Do artificial sweeteners raise diabetes risk?

"Artificial sweeteners may promote diabetes, claim scientists," reports The Guardian. But before you go clearing your fridge of diet colas, the research in question – extensive as it was – was mainly in mice.

The researchers' experiments suggest artificial sweeteners, particularly saccharin, change the bacteria that normally live in the gut and help to digest nutrients.

These changes could reduce the body's ability to deal with sugar, leading to glucose intolerance, which can be an early warning sign of type 2 diabetes.

The researchers only directly tested the effect of saccharin in an uncontrolled study on just seven healthy adults over the course of a week. It is far too early to claim with any confidence that artificial sweeteners could be contributing to the diabetes "epidemic".

In the interim, if you are trying to reduce your sugar intake to control your weight or diabetes, you can always try to do so without using artificial sweeteners. For example, drinking tap water is a far cheaper alternative to diet drinks.

What kind of research was this?

This was animal and human research looking at the effect of artificial sweeteners on bacteria in the gut and how this influences glucose metabolism.

Because of differences between species, results in animals may not always reflect what happens in humans, but they allow researchers to develop a better idea of how things might work.

They can then use this knowledge to develop ways to test their theories using information that can be obtained in humans. This study has carried out both the animal and early human tests of their theories. But the human part of this study was relatively limited, as the focus was on the animal research.

The researchers carried out a cross-sectional analysis of artificial sweetener exposure and indicators of metabolic problems and gut bacteria. This approach is not able to determine whether the sweetener could be contributing to the outcomes seen, or vice versa.

The researchers also tested the short-term effect of saccharin on people who never consumed the sweetener, but without a control group.

What were the basic results?

The researchers found both lean and obese mice consuming the artificial sweeteners saccharin, sucralose or aspartame in their water over 11 weeks developed glucose intolerance, while those consuming just water, glucose or sucrose did not.

Saccharin had the greatest effect on glucose intolerance, and the researchers focused most of their experiments on this sweetener. It caused glucose intolerance within five weeks when given at a dose equivalent to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maximum acceptable daily intake in humans.

The researchers found the mice consuming the artificial sweeteners did not differ in their liquid and food consumption or their walking and energy expenditure compared with the controls. These factors were therefore considered to not be causing the glucose intolerance.

However, treating mice with antibiotics stopped the artificial sweeteners having this effect. Mice with no gut bacteria developed glucose intolerance when the researchers transplanted gut bacteria taken from mice consuming saccharin or being treated with saccharin in the lab. These results suggest the sweeteners were having some effect on the gut bacteria, which was causing the glucose intolerance.

The researchers also found drinking saccharin changed the types of bacteria in the mice's guts. Drinking water, glucose or sucrose did not have this effect.

The bacteria in the gut are involved in helping to digest nutrients. The specific changes seen in mice consuming saccharin suggest the sweeteners could be increasing the amount of energy that could be harvested from these nutrients.

In their human studies, the researchers found:

• Long-term artificial sweetener consumption in 381 people who were not diabetic was associated with greater waist circumference, waist to hip ratio, levels of glucose in the blood after fasting, and worse glucose tolerance.
• People who consumed artificial sweeteners had a different gut bacteria composition from people who did not consume artificial sweeteners.
• Four out of seven healthy adult volunteers who did not normally consume artificial sweeteners developed worse glucose tolerance after consuming the maximum US FDA-recommended level of saccharin for six days. These four people showed gut bacteria differences compared with the three people who did not show an effect, both before and after consuming the saccharin.
• Transfer of gut bacteria from the volunteers showing a response to bacteria-free mice caused the mice to develop glucose intolerance. This was not seen if they transferred gut bacteria from the non-responding human volunteers to mice.

Conclusion

This fascinating and controversial study in mice and humans suggests artificial sweeteners, particularly saccharin, could lead to glucose intolerance by having an effect on gut bacteria. The fact that both the animal and human experiments seem to support this adds some weight to the findings.

However, the researchers' investigations in humans are currently limited. They assessed the link between long-term artificial sweetener consumption and various indicators of metabolic problems, such as fat around the waist, using a cross-sectional design. This cannot establish which came first and therefore which could be influencing the other. Also, the only confounder in humans that seemed to be considered was body mass index.

The researchers also only directly tested the effect of one artificial sweetener (saccharin) in an uncontrolled study on just seven healthy adults over the course of a week. Saccharin is less commonly used than other artificial sweeteners, and the participants also consumed it at the maximum US FDA-recommended level (equivalent to 120mg a day).

