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One of the lowest effort healthy lifestyle changes you can make is to wean your body off of craving sweets. Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets.

One of the lowest effort healthy lifestyle changes you can make is to wean your body off of craving sweets. Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets. Replace sweetened drinks with unsweetened tea (there are hundreds of varieties, you will find something that you like). Replace desserts with your favorite fruit or berries. Your body, mind, and teeth will thank you.

computerphage 5y ago
> Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets. How do you know that this is true?
- KozmoNau7 5y ago
  Frequent exposure to sweetness makes your taste receptors accustomed to it, like building up a tolerance. It's obvious by a simple experiment: cut out everything sweet (at the very least candy, sweets and desserts) for a couple of weeks, then try eating a candy bar or a thickly-frosted cupcake. It will taste almost unbearably sweet. Make sweets something you only enjoy as a rare treat, and you'll find that you'll eat much less of them, because the sweetness will simply be too much.
- tolleydbg 5y ago
  I think there is evidence that this is true for some sweeteners, such as Ace K, but I don't think this is the case with aspartame.
  - enchiridion 5y ago
    Anecdotally people who do keto have documented increased insulin levels from artificial sweeteners.
    - naasking 5y ago
      I believe that's true, that you'll see an insulin response from anything that tastes sweet, but that doesn't automatically entail that you'll crave sweet.
      - ncmncm 5y ago
        An insulin increase without carb intake results in lowered blood sugar, thus hunger. This is the simplest sort of biochemistry.
        naasking 5y ago
        You haven't quantified the magnitude of the insulin response just from tasting something sweet, which is relevant to how much of an impact it will have on behavior, nor does a lowered blood sugar necessarily entail you crave sweets. Simple biochemistry does not capture human behaviour.
        ncmncm 5y ago
        Insulin response to sweets is probably subject to operant conditioning, so path dependent.
- viseztrance 5y ago
  I question the same thing, and would like to know how accurate it is. Is there any peer reviewed literature that supports this?
- nicoburns 5y ago
  I've read that sweeteners still affect insulin levels even though they're not metabolised.
  - Someone1234 5y ago
    Aspartame does not increase insulin levels. People have heard that Sucralose does and group all artificial sweeteners together.
    - Supermancho 5y ago
      > The sweet taste of artificial sweeteners triggers cephalic phase insulin release, causing a small rise in insulin levels. I'm gonna bet it does. Even our autonomic systems are pavlovian in conjunction, for good reason evolutionarily (hyper efficiency somewhere in the past).
      - Someone1234 5y ago
        You can bet whatever you wish, insulin levels are quantifiable. Studies have looked at exactly this question and have been unable to show an increase with Aspartame specifically. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29982723/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29982723/
        Supermancho 5y ago
        In diabetic adults aspartame does (and probably stevia, sucralose in everyone iirc), which is only a subset of sweeteners. More than that, the studies are being done regarding apparent insulin resistance developed by the guy bacteria after prolonged usage, which causes the body to have to produce more. So it does sometimes and usually, depending on composition. I'll double down on that. Good luck with whatever.
        noptd 5y ago
        >In diabetic adults aspartame does Since you're stating this definitively in a response to Someone posting evidence debunking your previous claim, can you link a study backing it up?
- slumdev 5y ago
  Artificial sweeteners, from the time that they enter your mouth and encounter your taste buds, cause the release of insulin. This insulin lowers your blood sugar. Because artificial sweeteners provide only the sensation of sweetness and not the energy content of an actual sugar, your blood sugar falls low enough that your unconscious brain is compelled to eat. People who drink diet soda consistently eat more calories than they would have eaten if they had drunk a regular soda--even if you include the calories from the soda.
  - davidcbc 5y ago
    Studies have not shown any link between aspartame and insulin levels. Artificial sweeteners have shown an increase in blood sugar over long periods of time in mice, but not humans. Studies haven't found a causal relationship between diet soda and weight gain. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-blood-sugar-insulin https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-b... https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-gain-not-so-fast https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-ga...
tofof 5y ago
Ah, yes, replace 'sweets' with 'fruits' which are about 50-75% sugar by non-water mass. Eg strawberries - 100 g is 7.7g of carbohydrates (4.9g sugar), 0.7g protein, 0.3g fat. 56% sugar. Or oranges - 165 g without membrane or peel is 20.7g carbs (14g sugar), 1.5g protein, 0.2g fat. 63% sugar. As opposed to, say, a snickers bar. 9.1g carbohydrates (7.6g sugar), 1.1g protein, 3.6g fat. 55% sugar. Or a kitkat. 27.1g carbs (20.4g sugar), 2.7g protein, 10.4g fat. 50% sugar. Granted, the fruits have way way more water content so by mass are substantially lower fractions of sugar. It can be (but is not necessarily) more satisifying to eat the increased mass and volume of fruit, or to eat the same total mass/volume but ingest substantially fewer calories (about tenfold, by mass). But really this advice is just 'swap sweets for smaller quantities of sweets'. https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2064/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices... https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1968/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices... https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5461/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5461/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5418/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5418/2
- jlos 5y ago
  It's not just the sugar, it's the sugar in combination with other ingredients. Even the example you gave the fat is 10x as high and obviously has no fibre. The nutrient density of fruits is magnitudes higher than sweets. And water mass matters as it contributes to satiety vs grams of food consumed.
  - tofof 5y ago
    OP didn't say anything about reducing fat intake. Aspartame is a sugar substitute, OP talked about switching from sweetened beverage to unsweetened beverage neither of which has any fat. OP also said "your teeth will thank you" which again is an association between sugar and tooth decay, of which fat plays no part. Fat is a nonsequitur here; the linked article is about a sugar substitute. The nutrient density of desserts is magnitudes higher. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are the primary nutrients. You must mean micronutrients, i.e. individual amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Of these, the snickers bar does quite well with amino acids thanks to the peanuts, but yes, a serving of strawberries will give you vitamin c which the snickers won't. However, that single vitamin is the only real difference in micronutrient quality! The fruit and candy are both negligible 2-10% amounts for the remainder. They're also very similar on mineral content, with the candy providing 8-10% dv on 5 minerals, while the fruit provides 7% and 29% of two minerals, the rest negligible in both, averaging 5.6% dv for the fruit or 7.6% dv for the candy across the ten minerals. I already addressed water mass and caloric density, but for completeness I will say again that you're getting these very comparable amounts of micronutrients for a tenfold caloric difference.
agumonkey 5y ago
what about carrots ? I find them great fillers, low cal, just enough sweetness inside (only side effect is skin tone if done too much)
jbluepolarbear 5y ago
Aspartame makes me crave more aspartame, not sugar. I am addicted to Diet Coke, but I can’t even finish a single can of regular coke.
- ed25519FUUU 5y ago
  I think it’s a combination of flavor and dopamine from drinking it. A lot of Diet Coke drinkers would rather drink water than Diet Pepsi. Not that it taste “bad”, it’s just not what they’re craving.
  - sgtnoodle 5y ago
    My wife stopped drinking Diet Coke for a month, and then decided she preferred life with that vice and started drinking it again.
    - jbluepolarbear 5y ago
      I’ve done the same thing.
    - croutonwagon 5y ago
      I don’t/borderline can’t drink coffee. I’ve made a lot of dietary and activity chnages in the past couple years but the mainstay has been diet or Pepsi max. I’ve straight told people it’s just gonna have to be my vice. I can eat salads and peanut butter sandwiches all day and night. But i haven’t found a way to wean myself from caffeine. I definitely don’t like when I drink too much (see coffee comment). But I can’t just cold turkey it either.
naasking 5y ago
> Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets. That's not my experience at all. My sweet cravings after having actual sugar are much more intense, and they remind me of what a real craving feels like. My daily consumption of sweeteners doesn't make me crave any sweets, and I normally don't.

