What you need to know about Artificial Sweeteners

Wendy Humphris, ROHP

​Since the 1970’s, a new food trend came about with the goal to reduce sugar intake in people. This was believed to be a way for people to more easily manage weight, and the idea was that less sugar means less calories, and of course therefore less weight gain, but is that really the case? After another 30 years of research, science has releases many of the findings, and it looks like things aren’t exactly as they appear. The next few paragraphs will tell you what you need to know about artificial sweeteners. 

​The Gut Flora 
 
Your gut has a large colony of microorganisms inside of it, and when they eat the things that you eat, there can be good and bad effects that you cause. One easy example is how acidic foods can tend to cause over populations of unhealthy destructive bacteria, and healthy foods can help keep your gut flora alive and kill off the extra harmful bacteria, but studies have shown that these sweeteners can confuse or make major changes to your gut flora. This could be really bad under most circumstances. After many of these studies, a lot of information suggests that the sweeteners don’t even have much of an effect on weight loss. 
 
 
Kids Have Other Factors 
 
After studying a cross section of children, researchers have concluded that kids who are overweight are generally overweight because of the types of foods that they eat, and the types of quantities that are normal for them on a daily basis. Diet sodas are only really meant to replace some of the sugar intake, so a child who eats a lot of fast food can drink as much diet soda as they want, but it won’t make them lose weight. To lose weight, it would have to involve some changes in habits that make overeating easy for them to do, and generally, children who overeat tend to be enabled by parents. 



Fooling Your Body Might Be Bad
 
Artificial sweeteners may have unintended consequence for users of the product. When your brains tastes something sweet, receptors tell your brain that your body is about to receive something to ingest. The brain then tells your pancreas to make insulin to break down the sugar so that it can be used in the body. When these sugars are not received or broken down, it could cause your body to become confused. In tests of overweight people, a lot of them showed signs of sustained insulin production. This could be very dangerous for a lot of people because this lays the beginnings of diabetes. That happens when your body no longer properly responds to sugars entering your blood. 


So the moral of the story here is to strive for natural ingredients, while still reducing the intake of sugar. Natural and healthier versions of sweeteners can be obtained through honey, maple syrup, monk fruit, agave and in a pinch, raw cane sugar. 

All sugars will spike your blood sugars, so you want to be cautious. If your sweet tooth is still crying out to you, you can look at no calorie sweeteners like stevia and xylitol. 

Balancing your blood sugars isn't easy but with guidance and the right food intake your sugar levels can be stabilized. 

One way to ensure you bring some balance to you food intake and blood sugar levels is to embark on a season cleanse. The Fall Detox 2019 set up and ready to join right now. 

This years cleanse is an amazing upgrade over the past years. With a ton of new features, double the recipes and meal plan and a way to go beyond the physical aspect of the detox and bring some energetic cleansing to your whole Self through deep breathing exercises, affirmations, journalling as well as the essential dry brushing, caster oil packs and and tongue scraping. 

To find out more and join in on this years Detox, please follow the links here.