What Role Does Sugar And Salt Portray In A Healthy Diet

It is only natural to like sweets. Many people have become used to having something sweet daily as part of their standard food consumption. Yet too many sweets in the diet can lead to weight gain and health risks. The fact the sweets contain refined sugars add to the complications in the diet.

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Refined sugars have negative health effects including hypoglycemia, arthritis, diabetes, headaches, suppression of the immune system, osteoporosis, and depression. It also is stored as fat within the body increasing the weight of the individuals that consume it.

Replace the sweets containing the refined sugar with natural sweets such as fruits. Using the natural sweets to satisfy the sweet cravings will lead to weight loss and better health. Add grains and beans to the fruits to increase the natural goodness of the fruit. The natural sugar in the fruits provides the right kind of energy as well as essential fibers and nutrients.

Avoid consuming sugary drinks such as tea, coffee, and sodas. The average person will drink at least two servings of the beverages a day with the drinks containing about 10 teaspoons of sugar in each drink. The artificial sweeteners, used in the beverages, have been shown to interfere with the body’s natural ability to function properly; so even this type of sweetener is not good for a person. Instead of consuming the sweetened beverages, drink natural fruit juices, or water with a squeeze of lemon added as the sweetener.

Salt or sodium is another bad ingredient many people have in their diets. The issues with salt are that many people, highly over use it daily. They do not realize that they consume over 2,300 mg per day of the highly dangerous additive. Most of the foods consumed contain added sodium with processed, packaged, fast food, and restaurant foods. Even the canned soups and frozen meals have added sodium.

Sodium leads to weight gain, heart disease, and health issues related to the added chemical in the body and bloodstream. Sodium makes people retain water leading to the bloating of the body. It also tends to make people feel thirsty constantly, so when even consuming fluids, often times their thirst is not quenched.

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Salt is not bad when used in moderation. There are high quality sea salts that have up to 90 minerals that are healthy for the body. Use sea salt that is either reddish or brownish in color or even the non-colored salt for the best type of salt to add to the diet. These types of salts do not have additives, chemicals, and are not bleached.

Your body does require a certain amount of sodium and natural sweeteners, in order to function properly. You should reduce the extra amounts you consume, to create a healthier life style and body. It is also important for you check with you doctor, prior to making major changes to your diet, in order to determine if it could affect your overall health adversely.

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Does caffeine help with weight loss?

Caffeine may slightly boost weight loss or prevent weight gain, but there's no sound evidence that increased caffeine consumption results in significant or permanent weight loss.

Caffeine is found in many beverages, including coffee, tea, energy drinks and colas; in products containing cocoa or chocolate; and in a variety of medications and dietary supplements, including supplements aimed at weight loss.

Although research about the connection between caffeine and weight isn't definitive, there are a few theories about how caffeine might affect weight, including:

• Appetite suppression. Caffeine may reduce your desire to eat for a brief time, but there's not enough evidence to show that long-term consumption aids weight loss.
• Calorie burning. Caffeine may stimulate thermogenesis — one way your body generates heat and energy from digesting food. But this probably isn't enough to produce significant weight loss.

Some studies looking at caffeine and weight were poor quality or done on animals, making the results questionable or hard to generalize to humans. In addition, some studies found that even decaffeinated coffee may contribute to modest weight loss, suggesting that substances or factors besides caffeine may play a role in weight loss.

The bottom line: Be cautious about using caffeine products to help with weight loss. When used in moderation (400 milligrams or less) by healthy adults, caffeine is generally safe. But too much caffeine might cause nervousness, insomnia, nausea, increased blood pressure and other problems.

Also keep in mind that some caffeinated beverages, such as specialty coffees, are high in calories and fat. So instead of losing weight, you might actually gain weight if you drink too many of these.

Source
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/expert-answers/caffeine/faq-20058459

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS NOT A HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE

Headaches, mood changes, vision problems, insomnia, hallucinations, memory loss, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, hives, seizures, change in heart rate, abdominal cramps, rash, fatigue, diarrhea, and joint pain are all reactions that have been reported due to the artificial sweetener, aspartame.

Aspartame is one of the artificial sweeteners that is found in over 6,000 products ranging from toothpaste to diet soda. Research has shown that aspartame affects insulin sensitivity worse than sugar, which can lead to an increased risk for metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.

Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity and weight-loss specialist at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital said,

“Sugar-containing foods in their natural form, whole fruit, for example, tend to be highly nutritious—nutrient-dense, high in fiber, and low in glycemic load. On the other hand, refined, concentrated sugar consumed in large amounts rapidly increases blood glucose and insulin levels, increases triglycerides, inflammatory mediators and oxygen radicals, and with them, the risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses.”

