Just too good to be true

Having said I'm going to cover the other recommendations to come out from the 100% Health survey, I'm infact going to hold off til tomorrow ... as having talked about the dangers of added sugar yesterday I thought it was pertinent to also talk about some recent research I read on holiday relating to artificial sweeteners which are often substituted for sugar.

Sweeteners seemed to be the dieters dream product, making everything taste sweet and full of calories when it wasn't. Many individuals eventually discovered downsides ... Headaches, diarrhoea, other unpleasant symptoms and the foods dod not genuinely satisfy sweet cravings.

Recent research also suggests that eating more artificially sweetened foods may actually lead to increased body weight and obesity by interfering with the bodies regulatory mechanisms that control metabolism, hunger and fat-burning. In more detail, the research was suggesting that your gut has sweet flavour receptors that tell your body you've just eaten sugar, when infact you've had a sweetener. In response to the perceived sugar insulin levels increase and blood glucose storage (as fat) is upregulated, thereby inducing a blood sugar low likely to leave you hungry and craving more sweet foods.

So to put it more simply, your low calorie sweetened snack may only have 80 calories in it, but eating it will make you more hungry and craving more sweet foods, so therefore likely to eat more calories overall, whilst the resulting insulin production will make you store more of the calories you eat as fat.

So what should you choose when you fancy something sweet?

Well firstly avoid artificial sweeteners whenever possible, but this is no excuse to eat sugar with abandon instead!

Choose lower sugar treats such as dark chocolate rather than milk.

Eat foods that are naturally sweet such as fruits, in particular tropical fruits and dried dates or figs are all lovely as treats.

Choose sweet treats with higher fibre content than others as the fibre will slow the absorption of the sugars in the gut, so a granola bar would be better than a shortbread biscuit.

When making desserts at home reduce the sugar in recipes by a quarter, the desserts will still taste sweet and may even be more palatable. Also try using fructose instead of granular sugar (but note the different amounts needed as per the packet) which is lower GI than granula sugar. Also try and increase the fibre content, for example using oats instead of flour for a fruit crumble topping, using brown flour in cakes and choosing recipes with added seeds or nuts.

Alternatively avoid sugar most of the time and then once every couple of weeks indulge in whatever sweet treat you desire without worrying too much about the sugar content (unless of course your diabetic or have other health reasons to avoid sugar).

And if you find it hard to go a day without sugar it may be a sign of a harmful imbalance in your gut bacteria which you might want to have checked.
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