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Sugar-Free Products Might Actually Stop Us From Getting Slimmer (dw.com)

Nutritionists suspected that artificial sweeteners weren't really helping people lose weight, according to a new article submitted by schwit1. Now there's hints of proof in a new aspartame study by the Massachusetts General Hospital. "We found that aspartame blocks a gut enzyme called intestinal alkaline phosphatase," explains Professor Hodin. IAP is produced in the small intestine. "We previously showed [this enzyme] can prevent obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome [a disease characterized by a combination of obesity, high blood pressure, a metabolic disorder and insulin resistance]. So, we think that aspartame might not work because, even as it is substituting for sugar, it blocks the beneficial aspects of IAP...."

The researchers confirmed their suspicions via a variety of tests on mice. In one case, they fed IAP directly to mice, who were also on a high-fat diet. It turned out that the IAP could effectively prevent the emergence of the metabolic syndrome. It also helped relieve symptoms in animals that were already suffering from the obesity-related illness.

172 comments

  1. Good then bad then good by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sugar free. First good. Then bad. Then good. Now bad again. Much like eggs (which seem to bounce between good and bad every 6-8 years). Moderation is really the key. Eat moderately, exercise moderately and you'll be OK.. Unless your genes say otherwise, that is...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    1. Re:Good then bad then good by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 1

      Dr. Orva: Here. You smoke this, and be sure you get the smoke deep down into your lungs.

      Miles Monroe: I don't smoke.

      Dr. Orva: It's tobacco. It's one of the healthiest things for your body. Now go ahead. You need all the strength you can get.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good. Bad. Good. Bad. Schrodinger's Sugar Substitute?

    3. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smoking reduces the overall cost of healthcare to society. So light up and inhale deeply; it'll save me money.

    4. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dietary Studies.

      The political polling of the health sciences.

    5. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hate to be that guy, but:

      [citation needed]

    6. Re:Good then bad then good by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      They do the same with hamburger meat.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    7. Re:Good then bad then good by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sigh... this again.

      Everything you eat can have good and bad effects. That a new good or bad effect to some particular food may be discovered in the future does not invalidate those discovered previously.

      Furthermore, a lot of the "refinements" are just that - refinements. For example, fat. First it was "too much fat is bad". Then we broke fats down: "saturated fat is bad, unsaturated fat is good". Then we broke those down. For example, "polyunsaturated fats are mixed but often bad, monounsaturated are mixed but often good". Then you break those down - for example, "omega-3 polyunsaturated are good, most of the others are consumed in too much quantity relative to the amount of omega-3". And then you break those down - "ALA omega-3 is good, but EPA and DHA are better".

      Just because you learn more and break categories down in more detail doesn't mean that the previous, more general statements, were wrong. Yes, sometimes things will actually be wrong, but that's not the general case; you just add more information to the corpus.

      As to this article:

      However, aspartame does not block the enzyme directly. It does so through one of its intestinal breakdown products called phenylalanine.

      So it's not actually a study on aspartame (which breaks down immediately in the stomach to phenylalanine, methanol and aspartic acid). Phenylalanine is an amino acid, found in many foods in quantities well more than in typical amounts of aspartame - for example, eggs, meat / seafood, nuts, legumes, dairy, etc are all high in phenylalanine. Basically, most source of protein are also major sources of phenylalanine. So why spin this study as an anti-aspartame study? And furthermore, are people who eat high protein diets (aka, rich in phenylalanine) famous for being overweight, for that matter?

      Looks like this study involved a questionable procedure I've seen in the past - feeding mice ad libitum either aspartame-sweetened water, or just plain water. The ones that had the sweetened water ate more and gained more weight. Great, except that's not comparing what you're claiming it's comparing. If you want to see the benefits of switching from sugary drinks to artificially sweetened ones, the control group should be drinking sugar sweetened water ad libitum, not plain water. At least in this study the sweetener was in the water in this one; I've seen some where they put the sweetener in the food. Which leads to the result "gee, I am so shocked that they ate more of their food after you sweetened it up". Even in this case, they're having a sweet liquid with their food, which could on its own explain why they're eating more of it. I'm no expert in the flavour of lab mouse food, but I'm going to wager that it's not the most delicious of substances on Earth.

      --
      People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
    8. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Older people use the majority of health care dollars. If you die in their fifties due cancer you aren't running up a tab at the local hospital. I know that doesn't help in the citation department.

    9. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you die in their fifties...

      Then you'd better hope their fifties corresponds with your [insert age at which you would like to die].

    10. Re:Good then bad then good by KiloByte · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sugar free. First good. Then bad. Then good. Now bad again.

      This article doesn't say a word about sugar. It's not sugar that's good, it's aspartame that's worse.

      And it was always a questionable ingredient, despite an overwhelming amount of sponsored research claiming that it's all ok.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    11. Re:Good then bad then good by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sugar free. First good. Then bad. Then good. Now bad again.

      Actually - sugar-free is good, and has been good always. Sugar substitutes whose ingredients include toxins (methanol)? Now that sounds like it's just bad.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    12. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you die in their fifties due [?] cancer

      Care to rewrite that in English?

    13. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, but here at least in the US sugar-free means one of the substitutes. Not actually free from that junk.

    14. Re:Good then bad then good by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Hate to be that guy, but:

      [citation needed]

      Citation provided. Smoking does not lead to higher healthcare costs. Neither does obesity. The savings from their shorter lifespans cancel out the costs of their poorer health.

      Disclaimer: The citation is only for lower healthcare costs. There are other costs associated with smoking, such as pregnant smokers having stupider children, by about 3 IQ points on average. Income is depressed by about 1% for every IQ point below 120, so that will mean a cost of roughly $100k over the kid's lifetime ($3k per year * 35 working years).

    15. Re:Good then bad then good by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 2

      Then we broke those down.

      "We" didn't, the food industry did, so that they could sell more food and/or charge more for pseudo health labeling.

      If you want to see the benefits of switching from sugary drinks to artificially sweetened ones, the control group should be drinking sugar sweetened water ad libitum, not plain water.

      That would answer "whether". We already know "whether" and would like to understand "why".... Specifically, the mechanism by which Aspartame promotes weight gain / hinders weight loss.

    16. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now if aspartame makes the body think it is getting sugar, perhaps increasing the insulin level thus lowering blood sugar, now you get hungry, and eat more?
      Heard it long time ago, maybe it has merit?
      There is not a straight line between food content and absorption, lots of break down processing is done with gut bacteria, who seldom gets credit. Who wants to research stanky shit anyways? Nobody wants to be a Ph.D. of of poo research. Therefore we know to little about shit.
      The pharmaceutical industry want to discover the next "penicillin", they do not want to find root causes of disease, which may even be cheap and simple to fix. Their solution is always additive, and expensive.

    17. Re:Good then bad then good by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

      And it was always a questionable ingredient, despite an overwhelming amount of sponsored research claiming that it's all ok.

      A good rule of thumb is don't eat anything that we didn't evolve to eat. If hunter-gathers didn't eat it, neither should you. I eat mostly roots, berries and grubs.

    18. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      it was always bad according to scientists that weren't paid by the people promoting aspartame

      ALWAYS

      This has been known longer than i have been alive but marketing > science to most people

    19. Re:Good then bad then good by cayenne8 · · Score: 1, Interesting
      Here's the thing.

      Try to eat as much unprocessed whole foods...period.

      If you stick with a diet of foods (and yes, you need to learn the relatively EASY task of cooking your own food from scratch) composed in the majority of fresh vegetables, fruits and healthy protiens....you'll do much better.

