This fall, a study published in the journal Nature suggests that the artificial sweeteners people use to prevent metabolic syndrome and diabetes are actually making things worse.
“Our findings suggest that non-caloric artificial sweeteners may have directly contributed to enhancing the exact epidemic that they themselves were intended to fight.” <1>
Researchers fed mice either water, water with sugar, or water with artificial sweetener. The mice with the artificial sweetener developed glucose intolerance (the step before diabetes) when the other two groups didn’t.
The really interesting part is that when the researchers eliminated the gut flora in our fury friends and then fed them the artificial sweeteners, the effect went away. The researchers suspect that artificial sweeteners alter our gut bacteria–for the worse.
What it Means for You
In light of this research, what should you do?
The solution is the same as it is for many things:. Eat foods that nature makes. Sucralose, aspartame, mannitol and the like were not made in nature. They were made in labs. Avoid them.
If you feel like something sweet, eat the real thing – organic raw cane sugar, honey, maple syrup, stevia, agave. Or better yet – eat fruit. It’s nature’s candy, no processing necessary.
Join the team from StoneTree Clinic at the Gayety Theatre on Wednesday, Oct 22nd at 7PM, where we are sponsoring the presentation of “Fed Up”. The film is a fantastic documentary about the damage the processed food and sugar industries are doing to our health and the health of our kids. Tickets at the doors $8, or seasons tickets available at the clinic. (Six GREAT documentaries for $40.)