Diabetes Type 2 Support Group

Here is an interesting link regarding Diabetes and Artificial Sweeteners.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticl...

Wouldnt sugar do the same thing... make you crave more? I have found when I eat sugar, I keep on craving it, but with splenda, I can control it more. I dont have alot of Splenda, but I do use it.

I couldn't follow your to medscape because I'm not a member...

As a rebuttal to your original posting, I offer:

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/a...

It's a good read. Answers questions like: How many cans of diet soda would you need to drink to get as much formaldehyde as a single orange? What does the body really do with sucralose? Just how "unnatural" is aspartame?

As for sugar cravings, some people swear by glutamine to reduce cravings. Others find they lessen over time.

Happy 4th!
-FM

Goldilox, I think you hit the nail on the head. The instructor in our diabetes group asked "how do you feel when you eat too many sweets?" I think she was looking for the answer "guilty", or something like that. But one woman stuck her hand up and replied "GOOD!, really good! I want MORE!". AIn't it great when people are honest ;-)

It's true, we are so conditioned to eat sweets that we do crave it. We are addicted.

When you think back to simpler times, when overall health was better....sugar products didn't exist to the degree they do now.

Our bodies are designed to function a certain way. Over the centuries we have abused our circadian rythms and have thrown the basic human life out of synch with nature.

Carbohydrates are a boost to our system. That is all they are intended to be. Quick energy.

The problem is, in todays world, we eat these boosting foods as part of a stable diet. So therefore, like any drug, our bodies begin to crave them. We like the rush it gives.

Take for example a truly healthy person. Say an athlete for example. They feed their body proteins to build muscle. Then they use this muscle to work their bodies. Much in the same way our ancestors used protein to make themselves strong so that they could perform heavy labor and walk everywhere they needed to go. They would consume carbs only when an extra boost was needed. It wasn't a staple to their diet. It was a treat.

We today do not perform the same type of heavy labor as our ancestors or athletes do. But we are the ones who crave the carbs. It isn't because we NEED them. It is because we WANT them.

A healthy person doesn't crave carbs. An athelete doesn't crave carbs unless their energy level is depleted.

On the other hand, an obese, unhealthy, sedentary person does crave carbs. Because their body is not being used properly and is usually malnurished. Overweight persons are typically the most malnurished individuals. They tend to be lacking in many vital minerals, their blood counts are awry, they are dehydrated.

What does this tell you? As forgotmath so eloquently pointed out..."aint honesty great"? So be honest and accept that your sugar cravings are because your body is unhealthy. Not because you are eating sugar.

Here is the medscape article:

June 15, 2009 (Washington, DC) — People who use artificial sweeteners are heavier, more likely to have diabetes, and more likely to be insulin-resistant compared with nonusers, according to data presented here during ENDO 2009, the 91st annual meeting of The Endocrine Society.

Results show an inverse association between obesity and diabetes, on one side, and daily total caloric, carbohydrate, and fat intake, on the other side, when comparing artificial sweetener users and control subjects.

First author Kristofer S. Gravenstein, a postbaccalaureate researcher with the Clinical Research Branch at the National Institute of Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), said the association may reflect the increased use of artificial sweeteners by obese and/or diabetic study participants. "This is a cross-section study," Mr. Gravenstein told Medscape Diabetes & Endocrinology, "so there are limitations — we cannot say that artificial sweetener use causes obesity, we can say it is associated with it."

Increased Use vs Increased Glucose Absorption

Artificial sweeteners activate sweet taste receptors in enteroendocrine cells, leading to the release of incretin, which is known to contribute to glucose absorption. Recent epidemiologic studies in Circulation (2008;117:754-761) and Obesity (2008;16:1894-1900) showed an association between diet soda consumption and the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

This report tested whether participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), which began in 1958, differ in anthropometric measures, daily caloric intake, and glucose status, separating them into 3 different groups: artificial sweetener users, artificial sweetener nonusers, or controls.

A total of 1257 participants, with a mean age of 64.8 years (range, 21 - 96 years), had data on self-reported 7-day dietary intake, 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), and anthropometric measures. The major artificial sweetener consumed was aspartame, preferred by 66% of BLSA participants, followed by saccharin (13%), sucralose (1.0%), and combinations of the three (21%).

"In our study, we were actually able to isolate what type of sweetener was used at a certain point in time, as we used food diaries, and not food questionnaires," Mr. Gravenstein pointed out.

"When we first did this analysis, we found that people ate more fat before 1983, which is the year [of] a big increase in artificial sweetener consumption in the American population — it was actually when aspartame was approved and diet Coke was introduced," he explained.