The findings suggest – at least in the short term – saccharin may only affect glucose response in some people, depending on their gut bacteria. Larger studies, which also incorporate a control group, are needed to see whether they support the results and whether other sweeteners have similar effects.

Some earlier human studies have found links between artificial sweeteners and weight gain and increased diabetes risk. However, it has generally been assumed this is because the people who consume more artificial sweeteners because the sweeteners contain no calories already have problems with their weight, which is why they are at more risk, not vice versa (reverse causation).

This study raises the intriguing possibility that artificial sweeteners could also be directly affecting how our bodies respond to sugar. However, this research is only in its early stages, and we cannot say for certain whether artificial sweeteners are contributing to the diabetes epidemic.

In the interim, if you are trying to reduce your sugar intake, you can do so without replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners.

For people trying to lose weight and those with diabetes who are trying to control their blood sugar, it is important to do what works for them as this is more likely to be sustainable in the long term.

For some people, substituting food and drinks containing artificial sweeteners, rather than those containing sugar, may help with these goals.

At this stage, it is far too early to drop artificial sweeteners from the arsenal of sugar alternatives that could be used to fight the diabetes and obesity epidemic.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/09September/Pages/Do-artificial-sweeteners-raise-diabetes-risk.aspx

Cleansing With the Seasons

cleansing the body of toxins is becoming more and more popular as people become more educated on natural health, nutrition, and detox benefits. Many are starting to implement cleansing as a lifestyle, implementing several cleanses a year because of the many health benefits they receive. Traditional Chinese Medicine has taught for a long time that the body is an amazing creation designed to work with nature. It was designed so that it cleanses specific organ systems most effectively at certain times of the year when our body most needs those organ systems to be clean and when the foods that support those organ systems are growing naturally in nature. According to "The Law of the Five Elements" by Dianne M. Connelly, Ph D. each organ in our body has a time and a season where it receives the most energy from the body.

Fall is the time that the colon and lungs receive their major energy allotments. This means that those organ systems may respond better to a cleanse protocol at this time of year than at any other time. Our bodies are gearing up for colder weather. Our bodies want to put on extra weight during this time to get us through the colder months of the year. It's not just Thanksgiving and Christmas. Many of the foods that grow this time of year are heavy and help us put on weight. The body needs a clean colon at this time of year because these heavier foods can stagnate in the colon and cause toxicity if the colon is not functioning properly.

Our lungs and immune systems can also be very much affected by the colon. It is especially important for our lungs and immune systems to be functioning at their peak to protect against the many bacteria and virus that we may be more susceptible to as a result of the cold. Up to 70% of our immune system is located in the intestinal tract and if our immune system is focusing its resources on dealing with toxins in the colon, it will not be able to support the rest of the body as effectively. Cleansing the colon helps to relieve stress from the immune system and lungs so that they can be better equipped to keep you healthy in the cold.

Winter is the time to support and cleanse the kidneys. Winter foods in nature tend to be very heavy with more meats and fats. This puts extra stress on the kidneys. The kidneys are receiving their energy allotment at this time so this is the time to give them support and cleanse. The inability of the kidneys to properly filter the extra winter proteins and toxins may result in them being deposited into body tissues. This can increase the chance of developing gout.

Spring is the time to cleanse the liver and gall bladder. Light and easy to digest vegetables, sprouts, and leafy greens are perfect for cleansing the liver and are starting to grow in the spring. The liver is also receiving its high energy allotment. One of the liver's primary functions is to filter toxins and cleansing and supporting the liver helps to get the body clean and ready for a new year of life. Spring should be the time when people set their New Years weight loss resolutions. Unlike winter, spring is a great time to do a weight loss cleanse because the liver is ready to expel toxins that have been held in place by fat cells so that they do not harm the rest of the body. Once these toxins are processed out of the body it has no need for the fat cells that held them.

Summer produces abundant and diverse fruits, berries, and vegetables that are high in vitamins and minerals. The body needs the high levels of nutrition to rebuild and repair itself. It needs to get itself ready for the following seasons so it needs the stomach and small intestine to be able to effectively digest and assimilate those nutrients. The systems that receive their energy in early summer are the heart and small intestine and the ones that receive their energy in late summer are the spleen, lymph, and stomach.

Cleansing with the seasons is a great way to work with and support your body in a way that flows with nature and in the timing that produces the greatest cleanse results


http://ezinearticles.com/?Cleansing-With-the-Seasons&id=8044203