Could Artificial Sweeteners Cause Type 2 Diabetes?

Could Artificial Sweeteners Cause Type 2 Diabetes?

In an effort to keep their weight down, many people are using artificial sweeteners. While these additives don’t have calories, they do contain something that actually increases your potential of developing a serious disease.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to type 2 diabetes. One of the reasons for this is because – contrary to what many people believe – the use of artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain rather than weight loss.

Millions of people gave up sugar and replaced it with artificial sweeteners in the belief that doing so would inhibit their desire to consume sugar and high calorie snack foods or meals.

But studies have shown that just the opposite is true. People who use artificial sweeteners are more likely to gain weight because they interfere with how the body controls blood sugar levels.

This happens because the sweeteners act as a trigger within the body’s digestive system, making the person crave sweet foods. They also scramble the hormone responses in the brain that are responsible for feeling hunger.

So if you’re using artificial sweeteners as a way to try to lose weight to help manage your diabetes or avoid it, you’ll want to try a different approach. Not only will these cause you to want to eat and make you put on weight, but in an overall review of multiple studies, it was determined that sweeteners will also put you at risk for problems relating to your health.

Among these are things like developing diabetes or high blood pressure. In addition to studies determining that artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain, it was also revealed that they didn’t provide any type of boost for the health of the person taking them.

In further research into how artificial sweeteners affected the body, it was discovered that they can raise BMI numbers and cause something that’s known as metabolic syndrome.

While this is not a disease, it is still a health complication. It means that the consumption of artificial sweeteners can not only cause type 2 diabetes but it can greatly increase your risk of having a heart attack or a stroke.

Metabolic syndrome is also known to increase the risk of additional fat in the abdominal area, which leads back to an increased rate of diabetes diagnoses. For those who consume artificial sweeteners, they have a 40% risk factor of developing metabolic syndrome, but a 70% chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

One reason for the risk factors is thought to be that when someone tastes a product containing artificial sweetener, it causes a trigger response in the body that disrupts the way insulin is released. Because of the risk of diabetes that’s linked with the consumption of artificial sweeteners, more people are pulling away from use of the products.