      Your body is trained and knows how to process these and keep you healthy. If you're eating mostly vegetables, you'll be full and not overeat calorically....so, put those meats and stuff fin there too, but don't make them always the main dish...fill up on the foods that give you the most nutrients per calorie.

      It really isn't hard, you just have to decide how valuable your time is with regard to your health.

      And...get your kids involved with you cooking, this does two things..it teaches them about real foods AND hey you might start actually eating meals again as a family, something that seems to have faded somewhat into the past with many people.

      You know, that extra soccer game or dance lesson be damned, cook and eat and spend time as a family, that time spent will pay you back many times over.

      But really...it isn't that hard. Cook whole foods, eat a variety...avoid as much as possibly processed foods. When in the grocery store, for the most part...shop the outside of it, the perimeter and avoid all the processed crap in the center.

      If you do that...."diets" and all will take care of themselves, you'll have gut health, systemic health, and who knows...it might even help grown your family togetherness health a bit too.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    20. Re: Good then bad then good by undefinedreference · · Score: 2

      Sugar free isn't really good. Humans tend to seek out sugar. Most foods have sugars in them. Our bodies are designed to process them effectively.

      The problem is that people like to use fake sugar due to a fear of sugar, or they replace fat with sugar... These things confuse the digestive tract, which causes the body to do weird things it shouldn't do to compensate. It's why "sugar substitutes" that insulin doesn't break down seem to be contributors to diabetes in the long term.

    21. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I'm hearing is old people are worse for the country than cigarettes. At least so long as we force everyone to pay for their machines, to support them into their years of even bigger expenses.

    22. Re:Good then bad then good by RubberDogBone · · Score: 1

      Coffee is another one. Every 30 days or so, there is media coverage declaring coffee is healthy and good for you. And then 30 days after that, more media coverage declaring coffee is going to kill you.

      Ultimately life is fatal. We all die. I am not particularly interesting in living in a live sanitized and isolated for my protection and devoid of fun, just so I can maybe live a bit longer before I die. Screw that.

      But the aspartame thing makes sense. There are an awful lot of very heavy people who drink Diet Coke or similar things, and often drink a LOT of it, with some idea that it is better to drink than the sugar version. And yet they never lose weight on Diet Coke. They tend to gain weight and so they drink more Diet Coke and gain more weight and it never ends.

      --
      Sig for hire.
    23. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And this is why scientific results do not always equal truth.

      Common sense from hundreds of years ago is forgotten when marketing says some new food is healthy, and some "scientist" backs it up.

      Normal people with common sense has always know natural food is better than process food, period. Eggs > fake eggs, butter > margerine, unprocessed sugar > refined sugar. Natural food > synthetic food, always.

      People who were suckered into thinking that a nasty chemical called fake sugar, were simply not using common sense, but listened to marketing and lying sciences.

      People are being told caffeine is good for you, when common sense says otherwise. Less sleep, eating ice cream for breakfast, less fat, more sugar, no carbs etc... all stupid ideas that are going around. Ignore them all, test your body, prove for yourself, with honesty, and you will find that overeating crappy food = cause of most health issues in America.

    24. Re:Good then bad then good by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

      Those other factors you mention cannot be proven to have smoking as their *direct* fault. Sounds much more like 'sciencey' facts. How about a cite for them so we can check it?

    25. Re: Good then bad then good by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Sugar-free means free of added sugar, not free of normal natural sugars inherent in the food. Take a look at anything called "sugar-free" and this quickly becomes obvious when compared to their "normal" counterparts. Foods labeled "sugar-free" are inherently bad for you. Water, the ultimate free from sugar ingestible, is not so labeled as a counterpoint. You should read "sugar-free" as "contains artificially created sweetening agents that are known to cause cancer by the state of CA", or at least I'd assume so.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    26. Re:Good then bad then good by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Sugar-free was NEVER good, except for the chemical companies.

    27. Re:Good then bad then good by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

      Of course they are, they're the ones that vote Republican! Bah-dum-tiss!

      --
      Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
    28. Re:Good then bad then good by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      Looks like this study involved a questionable procedure I've seen in the past - feeding mice ad libitum either aspartame-sweetened water, or just plain water. The ones that had the sweetened water ate more and gained more weight. Great, except that's not comparing what you're claiming it's comparing. If you want to see the benefits of switching from sugary drinks to artificially sweetened ones, the control group should be drinking sugar sweetened water ad libitum, not plain water.

      I'm not sure what the study is "claiming it's comparing," but at face value I think the study is claiming that artificial sweeteners may have an effect that causes weight gain, whereas water does not. That's a distinct claim from the way many such sweeteners are marketed, where they assume there is no calories, therefore no impact on digestion or metabolism and thus no impact on the way people eat otherwise. (Basically, the substances are assumed to be inert.)

      You seem to want them to do a different study, comparing the effects of sugar-laden drinks to sweeteners. And that would be interesting too. But there is plenty of clinical and experimental evidence showing the consumption of sugary drinks leads to weight gain. Most people KNOW this already, so their choices are something not sweet and non-caloric (like water or unsweetened tea or whatever), or something sweet (like artificial sweeteners). This study clearly provides some insight into that choice.

      I agree with much of your critique in general, but I don't see this as a methodological flaw or as a "questionable" procedure... it's just proving that drinking artificially sweetened drinks MAY cause more weight gain than something more inert like water. That's not a trivial claim.

    29. Re:Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      That's what my nutritionist told me over 10 years ago - aspartame (and certain other no-calorie sweeteners) was bad for low-carb diets because the whole science behind low carb is keeping blood sugar low. She recommended Splenda (sucralose) as not have the same effect; also things like Stevia are good. At the time, I used Spenda as sweetener and, combined with the other aspects of the low-carb diet I lost a lot of weight, so I imagine she was at least right that Spenda didn't have that problem.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    30. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      Yes... the packaged fruit I sometimes buy (I buy a lot fresh, too, don't hassle me) doesn't say "sugar free," it says "no added sugar." Huge difference; people need to read beyond the splashy labels.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    31. Re:Good then bad then good by tpgp · · Score: 1

      A good rule of thumb is don't eat anything that we didn't evolve to eat. If hunter-gathers didn't eat it, neither should you.

      Except, you're totally ignoring all the evolution that has happened since hunter-gathering times. Lactase persistence for instance only evolved 5k-10k years ago

      --
      My pics.
    32. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sheesh. Can you not use a web search?

      Sugar-free is a defined label, by the FDA, and means:

      "Sugar Free": Less than 0.5 g sugars per RACC and per labeled serving (or for meals and main dishes, less than 0.5 g per labeled serving) (c)(1)
      Contains no ingredient that is a sugar or generally understood to contain sugars except as noted below (*)

    33. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "genes"

      Found the lazy fatass.

    34. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dr. Melik: "You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or hot fudge?"
      Dr. Aragon: "Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true."
      Dr. Melik: "Incredible!"

    35. Re:Good then bad then good by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      How about a cite for them so we can check it?

      Smoking in late pregnancy is linked to lower IQ in offspring.

    36. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Makes no sense if you believe physics. Creating blood sugar from body mass, as opposed to ingested food, will make you lose weight.

    37. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    38. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      A good rule of thumb is don't eat anything that we didn't evolve to eat. If hunter-gathers didn't eat it, neither should you. I eat mostly roots, berries and grubs.

      I'm lucky, my genetic profile shows I descend from a bacon-hunting and pancake-gathering tribe!

    39. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know this was tongue-in-cheek, but how long did hunter-gatherers live on average?

