Diet Soda Makes You Fat! February 16, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Diseases, Longevitiy, Obese, health, medicine.Tags: cholesterol, diabetes, diet, family, Life, metabolic, news, Obese, soda
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Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda
But the one-third who ate the most fried food increased their risk by 25 percent compared with the one-third who ate the least, and surprisingly, the risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 34 percent higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none.
“This is interesting,” said Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota and a co-author of the paper, which was posted online in the journal Circulation on Jan. 22. “Why is it happening? Is it some kind of chemical in the diet soda, or something about the behavior of diet soda drinkers?”… from NY TIMES
Sweet N’ Low” Makes you Big And Fat? February 11, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, Home, Obese, Survival, Wellness, health, medicine.Tags: diet, diet soda, health, Life, news, nutrtion, obesity, soda, sugar, weight loss
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Lyn M. Steffen, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, who was not involved in the latest report, said the study offered a possible explanation for the unexpected association between obesity and diet soda found in recent human studies.Researchers have puzzled over whether diet soda is a marker for poor eating habits or diet soda ingredients cause people to put on pounds, she said. “This rat study suggests a component of the artificial sweetener may be responsible for the weight gain.”
Steffen’s own recent research has shown that people who drink diet soda have a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome — a cluster of symptoms including obesity — than do people who drink regular soda. Her research was published last month in the American Heart Assn.’s journal Circulation.
An industry group rejected Sunday’s report.
“The causes of obesity are multifactorial,” said a statement by Beth Hubrich, a dietitian with the Calorie Control Council, which represents low- and reduced-calorie food and beverage marketers. “Although surveys have shown that there has been an increase in the use of ’sugar-free’ foods over the years, portion sizes of foods have also increased, physical activity has decreased and overall calorie intake has increased.”
The number of Americans who consume soda, yogurt and other products containing sugar-free sweeteners more than doubled to 160 million in 2000 from fewer than 70 million in 1987, according to the report. Over the same period, the incidence of obesity among U.S. adults rose to 30% from 15%.
One interpretation of the trends is that people have been turning to lower-calorie foods to control an increasing problem with weight gain.
An alternative interpretation is that artificial sweeteners lead to biological or behavioral changes that cause people to eat more. This possibility is easier to test in rats than in people because scientists can control the animals’ diets and measure exactly what they eat, said the study’s lead author, Susan E. Swithers, an associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University in Indiana.
In the experiment, funded by the National Institutes of Health and by Purdue, nine rats received yogurt sweetened with saccharin and eight rats received yogurt sweetened with glucose, which is close in composition to table sugar. After receiving their yogurt snack, the animals were given their usual chow.
At the end of five weeks, rats that had been fed sugar-free yogurt gained an average of 88 grams, compared with 72 grams for rats that dined on glucose-sweetened yogurt, a difference of about 20%. Rats fed sugar-free yogurt were consuming more calories and had 5% more body fat.
In a related experiment, scientists gave the two groups of rats a sugary drink and measured changes in the animals’ body temperatures. Body temperatures typically rise after a meal because it takes energy to digest food.
The rats in the saccharin group experienced a smaller average temperature increase, scientists said — a sign that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners had blunted their body’s response to sweet foods, making it harder for the animals to burn off their extra calories.
Swithers said that normally, sweet tastes signal that the body is about to receive a lot of calories, and the digestive system prepares to react. When sweet tastes aren’t followed by lots of calories, as in the case of artificial sweeteners, the body becomes conditioned against a strong response.
Although the experiment looked only at saccharin, other artificial sweeteners may have the same effect, Swithers said.
A controlled study is needed to determine whether sweeteners have the same effect in people as in rats, she said, but some epidemiological studies have been consistent with her findings.
Swithers’ next step, she said, will be to determine whether dietary changes could reverse the rats’ physiological responses.
Adam Drewnowski, director of the nutrition sciences program at the University of Washington, cautioned against interpreting the results broadly.
