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WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

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Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#31

Post by jwally »

corpMaverick wrote: post #26

To be frank I do not know what to do. I have been trying to reduce my insulin resistance but most of the low carb protein powder seem to use some sort of artificial sweetener. Also this https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/a44156389/sucralos... So which one is less bad ?

If I'm reading the article by the WHO correctly; its not saying stop using Artificial Sweeteners because they are poisonous - they're saying that Artificial-Sweeteners aren't part of a long term weight management strategy.

If your protein powders have them - no factor. I feel like the headline is 10x more inflammatory than it needs to be.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#32

Post by ctenb »

hedora wrote: post #27
WonderBuilder wrote: post #6

It feels to me that this advisory was not put out sensibly. WHO advises "against [artificial sweetener] use" because they "do not help control body mass or reduce the risk of weight-related illnesses" and because long term "[may increase the risk] of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease". But is that enough reason to give such a blanket statement disallowance? What if you want to have some sweetness from time t…

Artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause weight gain, since they make you hungrier, and also lower your metabolism. This was shown in follow up studies with humans, but with mice, they had three groups that each got a fixed amount of calorie counted food and a hamster wheel. They then added sugar to one group's water and artificial sweetener to another group's. The artificial sweetener groups gained the most we…

Reference to research?

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#33

Post by gizmo686 »

WonderBuilder wrote: post #6

It feels to me that this advisory was not put out sensibly. WHO advises "against [artificial sweetener] use" because they "do not help control body mass or reduce the risk of weight-related illnesses" and because long term "[may increase the risk] of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease". But is that enough reason to give such a blanket statement disallowance? What if you want to have some sweetness from time t…

The actual recommendation:

> WHO suggests that non-sugar sweeteners not be used as a means of achieving weight control or reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases (conditional recommendation)

> Conditional recommendations are those recommendations for which the WHO guideline development group is less certain that the desirable consequences of implementing the recommendation outweigh the undesirable consequences or when the anticipated net benefits are very small. Therefore, substantive discussion amongst policy-makers may be required before a conditional recommendation can be adopted as policy.

> Because the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Subgroup on Diet and Health focuses on providing guidance on the prevention of unhealthy weight gain and diet-related NCDs, providing guidance on the management of diabetes in individuals with pre-existing diabetes is beyond the scope of this guideline. Therefore, the guidance in the guideline may not be relevant for individuals with existing diabetes.

https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1501485/retrieve

I don't understand the expectations some people have of the WHO. Anything more complicated than a headline is going to get oversimplified by the media.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#34

Post by hinkley »

jwally wrote: post #15
heyparkerj wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which blows my mind, because when all else in the diet holds equal, swapping two sugar'd sodas with two artificially sweetened sodas will save you (using my old vice Dr Pepper as an example) 54g sugar and 200 calories per day. It's just a little annoying that WHO (or this article, not sure who's most at fault) decided not to get into the nuance that people tend to make up those missing 200 calories in other ways.

Agree. The lede "Don't consume artificial sweeteners" reads like "they're poison". They're not. The better title should have been "Artificial Sweetener Use Is Not A Long Term Weight Management Strategy". Not that anybody actually reads or pays attention to these things when they're wolfing down a bag of fritos; but still to the person at What-a-burger getting an 1100 calorie meal - they're probably better off opting…

We now know that the intestines have 'taste buds' that can detect sweetness.

There's a theory, and I don't know how tested it is at present, that the body uses these detectors to control the digestion process. Within this theory, the presence of the artificial sweeteners may encourage the body to work harder to scavenge calories from your digestive tract.

The upshot of this model is that if you eat a burger with a glass of water, you absorb X calories. If you eat the burger with a diet Sprite, you might be absorbing X + Y calories instead.