computerphage 5y ago

> Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets. How do you know that this is true?

KozmoNau7 5y ago
Frequent exposure to sweetness makes your taste receptors accustomed to it, like building up a tolerance. It's obvious by a simple experiment: cut out everything sweet (at the very least candy, sweets and desserts) for a couple of weeks, then try eating a candy bar or a thickly-frosted cupcake. It will taste almost unbearably sweet. Make sweets something you only enjoy as a rare treat, and you'll find that you'll eat much less of them, because the sweetness will simply be too much.
tolleydbg 5y ago
I think there is evidence that this is true for some sweeteners, such as Ace K, but I don't think this is the case with aspartame.
- enchiridion 5y ago
  Anecdotally people who do keto have documented increased insulin levels from artificial sweeteners.
  - naasking 5y ago
    I believe that's true, that you'll see an insulin response from anything that tastes sweet, but that doesn't automatically entail that you'll crave sweet.
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      An insulin increase without carb intake results in lowered blood sugar, thus hunger. This is the simplest sort of biochemistry.
      - naasking 5y ago
        You haven't quantified the magnitude of the insulin response just from tasting something sweet, which is relevant to how much of an impact it will have on behavior, nor does a lowered blood sugar necessarily entail you crave sweets. Simple biochemistry does not capture human behaviour.
        ncmncm 5y ago
        Insulin response to sweets is probably subject to operant conditioning, so path dependent.
viseztrance 5y ago
I question the same thing, and would like to know how accurate it is. Is there any peer reviewed literature that supports this?
nicoburns 5y ago
I've read that sweeteners still affect insulin levels even though they're not metabolised.
- Someone1234 5y ago
  Aspartame does not increase insulin levels. People have heard that Sucralose does and group all artificial sweeteners together.
  - Supermancho 5y ago
    > The sweet taste of artificial sweeteners triggers cephalic phase insulin release, causing a small rise in insulin levels. I'm gonna bet it does. Even our autonomic systems are pavlovian in conjunction, for good reason evolutionarily (hyper efficiency somewhere in the past).
    - Someone1234 5y ago
      You can bet whatever you wish, insulin levels are quantifiable. Studies have looked at exactly this question and have been unable to show an increase with Aspartame specifically. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29982723/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29982723/
      - Supermancho 5y ago
        In diabetic adults aspartame does (and probably stevia, sucralose in everyone iirc), which is only a subset of sweeteners. More than that, the studies are being done regarding apparent insulin resistance developed by the guy bacteria after prolonged usage, which causes the body to have to produce more. So it does sometimes and usually, depending on composition. I'll double down on that. Good luck with whatever.
        noptd 5y ago
        >In diabetic adults aspartame does Since you're stating this definitively in a response to Someone posting evidence debunking your previous claim, can you link a study backing it up?
slumdev 5y ago
Artificial sweeteners, from the time that they enter your mouth and encounter your taste buds, cause the release of insulin. This insulin lowers your blood sugar. Because artificial sweeteners provide only the sensation of sweetness and not the energy content of an actual sugar, your blood sugar falls low enough that your unconscious brain is compelled to eat. People who drink diet soda consistently eat more calories than they would have eaten if they had drunk a regular soda--even if you include the calories from the soda.
- davidcbc 5y ago
  Studies have not shown any link between aspartame and insulin levels. Artificial sweeteners have shown an increase in blood sugar over long periods of time in mice, but not humans. Studies haven't found a causal relationship between diet soda and weight gain. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-blood-sugar-insulin https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/artificial-sweeteners-b... https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-gain-not-so-fast https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-sodas-and-weight-ga...

