don’t let sweeteners lull you into a false sense of security!

A desire for sweetness is addictive. Artificial sweeteners and zero calorie drinks can make it harder to change. If we keep eating or drinking sweet things, whether that’s from actual sugar or artificial sweeteners, we will continue to crave sweetness. There is often an emphasis on calories when trying to reduce sugar in the diet, with many zero calorie drinks on the market. I believe that a more relevant thing to consider is the power of sweeteners and sweet-tasting drinks to perpetuate a desire for sugary things! In my opinion, using sweeteners is just adding an additional step that still needs to be addressed eventually. The main focus needs to be on educating our taste buds so we don’t desire so much sugar.

I guess the first point to cover here is why? Why does it matter if we eat lots of sugar? When asked about the dangers of eating too much sugar, the first thing that springs to mind for many people is risk of type 2 diabetes, but sugar is detrimental in lots of ways because it prevents our cells from working properly, and if something impedes the functioning of cells that make up all our organs, nerves, blood vessels, everything in our bodies, then we have a problem right from the start.

Here are some common symptoms, any of which could be related to a lack of stability of sugar in your blood; frequent fluctuations: mood swings - difficulty in dealing with stress - food cravings - anxiety – depression - unexplained fatigue and energy slumps - poor concentration. As well as these symptoms, frequent or prolonged high sugar consumption has been associated with many different conditions and diseases such as weight gain and obesity - type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions such as insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome - heart disease - non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - hormonal issues - dementia - premature ageing. So, gaining control of your sugar intake is a hugely positive step.

Sugar is addictive, it stimulates dopamine just like cocaine, so if you have a hard time resisting sweet foods don’t be too hard on yourself. It creeps up on you – with the hidden sugars in many common foods, it’s easy to desire ever increasing levels of sweetness without realising what’s happening.

Of course, artificial sweeteners added to tea or coffee, or in soft drinks, only make up part of the story. There are different forms of sugar as ingredients for many types of foods, savoury as well as sweet, which can be surprising. Junk food, or ultra-processed food, frequently contains sugars that target our dopamine receptors, leaving us craving more. After a while we find ourselves eating ever-increasing amounts to satisfy us, to repeat the original high. Alarmingly, research is now discovering that ultra-processed foods have the effect of triggering dopamine receptors much more powerfully than ordinary food.

I think you can see by now that the greatest tool here is not willpower. It’s a much bigger issue than people think – it’s addiction. So the best approach to that is changing our habits. Over the next few weeks, I’ll add blogs that cover ways in which we can change our taste buds and reduce sugar intake to help make positive steps towards good health.