“It is unreasonable to claim that results obtained studying saccharin in rats translate to every sweetener in humans,” said Drewnowski, who has received research funding from the beverage industry in the past.
He added: “We now have studies showing that sugar calories are associated with obesity and the absence of sugar is associated with obesity. Pity those people trying to do something about obesity.”
Diet Soda Increases Risk of Overweight and Obesity 41% February 11, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Diseases, Home, Home Health, Obese, Society, Wellness, medicine.Tags: diet, health, Life, medicine, news, soda
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Drink More Diet Soda, Gain More Weight?
The findings come from eight years of data collected by Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Fowler reported the data at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.
“What didn’t surprise us was that total soft drink use was linked to overweight and obesity,” Fowler tells WebMD. “What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks, their risk of obesity was even higher.”
In fact, when the researchers took a closer look at their data, they found that nearly all the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas.
“There was a 41% increase in risk of being overweight for every can or bottle of diet soft drink a person consumes each day,” Fowler says.
More Diet Drinks, More Weight Gain
Fowler’s team looked at seven to eight years of data on 1,550 Mexican-American and non-Hispanic white Americans aged 25 to 64. Of the 622 study participants who were of normal weight at the beginning of the study, about a third became overweight or obese.
For regular soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
- 26% for up to 1/2 can each day
- 30.4% for 1/2 to one can each day
- 32.8% for 1 to 2 cans each day
- 47.2% for more than 2 cans each day.
For diet soft-drink drinkers, the risk of becoming overweight or obese was:
- 36.5% for up to 1/2 can each day
- 37.5% for 1/2 to one can each day
- 54.5% for 1 to 2 cans each day
- 57.1% for more than 2 cans each day.
For each can of diet soft drink consumed each day, a person’s risk of obesity went up 41%.… read more
Obesity a choice or a disease? January 21, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Diseases, Fitness, Obese, Society.Tags: Fitness, health, Life, medicine, news, Obese
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – As adult obesity balloons in the United States, being overweight has become less of a health hazard and more of a lifestyle choice, the author of a new book argues.
“Obesity is a natural extension of an advancing economy. As you become a First World economy and you get all these labor-saving devices and low-cost, easily accessible foods, people are going to eat more and exercise less,” health economist Eric Finkelstein told AFP. In “The Fattening of America”, published this month, Finkelstein says that adult obesity more than doubled in the United States between 1960 and 2004, rising from 13 percent to around 33 percent.
Globally, only Saudi Arabia fares worse than the United States in terms of the percentage of adults with a severe weight problem — 35 percent of people in the oil-rich desert kingdom are classified as obese, the book says, citing data from the World Health Organization and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
With the rising tide of obesity come health problems and an increased burden on the healthcare system and industry.
“But the nasty side-effects of obesity aren’t as nasty as they used to be,” Finkelstein said.
“When you have a first-rate medical system that can cure the diseases that obesity promotes, you no longer need to worry so much about being obese,” he told AFP.
“With our ever-advancing modern medicine there helping to save the day (at least for many people), are government and the media blowing the magnitude of the ‘obesity crisis’ out of proportion?” his book says.
A study in which Finkelstein and colleagues at the RTI International, an independent research institute in North Carolina that works on social and scientific problems, asked overweight, obese and normal weight people to predict their life expectancy came up with a total difference of four years.
Normal weight respondents predicted they would live to 78, the obese to 74, and the overweight 75.5.
Other studies that looked at death data back the conclusion that people who carry excess weight tend to die slightly earlier, the book says, and draws the conclusion that “many individuals are making a conscious decision to engage in a lifestyle that is obesity-promoting.”
“People make choices, and some people will choose a weight that the public health community might be unhappy about. Why should we try to make them thinner?” Finkelstein said.
