This should be big - and about time. Studies have known about this for 40 years, and it’s known in some circles that aspartame is quite bad for your health.
Wonder what coke - and many other companies that use it - are going to do.
This should be big - and about time. Studies have known about this for 40 years, and it’s known in some circles that aspartame is quite bad for your health.
Wonder what coke - and many other companies that use it - are going to do.
Full disclosure I’m going completely tangential for this one.
I find it believable at best that aspartame can cause cancer, but causing weight gain just makes no sense to me.
I used to be FAT. 250 lbs. I didn’t really make that many changes to my diet, except for cutting refined sugars way back.
I switched to Diet Coke, got off the little debbies, and I slimmed right down and now I’m hovering around 135.
It would make sense to say that I would maintain that weight or maybe gained more if aspartame was as harmful as this article says, but I’m not seeing it.
Weight loss is not a single factor. No one will ever know what the actual causes for your weight loss are. It’s best to understand that anyone including you is just speculating.
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"While aspartame is a low-calorie artificial sweetener that’s often used as a sugar substitute in diet drinks and “sugar-free” foods, there is some research suggesting that consuming artificial sweeteners might paradoxically lead to weight gain. However, the evidence is not definitive and the topic is controversial. Here are some proposed mechanisms:
Altered Metabolic Response: Some research suggests that artificial sweeteners may interfere with the body’s mechanisms for metabolizing sugar. Essentially, because your body expects sugar (and the corresponding calories) when it tastes something sweet, the consumption of low-calorie sweeteners may lead to increased food intake and a desire for sweet foods because your body is trying to get the calories it’s expecting.
Changes in Gut Bacteria: There’s also some evidence that artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, might alter the bacteria in the gut in a way that promotes weight gain and fat accumulation.
Increased Appetite: Some studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may increase appetite, leading to increased calorie consumption.
Psychological Factors: Some people may consciously or unconsciously consume more calories elsewhere in their diet because they believe they are “saving” calories by using artificial sweeteners."
I’d definitely buy the appetite increase. I think there is good research into how the brain perceives through taste and other mechanisms to understand foods as calorically dense (sweetness, umami, fatty) causes reinforcing/reward of eating behavior, making you eat more. [I really had to hold back saying “neural pathways”. Always wanted to say that. I’m not really qualified to.]
This has the look that triggers my dietary literature skepticism, but it’s not very diet-y, mostly just on the science and previous studies as far as I’ve read so far The Hungry Brain.