Fitness Gear: Artificial Sweeteners: How Harmful Are They?- Fitness Training For Life

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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Artificial Sweeteners: How Harmful Are They?

By Steve Edwards, with Denis Faye

This is the question on a lot of people's minds in light of recent studies that link artificial sweeteners to everything from weight gain to Alzheimer's. Fake sugar has been around for a long time but, until recently, has been able to stray from the crosshairs of legal scrutiny. There's always been scuttlebutt surrounding its safety but, for the most part, it's been dismissed as shoddy research and hippie science, which has allowed the sugar substitute industry to nearly triple over the last decade. Let's take a deeper look into the history of artificial sweeteners, the latest scientific warnings, and some realistic alternatives to playing the part of a human lab rat.

What happened to "calories in, calories out?"
As it turns out, calories may not be the be-all-end-all of nutrition when it comes to obesity. It's already well established that it's the types of calories that you eat, not simply the amounts, that matter when it comes to general health or athletic performance. But common diet lore has been that your weight is purely a function of a number assigned to the energy in your food that's deemed a calorie—a simple and convenient wrapping that's allowed the "no cal" industry to flourish.

The latest research strongly hints that maybe everything we eat, not just calories, is responsible for not only our health but our weight. Before we analyze the latest evidence, let's take a brief look at the history of sweeteners and how these odd combinations of chemicals became an integral part of our diets in the first place.

A brief history of fake sugar
In 1879, a Johns Hopkins University researcher accidentally spilled a synthetic chemical on his hand. For some reason, he took a lick, discovered it was sweet, and saccharin was born. Nearly a century later, it was found that it could cause cancer in lab rats. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) immediately tried to ban it, only to meet with overwhelming opposition from dieters and, surprise, the diet food industry. Congress settled the matter by requiring a warning label on any products containing saccharin. With a veritable wrist slap as a deterrent to disclaim a risk of cancer, the race for the perfect artificial sweetener was officially on.

Despite a slew of lawsuits, weird science, and other anecdotal evidence against it, the artificial sweetener business has chugged along with increasing effectiveness. Since 1987, the number of Americans who consume artificially sweetened products has more than tripled to nearly 200 million. During this same period, obesity rates have risen from 15 percent to over 30 percent. Here's a quick rundown of seven of the major players.

Saccharin (aka Sweet 'N Low). The oldest and most scrutinized chemical sweetener has been under fire pretty much ever since, well, foods could actually be under fire in the mainstream media. In the 1990s, it was discovered that rats and humans were physiologically different, so the mechanism that caused cancer in the rats didn't apply to us. The above-mentioned warning labels were scrapped, but then, in 2003, the National Cancer Institute released another study saying something along the lines of, "Oops, maybe it does cause bladder cancer after all." But, so far, no word on digging up those labels again; however, below you'll see that saccharin may have bigger fish to fry soon if it's going to stay on the market at all.

Stevia (aka Sweet Leaf or Honey Leaf). An herbal sweetener from South America, stevia is the only sweetener on this list that hasn't received FDA approval. In fact, due to studies on rats and hamsters showing that large doses of stevioside, the active ingredient in stevia, caused low sperm counts and abnormally small offspring, you'll probably never see it approved from the FDA or Health Canada, the European Union, or the World Health Organization. The upside is that it's been used by indigenous cultures for thousands of years, some of which don't seem abnormally small. Because it's natural and time-tested, it's become trendy with the whole-foods sect and can be found at most new age markets, sold as a supplement.

Sucralose (aka Splenda). Take sugar and chemically combine it with chlorine, and voilà! You have a product the human body can't process, so it passes right through. Sucralose has been animal tested and FDA approved. However, there are a few researchers who claim sucralose shrinks the thymus gland and enlarges the liver and kidneys. They also point out that this sweetener was discovered in 1976 and, therefore, hasn't been around long enough to show any long-term effects. Time will tell, but this is currently, despite the warnings, the fastest-rising sweetener on the market.

Aspartame (aka NutraSweet and Equal). This synthetic derivative of a combo of aspartic acid (an amino acid) and phenylalanine is a popular favorite for diet soda drinkers. The only people who absolutely shouldn't consume aspartame are people suffering from phenylketonuria because excess levels of phenylalanine in their blood can cause neurological, behavioral, and dermatological problems. Other research indicates that people can be aspartame-sensitive, receiving headaches from consuming it. Also, there are dozens of theories floating around pinning aspartame with brain tumors, chronic fatigue syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, and so on. Although no study has ever proven any of this, whether or not this compound is truly safe remains to be seen. Lately, negative research related to diet soda has been piling up, which is aspartame's monetary wheelhouse.

Acesulfame (aka Sunett). A sumptuous blend of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, sulphur, and potassium whipped up by the Germans in the 1960s, acesulfame isn't metabolized by the human body. Numerous studies suggest that acesulfame causes tumors in rats and mice, but the FDA has thrown out these studies for various reasons. Regardless, it's hard not to question the safety of this sweetener until more solid positive evidence is presented.

Sugar alcohols (aka isomalt, hydrogenated starch hydrolysates, or anything on an ingredients list ending in "-itol"). Not really sugar or alcohol, these are sugars fused with hydrogen. The body has a hard time digesting this combination—it usually does so in the intestines, meaning fewer calories absorbed per gram than other carbohydrates (usually about one or two). So you still get calories, only fewer. With no major side effects or even anecdotal bad news, this stuff could be a dieter's dream. Unfortunately, it's associated with regular minor problems, mainly intestinal upset. Common side effects of sugar alcohol are gas, bloating, and diarrhea.

D-Tagatose (aka Naturlose). A "natural" sweetener derived from dairy products, tagatose is similar to sugar alcohols in that it does have some caloric impact—1.5 calories per gram to be exact. The reason for this low number is that the enzymes in the intestines can't process the stuff, so most of it passes through undigested. The downsides of this can be bloating, nausea, and other more audible signs of gastric stress.

The entire history of sweeteners has been controversial but, until recently, not much of the evidence against them has struck a chord with the public. Not surprisingly, the only two that have seen anything affect their market share are the oldest, saccharin and sweet leaf. And, oddly enough, the only one of these that's been "permanently" removed from the FDA's approved list is the only natural one, sweet leaf, which incidentally is also the only one not produced chemically by a large corporation (generally synonymous with having the weakest legal team).

Some new studies could be changing the sweetener world as we've known it. While yet to be declared in any definitive way, each successive study has thrown fuel onto the anti-sweetener fire without a bit of evidence that's been able to slow the blaze. Given that most sweeteners on the market (even with FDA approval) haven't been around long enough for definitive long-term studies to be conclusive, that is a pretty strong indictment that we may want to use at least a little caution in regards to how much we consume.

If a weight loss program is something you are considering then look at the P90X workout to help you lose those extra pounds.

by: UltimateFitnessGear