The Dangers of Sugar Vs. Artificial Sweeteners

Next question is from E.M. Reyna. What's the difference between sugar and artificial sweeteners on our body? Oh, yeah. I love this. There's always such a debate. So much controversy around this. Okay. Big difference. Artificial sweeteners have no calories. Sugar has, you know, four calories per gram, right? So there's calories in sugar, no calories in artificial sweetener. The brain perceives the sweetness in similar ways. In fact, the perception of sweetness is actually stronger with artificial sweeteners. This is why people who drink lots of diet sodas will actually start to prefer the taste of them over sugar sodas, because the artificial sweetener actually hits that sweet perception a little bit more than sugar. Now, the big debate is, well, can they help you lose weight? Okay. So earlier in this episode, right in the intro, we talked about human behavior. Here's where, again, we got to apply human behavior. Yes. If you cut 30 grams of sugar out of your diet, replace it with artificial sweeteners and keep everything else exactly the same, you're cutting your calories. You're probably going to lose some weight. Here's why that never happens in real world studies. Nobody accounts for the human behavior aspect of it. When people reduce their sugar through artificial sweeteners, they almost always replace those calories again with other foods. And it's because, again, it encourages that behavior. That sweet, that sweet perception makes you kind of want to eat more. You want it again. You want to seek out more of that novelty. Yeah. And then here's another big one, right? And I remember talking with Adam about this because, you know, you were a competitor, so you tracked everything so much. And I remember we had this huge discussion about it and it was like this light bulb moment for both of us, where especially for people who are conscious of their physique and their health, sugar has this natural kind of block, right? Like, oh, there's calories. So I can only have one soda because it's 150 calories. So I'll just have one. Then the same physique, you know, conscious individual will be like, oh, diet soda, zero calories. I'll just drink those all day long. And then they tended to create this dysfunctional pattern because they don't have that, that block or that, you know, that speed bump that calories would provide. Now they think it's like free for all because, uh, you know, artificial sweeteners don't have any calories. Do you know when, when were, uh, artificial sweeteners invented? Do you remember? Seventies or I don't know if they're invented, but I know that they hit the market. I think in the seventies, maybe Doug can look me up. It was like not NutraSweet. What was, what were the main? Sweet and Low. I think it was the first one. I think Aspartame. Or no, no, there was another one that starts with an S, not Sucralose. Uh, I don't know. Saccharin. Saccharin. I think Saccharin was one of the first ones. I'm asking because, um, are there still some things that are unknown for us? Do you think that we know everything about, like is there been enough time, uh, and studies around it to, uh, safely say, Oh, it's completely, you know, harmless and there's nothing else going on. It's just, it's, I don't think anything's ever completely harmless. There's still rip. Then people still call all the time, you know, and we'll call the poison control cause they have this weird reaction to artificial sweeteners. So nothing's ever in there, not even water. You can drink too much water and kill yourself. There's a lot of debate around it. There's interesting animal studies, but human studies so far show this, they don't help you lose weight. Uh, are there health, negative health effects? Um, I don't know, probably not, but maybe animal studies show some interesting stuff with cancer, with some of these artificial sweeteners, but they give them such high doses that it would be super unlikely for humans to consume. That's always the debate for the person supporting artificial sweeteners is that, and that when they counter somebody who says something negative about them and it's like, Oh, you looked at the, first of all, their animal studies and the amounts that you would have to drink 50 Cokes in a day to even be come close to what they're talking about. But I've just, I've always been curious to, you know, what we know and what we don't know about them. And if they've only been around, you're saying since the seventies or what would you find out? Saccharin was invented way before 1897. Whoa, hold on. What was the original? It was, it was in an, what were they trying to create? Yeah. So they were looking for new uses for coal tar derivatives. This was at Johns Hopkins University. Oil and tar and yeah, they, they make so many different variations. He forgot to wash his hands before lunch and tasted something sweet on his fingers. This is like the, like the Viagra story where they try to invent a drug for something and they're like, wait a minute, we can make great boners. Yeah, we can make this. Wait a minute. Antifreeze has a nice sweet flavor to it. Let's reduce this down and put it in cereal. What is this? Anything else? Yeah, there's a fun fact here. Monsanto got its start in 1901 selling saccharin. Why is Monsanto? I did not know that. There's a really interesting podcast about all this. Joe Rogan had the guy that investigated like a Monsanto and their start and all that. Yeah. And it had like all these different pathways. They were able to create a lot of these types of artificial sugars, a lot of different types of pesticides and all this from, um, you know, oil products and like, like leftover things. Wow. Here's another interesting thing. By 1907 saccharin was already widely used in sodas and canned goods, but most Americans had no idea it was in their food. That's nice. What does it say there about, about Teddy Roosevelt? Uh, that guy was, by the way, you ever, you ever hear read his story? He's literally the most alpha. He's like Batman. That's actually bad. Based it off. Batman was based off of the guy. Yeah. Was he bro? No way. Really? Teddy Roosevelt literally purposely crime went to fight in war because he wanted to be on the front lines. Didn't listen to his orders and went to the front line to fight. He, where are those guys? Where are those guys running our country anymore? Yeah. They're out there anymore. Those humans still exist. I just, why don't we vote for those people anymore? Yeah. So what happened was this guy who was ahead of the USDA recommended banning saccharin because it's possibly toxic, but it was Teddy Roosevelt that said, no, let's not do this because I'm using it to lose weight. Interesting. So now saccharin is, is not really used that much anymore because I think it got a bad rap for a lot for a little while. Well, so one thing I want to bring it. So was it in the animal studies where they're talking about the gut flora and it affecting it in any way, or is that just something that a lot of like wellness people kind of brought up? It's, it's, it's controversial. It's not, uh, it's not a hundred percent in one way or the other, although they'll say it is, on either side. Sure. Um, like some studies will say, Oh, it, it changes the way that your gut microbiome, you know, reacts to insulin or reduces insulin sensitivity or it kills certain bacteria. Then you'll see people say, no, it doesn't. So I mean, look, here's the deal. Um, you're probably okay having some of it. If it's, if it's, if you're trying to lose weight with it, unless you're counting and tracking everything, it's not going to work. The studies show this simply cutting out sugary foods, but not controlling everything else. What typically happens is you'll replace it with other calories and it does change your perception to sweetness. It's so strong that if you have lots of artificial sweeteners, you will start to find that you need your food to be sweeter and sweeter for you to perceive it with the same level of sweetness. And this can pose a problem for anybody trying to change their diet or eat healthier. I mean, when you pick up a fruit and it tastes bland because your diet Coke has rewired how you perceive sweetness, well that can turn into an issue. So I have personally never used artificial sweeteners as a, as a way to help my clients lose weight. I've always found it to be super ineffective. The only times I have were with competitors who track the hell out of everything. Otherwise I've totally stayed away. Hey, if you enjoyed that clip, you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe.