Are Artificial Sweeteners Worse Than Sugar? Artificial Sweeteners Lead to More Weight Gain Than Sugar, Study Says
Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 19:32
Step away from the saccharin, people. Medical News Today is reporting that a new study has determined that artificial sweeteners can make you—or at least a few lab rats—gain weight.
The study claims that test rats that ate yogurt sweetened with saccharin consumed more calories than those who stuck with normal sugar. They also put on more weight, gained more body fat and did not cut back on their calorie consumption in the longer term than their regular-sugar-eating counterparts.
The study was conducted by Drs. Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, two psychologists based at the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, and published in the February 2008 issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA)."The authors suggest that a sweet taste may cause animals to anticipate the calorie content of food, and eating artificial sweeteners with little or no calories undermines this connection, leading to energy imbalance by increasing food intake or reducing energy expenditure," the article notes.
In other words, a low-calorie taste of the sweet stuff wasn't enough to satisfy Splinter's cravings—causing the rats to overindulge. Think about that the next time you sprinkle on the Splenda.
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