The substitute of sugar can cause the appearance of excess weight
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
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Currently, a lot of people devote enough time to a healthy diet and limits the use of sweets, fats and preservatives. Many popular diets today suggest a complete rejection of sugar and products containing it. Instead of sugar in such cases, use a variety of artificial substitutes, which are designed to reduce caloric content during the preparation of sweet foods and help people adhere to dietary nutrition and stay slimmer.
Recent food studies of sugar substitutes have shown that replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners can have the opposite effect to the expected. Sugary substitutes can not only have a harmful effect on the body, but also contribute to the formation of excess weight in people who regularly take it.
Researchers from the American University of Purdue (USA, Indiana) recently conducted a series of experiments to prove that a sugar substitute can cause the appearance of excessive weight. The first studies were conducted on small rodents: scientists divided 20 white rats into two equal groups, which for several months were fed with different food. The first group was fed with a sour-milk product with plain white sugar, and the second - with the same yoghurt with the addition of saccharin. Saccharin is a product that is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar, but which, at the same time, is not absorbed by the living organism and is eliminated in a holistic manner. Like other artificial sweeteners, saccharin is not nutritious and does not contain calories. Artificial sweeteners practically do not contain carbohydrates, and getting on the receptors of the tongue, cause instant sensation of sweetness. In addition to saccharin, acesulfame, cyclamate and other sugar substitutes are isolated.
A few months after the start of the study, scientists noticed that rodents who consumed a fermented milk product with a sugar substitute gained more weight than those rats that ate yogurt with sugar. Also, scientists noticed that rats fed a sugar substitute ate 2-3 times more rodents from another group.
In the course of the study, a group of scientists found out that the reason for the illogical outcome of the experiment is that more artificial sweeteners are not able to influence the level of glucose in the blood and, accordingly, do not increase it. As a result, a person does not have a feeling of fullness in the process of eating. In the brain, the saturation signal comes a little later and the animal had time to eat a portion 2-2.5 times more than the rodent who consumed food with white sugar.
Also, scientists warn that the sugar substitute can change the natural mechanisms of perception of taste in the human body. Sweet taste subconsciously can help a person to estimate the possible calorie content of food, which can not help but affect the perception of taste and the speed of metabolism. Sugary substitutes "confuse" the body in the process of food intake and a person can suddenly grow appetite or slow metabolism. A person who is accustomed to following a diet and his weight, pays attention to the caloric content of each consumed product, and sugar substitutes can lull vigilance, because due to zero caloric value, for example, saccharin, a person does not take into account the amount of food eaten with it.
An additional point, which confirms the negative impact of sugar substitutes on health and the weight of people who use it, is statistics, which shows the number of people suffering from obesity in countries where the sugar substitute is used every day more often.