    40. Re:Good then bad then good by clovis · · Score: 1

      Hate to be that guy, but:

      [citation needed]

      Here is a sample calculation done by the various people who make that claim:

      typical study of reduction in lifespan due to smoking:
      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...

      The average geezer on SSA gets 15K a year.
      https://www.ssa.gov/policy/doc...

      The average medicare per-person yearly cost for the over 65 people is $19K.
      https://www.cms.gov/research-s...

      cigarettes killing the old folks 7 years early save $238K from SSA and Medicare

      Lung cancer is an expensive way to go. typical last-year costs are 95K.
      cigarettes death include heart failure and strokes. quick deaths are cheap.

    41. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Processed and added sugars are bad. Avoid them. If you have a healthy, sensible diet, you will be getting enough natural sugars and starches. Healthy fats are also important to keeping slim and preventing sugar cravings. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats such as those in nuts, tofu, avocados, olives and fish are good for you. Avoid trans fats and saturated fats.

      Obviously a good diet must go hand-in-hand with regular exercise. Brisk walking, push-ups and sit-ups are great forms of low-impact exercise that can keep you in shape without the need for any equipment.

    42. Re:Good then bad then good by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      Exactly! Sugar-free and aspartame aren't even synonyms.

      Anything I would eat that is sugar-free is also aspartame-free, so the whole premise of the story is crap.

      Food. It's what's for dinner.

    43. Re:Good then bad then good by slew · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I know this was tongue-in-cheek, but how long did hunter-gatherers live on average?

      If they made it past infant, the best estimates are about the same as 15-16th century men. Generally hunter-gatherers that made it past infancy died from external means (accidents, infections, etc). Of course making it past infancy was pretty hard for typical hunter gathers. It is a myth that they somehow prehistoric people all died around 30 because that was their "life-expectanacy" at birth. The huge increase in infant mortality greatly skew their life-expectancy down greatly.

      Studies in the 50's and 60's of isolated hunter-gather societies in Africa and south america provide our best estimates for lifespans of hunter-gatherer societies post infant mortality. The studies of these relatively contemporary isolated hunter-gatherer societies tracked with human life spans in the 15-16th century when actual records were more available. One of the big assumption they make in many studies is that childhood and other infectious diseases were much more common in the 15-16th century as population densities increased vs isolated hunter gatherer societies so you can perhaps take all this with a grain of salt...

      As an additionally data point, many recovered fossils of prehistoric men (and neanderthals for that matter) have shown advanced arthritis and dental wear consistent with ages around 60yo so their is at least existant proof of older people of that era. Although there aren't enough fossil records to be sure of actual age statistics solely from fossil records.

      When the industrial revolution rolled around and our lives became less physically dangerous and learned more about diseases, infant/child mortality greatly decreases and our life expectancy has raised considerably and now people that made it past childhood were dying of typical cardio-vascular diseases (probably from higher calorie diets that didn't exist during our species hunter-gather phase).

      If you really want to live to your natural age limit of relatively cardio-vascular disease free life, various studies from the 1930's to present day have shown highly calorie restricted diets have shown to possibly be one way to go. It must be balanced, and sadly caloric levels are at the level of near starvation like some hunter-gathers that hit a few lean years. Unfortunately, the statistics have shown the next thing in line to get you is probably cancer, so it doesn't really make you live much longer just w/o cardio-vascular disease, so it may not be worth for many folks to basically starving yourself to get this benefit... yet...

    44. Re:Good then bad then good by Tukz · · Score: 1

      And it was always a questionable ingredient, despite an overwhelming amount of sponsored research claiming that it's all ok.

      Just like sugar back in the days.

      Different day, different ingredient.

      --
      - Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
    45. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What was the expected lifetime of a hunter gatherer compared to a person today? Remember that people live longer and healthier today than back then even if they eat a lot of processed food.

    46. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real problem is that consumers get a choice of "sugary++" and "artificially sweetened++", rather than "some sugar, and less sickeningly sweet". So there's not much chance of moderation for many (too many people can't or won't cook for themselves).

      Given that refined sugar is slowly starting to look like the 21st Century's equivalent of Nicotine (okay, a bit of an exaggeration), in terms of health issues, what the industry needs to do is get rid of the suger-pumped food issues. When people expect tablespoons of sugar in a savoury meal to be able to palate it because their diet is so sugar-heavy elsewhere you know you have issues.

      TBH, sugar is good for one thing, and that involves fermentation.

    47. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's written in english. Bad english.

      Fortunately, I could understand it despite the error. A truly amazing superhuman feat.

    48. Re:Good then bad then good by dinfinity · · Score: 2

      Everything you eat can have good and bad effects. That a new good or bad effect to some particular food may be discovered in the future does not invalidate those discovered previously.

      I'm sorry, but this is the wrong explanation. The right explanation is that doing nutritional research is hard and that nutritional claims are often not well-supported.

      There was never enough proof to say "Fat is bad for you", nor is there currently enough proof to say that "Saturated fat is bad for you". Besides being instantly suspect by being ridiculously simplistic, such claims are almost exclusively based on correlations or effects in high-risk groups. But people really want nutritional advice, so somebody is going to give it to them, citing some paper that suggests some effect.

      Don't get me wrong: There are some things where the causal relation between it and a negative health effect is known, but in nutritional advice that generally is not the case.

    49. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stevia and that stuff is amazing. It leaves such a nasty taste in your mouth that you lose your appetite completely for whatever you were eating with that fake soda.

    50. Re: Good then bad then good by Rei · · Score: 1

      You're free to disagree with all major medical associations on saturated fat's correlation with heart disease if you want.

      --
      People said I was dumb, but I proved them.
    51. Re:Good then bad then good by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      Oh look, unprocessed whole food woo. We should avoid vaccines too?

      Most people are kind of shocked to learn a poorly-tuned fast food diet (yes, even McDonalds) is actually as healthy (or more) as a heavy-tuned fruits-and-vegetables diet, so long as you avoid eating too god damned much. The problem is meats and complex foods in general (that is: hamburgers with ketchup and onions and lettuce) contain an average amount of nearly all nutrients; various plant-based foods are high in specific nutrients, although have to average out in a mixture and so equate to similar (or lower) levels of micronutrients than fast foods; and people generally eat 1000-1800 calories in a single fast-food meal, including nutritionally-devoid sodas and french fries.

      Vegetables are mainly the only source of vitamin C (great and important) and fiber (not important), along with resistant starch (highly supportive of important gut bacteria). Meats are a better source of minerals like zinc and silicon, as well as several vitamins, notably Vitamin B12 (the form in plant-based foods isn't metabolically-available to humans) and Vitamin A (Retinol is six times as active as Beta-Carotine, which itself is greatly more-active than other plant-based vitamin A vitamers). There's some debate over whether plant-based food or animal-based food provides more calcium, except for seafood of any sort (fish or seaweed) being superior in that regard; and nobody seems to mention that meat contains a surprising amount of potassium, which is actually hard to get even from a plant-based diet.

      I'm kind of unsurprised, considering people claim a home-grilled hamburger or a bagel sandwich with sausage, egg, and cheese is a healthy, home-cooked meal, while a hamburger from McDonalds or a nearly-identical sausage, egg, and cheese bagel sandwich is "unhealthy fast food". It's the kind of double-think Orwell warned us about.

      Tl;dr the foods that give the most nutrients per calorie are debatable. Typically meat seems to fill that if you want to consider a broad spectrum of nutrients at average levels; vegetables can fill that for single nutrients, but lose nutrient density when attempting to include all nutrients, to the point that even fast food burgers are more nutritionally-complete with higher levels of individual nutrients than a balanced vegan diet.

