 Today we are talking about artificial sweeteners. We are gonna be going over the best and the worst artificial sweeteners We will have a deep dive and expose the information that is available about all the sweeteners Good and bad We will talk about why they still spike your blood sugar, not your but in many people it may spike blood sugar and They still have no calories. So how's that? I'll tell you about some recent research about some artificial sweeteners as well Somewhere towards the end of this video and that will blow your brain cells off You will be surprised about what you are going to hear. So stay tuned Hi, I am Dr. Ahmed Ergin. I'm an endocrinologist at diabetes and a hormone specialist As you know the food industry loves using various Artificial sweeteners which are low in calorie content instead of the high calorie sugar So who else loves them? Guess what? My diabetics You do not have to be diabetic to watch this video But if you are you will for sure be a pro about the sweeteners And you will be able to choose the right one for your diabetes and your health As you know many sweeteners still have controversial health and metabolic effects So then why do people still use sweeteners? Well most sweeteners are sugar substitutes and they are many times sweeter than the sugar It takes a smaller amount of these sugar substitutes to provide the same level of sweetness Some sugar substitutes are low in calories and then some others have little to no calories as a result There is a perceived but unproven benefit to using sweeteners instead of a table sugar You can argue all day long whether they are bad or good for you Which we will talk about however at the end of the day people have a sweet tooth and Occasionally wants to satisfy that sweet tooth with sweeteners instead of real sugar Which I totally understand may spike your blood sugar if you are strict and no Thank-you kind of guy or no fun type of guy You should just move on and not watch this video any further as you know Many of the major goal or the first goal of the major goal of the diabetes is to control blood sugar stuff, right? So sweeteners sometimes can help that but unlike sugar sweeteners don't contribute to Food decay either so there are some benefits to them Most of them don't raise a blood sugar levels and yes some do and especially certain ones that you will talk about But the research that I will talk about will highlight Many of the important points that you have not known before knowing which sweeteners are best Also, maybe helpful if you have diabetes pre-diabetes or insulin resistance Let's start reviewing them one by one So my first one is aspartame. There are two brand names that you're familiar with equal and nutritious sweet They're totally artificial meaning it is not natural at all It's that combination of two amino acids, which are aspartic acid and phenylalanine It gives you four calories per gram, which is the same as sugar. So isn't that insane? Well, wait a minute, but the aspartame is 200 times sweeter than the sugar get it So you use much less aspartame than the sugar and the calories that you use with the aspartame becomes negligible but you will see aspartame nutrition labels of many like yogurts, the chewing gum, the pudding, the soft drinks and Primarily on your table at the restaurant So they even use that in medicine like in their cough syrup and stuff like that But do not use aspartame when you are baking. It loses its sweet taste when heated because it is not stable in heat at all So when it comes to safety, the National Cancer Institute says that there is no evidence that aspartame and other sugar substitutes Approved for use in the United States cause cancer or other serious health problems Medical research studies have shown the sweeteners are safe for most people when used in moderation Well, the question is what is moderation? Some people bake with the sweeteners and some people use it only one time in their morning coffee So that part is a little vague. Also, they do not say that they want to raise your blood sugar either, do they? More on that coming up later. Next on the list is saccharin. Remember the sweeten low? That is saccharin. It is 200 to 500 times Sweeter than the sugar depending on how you use it. Similar to aspartame It provides around 3.6 calories per gram. Although as I just said, it is almost 500 times Sweeter than the regular blood sugar. On the downside, some people may notice a weird Metallic aftertaste when they consume the saccharin. And guess what? When used in processed foods They eliminate that aftertaste by combining saccharin with another sugar substitute Smart. Good thing you can bake with it. Not that I recommend doing so But it is possible. The body does not break it down So it is absorbed and eliminated by the kidneys which is also not a bad thing There has been a hype around this potential cancer thing with saccharin However, again the warnings have been removed as of year 2021 years ago after minor research showing that that was not the case. So forget about that cancer story, okay? What about Akasulfame K? By the way, next is Stivia. So you most of you know Stivia or love Stivia But we'll talk on that in a second. But this one is also 200 times sweeter than the table sugar down You may not have heard this one too often, but manufacturers typically use it this Akasulfame potassium with sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose because of the bitter aftertaste and Akasulfame K is pretty much can be found in every junk food you can imagine So claiming a junk food is low calorie version does just not make it any better, right? Okay, sucralose is the next one. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than the sucrose and has a pleasant sweet taste It is quality and time-intensive profile is very close to that sucrose. So no wonder why Splenda is so popular. Remember that yellow packet? Yep, that is your sucralose Sucralose is calorie free, but Splenda also contains dextrose a form of glucose and maltodextrin which kind of jacks up the calorie content up to 3.36 calories per gram Well, not bad still considering how much sweeter it is than the sugar per gram Will it spike your blood sugar? More on that coming up in a few minutes Stevia, the most natural of all the sweeteners, right? The stevia. See, well stevia is a plant So it must be natural, but here's the deal There is a big difference between the stevia you buy at the grocery store and the Stevia that you find in nature Stevia products found on grocery store shelves such as the Truvia and so forth But the stevia don't really have the the stevia leaf They're made from a highly refined stevia leaf extract called Rebodiozide. They shorten it with Reb-A. In reality, most stevia products have very little stevia in them But hey, Reb-A is 200 times sweeter than the table sugar The sweeteners that they make with Reb-A are called novel sweeteners because they're mixed with other Sweeteners such as dextrose, which is a form of glucose or Erythritol, which is a sugar alcohol. Now you're thinking that stevia products You have been buying faithfully is not really that natural, huh? Sugar alcohols are the next topic Many sugar alcohols are there in fruits and vegetables. However Most sugar