University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre in Australia said that artificial sweeteners can lead people to eat more unhealthy foods leading them to gain weight and suffer from diseases, ABC reports. This was done through a study of two sets of fruit flies.
One group of fruit flies was given healthy food and while the other was given healthy food with artificial sweetener on it. In turns out that the fruit flies given the sweetener have consumed almost a third more calories and a third more food. The Lead researcher Greg Neely said that the brain sensed both sweetness and energy intake and these are the reasons why the body responded with such high appetite.
Dr. Terry Shintani, a Harvard Nutritionist, says that eating is like a "Yin Yang" reaction. When you eat a "Yin" then your brain will signal your body to eat a "Yang". For example, drinks like coffee and soda are intensively Yin in nature and so when you drink them, your body automatically will crave extremely Yang foods like burger, fries, and some other meaty and salty foods. It is quite important to consider that there should be a balance in the Yin Yang foods and that most of the foods in the middle are fruits and vegetables, which should be the ideal foods for consumption. If you get so far from the middle line and eat foods at both extreme points on the side- the Yin and the Yang, then you will gain weight and attract diseases in your body.
America and the US are among the regions in the world that is very much into artificial sweeteners. The effect is a high obesity rate. JAMA says that over one third of the population of adults (20 years and above) are obese. Because of this, chronic diseases linked to obesity like hypertension, diabetes, heart diseases, and even cancer are also very high. These are among the leading causes of death in the States.
Japan, on the other hand, is known to be one of the healthiest country and it is because of the eating habits that are so opposite with the Americans. A study published in the British Medical Journal says that "adults who followed government advice regarding food intake had lower rates of mortality than those who didn't". Japanese women have a life expectancy of 87, which is the highest in the world.
The Japan Healthy ministry banned artificial sweeteners for 40 years but now using a certain sweetener called stevia. Over 40,000 clinical studies on stevia concluded that it is safe for human use.
