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Why Artificial Sweeteners Make You Fat: What Do We Do Now?

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SodaWe’ve been hearing for years that artificial sweeteners are bad for you and can actually cause weight gain. This flies in the face of logic. After all, if you’re consuming fewer calories than you would if you were using sugar or honey, how could they encourage weight gain? And just how bad are they for you in other ways? We decided to stop asking ourselves these questions and get down to what appears to be the truth of the matter.

Artificial sweeteners have been around for more than 130 years; saccharin was developed in 1878 from coal tar derivatives (yum!). It didn’t enter widespread use until WWI, due to sugar shortages. But artificial sweeteners experienced a huge boost in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, as new sweeteners were introduced to satisfy the sweet tooth (teeth?) of dieters.[1] The rising tide of American obesity increased in step with the increase in consumption of artificially sweetened products, particularly diet sodas.

Artificial sweeteners have been controversial and subject to scrutiny almost from their inception. The USDA began investigating saccharin in 1907, and then proceeded to flipflop, proclaiming it an adulterant in 1911, then stating in 1912 that saccharin was not harmful to human health.

Cyclamates underwent similar scrutiny by the FDA in the 1960s, and is still banned in the U.S., spurring the development of alternatives such as aspartame and sucralose. Artificial sweeteners are in widespread use today in sodas, candies and other processed foods, as well as available on (almost) every restaurant table in America. Some, like stevia, claim to be derived from natural sources, the implication being that they are better for you than completely laboratory-derived products. (Most stevia products are actually highly processed.)

The basis for the story that artificial sweeteners promote weight gain comes from a study at Purdue University.[2] Rats were fed yogurt sweetened with glucose (table sugar) and compared to a group of rats fed yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin. Three different experiments were conducted to see whether saccharin changed the rats’ ability to regulate intake of calories. The saccharin-fed rats later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat and didn’t make up for it by cutting back on calories. This phenomenon occurred at statistically significant levels.

The researchers postulated that when the body detects sweetness, it gears up to consume a high-calorie food. When the false sweetness is not followed by the anticipated calories, it confuses the body’s connection between sweetness and calories. This leads to increased intake of calories and a blunted satiety response to overeating, leading to increased accumulation of fat.

Of course, these were rats, not people. Other studies have shown that at some level, the brain can distinguish between real and artificial sweeteners—but not, as it happens, if the person regularly consumes diet soft drinks. A diet soda drinker’s pleasure center in the brain will respond equally to either sucrose- or artificially sweetened sodas. Activity was diminished in an area of the brain called the caudate head in diet soda drinkers. Decreased activation of this area is associated with elevated risk of obesity.[3]

So far, we’ve learned that artificial sweeteners may blunt people’s satiety response, but that if they come in the form of diet soda, this effect may be worsened. Is there anything else out there to worry us about artificial sweeteners?

Although there have been many hoaxes perpetuated around artificial sweeteners and their alleged danger to human health, according to the FDA, all sweeteners currently on the market have been conclusively proven safe for human consumption.[4] There is no credible evidence that any of these sweeteners cause toxic reactions, cancer, seizures, or any of the other claims that have been lodged against them.

However, there is ample evidence they can make you fat. What more do we need to know? Artificial sweeteners are products that do the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

So what alternatives do we have? We know that sugar isn’t good for us, and we know that high fructose corn syrup is worse. Sugar alcohols (which are not alcohols) can raise blood glucose levels, although not usually to the level of sugar. Sugar alcohols (including maltitol, sorbitol and xylitol) can also cause gastric symptoms, especially in children.[5] Honey is no better than sugar, healthwise, especially if processed (raw honey may confer some health benefits in the form of trace minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals).

Fortunately, there are a number of alternatives for sweetening the morning cup of tea or coffee. Which you choose depends on your personal taste, plus where it falls on the glycemic index. Diabetics in particular need to find a low-glycemic-index sweetener they can live with if they wish to avoid artificial sweeteners.

Brown rice syrup. This has a distinct malty or nutty flavor. It falls high on the glycemic index at 85, which makes it unsuitable for diabetics. It does contain minute traces of arsenic because brown rice contains minute traces of arsenic, but not enough to harm you unless you’re really chugging the stuff—in which case, you might have other worries.

