a hoax.

No it's not. Aspartame gives a certain amount of people awful migraine headaches and I am one of them. The stuff turns to some wierd chemical in the body that the body just does not know what to do with, so a lot of it end up resting in the tissues. It would be about as healthy to drink some chemicals, diluted slightly, from out in your garage or under your sink. It's really a scandal that the FDA approved the poison aspartame, but it isn't the first time (nor the last) a federal agency has screwed up.

82 posted on 02/11/2008 6:59:48 PM PST by webschooner
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To: AFreeBird
Chlorine? I was always under the impression that chlorine is not so good for ingesting.

Chlorine in the form of chloride is a safe and natural element present in many of the foods and beverages that we eat and drink every day. It is in most natural water supplies, and is also found in lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, melons, peanut butter and table salt.

So I do have a sweet tooth, I don't indulge it daily, but when I do, it's real sugars.

Like you, I eat what I want and enjoy many of the same things. I don't want them to find Lean Cuisine in me if they have to do an autopsy. Life's too short. I wish we wouldn't protect our sugar industry so we could pay less for it and the food industry would use it more. Coke made with sugar is far and away better than what's available today. It's even better when mixed with a little Jack.

I still have a 32" waist, weigh 175 or so pounds, and am 5'10", and am in my upper 40's.

We may share the same tastes in food but, unfortunately, we don't share the same metabolism. I do however, remember having a 32" waist and weighing 185.

83 posted on 02/11/2008 7:24:18 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde
marker for later study
84 posted on 02/11/2008 7:24:21 PM PST by JustaDumbBlonde (Laissez les bons temps roulez!)
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To: Kodie39
Good to see you on the thread. You never did get back to me on whether aspartame is an excitotoxin or an autotoxin. Did you ever find a source to prove that eating steak, potatoes and red wine causes neuronal cell death, stroke, Huntington's disease and early Alzheimer's?

Have you quit drinking fruit juice altogether because it contains methanol, which is a deadly poison?

85 posted on 02/11/2008 7:49:09 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace

They absolutely don’t need soda.

The main time my kids get sodas is with kid’s meals at like McDonald’s. My kids are getting older and want more grown up food. If they get a grown up meal at a restaurant, then they don’t get soda.

We’ve also cut way down on fruit drinks. The main one I buy is the orange juice that has calcium in it. The other juices are for special occasions like when they are sick.


86 posted on 02/11/2008 7:58:24 PM PST by luckystarmom
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To: hosepipe
I think you are missing something.. "the dose" of it.. the quanitiy of it.. and maybe aome other interactions not included here.. Aspertame does not occur naturally in food in such large doses..

Well, the dosage does make the poison but in the case of diet drinks aspartame accounts for less than 1% of the total product. Aspartame does not occur naturally in food but the three components that make up aspartame do. You will get a lot more of these three by eating a steak, potatoes, vegetables and a glass of fruit juice, red wine or a fermented dairy product than you will from drinking a Diet Coke.

87 posted on 02/11/2008 7:58:58 PM PST by Mase (Save me from the people who would save me from myself!)
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To: reagan_fanatic

My kids like it with orange juice.


88 posted on 02/11/2008 8:02:12 PM PST by luckystarmom
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To: neverdem
About two years ago my son began to have some very serious neurological problems. He was unable to work for over three months. The doctors were of no help at all. Son and daughter-in-law finally found the answer to his problems on their own by tracking his episodes and then deliberately testing. It was Splenda poisoning.

Recently, they were at a potluck and someone brought hot dogs & beans. Son had a serving and immediately began to get woozy. They found out later that one of the ingredients in the hot dogs was a little bit of Splenda. The amount he ingested had to have been very tiny but it was enough to put him out of commission for hours. He also experienced the same thing once when he started to chew a piece of sugarless gum. It took six hours to get back to normal that time.

This is the web site where I found a lot of information on Splenda poisoning: The site tells of many problems caused by Splenda and other artificial sweeteners. They are varied and can be serious. They sure were for my son!

89 posted on 02/11/2008 8:14:29 PM PST by jemckay19
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To: jemckay19

Sorry, the web site didn’t post. Here is my second try.

http://splendasickness.blogspot.com/2006/03/spaced-out-unfocused-light-headed-or.html


90 posted on 02/11/2008 8:16:40 PM PST by jemckay19
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To: reagan_fanatic
What's a soda junkie to do?

