LogFAQs > #927465888

Mead posted...

There is some evidence that artificial sweeteners may have adverse effects on your bodys ability to produce insulin. Basically the theory is that you taste something sweet and your brain gets a signal to start making insulin but you arent consuming any actual calories so it eventually leads to a sort of crying wolf effect and your body stops producing as much insulin as it should.

A lot more research needs to be done on the subject though.

To my knowledge, that's mostly just sucralose (Splenda), which is chemically very similar to sugar and triggers receptors in the intestine that tell your body to expect sugar soon. It's fairly common for people to actually gain weight when using a lot of sucralose because it makes them feel hypoglycemic enough to eat until they get the actual sugars their bodies are expecting.

There are a couple other artificial sweeteners for which this is a concern, but I don't believe aspartame (which, last I checked, is what's used in diet sodas) is one of them. There's some literature suggesting that aspartame has its own health problems (including being carcinogenic), and there's some other literature suggesting that it's perfectly fine. The consensus on aspartame flip-flops every few years or so.
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