I guess you just can’t win, can you?
Earlier, we’d found out that our pal Fructose was not the savior to diabetics it was supposed to be, because instead of raising blood-sugar, it just raised fat in the blood.
-So instead of diabetes, you got cardio-disease.
Well, in a recent study by the Weizmann Institute of Health, we find out that somehow mystifyingly, even Artificial Sweeteners backfire.
All 3 biggies.
The same way.
SH**!
In yet another chapter of bonkers-science, Dr. Eran Elinav discovered that in-fact artificial sweeteners end up RAISING your God-damn blood-sugar!
So: The science said the molecules that make up Splenda, Sweet ‘n’ Low, & Aspartame were supposed to *taste* sweet, but actually do -nothing- when they got into your body. (for the moment, we’ll ignore some of the other reported health risks)
What the WIH team found out is that these molecules, -however strikingly-different-, DID end up doing something.
They screwed with our old pal, The Human Micro-Biome!
So what exactly did they do? -Right now it looks like the 3 different artificial sweeteners had strangely-similar effects not on the Functions of individual microbes, but the Balance in quantity and activity-amount of different *Types* of microbes.
The scientists even double-checked this idea.
-First, by giving Anti-Biotics to the mice to clear all their gut bacteria. -Which returned them to normal.
And then, they ran the experiments on humans, found similar results, and injected the mice with human gut bacteria and got the exact same results as in the mouse-only trial!
BOOM!
And that is very significant, because most of these studies are run on extracted cells or lab-mice Exclusively!
So, it would appear that there are at least 2 types of bacteria out of thousands at work here.
One converts dietary inputs to blood-glucose slowly over a longer period of time, and the other is like a drag-racer; superfast, huge spikes, which lead to insulin overcompensation, fat-storage, fat-cell bloat, obesity & eventually Diabetes.
And that buggie does it even in the presence of 3 totally-different sweeteners!
The next trick WIH’s docs have to pull out of their hats is to find out Exactly What Type of bugs are doing that 50-yard-dash & hopefully come up with a yogurt or probiotic capsule people can take to knock them back down.
So there you go, one more reason not to use artificial sweeteners, because the tests with regular sugar were all problem-free. -And this reason is, if not the worst one yet, then perhaps the nail-in-the-coffin:
Artificial Sweeteners don’t even work at their basic purpose: To sweeten something without raising your blood-sugar, making you fat, & runing your health.
Check out the details at the Links:
PS: U. Chicago’s Cathryn Nagler guesses at which gut-bug is to blame #1. And Most-Importantly, #2 Suggests that *Obese people may HAVE to change their gut-bugs with a probiotic, because their condition keeps the bad-ones stuck in them without a massive intervention.
Photo Credits:
Original Invisible Sandwich Lolcat Meme, Unknown Originator, McCovey Chronicles, via: KnowYourMeme
Links:
• Source: NYT
• via: The Verge
• More Coverage: SocietyForScience
• Source Study: Nature-Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota
• Study Commentary: Nature-The Weighty Costs of Non-Caloric Sweeteners[PDF]
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