Coconut palm sugar. This is a pale brown, granulated sugar made from the sap of coconut palms. It has a pleasant, light flavor and is relatively low on the glycemic index at 35.

Barley malt syrup. This is derived from malted (sprouted) barley that is cooked until the starch converts to sugar. It comes as a syrup or powder and is 42 on the glycemic index.

Agave nectar. Made from the juice of the blue agave plant (the same plant used to make tequila). It’s low on the glycemic index, between 15 and 30, depending on whether you are using raw or refined syrup. The raw syrup is darker and has more flavor, while the refined is a light color and has less flavor.

Stevia. Stevia is 0 on the glycemic index although it is 200-300 times sweeter than table sugar. It is touted as a natural product, but the white powder you put in your iced tea is in fact the product of an intensive refining process (and may also contain maltodextrin, which is highly processed and may elevate blood sugar[6]). There are liquid tinctures of stevia available that are not highly processed.

The sweeteners mentioned here are widely available, affordable, and palatable to most people (although some people react strongly to the taste of stevia). Find out more about sweeteners and where they fall on the glycemic scale at http://www.organiclifestylemagazine.com/healthy-sugar-alternatives/

12 Ways Women Are Different from Men (No, Not That!)

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Men and women are equal under the law (at least that is the ideal). But when it comes to health, there are some big differences between the sexes. Here are 12 facts all women should know about how women’s health differs from men’s health:

1.       Heart. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Nearly five times as many women die from heart attacks every year than will die from breast cancer. Most people are aware of the signs of a heart attack—in men. In women, the symptoms may not be the same and are often harder to identify. Forty-three percent of women experience no chest pain at all during a heart attack. The top symptoms reported by women include:

  • Shortness of breath
  • Weakness
  • Fatigue

Women sometimes experience pre-heart attack symptoms up to a month prior to the actual attack. These symptoms are not necessarily ones you would associate with a heart attack, and include:

  • Unusual fatigue
  • Sleep disturbance
  • Shortness of breath
  • Indigestion
  • Anxiety

If you think you are experiencing a heart attack, call 911 immediately and crush or chew a full-strength aspirin and swallow with water.

2.     Sex. There is a generally-held belief that men hit their sexual peak at about 18, while women peak in their thirties. Studies do show that in men, testosterone levels drop 2% each year after they turn 30. Anecdotal evidence indicates that women may continue to peak for a long time, in part due to lessened childcare responsibilities, greater self-confidence, and other benefits of, if not getting older, at least not being young any more.

3.       Weight. It’s just so unfair—but women are more likely to be overweight than men. Women carry more fat than men naturally because it is essential for the energy needed to bear and nurse babies, so gaining weight just comes naturally to us. It also seems to be true that women have more difficulty losing weight. Men carry more muscle mass than women, and muscle mass is more metabolically active than fat. When women exercise, their burn rate is 37% lower than men, on average. So you can be doing all the same things as your hubby or significant other, and he’s going to be slimmer and trimmer than you. Just resign yourself to the awful truth, and eat less and exercise more than he does.

4.     Depression. Women are twice as likely as men to experience severe depression. Some of this gender gap may be due to women’s ever-changing hormones from puberty to menopause. The most critical symptom of depression is not feeling sad; most seriously depressed people report feeling nothing, or emotional numbness. Depression is treatable. In addition to seeing a doctor, exercise, good nutrition and good friends are important.

5.     Osteoporosis. Osteoporosis, or thinning of the bones due to loss of calcium, is far more prevalent in women than men. This is because estrogen plays a major role in the female body’s ability to absorb calcium. (Testosterone plays a similar, but less pronounced role in men.) There are usually no warning symptoms of osteoporosis until bones begin to fracture easily, so get a bone density scan on a regular basis once you start menopause. You can prevent osteoporosis by making sure you are getting enough calcium, either through supplements or in your diet. Women from 18 to 50 need 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day. When women turn 50, this should be increased to 1200 milligrams a day, according to the Mayo Clinic.

