In this video, Coach Erik breaks down the difference between artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols, and explains the pros and cons of each. He also explores the use of substitutions as a dietary strategy, and why one might choose to use it. The transcript is below the video.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:42 Artificial Sweeteners
01:44 Sugar Alcohols
03:22 Pros and Cons of Sugar Substitutes
10:37 Substitution as a Weight Loss Strategy

Transcript:

Welcome back to the Fitness Edda! As always, I am your host, Erik Castiglione, owner, and head coach of Viking Athletics. Before we dive into this week’s topic – I hope you guys have been enjoying this channel If so, give us a like, and give us a subscribe. That’ll help us pop up in search algorithms and hopefully disseminate this information to more people that need to see it.

Artificial Sweeteners

This week’s topic: we’re going to be talking about artificial sweeteners! And dietary substitutions as a weight loss strategy as a whole, which is largely what artificial sweeteners are all about. So first, what are artificial sweeteners? They are different than sugar alcohols, which we’ll get into next. Some of their names are aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and stevia. The vast majority of these are man-made chemicals, and they are sweeter than sugar.

So, they also have fewer calories than sugar, which means that when you use them to artificially sweeten something, you’re getting fewer calories but still getting something that is just as sweet. And I say they’re mostly man-made because stevia is technically not. It grows naturally. You have to harvest a bit of the plant in order to get stevia as a sweetener, but it is naturally occurring as opposed to artificially created in a lab.

Sugar Alcohols

Then we have sugar alcohols which are not as sweet as sugar. They’re about 70%. But most of them are naturally occurring. We’ve got erythritol, sorbitol, xylitol, fucitol, maltitol. Anything that ends in “ol” will tell you that it’s an alcohol of some kind. That being said, there are a few that don’t follow that naming convention.

And these are largely considered to be calorie free. Because their caloric intake is so low, according to FDA rules on food labels, it gets rounded to zero. If you do have them in high amounts, when you have somebody that is honest and putting these on the food labels, they will account for the calories. But in some cases, they call it sugar -free. Because of a rounding error that it well, it’s not technically an error. They’re following Math rules. It’s just a little bit misleading when it comes to the actual caloric content of certain foods.

And the reason for this week’s topic is that I was just sent a news headline from Good Morning America, specifically about erythritol and it being linked to the possibility of blood clots. So, it raises the larger question of sugar substitutes, artificial sweeteners, and sugar alcohols.

Pros and Cons

Now we’re going to dive into the pros and cons for them. As we’ve already mentioned the whole point behind them is, there are fewer calories per gram than you would get in a gram of sugar. So, you can sweeten something and still satisfy that craving without getting a huge amount of calories.

 Similarly, you do not get the same spike in blood sugar that comes with consuming natural sugar. Contrary to what some anti-sweetener zealots will tell you – one of the biggest fear-mongering scenarios out there is, and again, I covered this last week – insulin does not actually cause you to get fat. The argument against a lot of artificial sweeteners and calling them dangerous is that they cause your blood glucose to spike, your insulin spikes, takes sugar out of your blood and stores it as fat.

But you’re not actually adding any sugar to your blood. So again, the argument really breaks down. It’s in essence, they’re arguing that you are creating body fat out of nothing simply by ingesting artificial sweeteners. Again, if your blood sugar spikes, that is not a bad thing in healthy individuals when insulin spikes. All that that does is it inhibits your body from depleting its current energy stores, whether that be in the form of glycogen in your muscles or liver or burning body fat and converting that into energy. So, there is nothing wrong with spiking blood sugar.

I do want to reiterate that. That was the entire topic of last week. But if you are trying to lose weight, you probably don’t want to have your insulin high most of the time. You want to burn your body stores. That’s part of being in a caloric deficit. So, if you can do that through eating artificial sweeteners, and that way you’re not spiking your insulin and you don’t have blood sugar that’s high, your body will resort to breaking down its current energy stores and you will lose weight. So that’s why we mention it here.

