0:00

I can't keep this in anymore. I can't even

0:02

believe I'm saying this to be honest. You

0:04

know you can tell me anything. I'm capital

0:07

VFD42 capital Z lowercase m

0:09

underscore lowercase p capital L reverse slash apostrophe

0:11

lowercase rs. I know how you feel. Just

0:14

between us, I'm underscore

0:16

comma dash underscore dollar sign capital G lowercase

0:19

w comma forward slash dash dash reverse slash. No

0:22

way! I am so glad we had this conversation.

0:25

I know, me too.

0:26

Turn on total privacy with end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp.

0:29

Message privately.

0:36

Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva

0:38

podcast. A show where I try to put the latest

0:40

nutrition headlines and research into perspective

0:43

for you. So you can make good decisions

0:45

about what to eat. And I also love

0:47

to answer listener questions. And

0:50

in fact, before I get into the main topic today,

0:52

which is the World Health Organization's recent

0:54

recommendation on low-calorie sweeteners, I

0:57

want to answer a related question from Lynn. She

1:00

wrote, There's lots of material everywhere

1:02

saying that sugar is bad and

1:04

that if you eliminate

1:06

sugar from your diet, lots of good things

1:08

are going to happen.

1:09

The only added sugar in my diet was

1:11

the sugar in my morning tea. And I cut this

1:13

out entirely for three months

1:16

to see those benefits. But the only thing

1:18

I felt during those three months

1:20

was a little extra tired. Now I'm wondering

1:23

whether sugar is really all that

1:25

bad.

1:27

There are a lot of people out there saying

1:29

that sugar is toxic and that you

1:32

need to cut sugar out of your diet entirely

1:35

in order to be healthy. But

1:36

there's a popular saying in toxicology,

1:39

and that is, The dose

1:41

makes the poison. So if

1:43

you're consuming 30 or 40% of

1:46

your daily calories in the form of added

1:48

sugars,

1:49

which, sad to say, is not that

1:52

unusual, then eliminating

1:54

sugar from your diet for three months could make a

1:56

huge difference in how you feel and

1:58

other markers of health.

2:00

But you know what? You'd probably

2:02

get the same payoff

2:05

by cutting your sugar consumption down to,

2:07

say, 5% of your daily calories.

2:10

Cutting it from 5% to 0% as linded probably wouldn't make

2:15

much of a difference at all.

2:17

Sugar

2:18

is not toxic. However, a moderate

2:21

consumption of added sugars can definitely

2:24

lead to problems, which is why

2:26

there is a multi-billion dollar market

2:28

for sugar substitutes. But

2:31

as you may have seen in the headlines a couple of

2:33

weeks ago, the World Health Organization

2:35

just issued a controversial new

2:38

recommendation on zero-calorie

2:40

sweeteners. The WHO

2:42

continues to endorse a role for non-sugar

2:44

sweeteners for people with diabetes. However,

2:47

for everyone else, the WHO

2:49

is now recommending against the

2:52

use of non-sugar sweeteners, especially

2:55

for the purpose of weight management. Their

2:58

review of the available evidence concludes

3:00

that artificial sweeteners do not have

3:02

any positive benefits in terms

3:04

of reducing overweight or obesity and

3:07

may, in fact,

3:08

do some harm.

3:09

The organization concedes that the

3:12

evidence is not airtight. A

3:14

lot of it is observational. Remember,

3:16

correlation is not causation, and

3:19

there are lots of confounding variables.

3:22

So they characterize this guidance as

3:24

conditional, meaning that individual

3:27

countries need to weigh the pros

3:29

and cons in view of their own populations,

3:32

health risks, and dietary patterns. The

3:34

other big surprise, though, was that

3:36

the WHO included both synthetic non-calorie

3:39

sweeteners like Equal and Splenda,

3:42

as well as sweeteners like Stevia, which

3:44

we tend to think of as more natural

3:46

and therefore

3:47

better for us.

3:51

I have a great idea for dinner tonight. How

3:53

about a Chicken Cheddar Broccoli

3:56

Rice Bowl, which you could whip up in

3:58

just 30 minutes.

3:59

with the help of a Knorr cheddar broccoli rice

4:02

side. Who needs fast food when

4:04

Knorr has these delicious and nutritious

4:06

recipes that you can make at home in under 30

4:09

minutes? Make your own taste

4:11

combo. Show us how you create

4:14

delicious, nutritious meals at home

4:16

with Knorr using hashtag

4:18

Knorr versus combo on

4:20

social. Visit knortastecombos.com

4:23

to find other easy

4:25

to make at home recipes from Knorr.

4:30

I can't keep this in anymore. I can't even

4:32

believe I'm saying this to be honest. You

4:34

know you can tell me anything. I'm

4:36

capital VFD42 capital Z lowercase

4:38

M underscore lowercase P capital L reverse slash

4:40

apostrophe lowercase RS. I know how

4:43

you feel. Just between us, I'm

4:45

underscore comma dash underscore dollar sign capital

4:48

G lowercase W comma forward slash dash dash

4:50

reverse slash. No way. I

4:52

am so glad we had this conversation. I

4:54

know, me too.