      Oh, and low-fat diets have been shown to have severe negative health effects on and off, but nothing so alarming as to break the back of the campaign completely. Most research shows that the benefits of a low-fat diet are dubious; some research shows lower testosterone in men on low-fat diets, and other research shows no benefit to cardiovascular health or cancer rates in women on low-fat diets. Science is having a hard time lauding the virtues of a low-fat or a high-carbohydrate diet; although the low-carbohydrate diets (10% or less of calories) are also not well-backed. There's a great span of distance between carbohydrates as 70% of your calories and as 10% of your calories, though.

    52. Re: Good then bad then good by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Major medical associations use scientific conclusions to engineer a position. Scientific conclusions from decades ago were based on poor methodology; modern science has punched holes in those conclusions. If your major medical associations changed positions every time the wind blew, they'd give conflicting advice on a daily basis; part of their job is to resist change as a means to buffer hype, and that does put them behind the curve of inertia.

    53. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aspartame is actually pretty all-around horrible. It's a poison in more ways than the study indicates and that has been known for decades (it's actually the leading argument against drinking most root beers.)

    54. Re:Good then bad then good by omfglearntoplay · · Score: 1

      This post by Rei just has so much smart thought put down in writing for the general public to consider, I had to post this saying so. Some common sense items that I never considered: rats probably like sweeter food. Rats probably don't like general lab food. When they do these tests, do they sweeten the food or the water?

      Thank you for the post!

    55. Re:Good then bad then good by TWX · · Score: 1

      It's written in english. Bad english.

      Fortunately, I could understand it despite the error. A truly amazing superhuman feat.

      So could Korben Dallas.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    56. Re:Good then bad then good by TWX · · Score: 1

      Can confirm. Young me, non-smoker hanging with non-smokers, had trouble with the ladies. Young me, changing scenes to where the smokers were while still not smoking, had success with the ladies.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    57. Re:Good then bad then good by fropenn · · Score: 1

      The consensus in the nutrition research boils down to two things:

      1. Don't eat too much.

      2. Eat mostly plants.

      If you want to add a #3, it would be "exercise."

      Other than those points, nutrition research says more about the scientists, the design of the studies, and the complexity of the human body than it does about what you should eat (and should generally be ignored).

    58. Re:Good then bad then good by hoggoth · · Score: 1

      > Sugar free. First good. Then bad. Then good. Now bad again.

      No, sugar-free has always been good. Weird chemicals that simulate some of the taste properties of sugar while causing unknown side-effects are bad.

      I dropped all added sugar and much sugary foods from my diet with great results. That means no cake no cookies no ice-cream no soda. Few packaged-factory-produced foods of any type because its impossible to find them without tons of sugar. I have not replaced these with "diet" garbage.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    59. Re:Good then bad then good by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Just about anything can be toxic if levels exceed our bodies ability to deal with them.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    60. Re:Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You just need to read more than the attention grabbing headline. As we learn more about food and how our digestive system works (turns out it's really complicated) we learn more good things and more bad things about the stuff we study. Every time we learn a good thing the media reports on it as though it's the new cure for cancer, and every time we learn a new bad thing it gets reported as a poison. Read a little deeper, and grow your own understanding so you can make informed choices about what's best for you and your family.

    61. Re:Good then bad then good by kaybee · · Score: 1

      Except unprocessed whole foods is kind of unclear for many people, and some of them aren't necessarily healthy. If you ate nothing but raw honey all day then you'd have serious health issues. Then there is "whole grain wheat" which can be as little as 15% whole grain.

    62. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would rather die young and fat

    63. Re: Good then bad then good by dinfinity · · Score: 2

      And this is how total misunderstanding of nutritional science spreads.

      Correlation does not equal causation and 'all major medical associations' do not disagree with me on this.
      There are plenty of studies that did not find any correlation or only a very very weak one between saturated fat and heart disease. Even if a correlation is found, it still does not prove causation.

    64. Re:Good then bad then good by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      Just about anything can be toxic if levels exceed our bodies ability to deal with them.

      Moderation is key. I don't know of a single substance that an excess of won't kill you.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    65. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell me, oh great seer of the web, why does water not be labeled "sugar-free"? Why is plain tea not so labeled? Why indeed? Because only when sugar substitutes be replacing sugar, does the "sugar-free" label become selling point.

    66. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Because only when sugar substitutes be replacing sugar, does the "sugar-free" label become selling point.

      Only until marketers get ahold of it.

    67. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      Well, yeah.... that's the idea. High blood sugar causes the production of insulin which triggers fat storage. Lower blood sugar = slow or stops the production of insulin which triggers body fat releasing it's stores into the blood stream. What doesn't get used gets filtered out through urination (and even just breathing). It's why calories in minus calories burned is a fallacy - and what most people don't get about low carb diets. You CAN lose more weight than you "burn."

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    68. Re: Good then bad then good by calster · · Score: 1

      Sure, humans seek out sweet stuff, but in nature refined sweet stuff is/used to be pretty hard to come by. Sure, fruit has always been around, but it has been selectively bred to be much sweeter than it was in nature.

      You're right, our bodies are designed to process them effectively. Very effectively, into energy. This is the problem when you have a lot of it in refined forms, whether it's chips, sugar or white rice; even high carbohydrate forms of naturally occurring vegetables, such as potatoes. Your body processes it so quickly that - if you have more than you can use, which in our society is most of the time - it doesn't know what to do with all the energy, since we generally don't get much exercise, and - unless you have a fast metabolism - converts it into fat. Even if you do have a fast metabolism and don't get fat, it doesn't mean you're safe from developing diabetes.

      Fat does not confuse the digestive tract. It's been present in our diets for hundreds of thousands of years. Sugar and other refined carbs, not so much.

    69. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What exactly do you think happens to fat that is "released into the bloodstream"?

    70. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      It gets used as energy; excess also gets filtered out through the kidneys and even released when exhaled from the lungs.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    71. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you've said is nothing new; calories can only be disposed of by burning or excreting them.

      What matters is that, if you know how much you're burning, and take in less than that, there is no way it's physically possible for you to gain weight (unless it's water weight). That's no fallacy.

    72. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      Well, that's good then, because that's not what I said. The fallacy is that burning them is the only way.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    73. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think anyone claimed that burning them is the only way, but the fact is your body stores almost all the excess calories it takes in and doesn't burn.

      If you think you can excrete any significant amount of calories after they've been stored as fat, you are mistaken.

    74. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      No, I'm not. Millions of low-carb dieters have proved you wrong.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    75. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really. Low-carb diets work because they're really reduced-calorie diets, and recent research shows they do no better than reduced-fat diets.

      Your body basically won't pull fat out of storage until it's ready to burn it.

    76. Re: Good then bad then good by gfxguy · · Score: 1

      Again, everyone who's experienced induction can tell you you're wrong, but I'm not going to continue wasting my time on an AC; if you want to pretend it doesn't happen, I don't really care.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    77. Re: Good then bad then good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I'm not going to argue with anecdotes since they are not evidence, but I encourage you to look at actual studies. They support that a calorie is a calorie when it comes to weight loss. Yes, nutrients are metabolized differently but when caloric intake is strictly controlled, the makeup of those calories seems to make no difference to weight gain or loss.

  2. Used to drink litres of Diet Coke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And when I did I'd get a little bubble under my tongue, right along the center line, about the size of a, dunno, very small. That's when I knew I drank too much. Aspartame. I stopped drinking that by the turn of the century. No little bubble since.

