Are Zero Calorie Foods ‘Guilt-Free’?

I was at a coffee house getting some green tea (of course!) and noticed a chalkboard sign touting the latest sweet drink offering. The sign said “Zero Calories, Zero Guilt”. Makes sense on one level but unfortunately, the body is not that simple.

As a clinical nutritionist, I encourage my patients to shun zero-calorie foods – other than truly natural ones such as water of course! Let’s look at why zero-calorie offerings are not the guilt-free option. If you asked most people why they choose zero-calorie drinks or desserts, they would likely tell you that they’re trying to cut down their calories, lose weight, etc. Most would be surprised to learn that the brain is not so easily fooled by foods that taste sweet but offer no calories. Many studies on artificial sweeteners confirm two things that are rather unexpected considering their zero-calorie status:

1. Artificial sweeteners tend to cause weight gain rather than weight loss.
2. Artificial sweeteners are hazardous to your health, creating such problems as headaches, seizures, cancer, and sleep disorders, to name a few.

Why Zero Calorie Means Weight Gain and Not Weight Loss

Many studies have shown that the brain actually has a calorie counter, especially associated with sweet foods. If you ingest something that tastes sweet but it has no calories, the brain registers a calorie deficit and you will inevitably eat more calories to make up for the ones not present in your sweet, zero-calorie food.

In fact, most studies reveal that diet soft drinks double your obesity risk by increasing cravings for carbohydrates, stimulating your appetite, and increasing fat storage. So in fact, zero-calorie foods should be labeled like this:

“This product will cause you to eat more and gain weight”.

That would go over well, don’t you think??

Instead, people continue to be fooled into thinking that they’re ‘getting away with it’ and can truly eat or drink something sweet with ‘no guilt’ because it has no calories. Here’s a truth for you: Mother Nature is just not readily fooled.

Every time you hear of the ‘latest and greatest’ weight loss pill or diet that promises rapid and stable weight loss, the bad news is never far behind. The pill causes heart attacks or stress on the kidneys, or the promised weight loss doesn’t occur, or it does occur but it doesn’t last. There’s always something negative that eventually is revealed.

The moral of the story is, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. This is especially true when it comes to the human body, a complex and magnificent machine.

Here’s a good analogy for you: If someone told you that you could throw a certain fluid over your car and change it from an economy car into a sleek, expensive sports car, would you believe them? Not likely. But why then do we think that we can lose 20 pounds in 10 to 14 days and keep it off – and be healthy? We like to hope things could be that easy, even though we ‘know’ in our heart of hearts that they are not.

The truth is that weight loss shouldn’t occur at a rate of more than 1.5 to 2 pounds per week. [Note: Sometimes, in men especially, we notice an initial more rapid weight loss, but it doesn’t last long and they average out at 1.5 to 2 pounds, as expected.]

So, please don’t sabotage your weight loss and better health plans with artificial sweeteners that offer zero calories. They will not only result in weight gain but as we are about to discuss, they are also hazardous to your health.

Why Zero Calorie Means Health Warning

I talked about not being able to fool Mother Nature earlier, and it continues to hold true when analyzing the health risks associated with zero-calorie and artificially sweetened foods.

Genetic modification whereby food is altered in the laboratory is no longer a ‘food’ and it no longer acts in an expected fashion upon the human body. One case in point is aspartame. It’s been associated with cancer, skin problems, digestive disturbances, joint pain, weight gain, diabetes, and a whole host of neurological problems such as depression, anxiety, dizziness, and seizures by many independent studies. Why?

Some feel that the genetic modification of the product is to blame. Monsanto, the mass producer of genetically modified foods, ‘engineered’ a bacteria to make more of the amino acid phenylalanine, one of the main ingredients of aspartame.

Monsanto ‘gets away with’ not labeling their product as genetically modified because the bacteria is no longer present in the finished product.

Many people try to avoid aspartame, due to its ill effects on their body but are ‘tricked’ into eating it due to all of its aliases. Aspartame is known under many names such as:

• NutraSweet

• Equal

• Spoonful

• AminoSweet

• Natra Taste

• Canderel

• Neotame

My recommendation is to avoid ALL artificial sweeteners and foods claiming they are ‘zero-calorie’. You’ll be safer and healthier.

Splenda is Not so ‘Splendid’ Either!

As clinical nutritionists, we put artificial sweeteners in the category of toxins – meaning they will stress the body and make it more unhealthy. Splenda touts itself to be ‘completely natural’ but that’s untrue. Splenda has chloride in it, but so does salt. So what’s the problem? It lies in the theme of this post – Mother Nature.

Mother Nature produces salt naturally. The chloride that is bound to other elements within it is broken apart easily and therefore digested easily. In Splenda, the chloride is not bonded in a natural way, but rather it is bound the same as chloride that’s found in man-made synthetic products such as DDT, PCBs, and other toxins, some of which are suspected carcinogens. This makes Splenda anything BUT natural.

Each year scientists make tens of thousands more chemicals that are introduced into our environment. These clever scientists manipulate and change the components of natural things to create a new unnatural version. The companies that pay them to do so are very happy, but we as consumers should be angry, especially when these chemicals are being foisted off on us as ‘safe’ foods.

Splenda Increases Your Risk of Disease

The most serious findings regarding Splenda that I am aware of were published in 2009 in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health that showed Splenda as being responsible for drastically reducing the intestinal bacteria by 50%!

We know that our intestinal bacteria make up the vast majority of our immune system, thus protecting and defending us from foreign invaders that could cause infection. Additionally, these good bacteria, when healthy, are able to keep bad genes from turning on, thus preventing diseases such as celiac disease and many others. If Splenda did nothing else, the fact that it all but annihilated our good bacteria would be cause to avoid it.

As a clinical nutritionist, I spend a good deal of time working with my patients to increase and strengthen the population of good bacteria in the gut. Anything that thwarts that effort is a serious health deterrent. But Splenda has been associated with a long list of complaints by consumers. The symptoms reported mostly occur within 24 hours of ingesting the product. They are:

• Heart palpitations

• Swelling of the face, tongue, and throat

• Hives and rash

• Severe headaches

• Joint pain

• Wheezing and shortness of breath

• Itchy, swollen eyes

The current status of our health as Americans is poor. 66% of us are overweight, 33% are obese, diseases associated with obesity such as heart disease and diabetes are on the rise. Our bodies are toxic and inflamed and our health is suffering as a result.

As a clinical nutritionist who studies this area extensively, I’d like to encourage you to get rid of ALL artificial sweeteners and zero-calorie products from your diet. Please show this post to two friends so that you’ll be helping others to get healthier.

I welcome your questions and comments and hope you found this to be helpful. If you would like to improve your health I’m happy to offer you a free health analysis.