Saccharin Can Lead to Weight Gain!

A study at Purdue University's Ingestive Behaviour Research Centre by Professors Terry Davidson and Susan Swither has offered results' showing that, although saccharin tricks the body by providing a sweet taste yet without the calories which the body expects with a sweet taste, the result is that people eat more in order to compensate for it.

Davidson and Swither wrote that "The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar."

The founder of the highly popular site Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola, offered his thoughts on the study to a news agency, saying "The number one source of calories in the American diet is high fructose corn syrup in sodas.  This contributes to obesity, diabetes and increased risk for heart disease, cancer and nearly every chronic degenerative disease.  So it makes sense that consumers would seek a healthier alternative.  However the bulk of the scientific evidence strongly suggests that artificial sweeteners are even worse than their natural counterpart they were designed to replace."

Some of the substitutes for sugar are Sucralose, Saccharin, Aspartame (NutraSweet), Cyclamate and Alitame. Alarmingly, Aspartame, when it breaks down becomes formaldehyde and wood alcohol.

Dr Mercola continued by saying "Not only do the artificial sweeteners cause the identical problems as high fructose corn syrup, but they also add their own problems because as synthetic substances, unlike the natural product fructose, they have intrinsic toxicities that make any diet soda a very poor health choice. There simply isn't any good reason for anyone to be regularly consuming any soda, diet or regular."

Trying to reduce the importance of the study results, The Calorie Control Council still endorses artificial sweetener use. However, Dr Mercola responded to them saying, "It is no surprise that the Calorie Control Council would disagree with the study's findings as they are a front for the very companies that manufacture them."