Page 210 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

recurrence among patients who have already endured cancer
treatment. The science is too young in these areas to say con-
clusively, but for now, early studies suggest ties.
What we know about artificial sweeteners: They may lead us to con-
sume more food in total because they appear to interfere with
our internal calorie detectors. This happens because sweetness
triggers our brains to say, “Eat more!” And artificial sweeten-
ers are often hundreds of times sweeter than sugar. Artificial
sweeteners may also lead us to seek more sweet foods and
drinks overall because they train our palates to prefer sweet-
ness—to be sugar dependent, even—and because they provide
sweetness without calories. (Artificial sweeteners don’t appear
to trigger the same reward response we get from added sug-
ars.) Lastly, because they’re so sweet, they may also cause
naturally sweet foods like fruit to be less satisfying when we
crave sweetness.

What we don’t know about artificial sweeteners: A lot. It’s basically a
battle between the FDA and the Center for Science in the Public
Interest.

“GENERALLY RECOGNIZED AS SAFE” BY THE FDA:
advantame
aspartame (Equal/NutraSweet)
acesulfame potassium (Ace-K)
luo han guo (also called monk fruit) extracts
neotame
saccharin (Sweet’N Low)
steviol glycosides
sucralose (Splenda)

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