Linda Gotthelf, a doctor who heads research at Health Management Resources, a private, nationwide firm that specializes in weight loss and management, agreed that Americans now live longer but stressed that quality of life declines with age.
“People are living longer but with more chronic diseases,” Gotthelf told AFP.
“That brings a diminished quality of life, especially for the obese who have more functional limitations as they age and tend to be on multiple medications.”
Obesity is not a choice for Alley English, a 28-year-old mother from Missouri who has struggled with a weight problem all her life.
“If you knew that you could be what society considers normal, why would you not choose to do that?” English told AFP.
“As we get older, life does get more rushed and we do tend to make the easier choices sometimes,” English, who currently weighs 392 pounds (178 kilograms), told AFP.
“But you can’t say if you quit going to the drive-through, exercise more and eat more vegetables, you’ll lose weight. There are so many more factors involved.”
Gotthelf also disagreed that people choose to be obese.
“There are studies in which people have said they would rather lose a limb or be blind than obese. Being obese is not a desire,” she said.
“For many, this is a problem they have struggled with for many years… it gets discouraging after a while,” she said.
“I would not doubt that if you asked obese people if they could push a button and not be obese, close to 100 percent would say they would push the button.”
Finkelstein says he wrote “The Fattening of America” to “encourage discussion of what I understand is probably an uncomfortable position for a lot of people.”
Even if private industry and government take steps to protect society against the costs of obesity, many Americans “will likely continue to choose a diet and exercise regimen that leads to excess weight,” because losing weight requires too many lifestyle sacrifices, his book warns.
Meanwhile, frustrated by years of unsuccessful dieting and weight loss programs, English has opted to join a growing number of Americans who have gastric bypass surgery — hailed in Finkelstein’s book as “the best-known treatment for severe obesity.”
“I have a higher risk of developing diabetes or hypertension if I don’t have the surgery,” English said.
“I don’t care if I end up with a body like whoever-in-the-media thinks I should look like; I just want to be healthy and able to participate in my daughter’s life,” she said.
The Dangers of Diet Coke, Pepsi and other diet foods January 20, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Alternative, Diet and Nutrition, Health Products, Herbal Medicine, Home Health, Obese, medicine.Tags: aspartame, diet foods, healt, Life, news, nutrasweet, stevia
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A better alternative to Aspartame is Stevia Sweetner, which comes from leaf and is 100% natural. It can be found at eHealthSupplies.com or Wisdom Natural Brands.
(The foregoing article is from Dr. Whitaker’s March 2000 vol. 12 No. 3.
You can subscribe to Dr. Whitaker’s Health & Healing by calling 800/539- 8219 or go to www.drwhitaker.com)
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Artificial sweeteners are marketed with the promise of weight control, and the vast majority of people who consume them do so to either lose or avoid gaining weight. Folks, this is a fraud of gigantic proportions.
From 1960 to l976, there was virtually no change in the number of Americans who were overweight: roughly 24 percent of the population. However, from the mid l980s to the present, this number has more than doubled to 54 percent! This coincides with the massive infusion of noncaloric chemical sweeteners and sugar-free “diet” foods that are eaten by close to three-quarters of the adult population.
Although several factors contribute to these alarming statistics, I am convinced that our blind acceptance of the most popular of these artificial sweeteners, aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful), plays a significant role in our current weight problems. Far from helping us lose weight, aspartame has been proven to increase appetite, especially cravings for sweets. Imagine “diet” products that help you pack on extra pounds! And aspartame’s downside doesn’t end with weight gain: This sweetener is associated with multiple health problems.
ASPARTAME MAY CAUSE A VARIETY OF DISEASES
Since aspartame came on the market in l981, it has accounted for more than 75 percent of the complaints reported in the FDA’s Adverse Reaction Monitoring system. The most common adverse reactions attributed to aspartame are headaches, dizziness, attention difficulties, memory loss, slurred speech and vision problems. This cluster of symptoms has become so common that it is actually referred to as “aspartame disease”.