You’re getting that sweet taste without all that happening. Fewer calories and you are more likely to burn energy stores in your body. In other words, you can satisfy your cravings and still be in a caloric deficit. Makes it easier to obtain.

Cons. Again, I hope we thoroughly dispelled the idea that it’s going to spike your insulin and you’re going to get fat. Doesn’t happen. But in some cases, it can lead to bloating, can lead to gas and stomach pains. For some people with underlying conditions and some people with no real explanation, they just don’t react well to certain artificial sweeteners. They may have digestive discomfort. That is a valid concern.

A less valid concern would be the claim, this was particularly true with regards to aspartame, that it is carcinogenic. And there were studies that came out linking aspartame to cancer in laboratory animals. That is a similar type of study to the blood clotting claim against erythritol that just came out. Both of these are potential side effects, but I want to highlight the third bullet point here in all caps, the dose makes the poison. It is important to note the actual serving that is required in order to create this risk.

So, with aspartame in particular, I forget exactly how much it was, but it was something absurd, like you’re drinking 48 cans of sugar -free soda that is sweetened with aspartame. Drinking that in a day will elevate your risk of cancer. So, it was a very, very high dose. It is unlikely to be a risk for the vast majority of people that are reasonable in their consumption. I think we can all agree, and I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I think we can all agree that 48 cans of Diet Coke or what have you is a little bit extreme.

On the other hand, the recent study that came out about erythritol was a one -to -one comparison of 30 grams of glucose versus 30 grams of erythritol, and that led to a 1000% increase in risk of blood clotting. The doctor that conducted the study mentioned that it is fairly easy to consume 30 grams of erythritol. A lot of, he mentioned specifically bars that people eat that are sweetened, and he’s like, people will have more than one, and if they have four, they’re already at 30 grams.

 So, what I want to cover is, once again, the whole point of artificial sweeteners is that you’re not doing a one -to -one comparison because they are often sweeter than sugar. You are having a smaller dose to begin with. So, if you’re following the serving size, you’re not in any danger from erythritol. At my gym, we sell O2 recovery drinks, and that erythritol is the artificial sweetener in there, and it’s 11 grams per can. So, if you drink three of those in a day, you’re elevating your risk. But again, the whole point is to have one can.

Similarly, erythritol is found in vitamin water, I’m sorry, vitamin water zero, and halo top, keto ice cream, that is the sugar alcohol they used to sweeten this. In vitamin water zero, I could be wrong here, but I’m fairly certain it’s five grams of erythritol per bottle. So, you need to drink six of those to be at risk. Halo top ice cream, I don’t recall per serving what it is, but I can tell you that depending on the flavor, an entire pint has between 26 and 40 grams of erythritol. So, if you’re eating ice cream by the pint, or if you’re chugging many, many cans of these artificially sweetened beverages, then you’re putting yourself at risk.

So once again, it’s the dose that makes the poison. As with most harmful substances, you’re okay as long as you’re following the serving size. And again, this brings us to the idea of why are we using artificial sweeteners in the first place? Because they are a substitute for foods that have higher calories. And it brings us to the idea of substitution as a weight loss strategy in general.

Substitution as a Weight Loss Strategy

So, it’s kind of a mixed bag. And the doctor that conducted the erythritol study actually mentions this. His argument is that people would be better served having small amounts of the original food that is super sweet and has sugar, as opposed to using the substitute and having a higher amount of that compared to a smaller amount of the original. I 100% agree with this.

And for a long time, this was my argument against paleo brownies and keto brownies and things of that nature. But it’s not an issue with the food itself. It’s an issue with the mindset behind it. So, if my goal is to satisfy a craving, and I can get away with a little bit, then I am probably better served with a substitute if I’m trying to lose weight. Again, if my idea is I’m using a substitute because it’s healthy and I’ve now labeled the food the original unhealthy and the substitute healthy, what we see happen a lot of times is that gives people carte blanche to eat as much of the healthy version as they want.

