Dr. Doron Sher - 'Artificial Sweeteners'

Dr. Doron Sher completed his medical degree at the University of New South Wales in 1991. Following this he completed a Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering. His research thesis on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction won the Evelyn Hamilton Memorial prize from the Australian Orthopaedic Association.

Dr. Sher's Orthopaedic training was completed on the Sydney Orthopaedic Training Scheme. Following this he travelled overseas for 18 months undertaking sub-speciality fellowships in The United States, Canada and Italy where he worked with many of the world's leading surgeons. He is also the former Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at Concord Repatriation Hospital.

Dr. Sher developed an interest in low carbohydrate nutrition after discovering the ineffectiveness of traditional diets in helping his patients lose weight and avoid surgery. His passion for helping patients avoid unnecessary surgery has led to his involvement in two successful metabolic, arthritis, weight loss and sports performance clinics.

[ResidualResonance]

Time Chemical: cal/g; insulin response; other notes
12:37 Malitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol: 2.6; yes (about half of sugar); GI issues
12:37 Erythritol: 0.24; minimal; GI issues
13:50 Stevia: 0?; no but insulin sensitivity in the pancreas concerns; see also monk fruit
16:57 Oligofructans (derived from inulin): 1.5?; no; inulin?
18:40 Saccharine: 0; maybe
19:27 Cyclamate: 0;
20:21 Ace-K: 0; yes in rats; DNA concerns
21:51 Aspartame: 0; no; breaks down with heat, danger for phenylketonurics, gut bacteria concerns
23:13 Neotame: 0; maybe
23:25 Sucralose: 0; yes
24:20 Trehalose: ?; ?; lowers freezing point, C diffilus infections concerns

[alphacause]

People need to get over their fixation with sweet things. That way, regardless if artificial sweeteners impede weight loss or not, they won't have to worry about it. If you abstain from sweets long enough - whether it is regular sugar, a sugar alcohol, or an artificial sweetener - you stop craving them. As a former "sugarholic", I noticed that after few months of complete abstinence from sweet substances, I lost my craving for them completely. When I used to use artificial sweeteners, I would continually have cravings for sweets, and it would always make it that much more difficult to walk by a bakery or the candy section in a grocery store without succumbing to temptation. While the abstinence period was tough, once you get over the several months it takes to eliminate the craving, you never want to go back. Its liberating.

If artificial sweeteners truly did aid people in losing weight, we should have observed a precipitous decline in weight in the population upon the introduction of these sugar substitutes. The exact opposite is true. People gained weight despite the increased usage of artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. If I were to speculate as to why, it probably has to do with the fact that by "tricking" the brain into thinking it ate something sweet, but at the time providing no calories, probably causes an increase in appetite. Also, even if people do not feel increased hunger as a result of sugar substitutes, they may think that the calories saved gives them license to over consume other foods. Whether it is through physiological means or psychological means, any substance that engenders over consumption, is a bad thing.

[АлександрНиколаев-шл]

Thank you for the uploading. Great stuff, as always

[akanecortich]

Have been taking aspartame in my coffee for around 30 years. I do not touch sugar, bread, rice, pasta, potato, fruit or sauces. My BS has been totally under control and BMI 22.5 And if I want to make a sweet curry (low carb - No carb) I can add aspartame at the end, and it tastes exactly like sweet curry. I think the AS can be a very useful tool in managing a low carb or keto diet.

[Anuojat]

Most important question to ask yourself combined with the knowledge found here is this:
Can you go on for 1 week without any sweetners or sugar? If the answers is NO. Then you surely have a problem.

[ruthlesskumquat]

I havent had any issues losing weight and still consuming diet drinks and sucralose sweetened water enhancers however I have no idea if my weightloss could have been quicker had I given them up so its time to give that a try. I'll still use organic stevia extract and the occasional homemade dessert sweetened with Monkfruit but as for artificial sweeteners I'm done!