Even more serious disorders have a suspected link with aspartame. Is it an accident that the incidence of brain tumors has increased by 10% since l975? John W. Olney, MD, of the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis believes there may be a link between the two. In an article published in The Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, he notes that animal studies reveal high levels of brain tumors in aspartame-fed rats. According to Dr. Olney, recent findings show that aspartame has mutagenic (cancer-causing) potential, and the sharp rise in malignant brain tumors coincides with the increased use of aspartame.
Could serious seizures and vision loss somehow be associated with the sweetener? The U.S. Navy and Air Force published articles in Navy Physiology and Flying Safety with this warning: “several researchers have found aspartame can increase the frequency of seizures, or lower the stimulation necessary to induce them. This means a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo, or to flicker-induced epileptic activity. It also means that all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight, and gradual loss of vision.”
What about multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and other mood disorders? I have reviewed scores of documented cases of patients with symptoms so severe that they were mistakenly diagnosed with one of these conditions, only to have all signs of disease completely vanish after getting off aspartame.
THE FDA IGNORES SAFETY CONCERNS
Yet the FDA has chosen to turn a deaf ear to repeated requests by scientists, physicians, and consumers to review aspartame’s safety.
Aspartame has spelled trouble from the get-go. The unique property of this chemical, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar, was accidently discovered in l965 by a chemist trying to develop an ulcer drug. Although the FDA rescinded its initial approval because of studies showing that it caused seizures and brain tumors in lab animals, the agency eventually capitulated to political and monetary pressure and in l981 gave aspartame the stamp of approval. In doing so, this bureaucracy overrode the 3-0 decision of a Public Board of Inquiry, which had reviewed the scientific data and had recommended delaying approval pending further studies on the sweetener’s link with brain cancer.
In the intervening years, safety concerns have mushroomed. Ralph G. Walton, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, reviewed all the studies on aspartame and found 166 with relevance for human safety. Every one of the 74 studies funded by the aspartame industry gave it a clean bill of health, while 92 percent of those independently funded revealed safety problems.
ASPARTAME CAN UPSET BRAIN CHEMISTRY
Once you understand a bit about the chemistry of aspartame, you’ll see why it can cause so many problems.
Aspartame is comprised of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartic acid acts as an “excitatory” neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, in the brain, stimulating neurons to fire. Problems can arise when aspartic acid is out of balance with “inhibitory” amino acids that calm things down. Phenylalanine also easily enters the brain, where it is transformed into neurotransmitters that can further interfere with normal brain function.
This is a likely reason why aspartame lowers the threshold for seizures, mood disorders, and other nervous system problems. This altered brain chemistry may also be responsible for the addictive nature of aspartame. Some patients report that getting off diet soda takes more willpower than giving up cigarettes!
A LITTLE MOONSHINE FOR YOU?
The remaining component, which makes up 10 percent of aspartame, may be the most dangerous part. It is a methyl ester that breaks down after ingestion into methanol, a nervous system toxin also known as free methyl alcohol or wood alcohol. Methanol is extremely harmful to the optic nerve. A main ingredient in “moonshine” it was notorious during Prohibition for causing blindness. Methanol is rapidly released into the bloodstream, where it is further metabolized into other harmful components, including formaldehyde (a known neurotoxin and carcinogen) and formic acid (the poison in ant stings).
Is it any wonder that many of the symptoms of “aspartame disease” are neurological and visual? Drinking a diet soda or two (and I’ve had patients who drink at least a liter a day) delivers a powerful chemical rush with decidedly negative effects. With this kind of questionable history, who would want to consume this artificial chemical, particularly when there are natural and healthy sweeteners available?
(The foregoing article is from Dr. Whitaker’s March 2000 vol. 12 No. 3.
You can subscribe to Dr. Whitaker’s Health & Healing by calling 800/539- 8219 or go to www.drwhitaker.com)
