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Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#141

Post by NIL8 »

Hytosys wrote: post #121
hncomment wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some such sores, if occasional, may just be canker sores: http://www.healthline.com/health/canker-sores I've noted a correlation with: stress or lack of sleep; candy binges; eating scratchy foods like say popcorn.

I've been suffering from these blasted things for 18 years, and have similarly noted the same sorts of correlations. My best efforts: cutting out gum; cutting out sharp foods; cutting out acidic foods; taking vitamins B-12 and C, L-lysine, and zinc; switching toothpastes and brushing techniques. I regret not recording my history of occurrences, but I perceive things are improving. At the very least, it's safe to say…

I can relate. You're probably right about them being multi-factorial, but changing toothpaste has been the biggest help to me. I use baking soda most of the time and have avoided these sores for years.

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#142

Post by darcyparker »

serf wrote: post #129
darcyparker wrote: post #8

Aspartame (Nutrasweet) is pretty controversial in how it got approved by the FDA. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robbie-gennet/donald-rumsfeld-... When I was 8 years old, I started having grand mal seizures and my parents noted a strong correlation between drinking a Diet Coke and having a seizure. When they eliminated it from my diet, my seizures declined. Fortunately I stopped having seizures around 12 years of…

forgive me for asking perhaps an obvious question , but did you reduce overall caffeine intake by switching from diet coke, or did you stick to something with similar caffeine levels and still experience the reduction in seizures?

I was 8 years old and my family rarely drank soda. I went from having a diet coke occasionally to occasionally having a regular coke, ginger ale, root beer, etc... So I don't recollect changing my periodic intake of caffeine.

I didn't do a thorough study of it... and I recognize that the logic that aspartame was a trigger could be wrong. But when you find something that appears to work and later hear of others who identified the same potential trigger and fix, then you start to believe it may be true. Personally I don't think there have been sufficient studies to show a connection or not. But people who have seizures shouldn't rule it out.

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#143

Post by maxerickson »

darcyparker wrote: post #142
serf wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

forgive me for asking perhaps an obvious question , but did you reduce overall caffeine intake by switching from diet coke, or did you stick to something with similar caffeine levels and still experience the reduction in seizures?

I was 8 years old and my family rarely drank soda. I went from having a diet coke occasionally to occasionally having a regular coke, ginger ale, root beer, etc... So I don't recollect changing my periodic intake of caffeine. I didn't do a thorough study of it... and I recognize that the logic that aspartame was a trigger could be wrong. But when you find something that appears to work and later hear of others who id…

But people who have seizures shouldn't rule it out.

People that have any symptoms that correlate with consumption of foods shouldn't rule out anything a priori.

Depending on the severity of the symptom and their desire to eat certain foods, they may want to experimentally narrow down the trigger. I guess I would not be inclined to eat artificial sweeteners in an attempt to see if they triggered a seizure.

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#144

Post by darcyparker »

tptacek wrote: post #71
darcyparker wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I can't point to an official study - just many anecdotal claims from people like me. When you google, I am sure you will see many such claims - including the 'internet hoax'. (The internet hoax is unfortunate because it takes away credibility from the many anecdotal claims like mine that sincerely feel real. More carefully constructed studies should occur.)

That's tricky to evaluate, because you get the exact same narratives from people who claim sensitivity to glutamates, where we can be somewhat certain that there isn't a health connection.

It's easy to evaluate if you have seizures. You don't need to wait for it to be definitively proven to make use of the anecdotal evidence. If you learned that aspartame could trigger a seizure, wouldn't you be cautious and want to see if a change to your diet would reduce your seizures?

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#145

Post by darcyparker »

cgh wrote: post #84
darcyparker wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The doubts about its safety are mine. I am skeptic about the safety of all artificial sweeteners - especially ones new to the market - given my personal experiences with Aspartame. From most American's points of view, Stevia is new and it is being promoted by big industry. It may have been around for a thousand years, but I seriously doubt any of my ancestors in the last 1000 years consumed much of it. I am fine with…

>>I am skeptic about the safety of all artificial sweeteners - especially ones new to the market Stevia is not artificial and has been used in Japan for decades. It is recognised as a mainstream sweetener. It's also used in Canada, for example, though not so widespread yet.

You're right its not artificial... my mistake. It is however rather new to the market in the USA and Canada. It has been around for a long time, but in small markets.

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#147

Post by tptacek »

darcyparker wrote: post #144
tptacek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's tricky to evaluate, because you get the exact same narratives from people who claim sensitivity to glutamates, where we can be somewhat certain that there isn't a health connection.

It's easy to evaluate if you have seizures. You don't need to wait for it to be definitively proven to make use of the anecdotal evidence. If you learned that aspartame could trigger a seizure, wouldn't you be cautious and want to see if a change to your diet would reduce your seizures?

It is not at all hard to find people who believe MSG triggers seizures.

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#148

Post by devy »

hncomment wrote: post #102
devy wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to ask this personal question, do you know if there is a name for the autoimmune problem that causes scores?

Some such sores, if occasional, may just be canker sores: http://www.healthline.com/health/canker-sores I've noted a correlation with: stress or lack of sleep; candy binges; eating scratchy foods like say popcorn.

I've noticed the same causes and correlation. Canker sores' formal name is aphthous stomatitis. But whether it is an autoimmune disease is debatable. As noted in [1]:

"Despite this preferred theory of immuno-dysregulation held by most researchers,[7] aphthous stomatitis behaves dissimilarly to autoimmune diseases in many regards. "

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphthous_stomatitis

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#149

Post by Dylan16807 »

minikites wrote: post #136
Dylan16807 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So often used to imply what ? I've seen a lot of people ignoring correlation when they really shouldn't, I have never in my life seen them using the implication backwards. How often do you see that?

I might be misunderstanding what you're saying, but I see exactly what I mentioned in the parent comment, which is why I wrote my comment.

I don't see it like that. Large claims require large proof, that's all I see in the comment. Shocking numbers need more investigation, and need a big grain of salt, but that is still taking the result as weak support of causality, not a counter to it.

I think you're reading "skepticism" as "the opposite is likely" and I'm reading it as "assign low weight".

Re: Artificial Sweeteners May Change Our Gut Bacteria in Dangerous Ways

#150

Post by encoderer »

rando3826 wrote: post #111
rodly wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the reason for this is that generally speaking, people who eat poorly know they're eating poorly and would rather have their cake and eat it too. They know soda is bad for them and that apples are good for them. That sitting all day long doesn't expend a lot of energy and running the back hills for a half hour does. So when someone asks an ill person who eats poorly "How have you been eating?" they kn…

Meh, your both wrong. When appropriate, doctors do ask about diet, they do recommend changes to diet, it does make a difference, and being healthy is not necessarily simple.

Meh, my point is diet is always appropriate. And it is.
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