  3. Re:Alternate Theory by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    Yeah, at least anecdotally, I'm a little skeptical of these findings because I had metabolic syndrome at one point, (I was even on 40mg of lovastatin at one point just to control blood cholesterol) and it went away when I switched from regular soda to diet soda. While that doesn't mean that this study came to a wrong conclusion, I'd like to see this researched in humans rather than mice.

  4. Added sugar vs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a difference between adding aspartame and not adding it.

    Its not the absent of sugars that will stop us from getting slimmer. Its (allegedly) the adding of aspartame.
    So I should not eat carrots and tomatoes?
    "Sugar-Free Products Might Actually Stop Us From Getting Slimmer" I should drink more of Coca-Cola to get slimmer?

    PS
    Don't post this in the internet. Trump will now take this as we need more sugars in all food. "All I know is whats on the internet"
    Can someone call Bill Gates so he can remove it? He is the one with the off-switch, right?

    1. Re:Added sugar vs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your brain is tuned to respond to energy sources: that's what your tastebuds are for and why sugar tastes so good. Your brain is also pretty smart: when you first start using artificial sweeteners it expects sugar so ramps up as usual (increased metabolism, that sort of thing). But when sweet input begins to consistently under-deliver on energy it starts to panic: clearly the stores of sweet are getting weaker! And the response: increased cravings to make up for the decreased effectiveness.

      Result is twofold: (a) the increased cravings cause increased consumption, wiping out the benefits, and (b) when you have that "naughty treat" once a month (or week/day/whenever-the-boss-is-mean from what I've seen of repeat dieters) you're going to eat twice as much.

      Lesson: you can't "fool" your brain. There are no short-cuts. Crash diets and fads tend to rebound. You need to train your brain over time and build your self-control slowly: it's hard work, but it does work, and it won't be a short-term gain followed by long-term weight gain as per the "magic bullets".

    2. Re:Added sugar vs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you don't have to do it over time, which just prolongs the agony, increases the risk of relapse, and plays into the hands of the food industry, which is making a tremendous fortune off (literally!) slowly killing the population.
      Just go "cold turkey" on eliminating sugar from your diet. And don't let anyone tell you exercise is part of the equation. You can lose weight like crazy without exercise* just by eliminating sugar and eating complex carbs in moderation. Eat real food instead. Even saturated fat is far safer to eat than sugar.
      The Surgeon General recently highlighted the major problem posed by the public's addiction to pain killers. Unfortunately he failed to mention the problem of our addiction to sugar, which costs us several times more than addiction to pain killers. Sugar intake is closely linked to obesity, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and more recently dementia. And as many obese people are sick inside due to sugar as non-obese who are sick inside (visceral fat accumulation from ingestion of sugar).

      *Exercise will increase your fitness and stamina but you'll move easier and have far less joint and muscle pain just by dropping weight without the need to exercise.

    3. Re:Added sugar vs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sugar is not bad for you. I live off of sugar. Most of what I eat and drink is sugar laden.

      I eat anything and everything that I want and I am 6'1" and about 180lbs.

      But I also ride 5,000 miles a year on a bicycle. https://nationalbikechallenge.org/rider/12515

      It is all in the perspective. If I didn't consume so much sugar, I wouldn't have the energy to go out and ride. But I consume sugar so I can go out and ride long distances. I don't consume sugar and tell my myself that since I did eat sugar I have to go out and ride. That is the strategy doomed to fail.

      Most people go out and eat a big meal and then say I will work it off. The working it off never happens.

      Nathan

    4. Re:Added sugar vs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a difference between "sugar-free" and "unsweetened."

      "Sugar-free" is the buzzword associated with having an artificial sweetener added. It's a misnomer, but it's a consistent one.

      What you're describing is "unsweetened."

  5. Aspartame and Mice by jwymanm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hate these hit pieces about _all_ sugar free food when it is really about a specific calorie free sweetener in lab mice. I'd like to see other results using sugar alcohols, splenda, etc before saying they all do the same thing. I also would like to see it done in human trials. Not saying discount this test but it needs to be expanded and the frigging fake news (again!) headlines need to point out the specific substances involved and not label it everything. You suspect these are hit pieces because of this fact - but maybe it is just lazy journalism, who knows. Shills exist for every industry including both artificial and real sweeteners. My favorite for tea, Sweet'N Low caused cancer in rats' bladders but was shown not to in humans: http://www.health.com/health/g...

    1. Re:Aspartame and Mice by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There have been studies on other sweeteners. Basically all of the sugar alcohols except erythritol interfere with your system in some way when used as a sugar substitute... And maybe that one too, and they just haven't figured it out yet. Stevia, on the other hand, so far appears as if it may even be beneficial. If you don't mind that it tastes like a leaf.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Aspartame and Mice by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      I use Stevia because most of the other sugar substitutes give me a headache. Stevia is pretty good used on cold cereals or in cold drinks, but it's horrible in coffee. I haven't tried baking with it. My guess is that it wouldn't work well in cakes or pies.

    3. Re:Aspartame and Mice by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      My guess is that it wouldn't work well in cakes or pies.

      Your guess is correct. I mix it with erythritol, you can also buy a product in which that is done for you. I have some right now, but forget what it's called.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Aspartame and Mice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really super think that everyone can learn to drink coffee without sweetener. Mostly because it's a plant based drug, not really a food. If you drink coffee without sweetener for just one week, I don't think you'll ever be tempted to sweeten it again.

      I agree with all your assessments about Stevia.

    5. Re:Aspartame and Mice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My favorite [sweetener] for tea, Sweet'N Low

      Dude, tea doesn't need sweeteners.

      OK, maybe you drink tea bags. The tea I get from them is almost always bitter. Try loose tea? Preferably unflavoured.

    6. Re:Aspartame and Mice by rhazz · · Score: 1

      Stevia's taste is only awful if you compare it to the real sugar it is replacing. It is far better than aspertame.

  6. I drink diet coke daily and by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It hasn't had an effect on my weight. I lost a hundred pounds nearly a decade ago and have kept it off since. Daily exercise (in my case mostly cardio) and keeping a rough count of my daily calories is what lost, and has been keeping off, the weight. If you aren't exercising a sweat every other day and avoiding sugar filled garbage you're going to balloon up.

    If you want to loose weight, ignore these ever changing studies and do the obvious. There is no cheat, there are no excuses. Admit the one responsible for your obesity is you, and do something about it.

    1. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by AK+Marc · · Score: 1
      The latest studies show that cardio doesn't help drop weight. The issue is that the same time building muscle burns more calories than cardio. Cardio burns a small amount of calories one-time. Muscle increases the base-burn rate more than the cardio does.

      Eating less and "exercising" more will lead to weight loss. What the studies try to figure out is how I can eat less and exercise more than someone else of the same size and age, yet I gain weight, while he loses weight.

      When nobody can explain that, all the studies done are in question.

      If you want to loose weight, ignore these ever changing studies and do the obvious. There is no cheat, there are no excuses.

      Great. But I have cut calories and increased activity and gained 50 lbs (over 5 years). How much more do I need to do? Will I ever be able to see results? Nobody, even you, can answer those questions. I know the cause. It's medical. But nobody can explain the causal relationship, or what level of calories and activity will result in getting back to the starting weight and staying there.

    2. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're eating at a substantial calorie surplus. Eat at a substantial calorie deficit and you'll lose weight. It might suck, but it's not really any more complicated than that.

    3. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      Except... that he's doing that... and it's not working...

