Is it useful to take sugar substitutes if you want to lose weight? Nutritionists reveal: Things you may be surprised about sugar

Sugar is commonly found in our daily diet, such as in hand-shaken drinks or cakes and desserts. Excessive intake of sugar may cause metabolic syndrome and obesity, and may also affect blood sugar fluctuations, accelerate aging, cause tooth decay, and increase the risk of cancer.

Family medicine physician Wang Ziyun shared on Facebook "Points about sugar that may surprise you", including whether it is useful for people who want to lose weight to eat sugar substitutes? Many experts have talked a lot about the problem of refined sugar, and experienced weight loss experts are also very clear about it. The following is some cool facts about "special sugar":

Excessive sugar intake may cause metabolic syndrome and obesity, and may also affect blood sugar fluctuations, accelerate aging, cause tooth decay, and increase the risk of cancer.

1. Sugar Substitute

"Sugar substitutes" refer to non-calorie or low-calorie sweeteners (Sweeteners), which are "food additives" that give food a sweet taste, allowing the food to have the same sweetness but with lower calories. It has been widely used in beverages and baked goods. In the past, some studies suggested that sugar substitutes were related to cancer, but later studies confirmed that sugar substitutes are safe "as long as they are not consumed in excess" (for example, no more than 7 liters of cola a day). Therefore, currently, aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, neotame, and acesulfame potassium are all approved by the FDA.

The food industry invents and uses "sugar substitutes" not only because they are low-cost, but also to "replace the calories from regular sugar" and reduce the "obesity" problem. So what everyone is most concerned about should be "Is it useful for people who want to lose weight to eat sugar substitutes?"

The answer is hard to say. There have been many studies in this area, but no consistent conclusion has been reached. Although the weight-related research compiled by JAMA Network Opne shows that sugar-free drinks can replace sugary drinks in the short term and can help reduce some weight (more than 1 kg), what is worrying is the impact on long-term appetite suppression, blood sugar stability, and diabetes risk.

For example, after natural sugar binds to the sweet taste receptors, the intestines secrete "incretins" (GLP-1, GIP, and PYY). These hormones can reach the hypothalamus to reduce appetite and increase satiety, thereby affecting food intake. However, artificial sweeteners cannot induce the secretion of these intestinal secretins because intestinal secretins are "nutrition-dependent" and have no response to "non-nutritive sweeteners" such as aspartame.

Therefore, even if the goal of reducing calorie intake is achieved, for people who really need sugar, it is undoubtedly a temporary solution. Some people will feel hungrier or want to eat more sweets. In the long run, their weight may increase, and they are more likely to consume excessive amounts of sugar because they think it has zero calories.

Personally, I would never recommend the use of "artificial sweeteners". The reason has nothing to do with weight loss. It is mainly because research on intestinal bacteria has shown that artificial sweeteners have a negative impact on the bacterial flora. After all, it is not a natural thing in nature and is not food for human intestinal microorganisms.

2. L-arabinose

L-arabinose is not a "sugar substitute", it is sugar and a "rare sugar". The definition is "monosaccharides and their derivatives that are present in limited quantities in nature". They are rare monosaccharides in nature and a type of pentose. Unlike the hexose of glucose, they are often combined with other sugars. The natural free form is rare, so special extraction technology is required to separate them, and therefore they are expensive.

Recent studies have viewed it as a functional food or a new therapeutic strategy for gut health, and modern sugar is really an overkill.

People who want to lose weight are advised to use L-sugar, which has a positive effect on intestinal bacteria. Human studies have also shown that it helps with metabolic syndrome. It is unlikely to cause changes in blood sugar and insulin, but it can increase the number of good intestinal bacteria related to intestinal secretion.

What effects does long-term consumption of "rare sugar" have on the body?

There are currently three human studies on L-arabinose, one of which is a "long-term consumption" study. This study asked 30 people diagnosed with metabolic syndrome to consume 40-45 g of water-soluble L-arabinose per day for 6 months without changing their lifestyle habits.

The results showed that after 6 months of intervention, metabolic syndrome indices such as weight, waist circumference, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and fasting blood sugar were significantly reduced, showing overall benefits for patients with metabolic syndrome. However, to achieve this benefit, it may really hurt your wallet. (So ​​drinking control is still the fastest and cheapest)

On the contrary, recent studies have pointed out that artificial sweeteners have negative effects on metabolism and intestinal flora. As for the fact that edible sugars such as sucrose, lactose, fructose, etc., eating too much will cause weight gain, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, it should not be necessary to elaborate.

It is no longer news that arabinose is a prebiotic for bifidobacteria. Even Escherichia coli, which is considered a "probiotic" (yes! Escherichia coli is not just pathogenic bacteria, it is also probiotic) will eat L-sugar. It is not surprising that bifidobacteria like to eat it. However, it is limited to animal experiments. Human research is limited by the complexity of dietary types and it is difficult to prove the causal relationship. However, in clinical practice, I have indeed seen that in many cases with a simple R1 dietary background, the addition of L-sugar increased the bifidobacteria in bacterial phase analysis compared to those who did not add it.

Unlike "sugar substitutes", "general edible sugar" (sucrose, glucose, fructose, lactose) and "rare edible sugar" (L-arabinose, also known as gum sugar) are both "raw materials that can be used in food" by the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. In other words, these are originally "food ingredients" and are not used to "replace" sugar, but are eaten directly. Since it is a food, "it cannot claim therapeutic effects" and there is no need to apply for GRAS from the FDA.

Aspartame is classified as a "non-nutritive sweetener" under the "food additives" category by the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare! Completely different category!

L-sugar is the only sugar that Dr. Wang recommends to people who are trying to lose weight. The reason is not to replace sucrose (although it has the effect of inhibiting sucrase, and consuming it with sucrose can reduce the calorie absorption of sucrose, and also allow sucrose to enter the large intestine and become a prebiotic), but it has a positive effect on intestinal bacteria. There are also human studies that have shown that it helps with metabolic syndrome. It is unlikely to cause changes in blood sugar and insulin, but it can increase the number of good intestinal bacteria related to incretin.

From a purely "food" perspective, its effect on the body can be considered as vegetable fiber with a sweet taste!

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