And because it’s in most cases, not as sweet, they end up overindulging in the substitute, the total caloric load is higher than if they had just done a small amount of the original. And now they’re also overconsuming, potentially dangerous artificial sweeteners. So, in that scenario, 100% agree with the doctor who conducted the study that that would be a better option.

But as we know, diet is highly complex. Your emotion, ceremony, situations, all get factored in. We’re not robots, we don’t exist in a vacuum. I am frequently asked what my favorite kind of beer is. My answer to that is a post yard work shower beer, followed closely by an out of the shower sitting outside admiring my handiwork beer. Doesn’t really matter what kind it is. It’s damn refreshing. And it’s nice to sit back and enjoy your hard work and you’re looking at the fruits of your labor. And you have a nice, tasty beverage of the adult variety.

If I’m trying to cut weight, alcohol is not conducive to that goal. But that ceremony of admiring and relaxing after doing this hard work is important to me. So, substituting a non -alcoholic beer is not a bad solution. Again, fewer calories, no alcohol. A lot of people would say, well, why do you have to have anything at all? Why don’t you just drink water? And we see this frequently in the weight loss coaching world is that people will say, don’t drink sugary beverages, just drink water. Yeah, thanks asshole. I know that’s where I should get. That’s not helpful. It is a multi -step process.

So, if we can get somebody off of three cans of Coke in a day and we have them doing three cans of diet Coke instead, and that satisfies the craving, great. Maybe then we will help them get off the artificial sweeteners and go to water or something healthier. But for the time being, that is a good intermediate step.

Similarly, we’ve talked to people who have a hard time with portion control when it comes to specific foods. They can’t just have one. I think it was comedian Brian Reagan that did a great bit on this. He’s talking about eating fig newtons. He goes, I went and looked, I’m trying to lose some weight. So, I went and looked at the serving size, two cookies. Who the hell eats two cookies? I eat Fig Newtons by the sleeve. I’m like a damn woodchipper, just nom nom nom nom. It’s a pretty good bit. But it’s accurate. It shows how many of us snack.

We’re not aware of portion sizes. And we can’t just label things as healthy versus unhealthy and throw caution to the wind and eat as much as we want. Portion control is always going to be necessary. So, we need to ask, what does it take to satisfy a craving? Can I get away with, as my grandfather would call it, just a taste? I like to call it a dad tax when I’m stealing some of my daughter’s dessert. But can I get away with a small amount? Will that satisfy my craving? Or will that trigger me to lose control and do more?

If it’s a trigger, hopefully we can remove that craving altogether. But if we can’t, this is where a substitute comes in. If I’m craving a chocolate flavor, maybe I can get away with a chocolate rice cake. Very, very low in calories compared to a chocolate bar. Again, it’s one example, but there are other things that we can work with to help people with their snacking, to try to reduce the amount of sugary foods that they’re eating. Yes, we would all love it if people, when they are hungry, would reach for an apple or some carrot sticks or something like that. But it takes many, many steps to get there for most people. It’s not going to be a change that happens overnight.

Artificial sweeteners are a tool when it comes to substitution as a weight loss strategy. It is still a valid strategy as long as it is done intelligently, and we are paying attention to portions. And for the most part, any headlines that are fear mongering deserve a deeper look. We should never just dismiss them outright, but in most cases, the claims are overblown, and we need to pay attention to the servings. Again, this most recent one with erythritol is probably the most realistic where we would encounter the potential for risk.

The vast majority of risks associated with artificial sweeteners we’re never going to see a dose anywhere close to that to be at risk. So always pay attention to the studies, pay attention to your servings. And if you need help with your weight loss and you’re looking for a coach as always, feel free to send us a message. We’re happy to help whether it’s just providing information or if you do need some long -term accountability, that’s where we can come in with the actual coaching practice.

Stay awake, pay attention to headlines. Don’t buy into the fear mongering. There’s always more than meets the eye. And that’s why we have this whole channel to hopefully distill and contextualize this information for you. As always, we hope this was helpful for you. Give us a like, give us a subscribe, and we’ll catch you next time.