As a result, the study further analyzed data from a subset of participants, starting in 1983. Compared with 550 people who did not use artificial sweeteners, the 443 people who did were younger, heavier, and had a higher body mass index (BMI), yet they did not consume more calories from people who did not use artificial sweeteners. Fat, carbohydrate, protein, and total caloric intake were not different between the 2 groups (users vs nonusers).

Furthermore, Mr. Gravenstein noted that people who used artificial sweeteners "were less likely to have a normal OGTT, or they were less likely to be diagnosed as having a normal glucose homeostasis."

In terms of glucose status, the impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and/or impaired fasting glucose (IFG), the data show that artificial sweetener users "were not different than the prediabetics, ie, they had the same prevalence of prediabetes," he said, adding that "in our population, people who used artificial sweeteners were twice as likely to have diabetes, 8.8% compared to 4.4% for controls."

Analyzing the data further, the investigators focused on a subpopulation, in which fasting insulin values were available from 374 nonusers and 311 artificial sweetener users. The users had a higher fasting glucose levels, higher fasting insulin levels, and a higher measure of insulin resistance, as measured by the homeostasis model assessment, but glycosylated hemoglobin A1C levels were similar between the 2 groups.

Alternative Hypothesis and Clinicians' Role

The researchers suggest an alternative hypothesis, that artificial sweeteners modulate the metabolic rate through enteroendocrine cells, therefore contributing to the development of diabetes and/or obesity. However, this hypothesis needs further testing in longitudinal analysis and intervention studies, said the investigators.

"Also, it could be that artificial sweeteners are causing diabetes, or it could be that there is a higher use of them because a lot of physicians actually recommend people to use artificial sweeteners to prevent diabetes...." Mr. Gravenstein said. The researchers are planning to address this question with a prospective analysis.

"This is a very interesting study," Rachel C. Edelen, MD, a pediatric endocrinology practitioner at the Aspen Centre in Rapid City, South Dakota, told Medscape Diabetes & Endocrinology in an interview. "I diet screen all my patients, and they are not drinking enough milk. Usually, they replace the milk with something else, sweetened tea, Gatorade, etc, not just water. With my type 1 diabetics, the information they were getting from the hospital was to drink diet pop. But who even goes into the hospital and drinks pop?" she wondered.

Support for this study was provided by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Edelen and Mr. Gravenstein have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

ENDO 2009: The Annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society: Abstract P2-478. Presented June 11, 2009.

Authors and Disclosures
Journalist
Crina Frincu-Mallos, PhD
Crina Frincu-Mallos is a freelance writer for Medscape Medical News.

From MedNews Today:

Methanol turns into formaldehyde and then formic acid within the body.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water

Aspartame is made of phenylalanine (50% by weight) and
aspartic acid (39%), both ordinary amino acids, bound
loosely together by methanol (wood alcohol, 11%).
The readily released methanol from aspartame is within hours
turned by the liver into formaldehyde and then formic acid,
both potent, cumulative toxins.

While fruit pectins do break down into formaldehyde over time, the human gut is not equipt with the proper enzymes to digest these pectins. Thus the body rids these substances before they ferment.

Now we're on another track, but OK. Given, people with type-2 diabetes are (by definition) not healthy. But by the same definition, they must restrict their intake of normal sugar. My husband has found that eating a single ripe stone fruit can spike his sugar unless he eats some protein with it. With the protein comes more calories. So what to do?

I say, let him have his sucralose and eat it, too.

P.S. He knows he needs to exercise. He lost 40 pounds last year for my brother's wedding. So it's not like he's a sloth.

The study mentioned by SockFuzz has gotten a lot of buzz lately.....but the trouble is....it definitely does not prove anything about artificial sweeteners causing obesity whatsoever.

Overweight people use artificial sweeteners to try to save calories on drinks, etc., to do damage control on the other stuff we eat! Thin people don't need to cut back calories on sodas, etc., because they aren't overeating to begin with. I didn't start drinking diet soda until AFTER I was already overweight....I didn't start eating "no sugar added" ice cream until AFTER I was overweight.....

I went to a seminar a few months ago where a doctor was discussing this study, and he had to back down when I challenged him on this!

Big people wear large size clothing, thin people do not. Does wearing large-size clothing cause obesity???? LOL

People who are overweight loose weight when the consume a proper diet and exercise. Facts are facts truthseeker. Just because you are overweight does NOT mean you have to eat non caloric foods or limit proteins. It means you have to eat a balanced diet and move.

For example, if you consumed 400 calories a meal 4 times a day, you would lose weight. Your metabolism stays in gear and you burn off stored fat.

Why do you think that bariatric surgery works? It isn't some miracle cure. It is simply limiting food consumption.

So as with anyone overweight, diabetics can loose weight by simply changing their thinking and lifestyle. Eat right and exercise. It isn't difficult at all. What IS difficult is accepting that this is what you have to do.