Low calorie sweeteners are supposed to help people lose weight, but do they?

Low calorie sweeteners are supposed to help people lose weight, but they are actually contributing to type 2 diabetes and weight gain, a review of different studies reveals.

Low calorie sweeteners are consumed as a substitute to simple sugars including sucrose, glucose and fructose or fruit sugar.

The artificial sweeteners market is growing fast and is expected to reach $2.2 billion in 2020.

Despite the marketing that artificial sweeteners provides fewer calories and so lead to weight loss, consumers are more likely to gain weight.

According to Professor Peter Clifton, the lead author of this study, in the past 20 years, consumption of low calorie sweeteners has increased by 200 percent among children and 54 percent among adults.

However, recent studies show that low calorie sweeteners can have several harmful effects on the human body.

For example, a study suggests that artificial sweeteners have an appetite-stimulating effect on the brain, causing people to eat more.

Another study over seven years on 5,158 American adults found that people who had a high intake of artificial sweeteners put on more weight compared to nonusers.

Professor Clifton said:

“Consumers of artificial sweeteners do not reduce their overall intake of sugar.

They use both sugar and low-calorie sweeteners and may psychologically feel they can indulge in their favourite foods.

Artificial sweeteners also change the gut bacteria which may lead to weight gain and risk of type 2 diabetes.”

Although it is not clear why, artificially sweetened beverages have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia, and death.

Professor Clifton and his team reviewed 13 studies in which they suggest an association between artificially sweetened beverages and the risk of type 2 diabetes.

One study found that changing from artificially sweetened beverages to natural fruit juice would reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 7 percent.

Professor Clifton concluded:

“A better option than low-calorie sweeteners is to stick to a healthy diet, which includes plenty of whole grains, dairy, seafood, legumes, vegetables and fruits and plain water.”

The study was published in Current Atherosclerosis Reports (Kim et al., 2019).

The drink can boost weight loss without exercise or changing diet.

Apple cider vinegar can boost weight loss without exercise or changing diet, research finds.

People in one study who added two teaspoons of vinegar to their diet per day lost weight.

They achieved this without making any other changes to their diet or doing more exercise.

The vinegar also led to lower levels of triglycerides, which is an indicator of better heart health.

Whether or not the vinegar is of the apple cider variety, probably makes little difference.

To make the vinegar more palatable, it can simply be stirred into a glass of water, or any other drink, to help reduce the sharp taste.

Alternatively, it can be drizzled on a salad, added to a smoothie or used to add zest to another food.

Other benefits of vinegar include that it may lower blood pressure and help inhibit the spiking of blood sugar after eating.

For the study, 175 people in Japan were split into three groups.

One acted as a control and ate their normal diet, another group added a single teaspoon of vinegar per day, while a third added two teaspoons per day.

The results showed that after 12 weeks, those who had added two teaspoons had lost between 2 to 4 pounds in weight.

They also had lower triglyceride levels.

The other two groups did not lose significant amounts of weight.

The study’s authors conclude:

“The present study is the first to demonstrate that vinegar reduces body weight, BMI, and body fat mass in obese Japanese subjects.

Furthermore, continuous vinegar intake was found to lower serum triglyceride levels.”

Animal studies have previously found that acetic acid, the main component of vinegar, can reduce body fat.

The authors write of vinegar’s other benefits:

“Vinegar has a very long history, going back to Babylonia in 5,000 BC.

We have found that intake of vinegar lowers blood pressure, improves hypercholesterolemia, and inhibits postprandial hyperglycemia.”

The study was published in the journal Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry (Kondo et al., 2009).

Use this oil for cooking to achieve more weight loss.

Consuming 15 to 30 g of coconut oil in the daily diet can reduce belly fat, research finds.

Coconut oil can also reduce hunger pangs and appetite and this can help with weight loss.

A meta-analysis of different studies suggests that replacing long-chain triglycerides (LCTs) with medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) over the long-term can lead to weight lost and reduce belly fat.

Coconut oil, palm kernel oil, desiccated coconut and raw coconut meat contain good amount of MCTs.

Most fats and oils in our diet, such as soybean, sunflower oil, and olive oil contain LCTs.

MCTs, though, can increase the body’s ability to burn calories since they break down easily and are absorbed by the cells rapidly.

As a result MCTs are not stored as fat in the body and are sent quickly from the digestive tract to the liver to turn into energy or ketone bodies.

Belly fat

Visceral fat lies deep in the belly and is wrapped around the organs including the stomach, liver, pancreas, and intestines.

Visceral belly fat is also called “active fat” since this type of fat can build up in the arteries and also lead to dangerous health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

This fat is different with the subcutaneous fat that is stored under the skin and you can feel it in different parts of your body, such as the arms and legs.

If the belly is sticking out then it is likely that you have stored visceral fat.

If a man’s waist measures 40 inches or more and if a woman’s waist measures 35 inches or more that indicates an excess of visceral fat and health-related issues.

Making changes to diet and lifestyle towards losing weight can help get rid of this active fat.

The study was published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Mumme & Stonehouse, 2015).

The hours of fasting suitable for most people who want to lose weight but keep their energy and mood high.

Eating within a ten-hour time frame is feasible for most people and they feel less hungry, more energetic and have a better mood, a study suggests.

Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for dietary restriction plans that follow different meal timing schedules for a period of time.

In recent years, restricted eating set within a specific time window has become a popular weight loss plan.