alcohols are processed from the other glucose molecules when they become a sweetener such as the one in cornstarch That makes it a little bit more natural than the artificial sweeteners because it comes from cornstarch Kind of sort of but also the sugar alcohols are different than artificial and low-calorie sweeteners in other ways Why is that? Well sugar alcohols first of all whole calories They're just fewer than the simple sugar and they're still considered Nutritive you probably heard about the xylitol Xylitol is the most common and well researched sugar alcohol It is common in chewing gums and oral care products, etc Now xylitol is about as sweet as regular sugar But has 40% fewer calories Besides that it can give you some stomach upset if you consume it in large amounts But in moderation xylitol is fairly well tolerated Next is erythritol and erythritol is another sugar alcohol that actually has a great taste And it only has 0.2 kilocalories per gram Compared to the 4 calories per gram of glucose. They produce it by fermenting the glucose in cornstarch and it has 70% of the sweetness of the sugar But only 5% of the calories Truvia, which is one of the popular sweetener brand has low-calorie sweetener stevia But also has erythritol as the main ingredient Erythritol does not have the same stomach upset that happens with other sugar alcohols Because it does not get to your large intestine Because it actually absorbed way earlier in the small intestine up to 90% And it's secreted by the kidneys gracefully Most importantly, erythritol has little to no effect on blood sugar and blood insulin levels As a result it is becoming very popular sugar replacement for diabetics Sorbetol has a smooth mouthfeel, which is another sugar alcohol, and a cool taste It is 60% as sweet as the sugar, which is not that sweet with about 40% of the calories Which is not that low So sorbetol is commonly used in the sugar-free foods and drinks as well And it has also very little effect on blood sugar and insulin But may cause quite a bit of digestive distress So be prepared Because you'll have to use much more than the other sweeteners to create the same sweetness that you desire Last but not least on that sugar alcohol topic is maltitol It's basically a processed sugar maltose And it has a very similar taste and feel as regular table sugar Maltolol has 90% of sweetness of the regular sugar with half the calories Mmm, not sure if that's great by the way A lot of products that has maltitol claim, they claim it's sugar-free But unfortunately your body absorbs some of the maltolol and it can lead to blood sugar spikes Well here are some big news about artificial sweeteners that I promised you in the beginning of the video Are you ready? Let's talk about it Recent studies suggest that the artificial sweeteners could actually raise your blood sugar levels More than if you indulge in sugar-sweetened sodas and desserts Wow, what? That has something to do with your gut Didn't I tell you to trust your guts before? Well, research has found that the saccharine for example Which is sweet and low Or even sucralose which is your glorious splenda And the aspartame which is your lovely nutra-sweet or equal Raised blood sugar levels by dramatically changing the makeup of the gut bacteria So what does these bacteria do anyways? Well, these lovely bacteria in your intestines help with nutrition and the immune system There are literally trillions of them Way more than the total cells of your body Actually four pounds of your body weight is bacteria So literally we are kind of full of... Okay, I won't say, okay So let's see how the researchers did the study Well, they added the artificial sweeteners that I just mentioned to the drinking water of mice What did they find? Well, the blood sugar levels of these mice were higher than those who drank regular sugar water After consuming artificial sweeteners for a while Also, it didn't matter if they were on low-fat or high-fat diet Sugar rose so much that it was almost in a diabetic range Now these are mice and we are not We are humans How does this relate to us in terms of how much sweetener that affects us? Well, they calculated that actually The mice fed with artificial sweeteners took in a daily amount Equivalent to what humans get in about four cans of diet soda Now, these are artificial sweeteners Not necessarily stevia or sugar alcohols Can they also change the microorganisms in the gut? That is yet to be found out How do they know also that it was the actually bacteria population changes all those glucose spikes? Well, because after sweetener-fed mice were given antibiotics to kill their gut bacteria Blood sugar levels returned to normal To take it to the next level, the researchers transferred the feces from the mice That drank artificially sweetened water into mice that never had And yes, the blood glucose also went up in those recipient mice Can we apply this mice situation to humans? Well, researchers also studied the 400 people And they found that the gut bacteria in those people who consumed artificial sweeteners regularly Differed from those who did not People who ate artificial sweeteners also had a higher fasting blood sugar levels Which they don't know So finally, they even tested seven subjects Five men and two women who never used artificial sweeteners at all And they tracked their blood sugar levels while they started using a maximum daily recommend dose of saccharin By the seventh day, blood sugar levels went up in four of the seven people When they transferred the feces from these people to mice Not to the other people, to mice The mice blood sugar also went up Confirming that the gut bacteria changes were responsible Here's a caveat that drinking artificial sweeteners did not affect blood sugar levels in all of the mice Or the humans in those studies Which tells us that there may be differences in gut bacteria from person to person Due to genetic differences What could be causing this? Maybe the rest of their diet, maybe genetics Maybe overall health status or even gender Could be all sorts of possible explanations Why some people's blood sugar will spike and some people's won't with artificial sweeteners On the other hand, perhaps not everybody's gut bacteria would be susceptible at all to these sweeteners So if you monitor your blood sugar regularly, which you should And find that artificial sweeteners actually raise your blood sugar Then stay away from it Simple as that Well, if it helps prevent the blood sugar Go ahead and use it, right? So personally, I would recommend using pure stevia or erythritol As I find them a little safer than the artificial sweeteners Like your Splanda and sweetenlau and so forth And yes, although sugar substitutes have fewer calories than the sugar It is still best to limit them and focus on healthy food choices There are a bunch of fruits, vegetables, lean meats are there They're the best source of nutrition for your body Guys, thank you for watching Please give a thumbs up, share and like And we will see you in the next video Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying this channel so far And I hope you subscribed already If you didn't do it And if you did watch this video right there I think that will help you too