Do you know any diet soda drinkers?
At the University of California-San Diego, researchers performed functional MRI scans as volunteers took small sips of water sweetened with sugar or sucralose (Sucralose is another name for Splenda). Sugar activated regions of the brain involved in food reward, while sucralose didn’t. The authors of the study say, it is possible that sucralose “may not fully satisfy a desire for natural caloric sweet ingestion.” So, while sugar signals a positive feeling of reward, artificial sweeteners may not be an effective way to manage a craving for sweets.
Virtually all the popular, non-caloric sweeteners have one thing in common-they’re significantly sweeter than sugar. Now logically, you’d think all that sweetness would enable you to use less or eat a smaller amount of an artificially sweetened product.
These super-sweeteners seem to have the opposite effect, in part by flooding your taste buds with sweet, dulling them to the taste, pushing your sweetness threshold ever higher, while never actually satisfying the craving.
Article adapted from Rodale Wellness.
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