In a recently published article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a link was shown between the consumption of artificially sweetened drinks and diabetes.

The link between drinking sugary drinks and type II diabetes has been known for a long time. It has been shown that diabetes type II can be easily controlled, mitigated or even eliminated with proper nutrition and exercise.  Eliminating sugar from your diet is one of the most important factors in the nutritional guidelines.

This new study will have many diabetes sufferers looking for alternatives.  The study actually showed that drinking artificially sweetened drinks raised the occurrence of type II diabetes more than drinks with sugar.

The links to the actual study are below:

The actual study- http://english.inserm.fr/press-area/diet-drinks-associated-with-increased-risk-of-type-ii-diabetes

Link to article from Huffington Post-http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/11/diet-soda-diabetes-risk-type-2-artificially-sweetened-sugar_n_2663247.html

There have been several other studies that show the link between artificial sweeteners and weight gain which often leads to diabetes type II.

• Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their intake and body weight. The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
• Psychologists at Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn’t make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.

What these artificial sweeteners do to our body is scientifically proven and very harmful.  When we ingest something sweet our body gears up its digestive reflexes because it believes we will be taking in a lot of calories very soon.   When this turns out to be false (artificial sweetener), the body is confused.  The digestive juices it produced are wasted and now have to be eliminated.  This tends to cause the digestive system to react slower when we do consume lots of calories. Another important factor is when the pancreas senses sugar it produces insulin which is needed to regulate sugars in our body.  When the insulin is wasted we produce it slower and in smaller quantities when needed.  This hurts our sugar regulation and leads to weight gain and diabetes.

So what do we do now? First of all try and drink water. We are supposed to drink one half of our body weight in ounces per day.  (So if you weigh 150 lbs, you should have 75 ounces of water per day.)

I do not believe in banning soda.  What I do believe is that we should all be properly educated on healthy nutrition so we can make an informed decision.  This education should start in grammar school and continue through high school.  This is a very important step needed to fix the health care crisis in America and will work better than any ban.

This is a preview to an article that will be featured in Foodservice East Magazine.

Be sure and order your copy of Dr. Kantor’s highly praised new book What Matters: Leadership Values that Just Might Save America. Proceeds from sales benefit the American Diabetes Foundation, the All-Natural Food Council of North America, the Natural Products Association.