It’s better to have a little sugar than any sweetener at all, says Gut Health guru Dr. Megan Rossi

Let me be honest about added sugar – yes, it tastes good, but the reality is that most of us eat way too much of it.

Not only does it add calories with no nutritional benefits, but excess sugar consumption has been linked to tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.

But are sugar alternatives really better? Given their growing prevalence, this is an important question.

Low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners are now popping up in everything from breads and liqueurs to toothpaste and desserts.

Research in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2017 found that a quarter of children and 40 percent of adults used these sweeteners.

Low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners are now popping up in everything from breads and liqueurs to toothpaste and desserts

Since then, its use has become even more widespread – partly due to the introduction of the sugar tax in 2018, which meant manufacturers had to pay more tax if their goods contained 8g (or more) of added sugar per 100ml.

In fact, according to a recent survey, 3.5 million people now use sweeteners at least twice a day.

You can see why. The idea of ​​having a cute puff without worrying about your health or waistline is appealing.

But is it that simple? Far from saving our waistlines, research suggests that sweeteners can expand them in some cases.

This may sound counterintuitive – but research in fruit flies and mice (admittedly not humans – we’re more difficult to study) has found that sweetener consumption increases appetite.

Excessive sugar consumption has been linked to tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer. [File image]

For one such study, published in the journal Cell in 2016, researchers gave fruit flies the zero-calorie sweetener sucralose for three days. Surprisingly, this encouraged the flies to consume more food and calories. When they stopped taking sucralose, their consumption dropped.

Did you know?

The food tastes different at higher altitudes. One study found that when we fly, our perception of saltiness and sweetness decreases by about 30 percent, which explains why airplane food rarely hits the flavor mark.

This change in taste perception is a combination of dry air, reduced cabin pressure and background engine noise, all of which reduce the sensitivity of our taste buds.

Researchers continued to investigate why this might be, and discovered that the sweeteners activated AMPK, an enzyme that plays a role in stimulating the production of hunger hormones.

The researchers said that although the find came from flies, the same process likely occurs in the human brain.

This is not an isolated case. Other studies have found that consuming sweeteners one day leads to increased calorie intake the next.

There are now 21 sweeteners approved for use in the UK. These include low-calorie options like xylitol and sorbitol — our bodies can only absorb a small amount of the calories they contain, meaning they’re mostly poorly absorbed (and too much can cause stomach pain, bloating, and diarrhea).

Then there are the no-calorie sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame, and stevia, which technically don’t provide any calories at all because we can’t digest them.

Sweeteners are between 200 and 20,000 times sweeter than sugar, so most of them come with fillers to bulk them up. If it were pure sweetener, the taste would be too intense. Even used in small amounts, sweeteners are so intensely sweet that they can desensitize us to sweets (and the problem with this is, when we then have a sweet treat, we may want more of it to satisfy ourselves than we normally do would).

This desensitization was demonstrated by researchers who asked volunteers to abstain from all forms of added sugar and artificial sweeteners for two weeks.

If you’ve added sugar or sweeteners to your tea and coffee, try to reduce slowly, advises Dr. Megan Rossi (pictured).

At the end of the study, published in The Permanent Journal in 2015, 95 percent of the 20 participants felt their regular food now tasted too sweet.

Meanwhile, recent research suggests that certain sweeteners can alter the makeup of our microbiome — the microbes that live in our gut and support much of our health.

Try this: Baked Cinnamon Pears

A deliciously flavorful dessert — with no added sugars or sweeteners — this recipe uses the natural sugars in the fiber-rich pear to combine with the olive oil to create a gooey sweet glaze for you and your gut microbes to enjoy.

2 serves

• 2 ripe pears
• 1/3 cup mixed nuts, chopped
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Optional: Greek yogurt for serving

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper. Cut each pear in half lengthwise and use a spoon to poke a small circular hole in the body of each half (removing any cores and seeds).

