Can Artificial Sweeteners Help You Lose Weight?
Substituting sugar for low-calorie sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose and stevia derived substances can improve weight loss, help weight management and improve your mood, according to a new study out of Denmark.
“Our findings support the use of sweeteners and sweetness enhancers (S&SEs) found in many foods and beverages worldwide as alternatives to sugar-sweetened products to help manage weight control in adults with overweight,” lead author Anne Raben said in a statement.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen spent a year analyzing obese children and adults — those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater — who were placed in two groups. One group followed a healthy diet with less than 10 percent of energy from added sugar by S&SE, while the other was placed on a healthy diet with less than 10 percent of energy from added sugar, excluding S&SE. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires at two, six and 12 months to assess the effects of S&SEs on diet satisfaction and measure changes in their weight, BMI by age and risk markers for type 2 diabetes and cholesterol.
Excerpted from the New York Post