4:56

Turn on total privacy with end to end encryption.

4:58

WhatsApp, message privately.

5:01

We've spent the last 70 or

5:04

so years searching for a sweetener

5:06

that had no calories, no impact on blood

5:08

sugar, no other ill effects,

5:11

effectively no consequences.

5:14

One that would allow us to eat and drink as

5:16

much sweet stuff as we wanted without

5:18

worrying. In the beginning,

5:20

saccharin was the zero cal sweetener

5:23

of choice. When saccharin fell

5:25

from favor, due in part to unfounded

5:28

cancer concerns, newer artificial

5:30

sweeteners like sucralose and aspartame

5:33

more than took up that slack, helped

5:35

along by the low carb diet craze.

5:39

When those next generation sweeteners

5:41

started to be linked inconsistently

5:44

to things like increased appetite and

5:46

risk of type two diabetes or microbiome

5:49

disruption, consumers then

5:51

flocked to erythritol, stevia

5:54

and monk fruit. But these

5:56

more natural sweeteners have limitations

5:59

as well. Stevia can have a really

6:01

bitter aftertaste. Sugar alcohols

6:04

like erythritol can have a weird

6:06

mouthfeel or unwelcome laxative

6:09

effects. And replacing

6:11

sugar with any of these

6:13

high intensity non-caloric sweeteners

6:16

affects the texture, moisture and

6:19

volume of processed foods

6:21

can even shorten their shelf life.

6:23

What's worse, earlier this year,

6:26

erythritol was linked inconclusively

6:29

to an increased risk of blood clots.

6:32

Not to worry though, there are plenty

6:34

more non-caloric sweeteners in the pipeline.

6:38

Food chemists are feverishly working

6:40

to find new ways to mask

6:42

the off flavors, compensate

6:45

for those effects on texture and volume. They're

6:47

even working on ways to alter the shape of

6:50

the molecules in foods in

6:52

order to trick the taste buds into thinking that

6:54

something tastes sweeter than it actually does.

6:57

After all, there's a lot at stake. The

6:59

vast majority of manufactured

7:02

juices, drinks, snack bars,

7:04

yogurt, cereals, baked goods and condiments

7:07

contain added sugar or sweeteners.

7:09

And these products generate upwards of $50 billion

7:12

a year. And

7:14

consumers want this magic solution

7:16

too. Sugar tastes good. We

7:19

are biologically programmed to

7:21

love it.

7:22

But we don't wanna gain weight. We don't

7:24

wanna develop diabetes.

7:27

We put human beings on the moon

7:29

for crying out loud. Surely

7:31

in this era of driverless cars and

7:35

drone delivered groceries, it should be possible to

7:38

find a way to have our cake and eat it too.

7:40

Actually, I

7:42

don't think it is. Even

7:45

if we could somehow invent or discover

7:47

a compound that offered

7:50

all of the sweetness with none of those downsides,

7:53

I still don't think we would

7:55

have developed it for our nutrition or our health.

7:58

And apparently neither does the World Health Organization. In

8:01

their new guidance, the WHO makes the

8:03

radical suggestion that instead of

8:05

searching for the perfect consequence-free

8:08

sweetener,

8:09

people should reduce the sweetness of

8:11

the diet altogether, starting early

8:13

in life to improve their health. Now

8:18

to be clear, I don't actually think that sweetness

8:21

in and of itself is the problem. After

8:24

all, the WHO has no problem with whole

8:26

foods that contain naturally occurring

8:28

sugars such as fruit. By

8:31

contrast, a lot of the foods

8:33

that we add sweeteners to, such as

8:35

beverages, snacks, candy, and

8:37

desserts, are foods that aren't

8:39

adding much nutrition to our diets. Finding

8:42

a magical solution that would add that

8:45

sweetness without adding calories

8:47

or without affecting our blood sugar might

8:49

make those foods less damaging, but

8:52

it wouldn't make them more nutritious. Instead

8:55

of consuming 200 empty calories, maybe

8:59

you'd only be consuming 50 empty calories, but

9:01

you still wouldn't have much to show for it.

9:04

You'd be so much better off eating 50

9:06

calories worth of fresh fruits or

9:08

vegetables or some other nutritious foods.

9:12

And you know what?

9:13

If we weren't constantly bathing

9:16

our taste buds in sugar and artificial

9:18

sweeteners, those nutritious foods

9:21

might taste a whole lot better to us. When

9:23

we eat a lot of sweetened foods, it

9:26

decreases our ability to enjoy

9:28

the subtler flavors of unsweetened

9:30

foods like fruits, vegetables,

9:33

and other healthy options. This

9:35

is something I hear over and over again

9:37

from people that I work with in programs such

9:39

as the 30-day nutrition upgrade, which

9:42

helps people reduce their intake of both

9:44

sugar and non-caloric sweeteners.

