7 ms·

Don’t use sugar substitutes for weight loss, World Health Organization advises

74 points by bluedino 3y ago

healsdata 3y ago
Direct link: "Health effects of the use of non-sugar sweeteners: a systematic review and meta-analysis" https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240046429 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240046429
standardUser 3y ago
My understanding is that Stevia does not negatively impact glucose levels, unlike most/all other sugar substitutes. But the WHO seems to be lumping it together with other, very different sugar alternatives. Is there compelling evidence to think that Stevia has a negative impact on health or weight control?
- latchkey 3y ago
  Stevia (and many of these substitutes) are full of erythritol, which is recently in the news as questionable [0]. Some of them even market themselves as things like 'Monk Fruit'... but erythritol is the first ingredient [1]. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/health/zero-calorie-sweetener-heart-attack-stroke-wellness/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/health/zero-calorie-sweetener... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Free-Substitute/dp/B08CC1FMJQ/ref=sr_1_6 https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Fr...
  - tashoecraft 3y ago
    You can buy monk fruit sugar without erythritol. The addition is to make it seem more like sugar from a touch standpoint.
    - latchkey 3y ago
      You can find it, but you literally have to look at every single label to find it and probably buy it online only. I was in a grocery store not too long ago and every single 'monk fruit' sugar they sold, had it in there. As a filler, it is everywhere.
  - hammock 3y ago
    Stevia is not full of erythritol. They are two distinct chemicals. The stevia packets you might put into your coffee, different story. You can read the ingredient label to understand more
    - latchkey 3y ago
      Play on words there. Find me a 'stevia' solution without erythritol in it that I can buy off Amazon (this is the first result that comes up for me) [0]. Sure, doesn't have erythritol in it, but it has Dextrose, which is just corn sugar. We're back at square zero. My whole point is that you have to look closely at the labels for everything sugar related at this point. All these companies are false advertising and it is a pathetic joke. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Raw-Sugar-Substitute-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free/dp/B00F3SQJUY/ref=sr_1_5 https://www.amazon.com/Raw-Sugar-Substitute-Sugar-Free-Glute...
      - hammock 3y ago
        Zevia sodas. The link you gave literally says “stevia blended with other sweeteners” as the first thing on the front of the label. Many wouldn’t call that false advertising. Why do you feel the need to purchase and use powdered added sweetener products in your cooking? Can you live without them, since your requirements are so exacting (no sweetener besides stevia, no added sugar)? There are entire libraries of paleo and whole 30 cookbooks that are very good
        latchkey 3y ago
        > Zevia sodas. I'm not asking for products with the stuff in there, I'm asking for the raw product. Interesting that company has Disney copyright at the bottom, oh, I see... marketing. > “stevia blended with other sweeteners” In small letters, of course. I'd argue that most people don't look past the headline of 'STEVIA IN THE RAW'. > Why do you feel the need to purchase and use powdered added sweetener products in your cooking? I personally don't add it, but the partner likes it. When I started to investigate what they were adding (mostly because it gives me a massive amount of flatulence), I found a whole lot of "truth in advertising" failure. We've since stopped and I've become a more aware of the reality of this stuff.
  - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
    My monk fruit drink (super coffee) doesn't have Eyrthritol (just some Stevia), but it does have 200mg of caffeine.
    - latchkey 3y ago
      They say it is monk fruit, but how can you be sure that it is only monk fruit? That's the problem with this packaging.
      - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
        You mean: how can I be sure they aren't lying? The packaging lists ingredients, I guess you are asking if they are leaving any ingredients out and are not being called out on it by anyone?
        latchkey 3y ago
        > I guess you are asking if they are leaving any ingredients out and are not being called out on it by anyone? yes, how do you know? living in Vietnam for 4 years... i really became a lot more sensitive to food safety, which is non-existent there. i think we take it for granted a lot in the US because we've been conditioned to accept that we have enforced government regulations. if you read things like KitchenConfidential [0], you start to realize that even if the food is safe... preparation might not be [1]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/ [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/10my22p/i_clean_beer_lines_and_you_should_probably_never/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/10my22...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- bachmeier 3y ago