Ten-hour window

Researchers from King’s College London, evaluated the health benefits gained from intermittent fasting.

They noticed that most people can adhere to eating meals within a ten-hour window of the day and fasting for the remaining 14 hours.

In that case, if your first meal is at 9 am, your last meal must be by 7 pm, then you avoid eating until the next morning at 9 am.

While some recommend a six-hour eating window for an intermittent fasting regime, this study shows that restrictive eating within a ten-hour time frame offers several health benefits such as reduced hunger, increased energy, and positive mood.

Furthermore, they found that participants who stuck to their eating window consistently benefited more than others who changed their daily eating schedule.

Dr. Sarah Berry, the study’s senior author, said:

“This is the largest study outside of a tightly controlled clinic to show that intermittent fasting can improve your health in a real world setting.

What’s really exciting is that the findings show that you don’t have to be very restrictive to see positive results: a ten-hour eating window, which was manageable for most people, and improved mood, energy levels and hunger.

We found for the first time that those who practiced time-restricted eating, but were not consistent day to day, did not have the same positive health effects as those who were dedicated every day.”

Feeling satiated

For this study, about 38,000 participates were assigned to use the ‘ZOE Health’ app for a period of three weeks.

For the first week, subjects followed their usual diet and then for two weeks they had to eat within a ten-hour window.

The health benefits were also greater for those who had adapted to a longer eating window prior to the study.

Dr Kate Bermingham, study co-author, said:

“This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of how you eat.

The health impact of food is not just what you eat but the time at which you choose to consume your meals, and eating window is an important dietary behaviour that can be beneficial for health.

Findings shows that we don’t need to be eating all the time.

Many people will feel satiated and even lose weight if they restrict their food to a ten-hour window.”

Related

• Portion control is a better strategy for weight management than intermittent fasting.
• Continuous dieting and intermittent fasting can lead to the same amount of weight loss.
• A 14-day break from dieting helps increase weight loss by 50 percent.
• Pesco-Mediterranean combined with time-restricted eating is ideal for improving heart health.

The study was presented by King’s College London researchers at the European Nutrition Conference in Belgrade, Serbia (Berry et al., 2023).

How to burn belly fat without eating less or trying to lose weight.

Swapping fatty foods for lower fat alternatives can reduce weight and belly fat, research finds.

Weight loss of around 3.5 pounds was achieved by people in many studies without going on a diet.

People lost weight without eating less or specifically trying to lose weight.

Those who reduced their fat intake also enjoyed lower blood pressure and lower levels of bad cholesterol.

The more fat people cut out of their diet, the greater their weight loss, researchers found.

Dr Lee Hooper, the study’s first author, said:

“The weight reduction that we found when people ate less fat was remarkably consistent – we saw it in almost every trial.

Those who cut down more on fat, lost more weight.

The effect isn’t dramatic, like going on a diet.

The research specifically looked at people who were cutting down on fat, but didn’t aim to lose weight – so they were continuing to consume a normal amount of food.

What surprised us was that they did lose weight, their BMI decreased and their waists became slimmer.”

The conclusions come from a review of 33 separate randomised controlled trials including 73,589 people around the world.

The studies compared people who cut down on their fat intake with those who carried on eating as normal.

The results showed that those who cut down on fat intake lost an average of 3.5 pounds and also reduced their waist circumference by 0.5 cm.

Dr Hooper continued:

“We didn’t consider different types of fat in this study, but cutting down on saturated fat reduces our risk of heart disease and strokes, so the healthiest way to cut down on fat is to cut down on saturated fats.

This means having low fat milk and yogurt, cutting down on butter and cheese, and cutting the fat off meat.

Most importantly have fruit instead of fatty snacks like biscuits, cake and crisps.

And remember, this isn’t a diet, so don’t take it to extremes, but work out a way of eating that you can stick to permanently.

Keeping healthy is not just about fat and weight – but cutting down on fat, especially saturated fat, is a great start.

Being physically active, not smoking, drinking alcohol in moderation, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and drinking plenty of fluid also help to keep us healthy.

We just need to get in the habit of doing these things,”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal (Hooper et al., 2012).

The vitamin deficiency linked to increased belly fat.

Higher levels of vitamin D are linked to reduced belly fat, research shows.

The conclusions come from a study including thousands of people.

The researchers measured people’s total body fat and abdominal (belly) fat, along with their vitamin D levels.

The results showed that for both men and women vitamin D deficiency was linked to increased belly fat.

However, for women, low vitamin D levels were linked to both increased belly fat and increased total body fat.

For men, though, low vitamin D levels were linked to more belly fat and more liver fat.

More than half of people around the world may be deficient in vitamin D.

Dr Rachida Rafiq, the study’s first author, said:

“Although we did not measure vitamin D deficiency in our study, the strong relationship between increasing amounts of abdominal fat and lower levels of vitamin D suggests that individuals with larger waistlines are at a greater risk of developing deficiency, and should consider having their vitamin D levels checked.”

It is not yet known if low vitamin D levels are causing more fat to be stored or are a result of it.

Dr Rafiq explained:

“Due to the observational nature of this study, we cannot draw a conclusion on the direction or cause of the association between obesity and vitamin D levels.

However, this strong association may point to a possible role for vitamin D in abdominal fat storage and function.”

Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases and a higher chance of getting colds.

Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

That is why levels are typically lower in the body through the winter months in more Northern climes.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Nutrition (Rafiq et al., 2018).