[John.in.France]

In the nine months since my diagnosis, I've been reading quite widely and have come up with a hypothesis which suggests that artificial sweeteners are, if anything, even more dangerous than sugar from our point of view. I lay no claim to being a biochemist or doctor, so I accept that my ideas may be wide of the mark, but I still think the forum might find them "food for thought"!

Ok, here goes:

• The initial phase one insulin release is triggered by a sweet taste in the month. This doesn't have to be sugar, anything, even - or especially - an artificial sweetener will do nicely.
• This release of insulin will reduce the level of blood glucose and if the level is already on the low side, will result in a degree of hypoglycaemia which the body will handle by sending out "I'm hungry" signals, tempting us to eat just a bit more.
• This "incidental side effect" suits the marketing boys down to the ground but has implications for everyone, especially (in my view) type 2 diabetics.

Overeating is not a good idea for anyone - even non diabetics but consider the implications of the insulin release - three cases:

1. Non Diabetics: If you've got a fully functional pancreas, wasting a little insulin isn't something you'll worry about.
2. Type 1 Diabetics: If you've got a completely dysfunctional pancreas, no insulin is produced, so again no real harm done.
3. Type 2 Diabetics: You've got some beta cells but making them produce more insulin than necessary is generally recognised as a bad idea as it pushes them closer to total failure and you towards the need for medication to compensate - (Oh! wait a minute - that might be the idea!)

Bottom line, I'm convinced that the only sensible strategy for a type 2 diabetic is to lose the sweet tooth and whilst things like Stevia and other "non spiking" sweeteners may not of themselves push blood sugars up, they do push us towards medication earlier than necessary!

 

[Guest]

I have to agree John I used to use artificial sweetners a lot myself especially when I was first diagnosed. My family got very concerned about this. I thought about it and read some stuff on the various types and I've concluded if I want sugar, then I eat sugar as it's natural. But fortunately here we have a low GI version which is basically just sugar coated in molasses which is another natural product. I'm going to try staying as natural as I can and I think we eat way too much artificial stuff as a society. You're right that we should try and curb our sweet tooth really.

 

[fgummett]

I was never a fan of anything artificial to begin with... I even bucked the trend when margarine was all the rage -- for some strange reason I still preferred butter.

IIRC there was a study (the Nurses study?) which associated drinking soda with increased food intake at subsequent meals... even if it was diet soda.

 

[thcri]

John that is a good post. I have noticed in my testing that the artificial sweeteners will boost me. But I also find I still look to them to satisfy that sweet tooth. Your post comes at a good time as a notice to myself to stop using them again.

 

[Shalynne]

I use some sweeteners (never aspartame or saccharin), but sparingly. Like, to sweeten a drink once or twice a week. And, of course, there's the occasional cocoa candy pig-out.

But my sweet tooth's been kinda blunt for many a year now. And I'm already on medication, anyway. Skipped the no-meds stage completely.