6.     Autoimmune disease. Three out of four people suffering from autoimmune disease are women. Autoimmune diseases occur when the body undergoes an immune response to its own tissues and naturally occurring bodily substances. Examples of this are lupus, eczema, and rheumatoid arthritis, but there are many more. There is nothing you can do to prevent an autoimmune disease, but many are either treatable or manageable.

7.     Drugs. When women get addicted, they experience more severe withdrawal symptoms than men and (perhaps as a consequence) find it more difficult to quit. Women produce less of the stomach acid required to break down ethanol and are the fastest-growing segment of the alcohol-abusing population in the U.S. Smoking has a more negative effect on cardiovascular health in women than in men.

8.     Pain. Women generally are more sensitive to pain than men. Women are also more likely to have chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, migraine, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

9.     Life Expectancy. Women tend to live 7.1 years longer than men in the U.S. (which is behind Cuba in average life expectancy, according to the United Nations). Harvard researchers speculate this is because women experience menopause, which protects them from the risk of further childbearing so they can help with rearing grandchildren (the “Grandmother Effect”). Few other species menstruate, and they are all species where the young remain dependent longer on parents to survive.

10.  Menopause. Men’s bodies change gradually over time, but women’s life changes are more profound and dramatic—none more than the onset of menopause. As just mentioned, menopause protects woman from dangerous late-life childbearing. It also stops the production of the hormones estradiol and progesterone, which in turn eliminates the ripening of eggs and the growth of uterine lining. Estrogen levels drop, but continues to be produced by the ovaries, bone, blood vessels, brain, and fat tissues. The hormone testosterone also declines over time (in men as well as women). However, many women find they are delighted with the cessation of menstrual flow and seldom miss the abrupt mood swings that sometimes accompany menstruation.

11.  The X Factor. This refers to the fact that women have two X chromosomes and men have one X and one Y. Initial research indicates that the micro-ribonucleic acid (RNA) in the X chromosome plays a role in strengthening the immune system, enabling it to ward off diseases and even cancer. Because men have only one X chromosome, if something goes wrong, they have no backup. Scientists think this may be why women live longer and tend to be somewhat healthier than men—and may also be the reason women experience more autoimmune diseases than men.

12.  Heart Rate Variability. HRV is the variability in timing between one heartbeat and the next. This is a function of the “tug-of-war” between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems. High variability (in microseconds; we’re not talking about afibrillation here) indicates good health and low stress. When stress is high or health is poor, the tug-of-war degrades, resulting in lower HRV. HRV tends to be somewhat higher in men than in women, though the reason for this is unknown. It is important to know that you can train yourself to raise your HRV—thereby lowering stress and increasing your resilience and energy. This can be done merely by doing measured deep breathing. SweetBeat™, the iPhone app from SweetWater Health, monitors HRV and helps train you to raise your HRV levels.

Canola Oil: Why Not Just Drink Gasoline?

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Fat, fat, fat, fat. So much controversy swirls around various forms of fat. First we’re told coconut oil is deadly—then it’s a healthy miracle food. Then we’re told butter is poison—but now, it, too, has assumed the virtuous glow of health. Margarine is the healthy butter substitute—but now we hear it clogs your arteries. Olive oil, once eschewed by American cooks because it added flavors to food, is now lauded by American cooks because it adds flavors to food (and it’s good for you).

So what about the humble kitchen standby for cooking, canola oil? It’s tasteless and it contains high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, so it should be good for you, right?

Well, apparently not so much. Canola oil is not only bad for you, it’s horrendously bad for you.

Let’s start at the beginning. Have you ever seen a canola plant? No, you haven’t, because there is no such thing. The word “canola” was made up. Originally, it stood for “Canadian oil low-acid.” This is because growers in Canada believed, with good reason, that Americans would not want to eat something called “rapeseed oil.” It also sounded like “granola,” so the producers reasoned it would be perceived as a healthy food.

