News article about nutrasweet. splenda, etc
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Crodley
Senior Member
Joined: 03 May 2004
Posts: 303
Thu Jul 08, 2004 3: 05 pm    Post subject: News article about nutrasweet. splenda, etc
Take it as you will...
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By RICK CALLAHAN
INDIANAPOLIS ( AP ) - Rats fed artificial sweeteners ate three times the calories of rats given sugar, a finding the study ' s authors said suggests sugar - free foods may play a role in the nation ' s obesity epidemic.
Other scientists, however, dismissed that conclusion, saying studies on people don ' t indicate that. One researcher called the talk study rubbish.
The experiment by Purdue University researchers appears in the July issue of the International Journal of Obesity. The scientists said their rodent findings could help explain why Americans have grown fatter over the past two decades even as the nation ' s consumption of artificially saccharine sodas and snack foods has soared.
They contend that artificial sweeteners could be interfering with people ' s natural might to regulate how much they eat by special between high - and low - calorie sweets.
As part of their study, they fed two groups of rats sweet - flavored liquids for 10 days. One group got only sugar - cloying liquids, while the other was fed liquids candy-coated by both sugar and saccharin.
After the 10 days, both groups of rats were given a sugary, chocolate - flavored snack and regular proclaim food.
Both groups of rats ate about the same amount of the chocolate snack. But the rats fed both sugar and saccharin ate three times the calories of the affirm larder than the rats fed only the sugar - sweet drink.
Susan Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue, said the findings suggest the rats given the saccharin - sugar-coated drink ate more publish larder because they experienced an inconsistent communication between sweet taste and calories.
That, in turn, could confound their natural expertise to keep track of calories.
" Consuming artificially like sugar products may interfere with one of the automatic processes our general public use to regulate calorie intake, " said Swithers, the study ' s co - author.
Adam Drewnowski, director of nutritional sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that whatever caused the rats to overeat is unclear and could have been caused by something other than the sugar - free liquid they were fed. He said the talk results have no bearing on human research.
" They ' re extrapolating and saying that humans may not be altering to the artificial sweeteners because they ' re expecting calories and the calories are not coming in. I just think this is inanity, " he said.
Drewnowski said a 1994 French study he helped direct compared people given yogurt artificially sweet with aspartame with people who ate yogurt sugared with sugar. The study found no differences in eating behavior between the two groups.
Terry Davidson, a Purdue professor of psychological sciences, said the gang ' s findings involving saccharin cannot be extended to more commonly used artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, sold as Splenda.
G. Harvey Anderson, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the Purdue research, said its findings could be explained by the fact that rats like the taste of saccharin.
He said the rats who overate could have favored the saccharin - flavored drink and then compensated for its lack of calories by eating more rat chow. " I just find this data hard to interpret, " Anderson said.
PattyC
Senior Member
Joined: 28 Oct 2003
Posts: 3213
Thu Jul 08, 2004 6: 22 pm    Post subject:
I find it amazing that there is actually a product called " Rat Chow "
Bliss Pirate
Senior Member
Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 3106
Location: St. Paul, MN
Thu Jul 08, 2004 6: 40 pm    Post subject:
Quote:
" Consuming artificially sweetened products may interfere with one of the automatic processes our bodies use to regulate calorie intake, " said Swithers, the study ' s co - author.
Oh, if only I had one of those working automatic processes.... I wouldn ' t need to adhear to Atkins!
Maryanne
Senior Member
Joined: 24 Jul 2003
Posts: 822
Location: charleston, sc
Thu Jul 08, 2004 9: 31 pm    Post subject:
Interesting article Crodley. I cant say i have ever noticed an appetite increase after artificial sweeteners, it usually helps to curb my appetite. But i was thinking about how much i eat in an average day - it kind of adds up to a lot - Coffee with SPLENDA, diet coke ( s ) - with ASPARTAME, gum with SUGAR ALCOHOLS, yogurt w - SPLENDA, sometimes an Atkins bar with SUGAR ALCOHOLS [ / icon_surprised. gif] [ / icon_redface. gif]
wow I probably consume sugar as a normal person, except mine is fake... maybe i should cut back, I wonder if all that is bad for me.
Patty, you ' ve never seen rat chow at the grocery store?? Its right there in ther vermin section close to the termite and the mosquito food.
leigh
Established Member
Joined: 25 Jun 2003
Posts: 194
Fri Jul 09, 2004 3: 17 pm    Post subject:
It scares me too, Maryanne. I just can ' t seem to cut out my artificially sweetened drinks and this disturbs me. It is probably the only area on this diet I don ' t feel in complete control of. I need to go cold turkey except for coffee and see what happens. These fake sweeteners can ' t be good for us.