Artificial Sweeteners

I recommend avoiding all artificial sweeteners in virtually all situations because I believe fake sugars can have an adverse effect on your health. These include the traditional ones such as aspartame and saccharine, to those considered natural such as stevia. Some say the research is still not clear on this issue, but I say why wait when there’s enough information to suggest that they are harmful. Artificial sweeteners are used in many food items: diet soda, chewing gum, ice cream, iced tea mixes, and many other products. If you want to avoid them, you must read the labels.

While substances such as saccharin are not recommended for children or pregnant women, and aspartame has been related to an increased incidence of migraine headaches and allergic reactions, another fact has been ignored: The use of artificial sweeteners is most often accompanied by increased consumption of food. In other words, if you use artificial sweeteners, studies show you often end up eating more food, usually sweets. What’s worse is that you may store more fat as well. Researchers are unclear why this happens, but certain factors seem to be implicated. It may be a learned process by the body. The tasting of sweet substances may cause the body to store, rather than burn, fat. Or, it may be related to the dehydration that accompanies consumption of artificial sweeteners. This may trigger the brain to increase the appetite and food intake as a means of restoring water balance. In addition, eating low-calorie substances will lower the body’s metabolism. This will not only cause the body to store more fat but will also activate the need to eat more food.

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Question: I suffer from an eating disorder and yo-yo dieting. This, coupled with occasional training burnout—my maximum triathlon training is about fifteen hours per week—result in a weight gain/loss spread of thirty to forty pounds during the course of a year. I usually place in the top quarter of my age-group in races. I am forty-six years old. How can I hope to stabilize my diet and weight and maintain a constant training regimen?
Answer: First, understand that this is a truly serious health problem. Second, decide that you want to make the necessary changes in fitness and health a priority. Whether you do this on your own, with the help of a close friend, or with guidance from an appropriate health-care professional, one of the next steps is to build a great aerobic base. But in order to do this, you may have to make many significant changes in your life. One may be your diet. For example, if you’re carbohydrate intolerant, fat burning may never improve significantly enough and brain chemistry may be unbalanced. Another change may be needed with training. You may have to come to the realization that training at the appropriate level—most likely a lot slower than you’re used to—is an important part of the process. Learning about all the brain and body’s physical, chemical, and mental aspects, focusing on areas most necessary to start, is a long process, but changes come quickly when you make the appropriate adjustments.

Some people argue that artificial sweeteners reduce calories. You may be fooled into believing that you are buying a morehealthful, low-calorie food when you choose a product made with fake sugar. But by using an artificial sweetener instead of a teaspoon of honey, for example, you’re avoiding only fifteen calories or less. This is not a significant caloric factor. Not only that, counting calories, as discussed elsewhere, is unhealthy.

Clearly if you want to be healthy and continually improve your aerobic system, fat burning, and endurance, it’s important to understand how carbohydrates can affect overall health, especially in relation to your particular needs. In general, refined carbohydrates are best eliminated. The best choices are fruits, legumes, and unprocessed whole grains if tolerated, with small amounts of honey as a sweetener. As you begin to choose your carbohydrate foods more wisely, you will notice your endurance and overall health improve significantly.