Research is accumulating in support of the theory that a major cause of our nation’s phenomenal increase in overweight and obesity is due to two sides of the same coin. One is the almost universal use of high fructose corn syrup in prepared foods. The other is the almost universal use of aspartame in foods touted as light, diet, low-calorie, or no-cal.
So the person with the sweet tooth gets it coming and going. Both have been giving study results akin to addiction. Animals fed either food regularly what more and more. Isn’t that what is happening to us and our children?
Fructose was originally praised for not stimulating the pancreatic insulin response. This was supposed to be good for diabetics and hypoglycemics. But it turns out that it doesn’t trigger a sense of “enough” in the brain like natural sugar combinations of glucose and fructose do. So we just keep eating more.
Meanwhile, aspartame actually disturbs the brain’s neurotransmitters in much the same way as an opiate and we crave more. Is it any wonder that so many people are consuming unbelievable quantities of “diet soda” every day?
This may not sound bad since these drinks are calorie free. How can they add to obesity? But these drinks are non-nutritious chemical soup. Your body must detoxify all those additives to make it taste, look, feel, and stimulate the way the drinker wants it to. The soda also acidifies the body to such an extent that it is hard for the body to maintain balance and it is ripe for disease to set in.
But mot disturbing is the fact that brain tumors increased suddenly and significantly the year aspartame took over the artificial sweetener field in 1983-4. They have continued to increase apace with the growth in aspartame use. I think cell phones and their towers are contributing, but here is something you have absolute control over. Avoid aspartame.
The American Diabetic Association once released a study showing that diabetic folks who ate diet products ate more total food so that they ended up eating just as many calories as those who did not consume diet products. So these products do absolutely nothing for you except give you some artificial taste sensations, dehydrate you, and add toxins to your environmental toxin load.
A recent study found that consuming any kind of sweetened sodas or fruit drinks in a fair amount also increased the risk of depression. People who had more than four cans per day were 30% more likely to be depressed than those who drank none. The study was presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting this January.
Read labels, teach your children to avoid both of these non-food substances, and put or your plate foods your great-grandmother would have recognized. They are satisfying and your body knows how to use them, for energy and health.
My book The True Secret to Weight Loss Is Energy is available in softcover an ebook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local bookstore.
