 Hey guys, this is Dr. Ahmet Ergin. I'm an endocrinologist and today I'm going to talk to you about artificial sweeteners. If they're good, bad, ugly, how much you can have? Should you have it? Should you replace it? What can we do about it? Comment question and please, if you like this video, give a thumbs up. Please share with your friends and make sure you subscribe so you can get more videos to improve your knowledge. Question is, is it better to have sugar or artificial sweetener? Well, here's the answer. Natural sugars, which are found in the fruits, which are found in, you know, carbohydrates that come from natural sources, is okay as long as you're not over consuming it, right? But then the question is, if it is raising your blood sugars with diabetes, what do you do? I mean, can you artificially sweeten your strawberries if you have a sweet tooth? Yeah, perfectly okay. Are they harmful? Not necessarily, unless you're using a ton of it. Ospartame and other artificial sweeteners, they have been looked at multiple times. Guess what? They do not cause cancer. Again, it's dose related. If you overdose on something constantly on a daily basis, if you start making cakes and desserts from these artificial sweeteners, you will have a problem. Now, a lot of artificial sweeteners are also alcohol sugars. They generally end with like OL, like sorbetol or mannitol. Those things will give you severe gastrointestinal upset, diarrhea, bloating, gas and all that stuff that you're not going to enjoy later. So, I would say just avoiding those. Is stevia better, that the natural artificial sweetener versus Splenda or whatever, or the other things in the market? I don't even remember the names right now. Are they any better? Not necessarily. I mean, so the stevia versus Splenda, there's really no evidence to say the stevia is better than Splenda. All of them may also actually increase your blood sugar a little bit. They are typically multiple times sweeter than a regular sugar. So, as a result, you don't have to use much of it, and most of them are negligible calories. But if you have Type 1 diabetes, for example, or if you're extremely insulin resistant, you may come and say, hey, that also increased my blood sugar. Yes, it can, of course, but also what you're having it with can increase your blood sugar as well. People, for example, will have coffee in the morning, and their blood sugar will go up. Well, coffee makes you insulin resistant, and they think that the Splenda or the stevia is causing the high blood sugar. However, it's the coffee, for example, that's doing it. Or they will, for example, think that strawberries are free food, and they can just have as many as they want, and they put a bunch of Splenda on them, and they say, oh, Splenda caused my high blood sugar. Well, not really. So, again, the cancer data is missing. Now, the thing is, does it really help you, like using sweeteners? Does it really help you? The studies show that actually it does not. You know, that's funny, isn't it? Like, you are supposedly, you know, you're replacing your sugars the calories with Splenda or stevia, and you're not really losing weight. And I can, I can attest to that. I mean, I use Splenda and stevia all the time, and when I'm trying to lose weight, they don't help me at all. You know why? Here's why. Because I end up replacing those foods that are, that I'm thinking that I'm saving calories with, let's say I'm drinking a diet coke. And guess what? I order french fries, for example. I'm not always, just don't get me wrong. But you know, like, let's say you save on the calories you think on your coffee with Splenda or stevia, and then you end up ordering a dessert. Well, if not dessert, I mean, you may end up having an extra potato, having a little bit extra rice, because you think that you're saving calories and what that is the main reason people are not able to. But if you are not replacing, if you're very conscious of it, yes, I am using sugar substitutes, but I'm not replacing those calories with some other calories, then then you're in a good shape. If you are in that group of people who have a, you know, mindset of why they are using Splenda, right? You're not using Splenda to cheat. That's the important thing. If you're using Splenda in that frame of mind, that you do not want to put artificial sugar to your body, then you wouldn't be eating that dessert or french fries anyways. Doesn't make sense. In a nutshell, you can use Splenda, you can use stevia, you can use sugar alcohols, but make sure, if you are, make sure you look at the labels, make sure you look at the total carbohydrates in there, sugar-free does not necessarily mean that it's, you know, it's not going to raise your blood sugars because all these carbohydrates in these foods will turn into sugar. And then be mindful when you're consuming those things, do you not consume too much? You know, when people ask me how many, how much diet coke can I have, I'm like, hey, what's wrong with having one or two, but come on. You don't have a full, you know, box of diet coke in a day. You know, you have to make some changes, and you need to know why you're making those changes, and you need to have a very positive frame of mind about the changes you're making and being consistent with it. Your actions, your thought process should be consistent, and if you can achieve that, you will be able to get your blood sugars down, you will be able to get your health together, and you will have a happy and wonderful life. Thank you for watching. We'll see you in the next video, guys. Remember to subscribe, remember to share, and give it a thumbs up. See you in the next video.