[infernus]

I've lost about 50kgs with drinking 1-2 liters daily of diet sodas (which i wouldnt recommend to anyone). You cant give up on everything. Especially if you want to completely change your life style. If you need a soda its always better to take one with aspartame than the one with sugar

[keapixhoudini]

Yay someone mentions and explains the after taste to stevia. I recall hearing artificial sweetener drinks tend to make you eat more, as they are empty calaries so nice to see him mention this is real

[phreedomphile]

Much appreciated clarifications, Dr. Sher. HOWEVER, there's still some ongoing confusion in the keto academic sphere on whether or not stevia on its own raises insulin. According to the information in books I read written by Dr. Steven Gundry and Dr. Jason Fung, stevia stimulates insulin release - as much as table sugar (Fung). And from Fung's exhaustive look at many clinical studies, we know insulin is the main driver of health dysfunction rather than elevated blood sugar. For example, when blood sugar was tightly controlled in studies via intensive drug management, to include insulin in some cases, the heart disease rates and overall mortality went up substantially.

[nilton]

Some interesting points: I have done some periods of 8-10 water fasting and at the same time monitoring my blood sugar with a flash glucose mter ( freestyle libre). That way i found out that aspartame worked havock vwith my glucose levels, probably by affecting my insulin

[justeli]

Here in the UK, two of the main 'supermarket' Stevia's are Truvia and Pure Via.

What neither product says on it's ingredients tag, is that they are cut with Dextrose.
Both admit to this on their websites, but neither lists the % dextrose, so it still leaves
me feeling this is a deliberate lie.

I' m sure if I went to a specialist shop I could find a pure stevia, or stevia/erythritol
mix, but my days pretty full, and I'd rather not spend my weekends reading ingredient
tags....

Being honest, I'm still a keto/if newbie, (6 weeks, 40 lbs) and still experimenting/finding
my way. Some people might say I'm being picky... *shrug* maybe I'm making much ado
about nothing, but to me it seems important.

Regards,

[disnalee]

I gave up sugar and it maybe the best thing ive ever gave up for health reasons. I do crave bread, process foods, plant fats, grains, high carbs, rice, and sugar but my body cannot support this diet.

[Feinrizulwur]

What is the reason for eating sweet ?
Not growing up from early childhood ?
Mothers milk contain a lot of sugar.
How are gene expressions affected by sugar ?
Staying in childhood for the rest of your life some people said 100 years ago.

[toni]

Thank you Dr. Sher, this was very enlightening and a lot of fun.

[akanecortich]

I think the study on artificial sweeteners ought to be on the effectiveness of diets, long term health with and without. If the AS keep you on your diet, weight loss, blood sugar control, then there should be no concerns as the alternative is far worse. Let us not forget that the majority of diseases is associated with Inflammation and that it is strongly associated with blood sugar spikes and levels, long term. No matter your weight really, if you have controlled your blood sugar for 20 years then you are going to be far less risk than somebody 20 KG lighter but has never bothered to control BS.

[PaulAndHarris]

24:10 - For Sucralose, what is "excess" defined as? 5g per day? 20g per day? 100g per day? And what is a safe amount per day that would cause no issues?

[bathat]

"Makes" you eat more? Everything you put in your mouth is your choice. Going for a run and hitting the gym always made me very hungry, too. Train your brain to put aside your discomfort. If a diet coke is going to trigger a feeding frenzy, then you wont stand a chance watching sports on TV with 20 minutes of TGI Fridays and Papa Johns commercials every hour, let alone the trays of cookies and brownies that appear in every work break room at least once a week.

Art sweeteners have been around for 60 yrs or more. The obesity epidemic doesn't seem to have arisen until the last 20, 30 yrs when our lifestyles became sedentary. Get off the couch, put on your Nikes, skip the sugary coke, sugary red bull and the ridiculously sugary Jager and don't feel guilty about having a diet soda after your run. If you're overweight or otherwise unhealthy, diet drinks aren't the cause. Talk to your family physician. They're on the frontlines of our health every single day.

[clover]

Why the need for need for sweeteners for meat and poultry? The bacon and turkey bacon industries might be able answer that.

[pachamama]

Thank you for uploading
and all the best to you!!

[markentwistle]

Thanks for publishing. I found the tour of all the many sweeteners in the main body of the presentation really informative. I wonder whether the way conclusions are presented at the end are misleading though, as correlation is not causation. The conclusions as presented are highly suggestive to the audience that consumption of artificially sweetened beverages are shown by the cited studies to CAUSE increased health risks, suggested as the "science [we] should believe". On cursory review of just one of the studies, The San Antonio Heart Study, it appears correlation, not causation is demonstrated. Its probably good advice to avoid artificial sweeteners, but the evidence would be more appropriately qualified as associative, not causal.