I’ve often heard people say “Oh, I’ll take sweetener; I’m on a diet.” There are scientific studies that support the theory that sweeteners have a role in gaining weight. The artificial sweeteners throw your body off balance – it confuses it – and causes your appetite to increase, for you to store more fat in addition to gaining weight, and it slows down your metabolism.
A study in the Journal of Behavioral Neuroscience concluded that artificial sweeteners do not prevent weight gain. To the contrary, that study concluded that artificial sweeteners causes physiological and hormonal responses that may actual make you gain weight. That sounds crazy, but it’s true.
In 2008, researchers performed a test on two groups of rats. The first group was given yogurt with sugar, and the second group was given yogurt sweetened with saccharin. The test took place over a very short period of time. Three findings were clear:
There was a dramatic increase in food eaten over 14 days by the rats given saccharin – the artificial sweetener stimulated the rates appetite and made them eat more
The rats gain a lot of weight, but their body fat increased significantly
The core body temperate of the rats feed saccharin was lower, meaning it decreased their metabolism
So next time someone offers you fat-free yogurt with artificial sweeteners, or tea with artificial sweeteners, run. Don’t be rude, but turn and run.
