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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays. Today,

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Speaker 1: we are diving into a topic that has been gaining

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Speaker 1: a lot of attention recently, and it's that of sugar substitutes. Now,

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Speaker 1: you probably heard about all the benefits of swapping out

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Speaker 1: sugar for zero calorie alternatives, and lots of people do

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Speaker 1: that because they're trying to lose weight. But all these

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Speaker 1: sugar substitutes really as harmless as they're made out to be. Well,

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Speaker 1: today we're going to explore what they research actually says.

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Speaker 1: So first off, let's talk about what sugar substitutes actually are.

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Speaker 1: So they are either low calorie or no calorie alternatives

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Speaker 1: designed to replace sugar and everything from your morning coffee

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Speaker 1: to lots of different types of baked goods, and some

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Speaker 1: of the most common ones you'll have heard of asperteam sucralow, saccherin.

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Speaker 1: And then there's a class of things called sugar alcohols

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Speaker 1: like aerythtratol and xylotol. Now they're often tided as being

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Speaker 1: see if and actually recommended for diabetics because they don't

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Speaker 1: spike your blood sugar levels, but emerging research suggests that

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Speaker 1: their effects on our health might be much more complex

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Speaker 1: than that and much more harmful potentially than we once thought.

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Speaker 1: So let's start with aspartam That is one of the

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Speaker 1: most widely used artificial sweeteners in the world. But the

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Speaker 1: World Health Organization recently made headlines when it classified aspartain

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Speaker 1: as a possible car synogen. Now, this label means that

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Speaker 1: there's some evidence that aspar team could increase the risk

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Speaker 1: of cancer, although it's not completely definitive, and the World

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Speaker 1: Health Organization's decision was based on a review of several studies,

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Speaker 1: including long term research, that linked aspartain consumption to increase

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Speaker 1: risk of certain cancers, particularly liver and lung cancers in

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Speaker 1: animal models, and some people, particularly those who have been

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Speaker 1: nudged by the sugar industry or the sugar industry themselves,

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Speaker 1: have criticized those models in saying that some of the

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Speaker 1: studies the animals, we're giving very very high amounts of aspertain.

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Speaker 1: But that is a way that we actually do things

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Speaker 1: to try and understand mechanisms, right, But let's leave that

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Speaker 1: to the side for a minute. Let's talk about erythratol.

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Speaker 1: So this is an increasingly popular sugar alcohol that's used

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Speaker 1: in many natural sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit. So

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Speaker 1: I've read lots of stuff about using stavia. Monk fruit

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Speaker 1: is really beneficial for our health because it looks like sugar,

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Speaker 1: it tastes like sugar, and it can be used for baking.

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Speaker 1: But it has been in a spotlight recently due to

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Speaker 1: some pretty alarming findings. So a pilot study, and we

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Speaker 1: do need to be a word, it's only a pilot

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Speaker 1: study from the Cleveland Clinic in the United States found

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Speaker 1: that erythritol could more than double the risk of blood

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Speaker 1: clotting in healthy individuals. So the study was led by

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Speaker 1: lead author doctor Stanley Hazen, and he's the director of

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Speaker 1: the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention at the Cleveland

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Speaker 1: Clinic Learner Research Institute. Jesus, that's a bit of a

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Speaker 1: worthy title, isn't it. But he noted that in the study,

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Speaker 1: consuming a drink with an equal amount of glucose or

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Speaker 1: sugar did not affect blood platelet activity in a control

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Speaker 1: group of ten people, but that in every single subject

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Speaker 1: that had a drink with erythratol in it, every single

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Speaker 1: measure of cleatelet responsiveness known as clotting went up. Following

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Speaker 1: the ingestion and this worrying to Stanley, hazard is the

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Speaker 1: first direct head to head comparison of the effects of

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Speaker 1: ingesting glucose versus ingesting erythritol on multiple different measures of

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Speaker 1: platelet function. And he stated that glucose doesn't impact upon

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Speaker 1: clotting in the body, and this is human bodies, but

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Speaker 1: a erythritol actually does. Now, interestingly, the amount of the

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Speaker 1: erythritol used an each drink in the study was thirty grams,

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Speaker 1: and that is reasonably equivalent of what you find included

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Speaker 1: in typical sugar free soft drinks or ice creams or muffins,

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Speaker 1: of which people often have more than one serving. Now,

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Speaker 1: these clots are an issue because they can travel to

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Speaker 1: the heart of the brain, leading to heart attacks or strokes.

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Speaker 1: And this research is particularly troubling because a erythritol is

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Speaker 1: very widely used as a sugar substitute, particularly in keto

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Speaker 1: friendly products or low sugar products, which are generally consumed

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Speaker 1: by people who are trying to manage the way at

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Speaker 1: other blood sugar levels or their health in general. Now,

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Speaker 1: we should note that this was just a pilot's study,

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Speaker 1: but the very good design of the study that there

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Speaker 1: was a control group as well that was drinking glucose.

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Speaker 1: Plus the fact that the clotting markers went up in

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Speaker 1: every single one of the subjects consuming erythrotol, and the

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Speaker 1: fact that it's a human study, not an animal study.

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Speaker 1: This is enough to convince me never to use that stuff. Now.

