Our grocery and retail shelves are flooded with diet foods, diet aids, and even some "health" foods that contain artificial sweeteners added to them like aspartame and sucralose. Even items like toothpaste and cough syrup have artificial sweeteners in them. They are touted as the zero calorie/low calorie saviors for those who wish to either control their weight or lose weight. What actually happens in the end is something that has the potential to not only increase weight but also lead to other ailments and/or adverse health conditions.
Over the next few post a number of issues revolving around artificial sweeteners, in particular aspartame, will be reviewed. Issues covered will be how aspartame is broken down (metabolized) in the body, how they affect blood sugar and cravings, and the potential to become addicted to artificial sweeteners.
The liver is the body's primary organ for fat burning and metabolism. When aspartame is consumed it passes directly to the liver from the small intestines. The liver has to work overtime to break down aspartame into its key components: phenylalanine, aspartic acid, formaldehyde and methanol. Each one of these components disrupts the body's ability to perform key functions but I will digress for the sake of brevity. Back to metabolism. The liver has to utilize a great amount of energy to metabolize aspartame. From the moment it enters the liver it is given priority over most every other metabolic function. While the liver is working furiously to breakdown aspartame into several different poisons it is unable to fully metabolize fats (beneficial fats or otherwise) found in our foods or fats already stored in the body. The problem is now obvious. Whenever fat from food is not fully metabolized it is stored away and fat already in the body is not processed for fuel (which leads to its removal). This is how consuming products with artificial sweeteners like aspartame can actually help pack on the pounds instead of decreasing them. Contrary to popular belief losing weight is not all about calorie restriction because even low calorie artificially sweetened foods can cause weight gain by retarding the livers ability to metabolize what we eat and cause strong cravings (more on cravings later).
Foods sweetened with aspartame can slow the livers ability to metabolize so much that the liver itself can become fatty. Once this happens total liver functionality, such as blood cleansing, enzyme production and hormone production, becomes impaired causing systemic problems throughout the entire body. Also, a fatty liver makes losing weight a frustrating endeavor. As previously mentioned a fatty liver can not breakdown and utilize fat for fuel efficiently. All the time spent working out at home or in a gym has the potential of being negated from a fat burning perspective when low fat/non fat foods spiked with artificial sweeteners are consumed coupled with a fatty, over-worked liver. By no means is this a condemnation of working out as we all should strive to be more active. Care about what we consume is the emphasis here. I am providing some resources below for perusal. The next post will cover how artificial sweeteners affect blood sugar and cravings. Bon appetit!
Sources:
http://www.savvypatients.com/sweeteners.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvFRLIjOLOU&feature=player_embedded#!
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