No matter where you are in your current wellness journey, you probably know that sugar is a threat to your metabolic health. And while America is waking up to the dangers of processed sugar, we’re now faced by yet another (and possibly more dangerous) alternative: fake sugar.
The number of new foods containing sucrose, or table sugar, shrunk 16% in just five years. However, fake sugars have quickly taken its place — the consumption of sucralose rose from 38.7% to 71% between 2002 and 2018, while reb-A rose from just 0.1% to a whopping 25.9%.
Despite what some food companies want you to believe, this is a major cause for alarm.
There are no significant benefits gained from switching real sugar for fake sugar. In fact, they could make your health worse.
And if you’re trying to improve your health or enhance your metabolic wellness, fake sugars could prevent you from making sustainable changes over time.
What you need to know about the types of fake sugars
There are quite literally dozens of fake sugars in the US food supply. Many of them go by names we can’t even recognize or pronounce.
Walking down the baked goods aisle at your local grocery store, you can likely see a few of these compounds on display:
- Sucralose
- Aspartame
- Maltodextrin
Artificial sugars don’t look sinister to us at first. After all, they can result in some extremely low calorie foods — which means you can eat more in a day if you’re someone who counts calories. But as we know after years of research, calories are a poor measurement of nutritive quality.
And using fake sugars to lower our daily calorie counts could do more damage than we realize.
How do fake sugars disrupt metabolic health? Research points to three major concerns:
- Disruption of the gut microbiota. Non-nutritive sweeteners may encourage gut bacteria to invade your intestinal wall, altering your microbiome and raising your risk of infection and organ failure.
- A higher risk of chronic disease, including stroke and coronary heart disease. Scientists in France discovered that people who consume large amounts of aspartame and sucralose (think NutraSweet or Splenda) have a higher risk of stroke and heart disease than people who don’t.
- A placebo for those looking to make a change in their health. People who consume artificial sweeteners are no more likely to lose weight or ‘be healthy’ than people who consume regular sugar. One study found that people who drink diet soda are twice as likely to become overweight than people who don’t consume diet drinks.
The kicker? The daily consumption of artificially sweetened foods is associated with a 36% greater risk for metabolic syndrome.
Why?
Because fake sugar doesn’t add any nutritional components to the food you’re eating.
Does switching to diet soda mean you’re not drinking processed, nutritionless food? No!
What about sugar-free donuts or artificially sweetened salad dressings? It’s the same answer.
Processed sugar-free foods are filled with seed oils, preservatives, and other questionable ingredients, so even if there are fewer calories, there are fewer nutrients as well.
You should also know that artificially sweetened foods may leave you feeling hungry just a few hours after eating. This may push you to overeat or binge on unhealthy foods to feel full.
To summarize: fake sugars are anything but a ‘healthy miracle sweetener.’
And no amount of fake sugar can turn unhealthy food into a healthy option.
How you can protect your metabolic health and avoid fake sugars in your food
You can see that fake sugars pose a problem to consumers in the US and beyond. However, switching back to ‘real’ sugar isn’t the answer.
So what do we need to protect our metabolic health and avoid the dangers of fake sugar? I suggest following a specific protocol:
- Eating whole, real foods. Everything in your diet should come from the ground or live on the ground. The more you fill yourself up with whole, real ingredients, the less you crave sugary sweets and other artificially sweetened snacks.
- Reading the label on the back of your food. While it’s best to purchase whole, real foods without an ingredients list, it’s important to check the label on any packaged foods you purchase. Keep an eye out for added sugar or artificial alternatives, including sucralose, saccharin, and sugar alcohols.
- Cooking at home. Not only is this the best way to control the nutritional density of your food, but it can also help you avoid unwanted ingredients that may harm your metabolic health. As you enhance your cooking repertoire, be sure to avoid pre-processed ingredients and certain spice mixes (with added fake sugars) as much as possible.
Remember: food companies are not going to care about your metabolic health as much as you do. If you’re serious about cutting out artificial sugars and returning to a whole, real diet, it’s up to you (and your doctor) to work on making a change.
Struggling to cut out artificial sweeteners? My Gold Metabolic Health Coaching program can keep you accountable. You get your own metabolic health coach to work with four times per month, plus unlimited group coaching sessions with like-minded individuals who are focused on restoring their health.