tofof 5y ago

Ah, yes, replace 'sweets' with 'fruits' which are about 50-75% sugar by non-water mass. Eg strawberries - 100 g is 7.7g of carbohydrates (4.9g sugar), 0.7g protein, 0.3g fat. 56% sugar. Or oranges - 165 g without membrane or peel is 20.7g carbs (14g sugar), 1.5g protein, 0.2g fat. 63% sugar. As opposed to, say, a snickers bar. 9.1g carbohydrates (7.6g sugar), 1.1g protein, 3.6g fat. 55% sugar. Or a kitkat. 27.1g carbs (20.4g sugar), 2.7g protein, 10.4g fat. 50% sugar. Granted, the fruits have way way more water content so by mass are substantially lower fractions of sugar. It can be (but is not necessarily) more satisifying to eat the increased mass and volume of fruit, or to eat the same total mass/volume but ingest substantially fewer calories (about tenfold, by mass). But really this advice is just 'swap sweets for smaller quantities of sweets'. https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/2064/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices... https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1968/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices... https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5461/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5461/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5418/2 https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/sweets/5418/2

jlos 5y ago
It's not just the sugar, it's the sugar in combination with other ingredients. Even the example you gave the fat is 10x as high and obviously has no fibre. The nutrient density of fruits is magnitudes higher than sweets. And water mass matters as it contributes to satiety vs grams of food consumed.
- tofof 5y ago
  OP didn't say anything about reducing fat intake. Aspartame is a sugar substitute, OP talked about switching from sweetened beverage to unsweetened beverage neither of which has any fat. OP also said "your teeth will thank you" which again is an association between sugar and tooth decay, of which fat plays no part. Fat is a nonsequitur here; the linked article is about a sugar substitute. The nutrient density of desserts is magnitudes higher. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are the primary nutrients. You must mean micronutrients, i.e. individual amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Of these, the snickers bar does quite well with amino acids thanks to the peanuts, but yes, a serving of strawberries will give you vitamin c which the snickers won't. However, that single vitamin is the only real difference in micronutrient quality! The fruit and candy are both negligible 2-10% amounts for the remainder. They're also very similar on mineral content, with the candy providing 8-10% dv on 5 minerals, while the fruit provides 7% and 29% of two minerals, the rest negligible in both, averaging 5.6% dv for the fruit or 7.6% dv for the candy across the ten minerals. I already addressed water mass and caloric density, but for completeness I will say again that you're getting these very comparable amounts of micronutrients for a tenfold caloric difference.

agumonkey 5y ago

what about carrots ? I find them great fillers, low cal, just enough sweetness inside (only side effect is skin tone if done too much)

jbluepolarbear 5y ago

Aspartame makes me crave more aspartame, not sugar. I am addicted to Diet Coke, but I can’t even finish a single can of regular coke.

ed25519FUUU 5y ago
I think it’s a combination of flavor and dopamine from drinking it. A lot of Diet Coke drinkers would rather drink water than Diet Pepsi. Not that it taste “bad”, it’s just not what they’re craving.
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  My wife stopped drinking Diet Coke for a month, and then decided she preferred life with that vice and started drinking it again.
  - jbluepolarbear 5y ago
    I’ve done the same thing.
  - croutonwagon 5y ago
    I don’t/borderline can’t drink coffee. I’ve made a lot of dietary and activity chnages in the past couple years but the mainstay has been diet or Pepsi max. I’ve straight told people it’s just gonna have to be my vice. I can eat salads and peanut butter sandwiches all day and night. But i haven’t found a way to wean myself from caffeine. I definitely don’t like when I drink too much (see coffee comment). But I can’t just cold turkey it either.

naasking 5y ago

> Artificial sweeteners still make you crave sweets. That's not my experience at all. My sweet cravings after having actual sugar are much more intense, and they remind me of what a real craving feels like. My daily consumption of sweeteners doesn't make me crave any sweets, and I normally don't.