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
    4. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then the latest studies are wrong. In my late 30s I became less much active and I started gaining weight for the first time in my life. Once I hit 170lbs, I knew it was time to do something about it. Every morning for the past 6 months I have been walking a minimum of 5 miles and I have shed all of the excess weight and have returned to my optimal weight of 155lbs (at 5'10"). My stomach is flat again, the love handles are gone and the fat around my neck that was starting to form a double chin has disappeared.

      I should mention that I have always had a healthy diet and that didn't change before or after I started my new exercise regimen. Plenty of leafy greens (the bulk of my food intake), fish, chicken, whole grains and fruit. I only consume sweets on rare occasion as a treat and never chemical or preservative laden stuff like the prepackaged stuff you find at the shops. I also never eat greasy food or fast food.

    5. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The reason for the exercise is to keep your metabolism up, so your body doesn't go into "starvation mode" and minimize the amount you burn when you cut calories from your diet.

    6. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by Obfiscator · · Score: 1

      Amazing, isn't it? People often underestimate the power of walking, veggies, and drinking water. Walking takes longer than more active exercise to burn the same amount of calories, true, but it's easier on the body. Veggies and water don't taste as good as other things. Even after years of doing it, I can't say I enjoy the taste of most veggies. But my body feels better when I eat them. Short-term pleasure vs. long-term satisfaction, I suppose.

      I understand that people seem to store calories with varying degrees of efficiency. My body seems bad at storing calories, which means I can eat more than others and not gain weight (although that's changing as I get older). If someone tells me they tried doing this for months and saw no benefits, well, perhaps they are one of those unfortunate people who are super-efficient at storing calories, and therefore need some other method to lose weight. But it seems to me that this is always a good first step to try.

      --
      "Nothing shocks me. I'm a scientist." -Indiana Jones
    7. Re:I drink diet coke daily and by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing is I love the taste of veggies and my water intake is a combination of flat spring water and sparkling spring water with infused fruit flavours (Crystal Geyser, La Croix and Perrier usually). I get plenty of satisfaction up front while also being healthy.

      When I was younger I used to run a lot, but over time that caused some damage to one of my knees. Walking is just as good as running as long as you are walking fast enough to raise your heart rate and break a light sweat. It does take longer to go the same distance, but I can cover 5 miles in about 1 hour walking.

  7. Where can I get this IAP stuff? by WolphFang · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How long before this intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) stuff comes as pills or a liquid in the herbs in bottles section of the store? The aspartame being potentially bad for you isn't the interesting part. This is the interesting part: ... fed IAP directly to mice, who were also on a high-fat diet. It turned out that the IAP could effectively prevent the emergence of the metabolic syndrome. It also helped relieve symptoms in animals that were already suffering from the obesity-related illness.

    --
    leather-dog muksihs
    Blog: @muksihs
  8. Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Sugar-Free Products Might Actually Stop Us From Getting Slimmer" should be
    "Aspartame Products Might Actually Stop Us From Getting Slimmer "

    1. Re: Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or "Aspartame-containing Products May Actually Stop Lab Mice From Getting Slimmer".

  9. Re:Alternate Theory by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    Another question is if the mice that where getting the high-fat diet where eating a surplus of calories or not, because if they did then all this study tells us that overeating while drinking diet sodas is worse than just overeating (which in itself is bad). The stupid article does however not link to the actual study.

  10. Re:Alternate Theory by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    And there is one more odd thing with the article. They claim that it's due to phenylalanine:

    However, aspartame does not block the enzyme directly. It does so through one of its intestinal breakdown products called phenylalanine.

    However phenylalanine is something that we get from a wide variety of food sources (quote from Wikipedia):

    Good sources of phenylalanine are eggs, chicken, liver, beef, milk, and soybeans.[5] Other sources include spinach and leafy greens, tofu, amaranth leaves, and lupin seeds.

  11. aspartame only by ooloorie · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Even if they turn out to be reproducible, these results only apply to aspartame, not to all sugar-free products. Most sugar-free products don't contain aspartame.

    1. Re:aspartame only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bring back saccharin!

    2. Re:aspartame only by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Didn't saccharin allegedly cause cancer?

    3. Re:aspartame only by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

      I have fond memories of cyclamate sweetened Kool-Aid, maybe Trumpification will restore it to good graces.

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    4. Re:aspartame only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sold in Canada and Europe - take a trip and you relive the memory!

    5. Re:aspartame only by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      There was that allegation a long time ago, but then they figured out that although it caused cancer in mice there was a different mechanism at work and it wouldn't cause cancer in humans.

      Still tastes like crap though.

    6. Re:aspartame only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The study that said that was basically giving the rats several hundred times what a normal human would consume proportionately. So yeah they got cancer. Guess what the most common thing that kills pet rats? Cancer tumors. It's why I want one but one get one, they die after a couple of years and usually it's cancer. Fuck that.

  12. Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's crazy how debates are framed.
    So what if products with artificial sweetener are no better or worse than products with sugar? How about neither? That would actually be better.
    Framing the debate correctly is also an option.

    Rat turd free bread proven to be no better (because it has squirrel turds). How about neither?

  13. Look at the labels... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I had to take care of my late father for two months after he had an episode that pushed him from pre-diabetic to diabetic and an extended stay at the hospital. I took him to a nutritional class that his doctor ordered. The instructor warned us that food labeled "healthy" are often less healthy than the regular food and check the labels to compare the differences. Food companies often compensate for something else to make a food product more healthier.

    1. Re: Look at the labels... by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      All you need to do is skip all the processed food in the middle of the grocery and stick to what is around the outside for a much healthier diet.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    2. Re:Look at the labels... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's not so much the "healthy" label, it's "low fat" (which means it's crammed full of sugar to make it taste good and give it texture) or "low sugar" (which means it's crammed full of bullshit chemicals to make it sweet, because the shittiest non-sugar sweeteners are also the cheapest.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Look at the labels... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If your food has a label, you're doing it wrong already.

    4. Re:Look at the labels... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone has the available land, time or interest to be a farmer.

  14. Re:Alternate Theory by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Artificial sugar may cause other problems:

    After TASTING the sweetness, the body may ask, "But where's the calories?"

    Sweet tooth unsatisfied, we may be eating more other stuff.

    Artificial sweeteners appear to disturb the body's ability to count calories and, as a result, diet foods and drinks may wind up encouraging weight gain rather than weight loss, an expert contends. ... Commonly used sweeteners include sucralose, aspartame and saccharin, among others.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  15. More fake news by PopeRatzo · · Score: 0

    These so-called "scientists" are just trying to cover up the fact that Diet Coke contains natural compounds that act as nature's Viagra.

    And, they're trying to suggest that being fat is somehow bad just because the new Leader of the Free World is a fat SOB.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  16. Re:Alternate Theory by bjwest · · Score: 1

    Mice are mostly herbivores, they aren't evolved to get their energy from fats like carnivores or omnivores. Even the "omnivore" varieties eat insects, which is a far cry from animal fats that real omnivores eat.

    --

    --- Keep the choice with the user..
  17. I noticed by future+assassin · · Score: 2

    when I start my energy drink addiction vs caffeine pills I gain weight even with one large (Xience) sugar free drink per day. I do get less anxiety from the energy drinks like say Beaver Buzz Green Tea vs popping one pill. Seem the pill (200mg) hits way faster. One thing I did notice if I get 8+ hours of sleep I much way less during the day and especially at night when I get crazy cravings if I only get 5 hours of sleep or less. It does take about a week for the body to adjust from the short to long hour sleeps.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    1. Re: I noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How long is a short hour?
      How long is a long hour?

