Using an artificial, no-calorie sweetener rather than sugar may make it tougher,
not easier, to lose weight, US researchers said on
Sunday.

Scientists at Purdue
University in West Lafayette, Indiana, studied rats that were fed food with the
artificial sweetener saccharin and rats fed food with glucose, a natural
sugar.

In comparison to rats
given yogurt sweetened with glucose, those that ate yogurt sweetened with
saccharin went on to consume more calories and put on more weight and body fat.

The researchers said sweet
foods may prompt the body to get ready to take in a lot of calories, but when
sweetness in the form of artificial sweeteners is not followed by a large amount
of calories, the body gets confused, which may lead to eating more or expending
less energy than normal.

"The
data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin
can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same
food sweetened with high-calorie sugar," Purdue researchers Susan Swithers and
Terry Davidson wrote in the journal

Behavioral
Neuroscience

, published by the American
Psychological
Association.

"Such an outcome
may seem counterintuitive, if not an anathema, to human clinical researchers and
health care practitioners who have long recommended the use of low- and
no-calorie sweeteners as a means of weight
control."

Other artificial
sweeteners such as aspartame that also taste sweet but do not lead to the
delivery of calories may have similar effects, the researchers said. "Animals
may use sweet taste to predict the caloric contents of food. Eating sweet
noncaloric substances may degrade this predictive relationship," they
wrote.

"With the growing use of
noncaloric sweeteners in the current food environment, millions of people are
being exposed to sweet tastes that are not associated with caloric or nutritive
consequences," the researchers
added.

The research was the
latest to examine the question of whether artificial sweeteners - used in many
soft drinks and other foods - help or thwart those trying to lose weight.
Various studies have offered mixed
results.

The new research drew
criticism from the food industry. "This study oversimplifies the causes of
obesity," Beth Hubrich, a dietician with the Calorie Control Council, an
industry association representing companies that make low- and reduced-calorie
foods and beverages, said in a statement. "The causes of obesity are
multi-factorial.

Although
surveys have shown that there has been an increase in the use of ’sugar-free’
foods over the years, portion sizes of foods have also increased, physical
activity has decreased and overall calorie intake has increased," Hubrich
added.

Via Times of India