There is no proof that consumption of artificial sweeteners causes multiple sclerosis, but due to inflammation caused by them, they could very well make symptoms worse or create new ones.

Because food companies are getting better at hiding artificial sweeteners in their foods, reading labels is of utmost importance. Artificial sweeteners to look for on labels are: acesulfame potassium, Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), Neotame, Saccharin (SugarTwin, Sweet ‘N Low) , Sucralose (Splenda), Cyclamate, and Advantame. These sweeteners are not limited to just foods such as carbonated soft drinks, pudding, powdered drinks, frozen desserts, chewing gum, toothpaste, cereal, yogurt, baked goods, gelatins, chewable vitamins, dessert mixes, sugar-free cough drops (or really “sugar-free” or “light/lite” anything), dairy products, jams and jellies, canned foods and chewing gum.

Don’t be discouraged and think that “the sweet life” is over as we know it. There are some natural sweeteners that, when used in moderation, are much safer than the artificial chemicals noted above. Switching from refined white sugar and/or artificial sweeteners to cane sugar, date sugar, coconut sugar, molasses, maple syrup, or sucanat would be a much healthier option.

If you suffer from any of the reactions listed above and are curious about whether your symptoms are from an artificial sweetener, the easiest way to tell is to stop consuming the sweeteners and see if your symptoms improve or disappear. Often symptoms will disappear and when an individual consumes the artificial sweetener again, those reactions return and leave no doubt about the culprit.

Do you use any artificial sweeteners?  Do you notice any symptoms when you do have some?  Did you realize how many foods and drinks they are in? 

Comment below your thoughts on this article. I personally think that we shouldn't be putting 'artificial' anythings into our bodies. If I had to choose I'd prefer to cut down my sugar intake instead of replacing it with chemical and unnatural substances. What do you think? Do you disagree? I'd love to hear what you think :)


Source
http://moderndayms.com/2015/04/artificial-sweeteners-not-a-healthy-alternative/

Artificial Sweeteners Don’t Mix Well with Our Microbiomes

Artificial sweeteners have long been considered our calorie-cutting allies, but a new study published yesterday in the journal Nature suggests that eating or drinking too much of the saccharine stuff may lead to diabetes.

The counterintuitive result was uncovered when a large team of researchers, led by Eran Segal and Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, started examining mice fed a diet that included artificial sweeteners. The mice on that diet soon started developing glucose intolerance, a symptom of diabetes. The researchers then carried out a somewhat complicated series of experiments to investigate further.

Dan Vergano, reporting for National Geographic News, has a great summary:

In the new study, the team began by adding one of three FDA-approved artificial sweeteners—saccharin, sucralose, or aspartame—to the drinking water of mice. The researchers compared these groups of mice with others that drank only water. Within 11 weeks, the mice drinking sweetened water had developed glucose intolerance, most notably when saccharin was added to their diet.

To see whether the mice’s intestinal bacteria contributed to the problem, the team then used antibiotics to wipe out the mice’s intestinal bugs and found they could return the mice’s blood sugar levels to normal.

Finally, they fed fecal samples from glucose-intolerant mice to normal mice, transferring the unhealthy mice’s gut bugs. The normal mice that got these fecal samples then developed glucose intolerance within six days.

Segal, Elinav, and team also tested the link between artificial sweeteners and diabetes in humans, surveying 381 people who weren’t diabetic. Those who consumed artificial sweeteners not only had higher blood sugar than other participants, but their intestines also housed significantly higher counts of Bacteroides fragilis, a species that might cause intestinal inflammation. Lastly, the scientists gave seven consenting adults 120 mg of saccharin per day, or about the amount in two Tab diet sodas or a little over three Sweet’n Low packets. Four of them—just over half—saw their blood sugar levels spike in just one week.

The researchers acknowledge that they don’t know exactly how artificial sweeteners interact with the microbiome—they’re asking other scientists to replicate the study to learn more—but they do admit that the results of the study have caused them to cut back on their own use. They do caution, though, that the evidence isn’t enough to encourage people to change their habits. Nor should people consuming large quantities of artificial sweeteners switch to sugar, which can also raise your risk for diabetes. If you’re concerned, the best bet seems to be simply reducing or eliminating artificial sweeteners without replacement.

Comment below what you think. Do you agree? Or have you found artificial sweeteners to be beneficial for you and your health? I'd love to hear your opinion. Please share xx


Source
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/artificial-sweeteners-dont-mix-well-microbiomes/

The Truth on Artificial Sweeteners

Sweetness and Light

No getting around it, we Americans have a sweet tooth. Most of us eat the equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar a day. True, you're probably not sucking on sugar cubes throughout the day, but you are probably downing more than your fair share of sugary cereals, snacks, sodas, ice cream .. and the list goes on and on.

