Artificial Sugar: Friend or Foe?

Are artificial sweeteners “bad” for you?

Short answer, yes. Artificial sugars (and many other more “natural” sugars too) are addictive and toxic and contain no nutritional value whatsoever. Most are inflammatory inside your body.

But the whole story is a little harder to explain.

If you’re not yet convinced sugar is a toxin, it’s probably worth reading anything written by Dr. Robert Lustig and supported by other doctors including Dr Mark Hyman and Dr Peter Attia. Sugar is, sadly, more prevalent in our diets today than we realize – and we are being jaded by statistics that our intake of sugar has peaked and is on the decline. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, and the reality is that these stats are being presented to us because “artificial sugar” is removed from the equation. In actuality, sugar consumption, both natural and artificial combined, continues to rise dramatically. 

These artificial sugars are not just in the “obvious” places, like chocolate bars and pop. They are in salad dressings, pasta sauces, cereals, “healthy” sports bars and drinks, low-fat “healthy” yogurt, and most lunch meats, just to name a few places. It’s essentially everywhere, and it’s wreaking havoc on our health.

OK, so what are “artificial sugars” versus the more natural sugars? I’m talking about things like aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet), cyclamate (Sweet ‘N Low, Sugar Twin), sucralose (Splenda), and those types of processed chemicals.

Before I go making any big statements or making recommendations, I always do my homework. These newsletters always have the scientific, peer-reviewed research to back them up. It takes me quite a while to put these articles together.

I have to admit that I started this topic with the opinion that artificial sugars were not only toxic, but also lead to chronic diseases like cancer or heart disease and let’s not forget cognitive decline. Guess what? I was being swayed by media just like everyone else, and my opinion was definitely challenged by my research. I still think artificial sugars lead to those diseases, but I don’t have as much research to back it up as I thought I did. Yet. I still think it’s coming.

After carefully reading a lot of research, I discovered that there is no credible evidence of this in humans. And let me assure you, aspartame in particular has been very carefully tested since the 1960’s. In fact, there are over 100 independent studies that have been done on aspartame alone! The other artificial sugars haven’t had quite so much research done on them, but to date there are no true, hard data linking these artificial sugars to the diseases people tend to erroneously link them to in casual conversation. This is not the case with animal studies, however.

Let’s be clear that historically, animal studies do provide us with valuable information. In this field, there have been many studies done that have drawn some important conclusions. Some of these artificial sugars, and indeed “regular” sugar as we know it, can lead to metabolic health issues, gut health problems, neurological concerns and increased appetite.

The point of me telling you that my opinion was challenged while doing research for this article was merely to show you that we can believe something that the media or mainstream tell us, but that it’s important to dig deeper and see what the raw research really tells us. In this case, the research isn’t as conclusive as I thought it might be. It’s leaning us in the direction of artificial sugar being just as awful as I thought it was, but it’s not 100% there yet. We’re still relying heavily on the animal studies.

So does this mean I think we all get a free-pass on artificial sugars? Absolutely not. I still think they are highly processed toxins that wreak havoc on our bodies.

There may well be a place for artificial sugar in your life (I’m thinking diagnosed, obese Type II diabetics perhaps). But by and large, we should be avoiding sugar in general because it is inflammatory and may lead to other chronic illnesses.

I took the following information directly from Dr Mark Hyman’s work. He’s a leading medical doctor in the field of functional medicine and has written many books about sugar, metabolism, chronic disease, and longevity. He states the following:

Artificial sweeteners rewire your brain chemistry and metabolism. How could aspartame and other fake sweeteners make you gain weight even though they’re calorie-free? Because they stimulate your taste buds and trick them to think you’re eating real sugar. Artificial sweeteners can be 1000 times sweeter than sugar, so your body becomes confused and revs up production of insulin, your fat-storage hormone. Your metabolism slows down, you become hungry more quickly, you’re prone to eat way more food (especially carbs), and increased belly fat is the inevitable result. Because they confuse and slow down your metabolism, you burn fewer calories every day. Artificial sweeteners make you hungrier and cause you to crave even more sugar and starchy carbs, such as bread and pasta.

Artificial sweeteners are highly addictive. I regularly see patients who complain they can’t kick their diet-soda habit. “I have one in the morning and I can’t stop,” they say. It isn’t just their imagination: Artificial sweeteners can quickly become addictive. In an alarming study, rats offered the choice of cocaine or artificial sweeteners always picked the artificial sweetener, even if the rats were previously programmed to be cocaine addicts. The author of the study said that, “The absolute preference for taste sweetness may lead to a re-ordering in the hierarchy of potentially addictive stimuli, with sweetened diets… taking precedence over cocaine and possibly other drugs of abuse.”

Bottom line

There are many different types of sweeteners available that can be used for different purposes. It is important for you to decide which ingredients are right for you depending on your personal goals and preferences.

Personally, I don’t touch artificial sugars at all and I avoid them wherever I see them. My body just doesn’t like them: aspartame has always given me a headache since I was a little girl and I don’t like the chemical taste of most of them. When I do have sugar, I make sure it’s the most natural form. I sweeten my granola with maple syrup, I use half the amount of sugar required when baking and I use coconut sugar when I need a “dryer” sugar as opposed to wetter ingredients like maple syrup and honey.

It can be really confusing to sift through all the information out there and this was a great example for me. Intuitively, knowing how body processes work, I feel strongly that these artificial sugars are doing us no service. They have no nutritional value whatsoever. The research to date, though not as clear as I’d like it to be, does lead me to believe that there are downstream effects from using artificial sugars. These facts alone are enough for me to recommend most individuals avoid them.

That’s my final answer, just keep them out of your life unless you know the exact reason why you are using them over traditional sugar (or none at all!) and make sure that reason makes sense to you.