2.6 cm larger waist doesn't seem very convincing. I probably go up/down 2.6cm on any given day.
Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#22I see this as, "What we thought was true actually is, and we still have no real idea why." The fact that this is a longitudinal study lets us say that not only is heavier use of low calorie sweeteners tied to being fat, it is correlated with getting fatter faster. That's an important point that only longitudinal studies can verify. However without being able to control people's diet, we don't know which way causation…
> However without being able to control people's diet, we don't know which way causation goes. Do low calorie sweeteners cause people to gain weight faster? Or does having a tendency towards gaining weight cause people to use low calorie sweeteners? And if it is a cause, why that would be.
It seems overwhelmingly likely that the causality goes the other way, though.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#23I thought it was already established that anything sweet-tasting stimulates an insulin response, which is an energy storage (fattening) hormone.
If sweet-tasting things stimulated a significant insulin response without providing the actual sugar to justify it, we'd die from insulin shock. Not hyperbole. This is the mechanism behind Xylitol toxicity in dogs, for example.
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/xylitol-toxicity-in-d...
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#24Totally unscientific theory: sweeteners are to sugar what methadone is to heroin. If you're using them, you're still craving/addicted to sugar and your palate remains out of whack, so you're probably also drawn to sugary foods that don't use sweeteners (eg. most commercial pasta sauce, ketchup, fruit juice, many breads).
It's true, artificial sweeteners have been shown to trick the brain and make people more hungry just like sugar does:
https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2016/07/13/why-artif...
But artificial sweeteners do not increase blood glucose levels, which are also linked to increased appetite. For me personally, avoiding sugar is a surefire way to decrease my appetite overall. It's so effective it almost seems like magic.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#25I am frustrated by the dismissal of this study in the comments. I think the burden of proof clearly lays on the claim that using artificial sweeteners is a healthier alternative to sugar. It seems fairly certain that is not the case.
That's not what this study is about. There are already plenty of studies showing weight loss or reduced weight gain when consuming low calorie sweeteners vs sugar. And there are no ill health effects such as causing cancer, which a lot of people still believe.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/...
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#26Fat people should probably try lactulose - a zero-calory (indigestible) sweet syrup (somewhat similar to maple syrup) with prebiotic and laxative properties. Besides being tasty it can actually make their guts healthier so their ghrelin (hunger hormone) secretion can decrease and their leptin (fullness hormone) secretion can increase.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#27I thought it was already established that anything sweet-tasting stimulates an insulin response, which is an energy storage (fattening) hormone.
If sweet-tasting things stimulated a significant insulin response without providing the actual sugar to justify it, we'd die from insulin shock. Not hyperbole. This is the mechanism behind Xylitol toxicity in dogs, for example. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/xylitol-toxicity-in-d...
There are plenty of results if you search google for "artificial sweetener insulin", some from quite reputable sources.
It doesn't take much of a response to accumulate significant fat over the years, when you're constantly consuming the stuff.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#28I use a quite a bit of Stevia. I wonder where that fits in.
I use stevia and monk fruit a lot and would be curious too. I've never felt bad after using it though, unlike stuff like aspartame which seems to make me feel a bit funny.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#29This seems incredibly weak because they haven't shown causation -- or, in particular, disproved reverse causation. (That people struggling with weight gain are more likely to use sugar substitutes.) This is more of a "huh, someone should do additional research" paper than anything conclusive.
What would be required to disprove reverse causality? They discuss it more than twice
> In other words, an outcome assessed at visit v was regressed on low-calorie sweetener history up to the visit prior to outcome assessment to rule out reverse causality. In Model 2, outcomes at visit v were regressed on low-calorie sweetener use history through visit v-1, hence minimizing reverse causality.
Re: Low-Calorie Sweetener Use and Risk of Abdominal Obesity Among Older Adults
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If sweet-tasting things stimulated a significant insulin response without providing the actual sugar to justify it, we'd die from insulin shock. Not hyperbole. This is the mechanism behind Xylitol toxicity in dogs, for example. https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/xylitol-toxicity-in-d...
There are plenty of results if you search google for "artificial sweetener insulin", some from quite reputable sources. It doesn't take much of a response to accumulate significant fat over the years, when you're constantly consuming the stuff.
Not all artificial sweeteners are the same though. Xylitol, stevia, and monk fruit for example all taste super sweet and do not have a significant insulin response.