Most people think that because artificial sweeteners do not contain sugar they will not make you fat.
However, studies have shown that artificial sweeteners like aspartame actually make you feel more hungry, increase carbohydrate cravings, and ultimately cause weight gain.
That is the rather surprising finding of a particular study carried out by Brazilian scientists on rats.
The artificial sweeteners saccharin and aspartame were discovered to cause more weight gain than common table sugar.
However, the scientists speculate that a decrease in energy expenditure, or an increase in water retention, might be involved. That is because artificial sweeteners contain far fewer calories than sugar, hence the belief that they cannot make you fat.
Aspartame consists of the chemicals aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The latter part is modified to carry a methyl group, which tastes buds detect as being sweet.
The phenylalanine methyl bond is fairly weak. That means the methyl group easily breaks away to link up with a hydroxyl radical to form the alcohol methanol.
Some say that aspartame is harmless because methanol is also found in fruits and vegetables. However, that is too simplistic. In fruits and vegetables, methanol is bonded to pectin, which allows it pass through gut with no problems.
This is not so for methanol created by aspartame. That alcohol is not easily eliminated from the body. Instead, it is carried into brain tissue and bone marrow. There, it is converted by an alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme into methanal, which is commonly known as formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde damages sensitive proteins and DNA. Humans do not have a protective mechanism that allows methanol to be broken down into harmless methanoic acid. Other animals do.
This is why toxicology tests on animals which reveal no problem with artificial sweeteners should not be trusted. Those tests do not apply to humans.
So as well as making you become overweight and fat, artificial sweeteners such as aspartame can also turn into methanol - a very toxic alcohol.
Some artificial sweeteners therefore ultimately do not help with weight loss, contrary to popular belief.
The best thing to do if you are concerned about the amount of sugar in your diet is to avoid eating sweet foods and drinking sweetened beverages.
Getting over sugar cravings is difficult to do if you have been used to it all your life. Change your diet so that you eat more fruits and leafy green vegetables full of fibre.
Fibre-rich foods are slow to digest and will reduce sugar cravings because you feel full for longer.
Another benefit of eating foods rich in dietary fibre are the elevated levels of minerals and vitamins you get from them. Those alone can help curb your sugar cravings because the body will not be searching for nutrients all the time.
George Blays writes a weekly newsletter on ways to lose weight and other health issues. You can subscribe to it for free here.
George also writes a blog on health, fat loss, food, and dieting. Visit it here at George Blay's Blog
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/George_Blays/2299554
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