If you noticed that you were tired all the time and gained weight, your metabolism was slowing down. Adapting the gut flora to the new sweetener-rich environment can have a negative impact on our healthsays lead author, Dr. Amanda Payne. How does it happend? In the digestive process, bacteria secrete by-products called short-chain fatty acids. They can be useful and serve as a source of energy in the body. But as the adapted bacteria grow and become more efficient at processing large amounts of sweet corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, and sweetened alcohols, they can also produce more and more short-chain fatty acids (this does not mean that sugar is better than artificial sweeteners). Payne points out that with such large amounts of SCFAs, satiety signals are attenuated. This change in signals can disturb our feeling of being full, and thus nothing is stopping us from continuing to eat. Short-chain fatty acids also cause inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. How? Scientists aren’t sure yet, but they do know that inflammation is destroying the tissues in the gut and causing leaky gut syndrome. This means that bacteria pass through the damaged intestinal tissue into the blood, causing inflammation there too. This dangerous situation can lead to insulin resistance and an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. Does sugar cause obesity? This may partly explain the link researchers found between drinking diet drinks and being overweight. One study found that people who drank two or more diet drinks a day over 10 years had an increase in waist circumference five times greater than those who drank no diet drinks. There are several explanations for these findings. It is possible that people are drinking more diet drinks because they are trying to lose weight. Low calorie sweeteners can also confuse the brain about sugar requirements. As of today, it is unclear whether one diet drink per day is less harmful to the gut flora than ten. Personally, I don’t drink soda – dietary or regular – and rarely eat processed foods, especially if they contain sweetened corn syrup. Payne declared. It is best to eat a moderate amount of sweeteners and drink mainly water. For your gut flora to thrive, you need to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. source: ScienceNews.pl
2022-11-10