  Since the pandemic, food companies have cranked up the prices of anything that might be useful for someone wanting to avoid sugar. For example, pre-pandemic I could buy a box of low-carb cereal for $4. Now they're all in the $9 dollar and above range. Drink mixes that were a bit over $1 pre-pandemic are now double that at WalMart. I'd get a 12-pack of Coke Zero pre-pandemic for $3.50 to $4. Now it's $8. If none of this is helpful, there are people throwing a lot of money down the drain.
- qeternity 3y ago
  > unlike most/all other sugar substitutes There are millions of type 1 diabetics who meticulously monitor their blood glucose levels that would disagree with this. There may be some Pavlovian response to artificial sweeteners and insulin secretion (which would be blunted in T1 diabetics) but it's incredibly minor compared to actual carbohydrates.
Pxtl 3y ago
I've tried to crawl through the underlying article - it basically sounds like non-sugar sweeteners have similar outcomes to consuming sugar... which is crazy. I can't find anything in the article - is there any theory about the mechanism? How NSS could cause diabetes? The way sugar causes diabetes is well-understood, I can't imagine it applies to other sweeteners.
- MSFT_Edging 3y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there other ways that diabetes is caused with bad diet, aside from eating a lot of sugar straight? I imagine artificial sweeteners could have an effect of not significantly changing one's diet enough or compensating in other ways. I'm sure people who put the effort in other areas of their diet with NSS, will see results. But people who see NSS as a cheatcode to continue their habits might not see results. Framing NSS as a way to not change habits and continue to enjoy various treats might obfuscate the mechanisms for losing weight and cause weight loss to not occur.
  - rickydroll 3y ago
    Quite a few pathways to diabetes other than eating sugar. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/symptoms-causes https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overvi... To the bad diet issue, diabetes is triggered by excess of carbohydrates hence the Association was sugar but sugar is not the only form of carbohydrate that causes insulin spikes and subsequent insulin resistance. Basically any cereal (aka grain) can spike the blood sugar to the point of causing diabetes. White rice, white flour lead the pack but as I've discovered with my CGM, any starchy food causes unacceptably high glucose spikes which leaves me eating nothing but non-starchy vegetables and meat.
- steanne 3y ago
  from what i vaguely recall, a body starts releasing insulin when it expects incoming sugar because if it waits until the sugar hits the bloodstream, it has to dump a bunch at once, which is a strain, so it uses environmental cues like the taste (or even smell?) of something sweet. if you keep tricking your body by tasting something sweet, have it start to release insulin, and then have that insulin go unused, it may start to ignore that signal.
tylerag 3y ago
I've completely eliminated sugar from my diet. People are genuinely confused on how I do it. (the answer: just don't eat it.) But honestly, your sense of sweetness adjusts to it. Things with sugar in it are foul, as in I can't even eat them (for example, A1 steak sauce or spaghetti sauce). The other thing that the article doesn't mention is that some of the alternative sweeteners are terrible for your gut biome, and an unhealthy gut biome is already linked to obesity.
- giantg2 3y ago
  "your sense of sweetness adjusts to it." Similar for salt for people on low sodium diets.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Sodium is harder to avoid than sugar, it is in everything.
    - giantg2 3y ago
      Eh, it's more prevalent than sugar, but also has more reduced sodium options due to some common medical restrictions. I would equate a low sodium diet with a no added sugar diet - there are many sources of natural sodium as well as natural sugars.
- adamhearn 3y ago
  From my understanding the evidence of gut biome modification is weak, and would require a large volume consumption. Some NSS will cause temporary stomach upset if it’s your first few times consuming them. But I don’t think this has any long term impacts on gut health. Some NSS are healthy for your oral micro biome (erythritol for sure).
- tnel77 3y ago
  Use alternatives sugars while drinking kombucha? Balance it out? Probably best to just skip them altogether.
ApolloFortyNine 3y ago
>The global health body said a systematic review of the available evidence had suggested that use of non-sugar sweeteners, or NSS, “does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.” As someone who used artificial sugars exclusively as part of a low carb diet to lose 40 pounds, this just seems like an insane statement to make no? Unless the WHO no longer believes calories consumed matters at all, replacing sugar with a 0 calorie substitute literally leads to less calories. Obviously if someone just eats more to compensate there's no net gain, but that's pretty much the same as someone who eats 20 apples a day just because they heard they're healthy. That obviously wouldn't mean apples are bad for you.
- adamhearn 3y ago
  It seems like the average consumer of diet sweeteners is already likely to be overweight, diabetic, or have other ailments. This article seems highly sensationalized. For the average person, the risk of sugar impacting blood glucose levels seems far riskier than any side effect of a NSS
