Artificial Sweetener May Disrupt Body's Ability to Cou...

[Guest guest]

I have printed it out to study, but thought you may wish to read it, too.

Hugs, marilyn

Imprtant artical on sweetners from About.com; a summation of Purdue

University's research on subject.

http://diabetes.about.com/od/sweeteners/a/pavlovsweetener_p.htm

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Artificial Sweetener May Disrupt Body's Ability to Count Calories

From Amy -Neubert for Purdue University

Jul 2 2004

Choosing a diet soft drink over a regular, sugar-packed beverage may not be

the best way to fight obesity, according to new research from Purdue

University. But the researchers said this doesn't mean you should grab a

regularly

sweetened soft drink instead.

Professor Terry son and associate professor Swithers, both in the

Department of Psychological Sciences, found that artificial sweeteners may

disrupt the body's natural ability to " count " calories based on foods'

sweetness.

This finding may explain why increasing numbers of people in the United

States lack the natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight. The

researchers also found that thick liquids aren't as satisfying - calorie for

calorie

- as are more solid foods.

Based on the research, son and Swithers suggest paying more attention to

calories consumed and engaging in regular exercise to battle the bulge.

The Purdue's researchers' study, " A Pavlovian Approach to the Problem of

Obesity, " appears in the July issue of International Journal of Obesity.

son

and Swithers, members of the Ingestive Behavior Research Center at Purdue,

suggest that being able to automatically match caloric intake with caloric need

depends on the body's ability to learn that the taste and feel of food by the

mouth suggests the appropriate caloric intake. Much as Pavlov's dogs learned

that the sound of a bell signaled food, people learn that both sweet tastes and

dense, viscous foods signal high calories. This learning process begins very

early in life and perhaps without conscious awareness, according to the

researchers.

" The body's natural ability to regulate food intake and body weight may be

weakened when this natural relationship is impaired by artificial sweeteners, "

said son, an expert in behavioral neuroscience. " Without thinking about

it, the body learns that it can use food characteristics such as sweetness and

viscosity to gauge its caloric intake. The body may use this information to

determine how much food is required to meet its caloric needs. "

Over the past 25 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the consumption

of artificially sweetened foods and low viscosity, high-calorie beverages,

said Swithers, a developmental psychobiologist.

" Incidence of overweight and obesity has also increased markedly during this

period, " she said. " Our hypothesis is that experience with these foods

interferes with the natural ability of the body to use sweet taste and viscosity

to

gauge caloric content of foods and beverages. When you substitute artificial

sweetener for real sugar, however, the body learns it can no longer use its

sense of taste to gauge calories. So, the body may be fooled into thinking a

product sweetened with sugar has no calories and, therefore, people overeat. "

Swithers said that the loss of the body's ability to gauge caloric intake

contributes to increased food intake and weight gain, especially when people do

not count calories on their own. A similar dynamic is at work with foods'

texture and thickness.

" Historically, we knew that our body learns that if the food is thick, such

as whole milk, it tends to have more calories than compared to a thinner liquid

such as skim milk, " Swithers said. " Now, our research reinforces this and

takes it one step further, showing that our bodies translate this information

about perceived calories into a gauge to tell us when to stop eating. "

The researchers based their hypothesis on Pavlovian theory. Ivan Pavlov,

known for his work in the early 20th century, is famous for his experiment in

training dogs to associate food with the ringing of a bell. After being

conditioned to the bell, the dogs salivated when they heard it - even when they

did not

see or smell food. son and Swithers propose that rats learn a similar

relationship between the taste or texture of a food and the calories it contains

and may use this information to control food intake and body weight.

son and Swithers' findings are based on two studies.

In the first study, two groups of rats were given two different

sweet-flavored liquids. In the first group, both liquids were sweetened with

natural

high-calorie sweeteners so there was a consistent relationship between sweet

taste

and calories. For the second group, one of the flavored liquids was

artificially sweetened with non-caloric saccharin so that the relationship

between sweet

taste and calories was inconsistent.

After 10 days of exposure to the flavors, the rats were allowed to eat a

small amount of a sweet, high-calorie chocolate flavored snack. The researchers

compared the two groups' ability to compensate for the calories contained in the

chocolate snack. The rats that had experienced the inconsistent relationship

between sweet taste and calories were less able to compensate for the calories

contained in the snack and ate more than the rats that had experienced the

consistent relationship between sweetness and caloric intake.

" This suggests that experience with the inconsistent relationship reduced the

natural ability of the rats to use sweet taste to judge the caloric content

of the snack, " Swithers said.

In the second study, two groups of rats were given a high-calorie dietary

supplement along with their regular food every day for 30 days. Although the

supplements were identical in calories and nutritive content, they differed in

viscosity. For one group the supplement had the consistency of thick chocolate

pudding, whereas for the other group, the supplement was similar to chocolate

milk. son and Swithers found that over the course of the study, the rats

given the milk-like supplement gained significantly more weight than the rats

given the more viscous, pudding-like supplement.

" This finding indicates that rats are less able to estimate and compensate

for the calories contained in liquids than in semi-solid foods, " son said.

" If the body is less able to detect and compensate for calories contained in

liquids, then intake of high-calorie beverages compared to semi-solid or solid

foods could increase the tendency to gain weight. "

The number of Americans consuming sugar-free products increased from less

than 70 million in 1987 to more than 160 million in 2000. During the same

period,

the consumption of regular soft drinks increased by more than 15 gallons per

capita annually.

" Increased consumption of artificial sweeteners and of high-calorie beverages

is not the sole cause of obesity, but it may be a contributing factor, "

Swithers said. " It could become more of a factor as more people turn to

artificial

sweeteners as a means of weight control and, at the same time, others consume

more high-calorie beverages to satisfy their cravings. "

son and Swithers are evaluating potential mechanisms that may produce

the short- and long-term effects on food intake and body weight, as well as

whether age or gender are contributing factors. Additional research also will

need

to evaluate if the body and brain can be retrained to naturally measure

calories after consuming artificial sweeteners or high-calorie beverages.

The National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institute of

Digestive Diseases and Kidney Disorders, and Purdue School of Liberal Arts

funded this research.

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Marilyn

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