    2. Re: I noticed by future+assassin · · Score: 1

      I bet you can try it out by taking the short bus one day.

      --
      by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
    3. Re: I noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go back to Thailand!

    4. Re:I noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You understand that if you take a large drink (say 500ml) you gain all the weight from the liquid until you pee it, right? You seem confused, tell me that you understand that.

  18. Diet Soda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As my brother in law stated, "You never see a skinny person drinking diet soda."

  19. So.... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Nothing at all to do with being sugar-free and everything to do with the artificial sweeteners?

    1. Re:So.... by Red_Chaos1 · · Score: 1

      Everything to do with *one* artificial sweetener. No study done on sucralose/splenda, stevia, etc. Incredibly misleading title.

  20. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by unixisc · · Score: 1

    So I should be fine, since I add the original cane sugar to my coffee, and only drink original coke, no diets.

  21. The entire diet & exercise industry is a scam by RogueWarrior65 · · Score: 2

    The whole industry is predicated on you not losing weight in a short period of time and keeping it off without you continually having to buy their products. If you lost weight in six months by using a product that reset your metabolic rate to a faster rate permanently, you wouldn't need to buy that product anymore (and they've lost a revenue stream). Think this sounds crazy? Consider how many things in your life that you never actually own but rather pay "rent" on every month. You don't pay for just the electricity or water you use. You cough up a mandatory service fee every month. So in a way you rent your utilities. Same with your cellphone and internet access. Same with your car particularly if you haven't paid it off. Think you own your house because you paid off your mortgage? Think again. You're paying property tax (a form of rent) and insurance (another form of rent). More and more businesses are changing over to subscription models, basically rent. Health insurance is yet another form of rent and an expensive one at that and by extension, your health itself is being rented. Ultimately, you're renting an attractive body (not a healthy weight), by paying for a gym membership and/or Weight Watchers. Welcome to The Machine.

  22. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You'll be even better if you drink your coffee black and only drink water instead of sugary drinks. If you like bubbles, get a Soda Stream or other carbonator.

  23. Re:Alternate Theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what you're saying is that after drinking zero-calorie soda some people are going on to eat more food? In other words, they consume more calories? Have I got that right?

    Isn't that exactly what I said they were doing?

    You're not a robot. If more food went in your maw, it's because you chose to put it there. Of course you're not going to have your hunger satisfied by drinking zero-calorie drinks. It's water, with flavor added, and a little carbonation. When have you ever had your hunger satisfied by drinking water?

  24. "Let me break the sitch down for y'all..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice theory you got there, but...

    [Citation Needed] ...for everything you said.

    "Your brain is also pretty smart" "You can't fool your brain".

    Yeah, aid you know we only use 8% of our brainjuice? That's cuz our brains are pretty smart. It's just common sense. Insulin for diabetes? C'mon, your brain will figure it out. Penicillin? Don't waste your time. Bacteria will just evolve to ignore it. Throw that "antibiotic" old wives tale out the window, it's a dead end. Exercise? Baloneycize. Soon as you stop, bam, here comes the fat! You can trick your body with diet and exercise, but death comes to us all. There are no free rides, sheeple.

    That sounds sciency and appropriately skeptical, right?

  25. orl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    in essence nothing we didn't know for 100 years.

  26. Re:The entire diet & exercise industry is a sc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Short answer: eat real food and stop eating sugar and you'll lose weight quickly, without starving and without even exercising.

  27. Re:Alternate Theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "... I'd like to see this researched in humans rather than mice..."
    Yep, except researchers want to avoid going to jail.
    Why drink soda at all? A weak thyroid will also affect blood cholesterol.
    Look up PubMed for research, in humans.

  28. Re:Alternate Theory by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    all this study tells us that overeating while drinking diet sodas is worse than just overeating

    Most people already overeat, so information about whether diet sodas benefit overeaters is more useful than whether they benefit moderate eaters.

  29. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Except that I prefer them sweet. My coffee is black, but I add 3 spoons or 6 cubes of sugar. Soda water itself is a tad bitter, but I like it w/ lime juice cordial

  30. Re:The entire diet & exercise industry is a sc by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Short answer: eat real food and stop eating sugar and you'll lose weight quickly, without starving and without even exercising.

    The answer is much more nuanced for most people than that but it is possible to lose excess weight by limiting carbohydrates but beyond a certain point if you want to get ripped you have to exercise both in the form of cardio (to lose that last 5% of body fat) and weight lifting to build muscle.

  31. No. Study is nonsense. by kamapuaa · · Score: 1

    From the article: "aspartame does not block the enzyme directly. It does so through one of its intestinal breakdown products called phenylalanine."

    So I guess phenylaline is a terrible substance that gives people the fats?

    "Good sources of phenylalanine are eggs, chicken, liver, beef, milk, and soybeans. Other sources include spinach and leafy greens, tofu, amaranth leaves, and lupin seeds." It's also an important component of mother's milk.

    So, I guess the same logic as this study could tell you to never eat some of the healthiest foods we are aware of, or else you will get fat. This is just yet another article that tries to come up with some reason why it's not as simple as calorie in v. calorie out, when calorie in v. calorie out has been thorougly proven. Aspartame has been so thoroughly tested that a study that injects superdoses into the stomachs of mice doesn't prove anything.

    --
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  32. Surprising news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All this time I thought I was fat from sitting at my desk all day. It's a relief to know I'm not responsible for my own poor health.

  33. Re:The entire diet & exercise industry is a sc by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

    You mean all I have to do is burn more calories than I eat? But how can businesses make money with that model?

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  34. It doesn't take a genius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go figure. Seeing all the fatsos in 'murrica chugging Gatorade makes me want to avoid it for life. For fucks sake these lard-asses can't get enough diet shitty soda yet they weigh north of 300lbs everywhere you look. Of fucking course aspartame won't make you slim, fucktards! Stop eating so damned much junk!

  35. Re:Alternate Theory by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    If you have health problems and are drinking soda than you are an idiot.

  36. What hasn't been studied... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What I find that hasn't been studies is the metabolic behavior of the "not sugars" when introduced into a diet that is low in total carbohydrate intake.

    I've recently had gastric bypass surgery and my diet is protein first, with the goal of 60 grams of protein as a minimum daily intake. I routinely have limited carbohydrates and in total average between 75 and 100 grams per day. So, yes my body is operating in a Ketosis mode where protein is consumed as the primary nutrient and fat is burned vs. being stored. (110 pounds weight loss in the past 11 months).

    The big thing that I've noticed is that when I was being treated for my Type II diabetes I could not tolerate "not sugars" , especially the sugar alcohols. If I drank a beverage that contained artificial sweeteners, my blood sugar levels would crash. My body reacted by dumping insulin as if I had just had a sugar loaded treat. When in truth, there was no added sugar to be found. I would quickly develop a headache and could measure the decrease in blood sugar via test strips.

    Long story short. If you truly follow a low carbohydrate lifestyle, the "not sugars" in small quantities are a treat. But, if you still ride the carbohydrate roller coaster the addition of these artificial sweeteners will make your sugar levels crash ( which will make you crave more sugar ) and repeat the process (storing that extra blood sugar as cellular fat).

    I no longer count calories... I count my total carbohydrate intake.

  37. Ahhh.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's explains why I've lost 50 lbs while on keto and drinking tons of Diet Coke because I hate the taste of coffee and tea. No, no, please keep telling me what I'm doing wrong, I'm very interested.

    1. Re:Ahhh.... by BronsCon · · Score: 1

      What happens when you've met your weight loss goal and return to a normal diet?