For the average person, there's nothing wrong with sugar per se, unless all the sweet foods in your daily diet are keeping you from eating and drinking the nutritious foods you need. But for people who are trying to lose weight, or have to watch their blood sugar because of diabetes, too much sugar can be a problem. That's where artificial sweeteners can come in handy. These low-calorie sweeteners, reports the International Food Information Council, are safe to use, provide sweetness without calories, and provide a choice of sweet foods.

A 1998 survey conducted by the Calorie Control Council reported that 144 million American adults routinely eat and drink low-calorie, sugar-free products such as desserts and artificially sweetened sodas. The FDA has approved five artificial sweeteners:

• Acesulfame potassium (Sunett)
• Aspartame (NutraSweet or Equal)
• Sucralose (Splenda)
• D-Tagatose (Sugaree)
• Saccharin (Sweet 'N Low)

You may be surprised to see saccharin on that list. Discovered in 1879, saccharin -- which is 300 times sweeter than sugar -- was used during World War I and World War II to make up for sugar shortages and rationing. In the 1970s, the FDA was going to ban saccharin based on the reports of a Canadian study that showed that saccharin was causing bladder cancer in rats. A public outcry kept saccharin on the shelves (there were no other sugar substitutes at that time), but with a warning label that read, "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."

That warning label is no longer needed, says Ruth Kava, PhD, RD, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health. Further research has shown that male rats have a particular pH factor that predisposes them to bladder cancer. What may be true for male rats does not necessarily hold true for humans (or even for female rats); hence, no more warning labels for saccharin. "A lot of things that cause harm in animals don't always cause harm in humans," she says.

Like saccharin, aspartame is another sweetener that -- though thoroughly tested by the FDA and deemed safe for the general population -- has had its share of critics who blame the sweetener for causing everything from brain tumors to chronic fatigue syndrome. Not so, says Kava. The only people for whom aspartame is a medical problem are those with the genetic condition known as phenylkenoturia (PKU), a disorder of amino acid metabolism. Those with PKU need to keep the levels of phenylalanine in the blood low to prevent mental retardation as well as neurological, behavioral, and dermatological problems. Since phenylalanine is one of the two amino acids in aspartame, people who suffer from PKU are advised not to use it.

Some people can be sensitive to sweeteners and experience symptoms such as headaches and upset stomach, but otherwise, there is no credible information that aspartame -- or any other artificial sweetener -- causes brain tumors, or any other illness, says registered dietitian Wendy Vida, with HealthPLACE, the health and wellness division of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in Pittsburgh.

Kava says that since sweeteners are so much sweeter than sugar, a very small amount is needed to achieve the same sweetness one gets from sugar. "If used normally, the amounts you take in are so minuscule as to be of no concern at all."

Another sweetener receiving much publicity of late is stevia, an herbal sweetening ingredient used in food and beverages by South American natives for many centuries and in Japan since the mid-1970s. According to Ray Sahelian, MD, author of The Stevia Cookbook, stevia has shown no significant side effects after more than 20 years of use in Japan. "There are no indications at this point from any source that stevia has shown toxicity in humans," says Sahelian, though he agrees that further research is warranted.

Because stevia is not FDA-approved, it can not be sold as an artificial sweetener; however, it can be -- and is -- sold as a dietary supplement. Because these supplements are not regulated as well as those that have received FDA approval, and therefore have no guarantee of purity, Kava is leery about the use of stevia. "This is a product that's just asking for good research studies," she says. "We just don't know enough yet."

Though there are any number of people quick to point out what they believe are the dangers of artificial sweeteners, others think that they may actually have beneficial properties -- apart from reducing calorie intake and managing diabetes. Researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, for example, have found in several preliminary studies that aspartame is "especially effective in relieving pain associated with osteoarthritis, multiple sclerosis, and sickle cell anemia."

Whether artificial sweeteners are shown in the future to have therapeutic effects remains to be seen, says Kava. For now, though, their main purpose is to help people reduce caloric intake and/or control diabetes. If you don't need to watch your calories or your blood sugar, there is no real reason to use the sweeteners unless you just happen to like the taste, says Kava. "But if you need to control your sugar and caloric intake, artificial sweeteners are a safe, effective way to do that."

Comment below what you personally think of artificial sweeteners. Do you support the use of them? Or are you against? Do you agree that they are safe to consume, or are you worried about the effects the chemicals will have on the human body? I'm really interested to hear what you guys think!?



Source
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/truth-artificial-sweeteners

Article Sources

SOURCES: International Food Information Council ; Calorie Control Council ; FDA ; Ruth Kava, PhD, RD, director of nutrition, American Council on Science and Health ; Wendy Vida, RD, HealthPLACE, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Pittsburgh ; Ray Sahelian, MD, author, The Stevia Cookbook ; Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.

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