  - bombcar 3y ago
    As a former twitter entertainer once said, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." I suppose we could do a nation-wide experiment by insisting that the sugar water vendors use only NSS for a year; but that would probably result in the overthrow of the government.
    - dataflow 3y ago
      > As a former twitter entertainer once said, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." There's a lot he hasn't seen in this world. Doesn't mean those things don't happen.
      - xp84 3y ago
        Yeah, and also not even an insightful joke. I mean, isn't Taylor Swift, notable thin pretty human, a famous Diet Coke fan? That's just the first person who comes to mind. Also half the people I know, as well.
uptownfunk 3y ago
Read this one as “the sugar lobby has bought control of the WHO”
- brodouevencode 3y ago
  The easiest way to find out is to follow the money and find out who (no pun intended) funded the study.
bombcar 3y ago
I keep seeing "very low to low certainty evidence" - what does this mean? I read it as "there is an indicator of this, but it is so low signal as to potentially be noise. If that is the case, it seems "it slightly maybe helps but doesn't seem to do much at all".
BirAdam 3y ago
Just wondering if there’s some lobbying by sugar companies involved here…
- Tokkemon 3y ago
  Almost certainly. Maybe not in the meta-analysis but for individual studies, absolutely.
teeray 3y ago
I think recommendations like this fail to recognize “what’s the alternative?” For many, artificial sweeteners make it possible to lose weight, something notoriously difficult. Without them, the alternative is to just maintain an unhealthy weight or even gain. So the WHO really should be asking itself “do we recommend against artificial sweeteners, even though it could increase obesity?”
- inglor_cz 3y ago
  At the risk of sounding smugly, weaning oneself off sugar and trying to cultivate a different palate. Both cravings for sugar and tolerance for it are somewhat conditioned by your lifestyle. People used to drinking sweetened coffee proclaim black coffee to be intolerably bitter. From my POV (never sweetening any beverages), sweetened coffee is intolerably sweet and does not taste like coffee anymore.
  - Tokkemon 3y ago
    Congratulations. Want a cookie? (yes, that's a joke)
    - inglor_cz 3y ago
      Unironically, I sometimes chew on hard cheese etc. These are my equivalents of cookies.
Tokkemon 3y ago
Why is this on the front page of CNN? Super misleading.
brodouevencode 3y ago
Just a reminder - health and nutritional studies are hard to do and are often incomplete, bought-off, or non-reproducible, and the resulting meta-analysis will only amplify these problems.
outime 3y ago
Industry / sugar addicts will keep working hard to find sugar alternatives instead of facing the ultimate known alternative: not adding sugar or sugar alternatives to anything, enjoying the sweet things as nature intended, with its whole fiber and macronutrients. The palate evolves in such a way that eating a simple orange (not just the juice) will feel extremely pleasant. I know this is controversial but just faced this reality myself in the past and I have a much better relationship with food nowadays - stopped being obese many years ago as well and my overall health took a turn for the better.
_greim_ 3y ago
> Don’t use sugar substitutes if you are trying to lose weight, according to a new guideline from the World Health Organization. Is weight loss the main reason for using artificial sweeteners? I thought avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes was at least as important, and also that the by-products of fructose metabolism weren't great.
bwing 3y ago
My understanding is that the overall body of research suggests that artificial sweeteners don't cause additional calorie consumption. Given that is true (and leaving aside the much-studied question of other health risks from artificial sweeteners), it seems impossible that replacing some free sugars with NSS would not be beneficial for someone trying to increase calorie deficit and lose weight. Think it's one of these things where the expected effect size is small and the measured output is multicausal, so observational studies simply won't be powerful enough to observe any real impact. “NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health.” The classic public health advice: "Be More Virtuous." Correct, but not always maximally practical.
Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago
One of the problems with sugar is just how sweet everything is. My take is this is a direct result of sodas like coke and pepsi. They set the sweetness bar and then everything rose to it. People became desensitized to sweetness by drinking sodas and then everything needed to up sweet to even taste a little sweet in comparison. I stopped drinking these a while ago and my sweetness tolerance dropped. Now when I make recipes I will use sugar (or honey or whatever natural sweetener called for) by only use 2/3 or 1/2 what it calls for it. Otherwise everything just comes out way too sweet. Using artificial sweeteners just makes it the desensitivity worse in my opinion. Better to use real sugar but far less of it. Bonus is that you'll be able to taste more of the other flavors in the food and drinks.

74 points by bluedino 3y ago

Direct link: "Health effects of the use of non-sugar sweeteners: a systematic review and meta-analysis" https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240046429 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240046429

standardUser 3y ago

My understanding is that Stevia does not negatively impact glucose levels, unlike most/all other sugar substitutes. But the WHO seems to be lumping it together with other, very different sugar alternatives. Is there compelling evidence to think that Stevia has a negative impact on health or weight control?

latchkey 3y ago
Stevia (and many of these substitutes) are full of erythritol, which is recently in the news as questionable [0]. Some of them even market themselves as things like 'Monk Fruit'... but erythritol is the first ingredient [1]. [0] https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/health/zero-calorie-sweetener-heart-attack-stroke-wellness/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/27/health/zero-calorie-sweetener... [1] https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Free-Substitute/dp/B08CC1FMJQ/ref=sr_1_6 https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Sweetener-Erythritol-Sugar-Fr...
- tashoecraft 3y ago
  You can buy monk fruit sugar without erythritol. The addition is to make it seem more like sugar from a touch standpoint.
  - latchkey 3y ago
    You can find it, but you literally have to look at every single label to find it and probably buy it online only. I was in a grocery store not too long ago and every single 'monk fruit' sugar they sold, had it in there. As a filler, it is everywhere.
- hammock 3y ago
  Stevia is not full of erythritol. They are two distinct chemicals. The stevia packets you might put into your coffee, different story. You can read the ingredient label to understand more
  - latchkey 3y ago
    Play on words there. Find me a 'stevia' solution without erythritol in it that I can buy off Amazon (this is the first result that comes up for me) [0]. Sure, doesn't have erythritol in it, but it has Dextrose, which is just corn sugar. We're back at square zero. My whole point is that you have to look closely at the labels for everything sugar related at this point. All these companies are false advertising and it is a pathetic joke. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Raw-Sugar-Substitute-Sugar-Free-Gluten-Free/dp/B00F3SQJUY/ref=sr_1_5 https://www.amazon.com/Raw-Sugar-Substitute-Sugar-Free-Glute...
    - hammock 3y ago
      Zevia sodas. The link you gave literally says “stevia blended with other sweeteners” as the first thing on the front of the label. Many wouldn’t call that false advertising. Why do you feel the need to purchase and use powdered added sweetener products in your cooking? Can you live without them, since your requirements are so exacting (no sweetener besides stevia, no added sugar)? There are entire libraries of paleo and whole 30 cookbooks that are very good
      - latchkey 3y ago
        > Zevia sodas. I'm not asking for products with the stuff in there, I'm asking for the raw product. Interesting that company has Disney copyright at the bottom, oh, I see... marketing. > “stevia blended with other sweeteners” In small letters, of course. I'd argue that most people don't look past the headline of 'STEVIA IN THE RAW'. > Why do you feel the need to purchase and use powdered added sweetener products in your cooking? I personally don't add it, but the partner likes it. When I started to investigate what they were adding (mostly because it gives me a massive amount of flatulence), I found a whole lot of "truth in advertising" failure. We've since stopped and I've become a more aware of the reality of this stuff.
- seanmcdirmid 3y ago
  My monk fruit drink (super coffee) doesn't have Eyrthritol (just some Stevia), but it does have 200mg of caffeine.
  - latchkey 3y ago
    They say it is monk fruit, but how can you be sure that it is only monk fruit? That's the problem with this packaging.
    - seanmcdirmid 3y ago
      You mean: how can I be sure they aren't lying? The packaging lists ingredients, I guess you are asking if they are leaving any ingredients out and are not being called out on it by anyone?
      - latchkey 3y ago
        > I guess you are asking if they are leaving any ingredients out and are not being called out on it by anyone? yes, how do you know? living in Vietnam for 4 years... i really became a lot more sensitive to food safety, which is non-existent there. i think we take it for granted a lot in the US because we've been conditioned to accept that we have enforced government regulations. if you read things like KitchenConfidential [0], you start to realize that even if the food is safe... preparation might not be [1]. [0] https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/ [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/10my22p/i_clean_beer_lines_and_you_should_probably_never/ https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential/comments/10my22...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
bachmeier 3y ago
Since the pandemic, food companies have cranked up the prices of anything that might be useful for someone wanting to avoid sugar. For example, pre-pandemic I could buy a box of low-carb cereal for $4. Now they're all in the $9 dollar and above range. Drink mixes that were a bit over $1 pre-pandemic are now double that at WalMart. I'd get a 12-pack of Coke Zero pre-pandemic for $3.50 to $4. Now it's $8. If none of this is helpful, there are people throwing a lot of money down the drain.
qeternity 3y ago
> unlike most/all other sugar substitutes There are millions of type 1 diabetics who meticulously monitor their blood glucose levels that would disagree with this. There may be some Pavlovian response to artificial sweeteners and insulin secretion (which would be blunted in T1 diabetics) but it's incredibly minor compared to actual carbohydrates.

Pxtl 3y ago

I've tried to crawl through the underlying article - it basically sounds like non-sugar sweeteners have similar outcomes to consuming sugar... which is crazy. I can't find anything in the article - is there any theory about the mechanism? How NSS could cause diabetes? The way sugar causes diabetes is well-understood, I can't imagine it applies to other sweeteners.

MSFT_Edging 3y ago
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there other ways that diabetes is caused with bad diet, aside from eating a lot of sugar straight? I imagine artificial sweeteners could have an effect of not significantly changing one's diet enough or compensating in other ways. I'm sure people who put the effort in other areas of their diet with NSS, will see results. But people who see NSS as a cheatcode to continue their habits might not see results. Framing NSS as a way to not change habits and continue to enjoy various treats might obfuscate the mechanisms for losing weight and cause weight loss to not occur.
- rickydroll 3y ago
  Quite a few pathways to diabetes other than eating sugar. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/symptoms-causes https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overvi... To the bad diet issue, diabetes is triggered by excess of carbohydrates hence the Association was sugar but sugar is not the only form of carbohydrate that causes insulin spikes and subsequent insulin resistance. Basically any cereal (aka grain) can spike the blood sugar to the point of causing diabetes. White rice, white flour lead the pack but as I've discovered with my CGM, any starchy food causes unacceptably high glucose spikes which leaves me eating nothing but non-starchy vegetables and meat.
steanne 3y ago
from what i vaguely recall, a body starts releasing insulin when it expects incoming sugar because if it waits until the sugar hits the bloodstream, it has to dump a bunch at once, which is a strain, so it uses environmental cues like the taste (or even smell?) of something sweet. if you keep tricking your body by tasting something sweet, have it start to release insulin, and then have that insulin go unused, it may start to ignore that signal.

tylerag 3y ago

I've completely eliminated sugar from my diet. People are genuinely confused on how I do it. (the answer: just don't eat it.) But honestly, your sense of sweetness adjusts to it. Things with sugar in it are foul, as in I can't even eat them (for example, A1 steak sauce or spaghetti sauce). The other thing that the article doesn't mention is that some of the alternative sweeteners are terrible for your gut biome, and an unhealthy gut biome is already linked to obesity.

giantg2 3y ago
"your sense of sweetness adjusts to it." Similar for salt for people on low sodium diets.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Sodium is harder to avoid than sugar, it is in everything.
  - giantg2 3y ago
    Eh, it's more prevalent than sugar, but also has more reduced sodium options due to some common medical restrictions. I would equate a low sodium diet with a no added sugar diet - there are many sources of natural sodium as well as natural sugars.
adamhearn 3y ago
From my understanding the evidence of gut biome modification is weak, and would require a large volume consumption. Some NSS will cause temporary stomach upset if it’s your first few times consuming them. But I don’t think this has any long term impacts on gut health. Some NSS are healthy for your oral micro biome (erythritol for sure).
tnel77 3y ago
Use alternatives sugars while drinking kombucha? Balance it out? Probably best to just skip them altogether.

ApolloFortyNine 3y ago

>The global health body said a systematic review of the available evidence had suggested that use of non-sugar sweeteners, or NSS, “does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.” As someone who used artificial sugars exclusively as part of a low carb diet to lose 40 pounds, this just seems like an insane statement to make no? Unless the WHO no longer believes calories consumed matters at all, replacing sugar with a 0 calorie substitute literally leads to less calories. Obviously if someone just eats more to compensate there's no net gain, but that's pretty much the same as someone who eats 20 apples a day just because they heard they're healthy. That obviously wouldn't mean apples are bad for you.