Rape is a member of the mustard/cabbage family. It has pretty, bright yellow flowers. It’s grown for its seeds—but unprocessed rapeseed has never been used for food, as has mustard seed. That’s because the seeds contain as much as 45% erucic acid, which is a poison. Insects won’t eat the seeds, and natural, unprocessed rapeseed is poisonous to humans and other animals. It causes deposits of fatty acids in the heart and thickening of the cardiac walls, which can lead to valve dysfunction and heart failure. Erucic acid can cause these effects even in quantities as small as 2%, which is the percentage of erucic acid allowed in canola oil in the United States. Rapeseed also contains glycosides, which interfere with thyroid functioning.

Growers have genetically modified the rape plant to produce lower concentrations of erucic acid and glycosides, but the oil must still be processed before it meets the standards set for food-grade oil. Using heat and hexane (and other solvents) strips more of the erucic acid from the oil, but turns the omega-3 fatty acids rancid. These are solidified and removed by partially hydrogenating the oil, which produce free radicals and some trans-fatty acids (known to create fatty deposits on arterial walls).

When Canadian researchers fed formula containing canola oil to piglets, the piglets developed vitamin E deficiency, even though the formula contained sufficient vitamin E for their nutritional needs. Vitamin E deficiency can lead to a boatload of health problems including anemia, muscular weakness, increased risk of heart disease and cancer, and more.

So what has been marketed to the North American public as heart-healthy oil, high in omega-3 fatty acids, is actually an unhealthy, genetically modified trans-fat that can damage vital organs, deplete vitamin E and promote disease. And it’s everywhere. Even if you don’t use it for cooking, canola oil is in many thousands of processed foods such as salad oils, baby foods, sauces, marinades, canned foods, baked goods, and so on.

So I don’t know about you, but when I learned this, I went through every bottle, can and jar in my kitchen and read the ingredients. Anything that contained canola oil went into the trash, never to be purchased by me again. If you want more details, there’s an excellent article in the November-December 2012 issue of Wellbeing Journal entitled “Canola Oil: Is It Healthy?” by Brian Fife, ND. It’s a pretty scary article—and I bet you, too, will clean out your kitchen after reading it!

The Anatomy of Desire

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In “The Willpower Instinct,” by Stanford University psychology instructor Kelly McGonigal, she defines willpower as composed of three parts: “I Will, I Won’t and I Want.” These three functions reside in the prefrontal cortex of the brain—something we humans have more of than most other animals.

“I Will” is the function that allows you to get things done, even if they are hard. “I Won’t” is the function that prevents you from eating something unhealthy or spending more money than you should. “I Want” is the function that tells you what you desire—what you really desire. So when your sweet tooth is screaming at you to drink a chocolate frappucino, “I Want” can remind you that what you really desire is losing 15 pounds. These three elements combine to create what we call willpower—the ability to control impulses that tempt us to do things that may not be in our best interests.

Our willpower is often at odds with our impulsive self, rooted in a deeper, more primitive part of the brain. We still need that older, less sophisticated system because it also provides us with valuable instincts such as fear and disgust that work to keep us safe and healthy. But our baser selves are always urging us to act on impulse, so it’s a pretty constant struggle.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to increase willpower, according to McGonigal: meditation. Dr. McGonigal is a scientist, not a Buddhist nun or new-age guru, and she backs up her assertions with scientific evidence.

The enemy of impulse is mindfulness: being present and aware of what you are doing and which decisions you are making at all times. A lot of poor decisions can be made while you are thinking about something else. For example, how many times have you suddenly come to the realization during a meal that you have eaten more than you intended, or eaten something that you shouldn’t have? Maybe you were reading a book or talking to a friend, and “didn’t notice”. That was your impulsive self, slipping one over on the prefrontal cortex while you were distracted. When you are fully aware of your decisions, you are more likely to make the right ones.

Meditation improves mindfulness. Neuroscientist have discovered that meditation trains the brain to become better at self-control, including “attention, focus, stress management, impulse control, and self-awareness,” according to McGonigal’s book. Just three hours of meditation practice led to an increase in these benefits, and after 11 hours, novice meditators increased the neural connections needed for focus and impulse control. Eight weeks of daily meditation increased the gray matter of the prefrontal cortex and led to increased self-awareness, or mindfulness in the individuals studied.

