​Sweeteners help some lose weight? Not!

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012 10:12 am Email this article

On UPI.com July 10 "Sweeteners help some lose weight", we read that "Using sweeteners instead of sugars may help the overweight reach and maintain a healthy body weight if they don't eat more to compensate . . . a statement from the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association published in the journals Circulation and Diabetes Care." The statement is followed by no research data whatever, only the credentials of the authorities making the statement.

Omission of evidence is usually the fault of the journalist, not the source. Journalists aren't trained in science so they fall back on the Democracy Theory of Truth, which is that the more people say a thing is true, the more likely it is to be true. Orthodoxy is the journalists' backstop. Their reassuring pacifier. But in this article, something odd happens. Look at the last paragraph. "The research on non-nutritive sweeteners is inconclusive on whether non-nutritive sweeteners reduce carbohydrate or calorie intake, reduce appetite or body weight, or lower other risk factors associated with diabetes and heart disease in the long run, said the statement authors." OMG the truth slipped out! refuting the title of the article and trivializing the message. Here's the story the journalist missed--where do the high hanchos of the AHA and ADA get off recommending behavior to people on the basis of no evidence? Where do they get the nerve? The TRUTH is that artificial sweeteners, in packets and in soft-drinks, raise insulin more than sugar does, for the sole reason that they taste sweeter than sugar does. Insulin is the master-switch controlling all the switches that get you to store energy and not use it. THAT IS WHY diet sodas and Splenda are fattening, despite having no calories. THAT IS WHY snacking makes people gain weight. THAT IS WHY calorie counting never works. THAT IS WHY fat people exercising at the gym lose muscle or don't gain any. Keeping insulin low in mid-morning, mid-afternoon and during sleep is the main focus of a successful weight-loss program. Doctors should stop giving long-acting insulin to type 2 diabetics. But the journalists won't do that story because it's not "what everybody says". Shucks, it's only recently that we got the Press to stop saying the Earth is flat.

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