adamhearn 3y ago
It seems like the average consumer of diet sweeteners is already likely to be overweight, diabetic, or have other ailments. This article seems highly sensationalized. For the average person, the risk of sugar impacting blood glucose levels seems far riskier than any side effect of a NSS
- bombcar 3y ago
  As a former twitter entertainer once said, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." I suppose we could do a nation-wide experiment by insisting that the sugar water vendors use only NSS for a year; but that would probably result in the overthrow of the government.
  - dataflow 3y ago
    > As a former twitter entertainer once said, "I have never seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke." There's a lot he hasn't seen in this world. Doesn't mean those things don't happen.
    - xp84 3y ago
      Yeah, and also not even an insightful joke. I mean, isn't Taylor Swift, notable thin pretty human, a famous Diet Coke fan? That's just the first person who comes to mind. Also half the people I know, as well.

uptownfunk 3y ago

Read this one as “the sugar lobby has bought control of the WHO”

brodouevencode 3y ago
The easiest way to find out is to follow the money and find out who (no pun intended) funded the study.

bombcar 3y ago

I keep seeing "very low to low certainty evidence" - what does this mean? I read it as "there is an indicator of this, but it is so low signal as to potentially be noise. If that is the case, it seems "it slightly maybe helps but doesn't seem to do much at all".

BirAdam 3y ago

Just wondering if there’s some lobbying by sugar companies involved here…

Tokkemon 3y ago
Almost certainly. Maybe not in the meta-analysis but for individual studies, absolutely.

teeray 3y ago

I think recommendations like this fail to recognize “what’s the alternative?” For many, artificial sweeteners make it possible to lose weight, something notoriously difficult. Without them, the alternative is to just maintain an unhealthy weight or even gain. So the WHO really should be asking itself “do we recommend against artificial sweeteners, even though it could increase obesity?”

inglor_cz 3y ago
At the risk of sounding smugly, weaning oneself off sugar and trying to cultivate a different palate. Both cravings for sugar and tolerance for it are somewhat conditioned by your lifestyle. People used to drinking sweetened coffee proclaim black coffee to be intolerably bitter. From my POV (never sweetening any beverages), sweetened coffee is intolerably sweet and does not taste like coffee anymore.
- Tokkemon 3y ago
  Congratulations. Want a cookie? (yes, that's a joke)
  - inglor_cz 3y ago
    Unironically, I sometimes chew on hard cheese etc. These are my equivalents of cookies.

Tokkemon 3y ago

Why is this on the front page of CNN? Super misleading.

brodouevencode 3y ago

Just a reminder - health and nutritional studies are hard to do and are often incomplete, bought-off, or non-reproducible, and the resulting meta-analysis will only amplify these problems.

outime 3y ago

Industry / sugar addicts will keep working hard to find sugar alternatives instead of facing the ultimate known alternative: not adding sugar or sugar alternatives to anything, enjoying the sweet things as nature intended, with its whole fiber and macronutrients. The palate evolves in such a way that eating a simple orange (not just the juice) will feel extremely pleasant. I know this is controversial but just faced this reality myself in the past and I have a much better relationship with food nowadays - stopped being obese many years ago as well and my overall health took a turn for the better.

_greim_ 3y ago

> Don’t use sugar substitutes if you are trying to lose weight, according to a new guideline from the World Health Organization. Is weight loss the main reason for using artificial sweeteners? I thought avoiding blood sugar spikes and crashes was at least as important, and also that the by-products of fructose metabolism weren't great.

bwing 3y ago

My understanding is that the overall body of research suggests that artificial sweeteners don't cause additional calorie consumption. Given that is true (and leaving aside the much-studied question of other health risks from artificial sweeteners), it seems impossible that replacing some free sugars with NSS would not be beneficial for someone trying to increase calorie deficit and lose weight. Think it's one of these things where the expected effect size is small and the measured output is multicausal, so observational studies simply won't be powerful enough to observe any real impact. “NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health.” The classic public health advice: "Be More Virtuous." Correct, but not always maximally practical.

Eddy_Viscosity2 3y ago

One of the problems with sugar is just how sweet everything is. My take is this is a direct result of sodas like coke and pepsi. They set the sweetness bar and then everything rose to it. People became desensitized to sweetness by drinking sodas and then everything needed to up sweet to even taste a little sweet in comparison. I stopped drinking these a while ago and my sweetness tolerance dropped. Now when I make recipes I will use sugar (or honey or whatever natural sweetener called for) by only use 2/3 or 1/2 what it calls for it. Otherwise everything just comes out way too sweet. Using artificial sweeteners just makes it the desensitivity worse in my opinion. Better to use real sugar but far less of it. Bonus is that you'll be able to taste more of the other flavors in the food and drinks.