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Artifical Sweeteners: An Overview
[size=5]Artificial Sweeteners: An Overview[/size]
by [url=http://forum.bodybuilding.com/sendmessage.php?do=mailmember&u=11064]pogue[/url]
Artificial Sweeteners have become a common topic of interest and discussion. Some individuals are very concerned about the safety of these sweeteners, because they are [i]"unnatural chemicals"[/i]. When the term unnatural, artificial and chemical is applied to something, it can make it sound scary. However, artificial sweeteners are typically much safer overall than plain sucrose or high fructose corn syrup. Both sucrose and HFCS cause large spikes of insulin, which can lead to insulin sensitivity, fat storage and increased hunger with carb cravings. Although, these have their place in an athletes regime, being most useful in the window before, during and after a workout whereby an insulin spike will have a positive effect on restoring glucose to muscles, and increasing skeletal protein stores. Using these sweeteners, despite the fact that they are natural, have a potential to cause more overall health ailments in the long term than any artificial sweetener. Sweeteners with a high glycemic index have been implicated in increased risk for obesity and diabetes, amongst other problems.
For individuals who lead a healthy life style, be it low carb, low fat, or even looking for increased overall mass can all benefit from the use of artifical sweetners everyday. When in doubt, always pick Diet soda over regular soda, and sweeten your coffee with the pink or blue packets, instead of white or brown. You'll be glad you did.
[url=http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/par64.htm]Artificial Sweeteners - Debunking The Myths![/url]
[b]Why is this thread closed?[/b]
This thread was originally written as an informative article to help those who have been flooded with misinformation about artificial sweeteners and their supposed ill-effects on the body. Performing a simple search on any of the major search engines for any of the artificial sweeteners listed below turns up all sorts of conspiracy theorist pages as the first results. Unfortunately, because of this and the large amount of other misinformation out there posted by individuals who have no scientific understanding, many people automatically assume that the assertions made by these groups & people are true. This has caused great animosity towards anyone who tries to discuss the facts of these compounds and have a real discussion on them in a scientific nature. Anyone who appears to be trying to "defend" ingredients such as aspartame causes a large number of people, who seemingly come out of the woodwork, to post a wide range of unreasonable assertions that cannot be proved or disproved, and thus there is no way to draw any conclusions from them. Yet, because the people who post these messages use those arguments as the core of their belief, it is impossible to even try and get them to look at them more rationally and makes any further discussion of the topic completely pointless -- it's essentially akin to a child sticking their fingers in their ears and singing loudly to try and ignore any sort of reasonable debate or alternate opinion you might try and show them. That makes it quite unfortunate for anyone who has a reasonable question about these ingredients, because others have ruined it for them. It's because of the constant barrage of these kinds of post in this article that it has been closed. Since I have posted this, other threads have been started on this same discussion that include a great deal of knowledge from other board members, included our resident biochemist Layne Norton (str8flexed), which I recommend anyone who is interested in the topic read through and is welcome to continue the discussion there.
[list][*][url=http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=3492181]Chemical Sweeteners in Whey Protein[/url][*][url=http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=399431]aspartame[/url][/list]
[quote]ACSH artificial sweetener report updated.
The American Council on Science and Health has revised its report on acesulfame-K, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, sucralose, and three other artificial sweeteners that are approved for use in other countries. The report states that these products may enable people to improve their diet by getting calories from more nutritious foods rather than from sugar in soft drinks. It notes, however, that whether sugar substitutes help people lose weight is not scientifically settled. Sugar alcohols are also discussed. The report, Sugar Substitutes and Your Health, can be ordered in booklet form for $5 or can be read online at [url]https://web.archive.org/web/20060713093230/http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubid.1316/pub_detail.asp[/url][/quote]
The document is attached as a PDF.