Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.
Pepsi has just announced that Diet Pepsi will be switching
from aspartame to sucralose, as the artificial sweetener.
So why is Pepsi Co switching? As many studies over the years have shown,
aspartame is just hazardous to your health. It is carcinogenic in many ways,
and people are rejecting its use.
Sucralose, or Splenda, isn’t really a better alternative at
all. It has many of the same adverse effects as aspartame including, headaches,
seizures, GI problems, heart palpitations, respiratory difficulties, and
ironically, weight gain.
Research published in the “Journal of Toxicology and
Environmental Health: in 2008, showed that, in animals, Splenda reduced the
beneficial gut bacteria by 50%, it increased the intestinal ph, and is absorbed
by fat (contrary to previous claims.)
Decreasing your gut bacteria is no small factor. It is one way these sweeteners cause obesity
and diabetes. A recent study found that artificial sweeteners decrease function
in pathways associated with the transport of sugar in your body.
They were also shown to produce glucose intolerance in
otherwise healthy people. Glucose Intolerance is a well-known precursor to type
2 diabetes. It also plays a role in obesity because the excess sugar in the
blood ends up being stored in fat cells.
As I read somewhere, switching from aspartame to sucralose
is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There’s not much hope of
improvement in the situation.
All artificial sweeteners are hazardous to your health, your
weight in particular. Study after study has shown that the more “diet” foods
replace sugar with artificial sweeteners, the heavier people who eat them get.
These sweeteners disrupt normal sugar metabolism. This promotes other health problems associated
with excessive sugar consumption, including heart disease, stroke and
Alzheimer’s.
One particular study found in the” Journal of American
Geriatrics Society “ published in 2015 studied people over age 65 for 9 years.
What they found was a “striking dose –response relationship” between diet soda
consumption and waist circumference. Other factors such as exercise, diabetes
and smoking were added to the formula and accounted for.
Those who drank no diet soda increased their waist
circumference by an average of 0.8 inches over 9 years. Occasional diet soda
drinkers added an average of 1.83 inches. Daily diet soda drinkers gained an
average of 3.2 inches – four times that of those who drank no diet soda at all!
Generally, all sweetened beverages are one of the main
culprits causing obesity and related health problems such as diabetes and heart
and liver disease, to name a few.
There is one sweetener, stevia extract that has none of the
negative effects of artificial sweeteners. It is a natural plant based
sweetener, and has not been shown to have negative health implications.