Remember, calorie counts for food are based on measures of caloric value of a unit of food minus the caloric value of what the average person excretes. If we were furnaces instead of meat we would get more calories from our food. And if you have odd digestive microbes you may be absorbing more or less calories from your food.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#35

Post by gattilorenz »

meindnoch wrote: post #17
Someone1234 wrote: post #10

This was posted when it was published in May. To use an analogy their argument is: Vaping is bad for you, don't do it. While ignoring that a ton of people quit smoking using vapes and that they're letting the perfect be the enemy of good. Same thing with NSS. While NSS are a useful tool for sugar reduction, studies have shown that over the medium-long term, you'll want to reduce artificially sweat foods and even swea…

Sweat food? Yuck!

Honeydew! Well, that’s actually worse than sweat…

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#36

Post by gizmo686 »

corpMaverick wrote: post #26

To be frank I do not know what to do. I have been trying to reduce my insulin resistance but most of the low carb protein powder seem to use some sort of artificial sweetener. Also this https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/a44156389/sucralos... So which one is less bad ?

The recommendations explicitly do not apply to people trying to manage existing diabetes.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#37

Post by nonrepeating »

Upon reading the headline, I assumed this was related to the recent research suggesting that sucralose damages DNA. As someone who was drinking a sugar free energy drink every day, that was enough to get me to quit. The pure somatic horror of “DNA damage” far outweighs whatever enjoyment and lift I get from a can of [brand name].

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#38

Post by DrThunder »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

This was posted when it was published in May. To use an analogy their argument is: Vaping is bad for you, don't do it. While ignoring that a ton of people quit smoking using vapes and that they're letting the perfect be the enemy of good. Same thing with NSS. While NSS are a useful tool for sugar reduction, studies have shown that over the medium-long term, you'll want to reduce artificially sweat foods and even swea…

Eh I get what you're saying but I don't think most people who switch to vaping actually stop quit nicotine all together, they just continue vaping with often higher levels of nicotine. I guess they have the advantage of getting rid of second-hand smoke and the permeating smell of cigarettes.

I think a similar thing happens with "diet" "sugar-free" products. Almost all of the people who use these products neglect every other aspect of their health thinking they're really going to tackle obesity by swapping out processed sugar for sweeteners.

Anecdotally, I've never seen someone using copious amounts of these sweeteners look healthy. They continue on being obese and out of shape. I think if your goal is to be healthy then your mind set has got to change and using an option like artificial sweeteners is just a "have your cake and eat it too" position that won't result in making you healthier.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#39

Post by mike10921 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #10

This was posted when it was published in May. To use an analogy their argument is: Vaping is bad for you, don't do it. While ignoring that a ton of people quit smoking using vapes and that they're letting the perfect be the enemy of good. Same thing with NSS. While NSS are a useful tool for sugar reduction, studies have shown that over the medium-long term, you'll want to reduce artificially sweat foods and even swea…

I fully agree. The main argument is that if you use sweeteners you will eat more sugar, so it is worse than sugar. So basically don't eat the non-poison because it will cause you to eat poison, so instead eat the poison itself.

Also, there is no concrete evidence that sweeteners are bad for one's health, it's more the feeling of 'chemicals' are always bad. Sugar is clearly bad and causes obesity and diabetes. The choice seems pretty clear between the two.

Re: WHO advises against use of artificial sweeteners

#40

Post by crazygringo »

hedora wrote: post #27
WonderBuilder wrote: post #6

It feels to me that this advisory was not put out sensibly. WHO advises "against [artificial sweetener] use" because they "do not help control body mass or reduce the risk of weight-related illnesses" and because long term "[may increase the risk] of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease". But is that enough reason to give such a blanket statement disallowance? What if you want to have some sweetness from time t…

Artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause weight gain, since they make you hungrier, and also lower your metabolism. This was shown in follow up studies with humans, but with mice, they had three groups that each got a fixed amount of calorie counted food and a hamster wheel. They then added sugar to one group's water and artificial sweetener to another group's. The artificial sweetener groups gained the most we…

> Artificial sweeteners have been shown to cause weight gain

That does not seem to be the scientific consensus:

"The majority of clinical studies performed thus far report no significant effects or beneficial effects of artificial sweeteners on body weight and glycemic control" [1]

"Thus, evidence from controlled studies suggests that artificial sweeteners don’t cause weight gain and may even be mildly effective for weight loss." [2]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7817779/

[2] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-a...

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