Zero Calories? Think Again!
Cakes, ice cream, sodas, chocolate candies and other sweet delights. How delicious! But just as you are about to crave for them, take a moment to think of all the calories your body may get. Luckily, products such as zero-calorie sodas, ice creams and chocolates, all laced with artificial sweeteners, available in the market may erase this concern.
Problem solved? Not quite.
On the contrary, artificial sweeteners and products containing them can actually increase your calorie intake, helping you gain more weight with health problems on the side.
A recent study conducted on rats showed that compared with those who were fed with yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar), rats that ate yogurt sweetened with the artificial sweetener, saccharin, actually consumed more calories (because they ate more than their sugar fed friends), which led to them to gaining more weight and putting on more body fat.
Another startling and significant discovery from this study is that the body temperature of the saccharin-fed rats rose much lower than those of the glucose-fed rats, therefore, their bodies were less able to burn as much calories that they took in.
As for humans, marketing strategies promoting these sweeteners have led to the public feeling less guilty in overindulging in these foods. Who wouldn’t want to eat sweets knowing that they no longer pose a risk on our health, right? Also, since these foods supposedly do not contain calories, then why should you bother keeping watch over how much you’ve eaten, right?
However, another research has shown that people who frequently drink diet soda actually have twice as much chances of becoming obese than those who drink regular soda. This is because artificial sweeteners can stimulate the appetite, increase carbohydrate cravings, and stimulate fat storage and weight gain. So instead on cutting back, you tend to eat a lot more than what you used to.
That’s not all. A recent discovery exposed that the phenylalanine in aspartame (a kind of artificial sweetener) can lead to symptoms of depression, migraine headaches and brain tumors because it distorts the serotonin/dopamine balance in our bodies. So, not only do you increase your chances of getting fatter, but you are also putting your health at a terrible risk.
Having said all these, the next time you are in the grocery store, do not be fooled and do not allow yourself to be tempted by the labels “zero calorie” or “sugar-free” food items.” Refrain from ordering diet soda whenever you are in restaurants or fast food outlets because instead of seeing yourself in a lesser-size pants, you might see yourself being carted away to the hospital.
Comments
aspartame is known to cause cancer in laboratory animals so be careful.“
aspartame have some bad side effects too so be careful with it..:
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