Diet Sweeteners Analysis

Movie Summary:

Sugary beverages are considered one of leading problems to obesity. The video takes a look at what impact diet sweeteners have on the obesity problem. A study done by Davidson & Swithers (2004) on rat testing, found consuming sugar compensated for the snack by eating less lab chow. On the other hand, rats who routinely consumed saccharin-laced drinks did not compensate and ate more calories at subsequent meals. Fowler (2005) did a study on diet sodas and obesity, found that looking at people only drinking diet soft drinks had a higher risk of obesity. When a closer look at the data was done, they found nearly all of the obesity risk from soft drinks came from diet sodas. While data does show an association with weight gain and

The first group is the big mac and diet sweeteners or unhealthy group that are using diet sweeteners as a rational to eat the unhealthy food. The unhealthy group accounts for 1/3 to ½ of the adults who drink diet sweeteners. The other half take diet sweeteners and healthy diet to lose weight and cut calories. In studies they have grouped those two sets of groups together, showing the risk of cardiovascular problem grows with the adults consuming diet sweeteners. When actually the healthy group decreases their risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, diabetes and other heart problems, while the unhealthy group increases their risk. One issue that is not understood yet is what happens when you consume a sweetener via diet or in other form. Artificial sweeteners impact may be different on the healthy eaters than the junk food eaters. It is likely that the obese subject who struggles to eat healthy may gain weight because the artificial sweetened beverages maintain the taste preference for sweetness. With that preference it will lead to the consumption of sweetened products high in sugar and fat causing weight gain. On the other hand the obese subjects who regularly consume diet sodas, exercise, and have good eating habits are likely to keep the desire for sweetened food in check. Those people maintain a low caloric intake because of healthy food selections and

The subjects were overweight males and females, with added supplemented foods in their diets of either sugar or artificial sweeteners for 10 weeks. They were provided with a variety of foods either containing sugar or artificial sweeteners. Supplements containing sugar provide subjects with an average of 815Kcal/day and 152 g of sugar/day and the artificially sweetened supplements with approx. 240Kcal/day and no sugar. (St-Onge & Heymsfield, 2003) At the end of the trial the results showed subjects with supplemented with sugar foods gained 1.6kg and the artificially sweetened foods lost 1.0 kg. The sugar supplement group didn’t change their sugar intake to compensate for their sugar supplement diet. The artificial sweetener supplement group, daily energy intake decreased by about 105kcal, which would produce a 0.9kg weight loss over a 10 week period. (St-Onge & Heymsfield, 2003)

A study of 163 obese women received an energy restricted diet during a 19 week weight loss program. They were assigned to either aspartame, a sweetener, or avoid aspartame containing products. (Vermunt et al., 2003) In both groups women lost about 10% of body weight in the active weight loss phase. In the 1 year follow up period women who consumed aspartame products regained less