Just wondering why sugar alcohols like sorbitol and erythritol were excluded from this study.
I'm more curious about Allulose[1] which is claimed to have anti-hyperglycemic effects by reducing glucose absorption in the intestines.
Microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
71–75 of 75 posts
Re: Microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a baffling thought that so much research is spent on which type of sugar water might cause the least amount of bad long term effects. It's not like there is any medical need for the body to consume sugar water at all. As recreation, sure, but doing something daily is routine, not recreation. That last part is the strange bit. Consume it every tenth meal and you can pick any type of sugar, an otherwise healthy in…
It doesn't baffle me; it seems pretty obvious. Given that huge populations are consuming sugar water daily, and given the health consequences of this, information on which type of sugar water has the least-bad long-term effects is extremely valuable for harm-reduction efforts. If "everyone should just stop drinking soda" was actually a strategy that worked, then the problem would have already been solved. It didn't w…
Lots of people drink alcohol daily. But we don't collectively act as if that was something completely normal. We spend huge resources to spread the importance of drinking in moderation.
The same is true of sugar water too. Nobody has to stop drinking it. Just do it sensibly and it's not a problem.
Re: Microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a heuristic. If you haven't done a randomized placebo controlled double blind exhaustive study of the compound and all you have to go on is the layout of the molecule, is it a bad guess?
> If [...] all you have to go on is the layout of the molecule, is it a bad guess? Yes, almost certainly. Like I pointed out, one atom is the difference between a toxin and water.
That doesn't change whether or not it's a good heuristic. Whether it's a good heuristic depends on how often "extra chlorine hanging off the side" is indicative of toxicity. He didn't make a claim about one atom changes in general, and even if you did you would need to show that on average across many instances from the sample population (substances we are likely actually to run into) it's misleading.
Re: Microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
#74A glance suggests that Saccharine and Sucralose may be problematic. The others may be “complicated” but the effect also looks close to noise. They should have included some non-sweetener molecules of a similar nature as controls. Sucralose was an instant no to me when I saw the molecule. “Here let’s hang a chlorine off this here sugar.” Nope. I recall seeing similar sentiments in a thread over at Reddit where a bioch…
Man, and I thought mechanistic arguments were bad. This is a whole new level.
Re: Microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance
#75A glance suggests that Saccharine and Sucralose may be problematic. The others may be “complicated” but the effect also looks close to noise. They should have included some non-sweetener molecules of a similar nature as controls. Sucralose was an instant no to me when I saw the molecule. “Here let’s hang a chlorine off this here sugar.” Nope. I recall seeing similar sentiments in a thread over at Reddit where a bioch…
> Sucralose was an instant no to me when I saw the molecule. “Here let’s hang a chlorine off this here sugar.” Nope. I recall seeing similar sentiments in a thread over at Reddit where a biochemist remarked that it looked like a pesticide. If you could infer the properties of a compound by making vague analogies to other similar looking molecules, chemistry would be easy. Changing a single atom can completely change…
Organic and inorganic molecules are way different. Most small changes to organic molecules are somewhat predictable as to their outcome, afaik.