Fill the holes in each half of the pear with chopped nuts. It doesn’t matter if the nuts overflow and slosh over the pear or onto the baking sheet!

Sprinkle each half well with cinnamon and ginger before drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until just beginning to brown.

Eat the pears while they are still warm and serve with yoghurt.

In a landmark study published last year in the journal Cell, 120 people were divided into six groups and given a daily sachet of one of four sweeteners (saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, stevia), glucose, or nothing.

After two weeks, the subjects were given a one-week break from the sachets.

During this time, the scientists took stool and blood samples. They also gave the volunteers 50g of glucose before and after the trial to see how their bodies responded.

They found that those who had sucralose and saccharin weren’t managing sugar as effectively as they were before the experiments (and as we know, spikes in blood sugar have many health implications).

Also, when the scientists transplanted a stool sample from these people into mice, the rodents had trouble digesting glucose effectively.

In addition, those who ate sweeteners experienced a change in the enzymes and chemicals their gut bacteria produced, which the other two groups did not. We don’t yet know what that means for our health. But it’s worth noting that many “healthy” products contain sweeteners – for example even some probiotics or kombucha (fermented black tea). So check your food and drink labels.

And it might be worth sticking with the Real Deal if possible. So if you want sweetness, choose a little sugar over sweeteners. Or better yet, I opt for the whole foods, like fruit—especially for kids.

And get creative when you’re craving a sweet hit. If you like sweet drinks, keep a bag of berries in the freezer and add them to sparkling water for a tasty and refreshing drink.

If you’ve added sugar or sweeteners to your tea and coffee, try reducing it slowly; Your taste buds take two to three weeks to adjust. Cut back on the amount you have by a quarter of a teaspoon each week and you probably won’t even notice.

Personally, I believe pruning will ensure a sweeter future.

If you want sweetness, choose a little sugar over sweeteners. Or better yet, I opt for the whole foods, like fruit—especially for kids. [File image]

ask megan

In 2017 my taste buds went wrong and now everything tastes like salt. My eyes and mouth are dry – I use eye drops and suck sugar-free candy for that. I don’t drink caffeine, just water and fruit teas. I use salt-free bouillon cubes when I cook, but everything, even homemade cakes and cookies, still tastes salty. I’m 85, losing weight and depressed.

Elizabeth Burgess, Chorley, Lancashire.

Many factors can lead to loss of taste and disorders – unfortunately, one of the most common is age: the number of taste buds naturally decreases and the remaining ones gradually shrink.

But here are four strategies that can help bring the enjoyment of food back up:

1. Try Sour Flavors: Sour or sour foods can stimulate your taste buds by sending messages down nerves to your brain, where you can recognize what a particular taste is—sweet, sour, bitter, salty, or umami. For example, sprinkle a squeeze of lemon juice over a noodle sauce or half a lime with Thai green curry and see if that helps.

2. Brush your teeth: If you make sure your mouth is clean before eating, you can taste the food better. Try brushing your teeth ten minutes before a meal and gently brushing your tongue to remove excess tongue coating (which contains microbes and their byproducts).

3. Stay hydrated: A dry mouth can affect your ability to taste. Drink large glasses of water between meals and sip during meals.

4. Test your taste buds: Consciously try to eat foods with strong flavors and try to identify them. Something like chocolate for sweet, citrus for sour, coffee for bitter, and cheese for salty. Depending on the cause of your taste disorders, this may help retrain the taste buds.

If your weight loss exceeds 5 percent of your body weight, see your GP, as certain types of weight loss can be inflammatory, not to mention the resulting increase in malnutrition. Some, like folic acid, zinc, and vitamin B12, can make taste disorders worse.

Contact dr. Megan Rossi

Email [email protected] or write to Good Health, Chron, 9 Derry Street, London, W8 5HY – please include your contact details. dr Megan Rossi cannot maintain personal correspondence. The answers should be viewed in a general context; Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns.