Think you're helping your weight loss because you're saving calories with artificial sweeteners?

Put down that pink/yellow/blue packet and step away from your latte.

New research from scientists at Purdue University claim that artificial sweeteners, long thought to aid in dieting, actually makes it tougher to lose weight. Because sweet foods normally prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, the body gets confused when the taste of sweetness from an artificial sweetener is not followed by a calorie flux. You'll eventually end up eating more, or burning fewer calories.

Guess that means I'm going back to plain old sugar.

Nicole has already given her review of Coke Blak, a few months ago. She really liked it. I finally tried to new drink last week, so I thought I'd give my review too.

First off, it wasn't easy finding the drink. I found the four packs at a lot of supermarkets, but I've never been one of those people that takes one bottle out of a six pack, and I never wanted to spend the money on an entire four pack, so I always passed. Luckily I found a Walgreens in Boston that was selling individual bottles.

I wish I hadn't bought a single bottle either...

The UK's Soil Association, which opposes the use of hormones in farming, is calling for a comprehensive testing programme of all imported beef. They wish to ensure that all beef sold in the UK is (growth) hormone free.

The cite a report put out by Danish scientists that indicates that growth hormone residues may be more damaging to babies and children than previously thought.

They are certianly attempting to look after the UK consumer as the testing programme call follows one just last month that requested the ban on the use of Aspartame following health concerns thrown up by Italian researchers.

Many years ago I switched from sugar to one of those artificial sweeteners; used them for years until a scare story linking Aspartame with an increased risk of cancer made me switch again. Now my thinking goes that unrefined natural sugar may hold more calories but at least it is as natural as possible.

The Wall Street Journal (limited access unless you are a subscriber) reported yesterday that the EU has found no evidence of a link between Aspartame and cancer; this supports an American study from last month that reached the same conclusion.

The experts also confirmed that the safe daily level of Aspartame (40 milligrams per kilo of body weight) was well above what people consume normally. You would need to ingest 80 of the little packets to exceed the level.

A quick search on google revealed dozens of sites (I wont link to them as many are pure sensationalist stuff) glorifying the horrors of this additive so it may take awhile for the true facts to be generally accepted.

 

 

Millions of people drink aspartame each day in their diet sodas and other sugar-free foods, though there are many other sweetener options to choose from. The brand name artificial sweeteners made with aspartame include Equal and Nutra-Sweet. In the past, study results have suggested that there might be a link between aspartame consumption and increased risk of some types of cancer, particularly when aspartame consumption was unusually high. Virtually all of these previous studies were in groups of rats, not people, and the amount of aspartame given to rats was up to several times their body weight - a feat which might be physically impossibly to do via diet cola consumption.

A new federal study has looked at people, not rodents, and shows that there was no increased cancer risk from aspartame consumption. The researchers in the study looked at over 500,000 American diets to draw their conclusions. The study has been praised by consumer groups and was presented to the American Association of Cancer research earlier this week. (Our sister blog - The Cancer Blog - is also talking about this study.)