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Speaker 1: Beyond a erythrotol, other studies have shown that different sugar

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Speaker 1: substitutes have their own sets of risks. So, for example, sugarlose,

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Speaker 1: which is another common sugar substitute that has actually been

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Speaker 1: shown to reduce insulin sensitivity in some people, which could

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Speaker 1: then ironically increase the risk of developing diabetes, the very

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Speaker 1: condition that these sweeteners were supposed to help manage. And

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Speaker 1: then saccharin, which is one of the oldest artificial sweeteners.

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Speaker 1: I remember my mum when I was a little kid,

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Speaker 1: put saccharine in our tea that was at one point

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Speaker 1: linked to bladder cancer in animals, although later research in

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Speaker 1: humans didn't confirm these findings. But there is a common

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Speaker 1: feature with these things. Now, let's talk about the mechanisms

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Speaker 1: of action of artificial sweetness. For me, one of the

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Speaker 1: most concerning aspects of sugar substitutes in general is their

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Speaker 1: impact on the gut microbiome, that really important community of

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Speaker 1: bacteria that lives in our digestive system and plays their

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Speaker 1: crucial role in our overall health. And numerous studies have

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Speaker 1: actually shown that artificial sweeteners like sucralose and saccharine and

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Speaker 1: others can alter the balance of gut bacteria, which then

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Speaker 1: contributes to the development of metabolic disorders like insulin resistance,

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Speaker 1: diabetes and other metabolic disorders. So, for instance, a study

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Speaker 1: published in Nature, which is one of the top journals

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Speaker 1: in the world, that found that these sweetness could induce

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Speaker 1: glucose intolerance, a precursor to diabetes, by disrupting the gut microbiome.

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Speaker 1: So for me, there's a bigger picture really about our

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Speaker 1: metabolic health, and what's becoming increasingly clear is that sugar

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Speaker 1: substitutes aren't the benign alternatives that we once thought they were.

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Speaker 1: They might help to reduce calorie intake in the short term,

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Speaker 1: and they certainly do, but the long term consequences could

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Speaker 1: be far more damaging. And for me, it's the combination

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Speaker 1: of proven disruption of the gut microbiome and increased risk

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Speaker 1: of metabolic diseases and the potentially carcinogenic effects, and now

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Speaker 1: the potential effects on clutting. That really says that we

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Speaker 1: need to be extremely cautious about this stuff. And even

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Speaker 1: more concerning is that these sweeteners are often consumed in

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Speaker 1: combination with other unhealthy dietary choices such as ultra processed food,

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Speaker 1: Like you don't find the sweeteners in real food, and

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Speaker 1: that really exacerbates their negative effects. And I've talked about

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Speaker 1: ultra processed food, and it's not just the sweeteners, but

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Speaker 1: it's also things like a multifiers, flavorings, and also preservatives

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Speaker 1: that when you put them in together, just completely messes

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Speaker 1: with our biology. So words that leave us. While sugar

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Speaker 1: substitutes might offer some short term benefits for reducing calories

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Speaker 1: and managing our way our thinking that you could manage diabetes,

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Speaker 1: for me, the potential long term risks definitely is pointing

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Speaker 1: to outweighing these advantages. And the research still needs to evolve,

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Speaker 1: but for me, it's becoming increasingly clear that these artificial

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Speaker 1: sweeteners are things that we should stay away from, or

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Speaker 1: at least not have a lot of, and the best

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Speaker 1: way to do that is to reduce our concer umption

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Speaker 1: of ultra processed foods. If you look at a food

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Speaker 1: and it hasn't been alive, then it probably isn't good

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Speaker 1: for you. And again, I think a key thing for

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Speaker 1: us to do is to try and wean ourselves off

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Speaker 1: this real addiction to sugar. And we need to realize

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Speaker 1: that really in nature, it's stuff like fruit and honey.

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Speaker 1: But even the fruit that we have today is much

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Speaker 1: sweeter than natural fruit because it has been bread to

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Speaker 1: be much sweeter. And then when you eat these ultra

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Speaker 1: processed foods, they are super super sweet. So when kids

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Speaker 1: then are eating lots of those, it recalibrates what sweetness

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Speaker 1: actually is. So I think the longer term strategy needs

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Speaker 1: to be getting off the sugar. And I remember twenty

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Speaker 1: thirty thirty years ago, actually I used to drink sugar

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Speaker 1: in my tea and I went off it and I

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Speaker 1: just committed to drinking no sugar in my tea for

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Speaker 1: two weeks, and it was disgusting for the first week,

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Speaker 1: and then actually it tasted fine, and there's no way

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Speaker 1: that I kind of sugar in my tea. As well.

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Speaker 1: The other thing that I did, I've got a bit

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Speaker 1: of a sweet tooth, and I used to eat milk

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Speaker 1: chocolate and I switched completely the dark and then after

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Speaker 1: a few weeks I couldn't eat milk chocolate again. So

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Speaker 1: we can get ourselves off this bandwagon, and for me,

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Speaker 1: that's a much more effective strategy than just using these

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Speaker 1: sugar substitutes that we really are starting to see and

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Speaker 1: now I are not what we thought they were. So

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Speaker 1: that's it for this week. Catch you next time, folks,