Can Aspartame Cause Obesity?

Aspartame has 200 times the sweetness of sugar and zero has calories, but it also comes with significant drawbacks, including weight gain! That sounds counterintuitive, but read on.

Researchers wrote in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine:

"Intuitively, people choose non-caloric artificial sweeteners over sugar to lose or maintain weight …Whether due to a successful marketing effort on the part of the diet beverage industry or not, the weight conscious public often consider artificial sweeteners "health food." But do artificial sweeteners actually help reduce weight?

Surprisingly, epidemiologic data suggest the contrary. Several large scale prospective cohort studies found positive correlation between artificial sweetener use and weight gain."

Artificial sweeteners have been synonymous with weight loss from their onset, although it has been known since at least the 1980s that they actually have the opposite effect.

In the early 1980s, a study of nearly 78,700 women found that users of artificial sweeteners were significantly more likely to gain weight, as compared to those who did not use artificial sweeteners.

A study on mice revealed that animals fed aspartame-laced drinking water gained weight and developed symptoms of metabolic syndrome, while mice not fed the artificial sweetener did not.

The researchers discovered that phenylalanine, an aspartame breakdown product, inhibits the activity of a gut enzyme called IAP. In a previous study, IAP was found to prevent the development of metabolic syndrome, as well as to reduce symptoms in those with the condition, when fed to mice.

All the mice that were fed aspartame had higher blood sugar levels, which is an indicator of glucose intolerance and puts them firmly on the path to diabetes.

A higher level of inflammatory protein TNF-alpha was also found, which indicates systemic inflammation. Systemic inflammation is a hallmark of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Even with all of the solid evidence out there, in 2017 artificial sweeteners are still sold, used and viewed as a weight-loss aid, even though their hindrances to weight loss have been documented.

Other Problems With Aspartame:

Aspartame can be easily converted in the human body to methanol, which is also known as wood alcohol.

Aspartame is made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, so that it will taste sweet. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol. Methanol is then converted into formaldehyde, which is extremely toxic.

It is no surprise that industry funded studies support aspartame safety, but 92% of independently funded studies found aspartame may cause adverse effects, including depression and headaches, as well as possible oxidative stress on the brain. Aspartame use has also been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

If you are looking to lose weight, do yourself a favor and avoid artificial sweeteners.

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