Zero-Calorie Saccharin Makes Rats Fat

Sugar-gate is now upon us. It is quite clear that high fructose corn syrup makes a person diabetic and accelerates aging, yet remains in widespread use. It is also clear that aspartame produces wood grain alcohol as it is metabolized, destroying brain cells, wrecking digestion, and causing cancer, yet remains in widespread use.

The latest salvo fired off at the multi-billion dollar sweetener industry found that feeding rats zero-calorie saccharin (the main component of Sweet n' Low), compared to actually eating sugar, caused them to eat more food in general as well as depressed their metabolic response to food – a double negative that readily promoted weight gain. The study authors¹ concluded: "The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar."

The study was immediately blasted by the sweetener industry, saying that rat studies do not relate to humans and that weight loss in humans is based on calorie consumption and exercise – as decreed by our federal government.

Yes, it is quite true that sugar-gate will run directly to the pockets of politicians and FDA employees who receive huge sums of money or future jobs in exchange for regulatory approval.

The study inadvertently has raised the issue of our federal government's lacking weight loss advice, that calories and exercise alone are all that matters. Calories certainly matter if a person is eating excessively – which is why any food additive like saccharin or MSG that promotes overeating should be banned from the food supply. Exercise certainly matters if a person is unfit and not active. However, it is actually hormones that regulate body weight – and leptin is king.

There are leptin receptors on the tongue which are wired to the sweet taste. When a no calorie sweetener is consumed it confuses leptin, promoting excess food intake at other meals as well as slowing down metabolism – a finding confirmed in the current rat study but already explained in numerous previous studies.

Any person trying to loose weight must overcome sugar cravings. This means adding no sweetener of any kind to food. It means not snacking on anything sweet between meals or after dinner. If needed, bitter herbs, as contained in LeptiSlim, or special fatty acids, as contained in Pine Nut Oil, can significantly reduce the desire to consume excess sweets.

Your body's perception of sweet taste must return to a non-addictive normal before your metabolism will ever run properly.