I just went through this myself. Drank Snapples all day long - for years. Stopped drinking them to see if stopping the caffeine would help me sleep better. It totally does.

What do I drink now? There's a whole world of other stuff out there to drink. Cranberry juice, tomato juice, orange juice, apple juice... Now I only drink a cup of Snapple at breakfast (and no later, so that the caffeine won't affect my sleep). The rest of the day, I drink all the other stuff. I'm really enjoying the variety. And - because of it - my diet is better.

91 posted on 02/11/2008 8:33:34 PM PST by my_pointy_head_is_sharp (Hillary is a Pig. McCain is a Rat. Obama is an Ox. Huckabee is a Sheep. Bill Clinton is a Dog.)
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To: reagan_fanatic

Here’s what I’ve done. I mix half a glass of orange juice (the best kind, not made from concentrate) with plain, low sodium soda water. Now I like it better than any soda, and it’s healthy! You can also get extra low sodium soda water, if that’s an issue.


92 posted on 02/11/2008 9:18:17 PM PST by edweena
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To: neverdem
OK, so it is time for ethical human experiments with informed consent.

We already eat the stuff. It would be more a matter of cataloging at this point.
93 posted on 02/11/2008 10:24:02 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: jemckay19; Mase; ByDesign; Defiant; austinmark; FreedomCalls; IslandJeff; JRochelle; MarMema; ...
Popular sweetner sucralose as a migraine trigger.

Sucralose (trichlorogalactosucrose, or better known as Splenda) is an artificial sweetener from native sucrose that was approved by the FDA on April 1, 1998 (April Fool's Day). This observation of a potential causal relationship between sucralose and migraines may be important for physicians to remember this can be a possible trigger during dietary history taking. Identifying further triggers for migraine headaches, in this case sucralose, may help alleviate some of the cost burden (through expensive medical therapy or missed work opportunity) as well as provide relief to migraineurs.

Enter sucralose and (adverse effects or toxicity) into PubMeds's query box. If anyone has a better search strategy, please let me know.

Sucralose: lack of effects on sperm glycolysis and reproduction in the rat.

Here's an excerpt from a long abstract:

Increased kidney weights, possibly associated with increased water intake, were observed primarily among animals receiving 3% sucralose (no renal histopathology has been detected). Decreased thymus weights occurred in F(1) males and in both F(1) and F(2) females at the 3% level.

94 posted on 02/12/2008 12:19:58 AM PST by neverdem (I have to hope for a brokered GOP Convention. It can't get any worse.)
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To: kinoxi
We already eat the stuff. It would be more a matter of cataloging at this point.

Well that's being done with acute toxicity case reports only, AFAIK. I would like to see some double blind, placebo controlled studies with sucrose, HFCS, and the assorted artificial sweeteners . We have fit volunteer populations in the service members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are not obese. Pay them a tax free bonus. Let's see who adds weight and only fat.

95 posted on 02/12/2008 1:28:20 AM PST by neverdem (I have to hope for a brokered GOP Convention. It can't get any worse.)
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To: neverdem

The population is diverse (nearly everyone). Why test on soldiers?


96 posted on 02/12/2008 1:34:02 AM PST by kinoxi
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To: endthematrix
There are no differences between "simple" and "complex" carbohydrates provided your body is equipped to digest them.

They all end up as sugar.

What was being discussed here is something that tastes sweet ~

If you're a diabetic weight control is not the primary thing on your mind.

97 posted on 02/12/2008 9:26:20 AM PST by muawiyah
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To: neverdem

-—— placemark ping while I go throw out all the diet sodas.


98 posted on 02/12/2008 9:29:07 AM PST by spotbust1 (Procrastinators of the world unite . . . . .tomorrow!!!)
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To: Mase

I’m just curious what you also think about trans-fats.


99 posted on 02/12/2008 1:06:37 PM PST by ReagansShinyHair
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To: Arthur McGowan
Diet sodas contain dihydrogen oxide, too—and that’s a chemical they use in abortion clinics!

Ban dihydrogen monoxide!

100 posted on 02/12/2008 1:07:49 PM PST by ReagansShinyHair
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