Artificial Sweeteners Cause Weight Gain

Regular consumption of artificial, low-calorie sweeteners may actually cause people to gain more weight than similar consumption of sugar, according to a study conducted by researchers from Purdue University and published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience. Researchers supplemented the diet of rats either with the artificial sweetener saccharin or with sugar, and found that the rats in the saccharin group actually gained more weight than the rats in the sugar group. This seemed to occur because the saccharin-consuming rats came to associate a sweet taste with the absence of calories, and began to overeat as a consequence. “There’s something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry,” said Dr. Marie Savard, medical contributor for ABC News. Read Article

By David Gutierrez