Hello everyone,
You may have seen that there has recently been another big uproar about the dangers of sweeteners. Apparently they cause diabetes, disturb the bacteria in the gut and are responsible for the horrible football the Giants are playing right now!
So I decided it was about time to take my red pen out and see what is really at the heart of the matter.
According to the NYT, the consumption of sweeteners caused all of these symptoms within a 7 day period (aside from the Giants malaise)…
Here are the three main issues I have with the study:
- The study used Saccharin in the study, which is not used anymore in diet sodas.
- The dosage in the study was insanely high, so you would need to use up to 10 ‘sweet n low’ packs per serving to get to the maximum amount of Saccharin.
- The survey was completed over a very short term (7 days) and in mice; (which does not tell us much about humans). The argument is always that only 2 percent of our genes are different from those of mice, but that is nonsensical. I am only 0.001 % genetically different from Le Bron James, but if you had the bad fortune to see me play basketball, you would realize that 0.001 % can make a huge difference!
Do I think that diet sodas are healthy? That depends on how you define healthy, but they can be a God send during a tough diet, and we have plenty of research to support the fact they do not impair glucose tolerance if consumption is kept to below 5 cans a day, (if you want references, email me).
Furthermore, if people switch from regular sodas to diet, while keeping their diet in check, they…..drum roll…lose weight! Why? They consumed fewer calories.
So once, again a new scare crow has been invented but I say relax, you are fine. Just don’t eat sweeteners by the handful!
Till next time…
Maik