An article from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health claims that studies showing weight gain from artifical sweetener consumption are generally of poor quality, and that they remain silent about cause and effect.
It seems more likely that weight gain causes artifical sweeteners to be consumed than the other way around. It also seems likely that any lack of weight loss is caused by subconscious calorie substitution rather than the sweeteners themselves. Cutting calories makes you hungry.
@thor ''It seems more likely that weight gain causes artifical sweeteners to be consumed than the other way around.''
That would mean that it's psychological, subconscious action that WHEN people are already fat, then they have more (or think they have more) appetite for sweeteners?
@mareklach Much less interesting than that:
Step 1: I'm too fat or am gaining weight.
Step 2: Let's switch to Diet Coke.
Step 3: (I am now subconsciously eating more calorie dense solids than before, because I'm no longer getting those calories from what I drink.)
Step 4: Why am I not losing weight / still gaining weight?
I suspect that if more artificial sweetener studies involved locking people up and controlling their calories, you'd see actual weight loss.
@mareklach Few studies seem to claim weight *gain* from aspartame and such. Rather, they claim a lack of weight loss from switching to aspartame. I think the reason is very simple; it's the steps I listed above. It's not that aspartame fucks with your weight; it's that your brain is fucking with you. The fix is to count calories religiously, and that's the answer no one wants to hear, because it's hard to endure that for very long.
@mareklach (Note: I have undergone such surgery. It worked much better than anything else I've tried.)
@mareklach In my opinion, most obese people should simply get bariatric surgery. It's actually the only weight loss remedy that has a proven long term track record. Everything else is non-permanent and has been shown to rebound for the vast majority of people.
The best thing is to prevent obesity, but that will require a major attitude change in the general population. Not an easy task.