Meditation is easy, and does not necessarily involve spiritual seeking or levitation, or any of those other weird things you sometimes hear about. It is a matter of setting aside a period of time to sit and be quiet (including the inner voice we always hear). Be quiet, don’t fidget, and focus on something neutral, like breathing. It isn’t necessary to turn off that inner voice entirely; just notice that you have become distracted, and return to your focus on breathing. Start with five minutes and work up to a longer period. Even distracted meditation is better than none and will have positive benefits, so don’t get discouraged.

For excellent and simple instruction on how to meditate, see page 26 of McGonigal’s book, “The Willpower Instinct”. There are also several meditation resources online—try Googling “how to meditate” and you’ll find something that works for you.

Stress Makes You Old

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We all know that stress isn’t good for you, but there’s growing evidence that stress can age you prematurely.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology / Medicine, researches telomeres at the University of California, San Francisco. Telomeres are the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. Chromosomes carry our genetic information. Telomeres are formed by telomerase, an enzyme that repairs the telomeres when they wear down. As cells replicate themselves, the telomeres tend to get shorter, resulting in the aging of the body.

Dr. Blackburn discovered that chronic stress accelerates the shortening of the telomeres, resulting in premature aging. The longer the duration of the stress, the shorter the telomeres and the more reduced the telomerase activity. The aging can take many forms, but Dr. Blackburn and her fellow researchers found that it commonly resulted in cardiovascular disease and impaired immune response.

In other words, stress can prematurely age the cells in your body and cause disease. Blackburn’s research indicates that among the diseases that may be encouraged by shortened telomeres is cancer. Telomere maintenance is essential to cell division. When the telomeres are not well maintained, it causes disruption of cell division and prevents the immune system from working efficiently, promoting cancer. In addition, a poor immune system can provoke inflammation, which also promotes cancer.

So what can you do about it? Apart from avoiding the things that we know cause cell damage, such as smoking, you can take steps to actively reduce stress. The less stressed you are, the more active your telomerase and the more efficient the telomere repair process.

It’s important to note that many people do not know when they are stressed. Chronically stressed people often are unaware of the stress they experience all the time, because that feels “normal” to them.

Even people who are not chronically stressed can experience stress and not know it. Personal example: I was sitting at my computer, reading some background material. I was using SweetBeat™, the iPhone stress management app from our company, SweetWater Health. There was nothing in the material that was particularly stressful. I felt relaxed and comfortable. Here’s a graph of my session:

Unfortunately, the chart is hard to read as a jpeg, but it gives you an idea. The gold line is stress. The blue line is heart rate, expressed in beats per minute. The green line is heart rate variability (HRV). My heart rate stayed at its usual resting rate, somewhere in the high 40’s. My HRV is high, especially for someone my age (early 60’s), which is good. But my stress went from very low to extremely high.

I was completely unaware that I was stressed. I still don’t know what caused the stress, as I was reading a paper about the relationship between food sensitivities and weight gain—not calculated to cause alarms and upset in most people, but I guess it is somehow scary to me!

Occasionally, people who start using SweetBeat to monitor stress are dismayed because they are “always in the red” on the stress scale. These tend to be chronically stressed people, whether they know it or not. Being “in the red” all the time is discouraging, so sometimes they stop using SweetBeat altogether because “it must be wrong.” Instead, you can use SweetBeat to overcome chronic stress by doing the following:

  1. Set your stress sensitivity to 1, which is the least-sensitive reading. This should prevent you from being in the red all the time.
  2. In the app settings, set your stress alarm to red, which means that you won’t be notified that you are stressed until you reach the highest level.
  3. When you receive a stress alarm, SweetBeat will automatically bring up the Relax screen with a breath pacer (this can be turned on and off in the app’s settings).
  4. Use the breath pacer in the Relax screen to bring your stress down. The breath pacer is precisely timed to balance your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to reduce stress.

Consistent use of SweetBeat over time will decrease your stress levels and also train you how to proactively reduce stress. Eventually, you can up your stress sensitivity level until you are at level 5 without always being in the red. At this point, your chronic stress is under control and you can stop worrying about your telomeres!