      --
      APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  38. Tenuous risk, unlike sugar by UpnAtom · · Score: 1

    "We previously showed [this enzyme] can prevent obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome [a disease characterized by a combination of obesity, high blood pressure, a metabolic disorder and insulin resistance]. So, we think that aspartame might not work because, even as it is substituting for sugar, it blocks the beneficial aspects of IAP...."

    So when looking for the mechanism that causes weight gain with all low calorie sweeteners[1], we found that aspartame reduces the effect of IAP in mice. IAP, in turn, reduces metabolic syndrome in mice who are force fed high fat diets.

    This may or may not mean something with human beings. Sugar, however, is strongly correlated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and Alzheimers. [2]

    [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
    [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:Tenuous risk, unlike sugar by budgenator · · Score: 1

      You might find Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) interesting.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  39. Re:Alternate Theory by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    Yeah I caught that too. Phenylalanine is in a LOT of things, including some fruits (I know for example that bananas have it.)

  40. Re:Alternate Theory by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

    Not exactly. Soda doesn't have anything in it that you won't find in a number of other foods that a lot of people would say are "natural" (and I use that term loosely because practically nothing that anybody eats is truly "natural", even if you eat organic fruit/vegetables, as practically all of them have been selectively bred to bear almost no resemblance to the wild vegetables that they came from, which as it turns out, our bodies can't digest the "natural" ones very well to the point that we'd likely starve on them.)

    That includes the much lauded sodium benzoate, which is also found in cranberries and apples in quantities not far off from the FDA maximum for packaged food. Also, fruit juices (especially grape juice) have basically the same amount of sugar as a typical soda.

    What kills you is having excess macronutrient beyond what you metabolize. And yes, soda can easily contribute to that as it is very high in calories, but this is true of many things. Personally, I work out so much these days that I've actually been calorie deficient at times, and sometimes I'll have a regular soda. The metabolic syndrome so far has not returned, and isn't showing any signs of returning (my employer does annual screenings in exchange for a discount on health insurance.) And in fact, I've gained weight while having very obvious loss of body fat.

  41. Re:No. Study is nonsense. by BronsCon · · Score: 1

    So, I guess the same logic as this study could tell you to never eat some of the healthiest foods we are aware of, or else you will get fat.

    The question is, then, what is found in those healthy foods that helps your body process that phenylalanine, potentially rendering it beneficial (or, at least, neutral) rather than harmful? Much like fruits (not juices) contain fructose, which we know is bad for us in quantity, they're fine because that fructose is bundled with fiber, which your body utilizes in the course of processing and storing that sugar, rendering it beneficial (as a stored source of energy) rather than harmful (as a literal poison).

    --
    APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
  42. I know no one will ever believe me by ckatko · · Score: 3, Interesting

    But I have consistently been able to identify (without prior knowledge) sucralose, an artificial sweetener, in my food.

    I can do that because I get sick immediately after.

    I get a horrible after-taste coming up from my stomach, and one time I ate a whole can of peaches before realizing it (canned PEACHES have artificial sweetener now?!), I ended up dizzy and I could feel heart was beating out of my chest and a pain all around it.

    I've thought about doing a live double blind study, on video, and posting it to Youtube to prove I'm not full of crap. But it's also strange that I'd have to go to such extravagant lengths to "prove" I'm not lying. Are we supposed to assume every chemical produced by a "food" company is good for us now? When did Big Pharma become the good guys?

    1. Re:I know no one will ever believe me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Have you been checked for this?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenylketonuria

    2. Re:I know no one will ever believe me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But I have consistently been able to identify (without prior knowledge) sucralose, an artificial sweetener, in my food.

      I can do that because I get sick immediately after.

      I get a horrible after-taste coming up from my stomach, and one time I ate a whole can of peaches before realizing it (canned PEACHES have artificial sweetener now?!), I ended up dizzy and I could feel heart was beating out of my chest and a pain all around it.

      I've thought about doing a live double blind study, on video, and posting it to Youtube to prove I'm not full of crap. But it's also strange that I'd have to go to such extravagant lengths to "prove" I'm not lying. Are we supposed to assume every chemical produced by a "food" company is good for us now? When did Big Pharma become the good guys?

      You do realize that sucralose is merely the left hand isomer of sugar correct? Claims like the ones above would need empirical evidence if you wanted me to believe them.

    3. Re:I know no one will ever believe me by NorthWay · · Score: 2

      I could see that. Myself, I have a correlation between a few (but not most) sugarfree soft-drinks and getting a headache.
      So I simply have stopped drinking those. One does wonder about the others though...

    4. Re:I know no one will ever believe me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But I have consistently been able to identify (without prior knowledge) sucralose, an artificial sweetener, in my food.

      I can do that because I get sick immediately after.

      It seems like it would be a better super power if you could tell before you ate it then.

    5. Re:I know no one will ever believe me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > You do realize that sucralose is merely the left hand isomer of sugar correct?

      Not correct.

      How do people get this shit wrong when we have this wonderful modern invention called the "Internet" that makes it so easy to find out?

      Sucralose is manufactured by the selective chlorination of sucrose in a multistep synthesis, which substitutes three of the hydroxyl groups of sucrose with chlorine atoms.

  43. Re:Alternate Theory by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    And, now I don't know if this is true or not but I've heard that mice don't break down Aspartame exactly like humans either which also makes it harder to extract truths from such studies. AFAIK all studies done on humans and aspartame have shown that it's equivalent to water when considering body weight.

  44. Re:Alternate Theory by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    Well if you are overeating you will gain weight and have a high chance of getting metabolic syndrome anyway. Unfortunately they do not quantify the higher risks in TFA so we cannot even know if what they claim is what the actual study found.

  45. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    are you serious ? That's a shit ton of sugar.

    Learn to drink it black, like a man. It's actually delicious on it's own. After you force yourself to get used to it.

  46. horrible title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /r/titlegore

    There is NOTHING wrong with sugar-free products... There IS something wrong with products that contain aspartame. This has been known for YEARS, so don't look surprised.

  47. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Black means no cream. Which is what I do. Sugar has nothing to do w/ the color of the beverage

  48. Re:Alternate Theory by budgenator · · Score: 1

    Many seed that are probably part of Mice traditional evolutionary food supply are very high in fat content, a high density energy source is necessary for many seeds to germinate and establish themselves and that is exactly what fats are. Our brains are hard-wired to crave certain types of foods, fatty-salty foods and sweet foods, Fritos corn chips have almost the exact combination of fat and salt to elicit this, almost addictive response.

    --
    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  49. Source citation by thoughtlover · · Score: 1

    Here's the actual URL to the Massachusetts General's study. Initially, I questioned whether this was true or a hit-piece/fake news against Aspartame.

    http://www.massgeneral.org/abo...

    http://www.massgeneral.org/about/pressrelease.aspx?id=2016

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  50. If you want a healthy diet.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. one should follow a simple rule: if you can't catch it or grow it.. don't eat it.

  51. Re:Alternate Theory by bjwest · · Score: 1

    This is true, but they are also high in carbohydrates. Feeding a mouse low-carb and high-fat could be just as damaging as a high-carb low-fat diet is to a human, not taking into account the sugars, salts and other chemicals used to entice us to eat those high-carb low-fat foods. Of course a high, or even normal-carb, high-fat diet could be just as fattening to the mouse, with or without Aspartame.

    --

    --- Keep the choice with the user..
  52. Re:Products With Artificial Sweetener = Sugar Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Soda isn't bitter at all. I think you're confusing soda with tonic water.