9:47

So when they cut back on their consumption of sweetened

9:50

foods, they almost invariably

9:52

report a new appreciation

9:55

for how great something as simple as

9:57

a really good apple or peach

9:59

taste. They are shocked

10:02

to realize how much flavor and

10:04

natural sweetness raw red peppers

10:07

or roasted root vegetables contain. Many

10:10

never enjoyed eating vegetables because they literally

10:12

couldn't taste them until they

10:14

gave their taste buds a break from all that sugar.

10:17

And you know what? This is especially

10:20

true for people who use a lot of artificial

10:22

sweeteners. Even before the Who's

10:24

latest bombshell, I've argued that

10:26

we need to stop searching for the perfect

10:29

sweetener that one that lets us eat as

10:31

much sweet stuff as we want without worrying

10:33

about any consequences.

10:35

As long as you're consuming them in moderate amounts,

10:38

the sweeteners we already have don't

10:41

pose any substantial risks.

10:44

Now, moderate consumption of added

10:46

sugars is generally defined as no more than 25

10:49

grams of sugar per day or

10:51

the equivalent amount of non-caloric sweetener.

10:54

If you're using a sugar or a non-caloric

10:56

product that measures like sugar,

10:59

that's six teaspoons a day. If

11:01

you're using the little packets, it's about three

11:03

packets a day.

11:05

Now for packaged foods,

11:07

the new nutrition facts label shows

11:09

you the amount of added sugars and

11:11

or sugar alcohols, and that's really helpful.

11:14

Unfortunately, with other non-caloric

11:16

sweeteners like Splenda or Stevia, you

11:19

have to take your best guess as to how

11:21

much is in there. I often will

11:24

check the nutrition facts label on a comparable

11:26

item that's sweetened with sugar and use

11:29

that as a guide. I

11:31

don't think it's necessary to completely

11:33

eliminate added sugar or artificial

11:36

sweeteners from our diets. Both can

11:38

fit into a healthy diet provided that they're

11:40

consumed moderately. When I

11:42

drink soda, I usually choose

11:44

diet soda, and I don't think twice about it. I'd

11:47

rather not have that concentrated dose

11:49

of sugar or calories that I'd get from regular

11:52

soda, and I don't mind the taste. That

11:55

said, I can count my annual

11:57

soda consumption on both hands. Okay,

11:59

Maybe both hands and both feet, but

12:02

it's not a daily or even a weekly

12:04

habit. I mostly drink sparkling

12:06

water or unsweetened coffee or tea. And

12:10

this is equally important. We also want

12:12

to make sure that sweetened or artificially sweetened

12:14

foods aren't displacing

12:16

healthy foods from our diets. It

12:18

really all comes down to how you

12:21

are using them. If I'm traveling

12:23

and I know that I'm not going to be able to get a meal, I

12:26

will tuck a protein bar into my bag and

12:28

the one that I like is sweetened with

12:30

erythritol. Hey, better that than

12:32

a candy bar.

12:33

But I'm not eating a protein bar

12:36

every day for lunch. Usually I'm

12:38

eating a big salad or leftovers from

12:40

the night before.

12:42

So I hope all of that helps you feel a

12:44

little bit more confident about managing

12:47

the role of sugar or non-caloric

12:49

sweeteners in your diet.

12:52

If you'd like to learn more about that 30

12:54

day nutrition upgrade program I mentioned, there's

12:57

more info about that at nutritionovereasy.com

13:00

slash upgrade. And if

13:02

you are a health coach or a wellness program

13:05

manager, and you'd like to find out about doing that

13:07

upgrade program with your community or

13:09

in your workplace or organization, I'd love to

13:11

talk with you about that. We're currently scheduling

13:13

for the fall of 2023 and into 2024. Reach

13:18

out to me at nutrition at quickanddirtytips.com.

13:22

That's the same email that you can use to send

13:24

comments about today's episode or questions

13:27

you'd like me to address in future episodes.

13:30

Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast supported

13:33

by a wonderful team, which includes Adam

13:35

Cecil, our director of podcasts, Nathan

13:37

Semes, who is my audio engineer, Davina

13:40

Tomlin, who runs our marketing and publicity, Holly

13:42

Hutchings, our digital operations specialist,

13:45

and Morgan Christensen, our podcast operations

13:47

and advertising specialist. That's

13:49

all for this episode. Thanks for listening. I'll

13:51

see you next

13:52

week.

13:59

I can't even believe I'm saying this

14:02

to be honest. You know, you can tell me anything

14:04

I'm capital VFD for to

14:07

capital Z lowercase m underscore lowercase p

14:09

capital L reverse slash apostrophe lowercase RS I

14:11

know how you feel just between us. I

14:14

am underscore comma dash underscore

14:16

dollar sign capital G lowercase w comma forward

14:18

slash dash Dash reverse slash no

14:21

way. I am so glad we had this conversation

14:23

I know me to

14:25

turn on total privacy with end-to-end encryption.

14:27

What's up

14:28

message privately? You