Los Angeles (KABC) – New research shows you looking at your brain with fake sugar. About 40% of Americans usually consume sugar substitutes regularly as a way to reduce their calorie and sugar intake. But can these empty calories trick your brain into eating more? Scientists are taking clearer photos.
There are no calories in every flavour, but it seems to be the right choice.
“I tend to lean towards fake sugar,” said Phoebe Morgan of Glendale.
Like many people, Morgan tries to limit sugar intake by looking at his weight, but new research shows that artificial sweeteners such as sucralose can be counterproductive.
“When people consume this non-calorie sweetener, sucralose, the brain area, called the hypothalamus, that regulates appetite, has been more active than when they consumed sugar,” says Dr. Kathleen Page, a researcher on diabetes and obesity at the USC School of Medicine.
To her studyfake sugar is registered as a sweet taste, but the brain wanted more.
“This activation of the hypothalamus was associated with a greater emotion of hunger,” she said.
Scientists looked at real-time brain scans and blood samples of people who drank water, drink sweetened with sucralose, or drink with sugar. The calorie-free sweeteners seemed to confuse the brain.
“I think this discrepancy between the brain’s expectations for calorie-free calories can lead to increased hunger and affect feeding behavior in the long term,” Page said.
So, should you drink a real sweet drink instead? Dr. Page says no. Her best advice is to get your sugar from nature.
“We really should get nutrients that are supposed to be combined with sweetness, just like fruits and vegetables, as we see naturally,” she said.
When it comes to sweetening tea and coffee, the page recommends that consumers do not step down their flavoring habits, if possible.
“So, do you eliminate all the delicious things?” Morgan commented.
She always knew that fake sugar might be better than it’s not true.
“We’re probably still using it because we think it’s still important to cut down on sugar, but we might probably try to cut down on fake sugar,” she said.
The study also found that people who carried the most excess weight responded more strongly to fake sugar.
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