Dueling Studies – What You Should Believe About Artificial Sweeteners

New York, NY, October 09, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Do artificial sweeteners help prevent obesity and diabetes, or increase their risk?

The answer, depending on which study you read, is both!

In his article, “The artificial sweetener controversy: Who should you believe?,” internationally known complementary medicine practitioner Dr. Ronald Hoffman, director of New York City’s Hoffman Center and host of the syndicated radio program and podcast “Intelligent Medicine,” takes on the controversial subject. Spoiler alert: He’s not a fan of artificial sweeteners.

“As the years have progressed, controversy continues to swirl about the safety of artificial sweeteners,” writes Hoffman. “Russell Blaylock M.D. added to our concerns about the toxicity of aspartame with his book 'Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills.' At the same time new sweeteners such as Splenda have been introduced that claim to be harmless, yet critics disagree. And now there are products such as Truvia that say they harness the natural sweetness of stevia. What should you believe?

Questions of toxicity aside, recent studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition have shown that replacing table sugar with sugar substitutes “results in a modest weight loss and may be a useful dietary tool to improve compliance with weight loss or weight maintenance plans.” Contrast that with reports from the Weizmann Institute in Israel, which claim “Zero-Calorie Sweeteners Can Raise Blood Sugar.” What’s a health-conscious consumer to do? According to Dr. Hoffman, find out who, if anyone, underwrote the study in question. Some of the studies used to validate the benefits of no-cal sugar substitutes are underwritten, at least in part, by the very industry that manufactures them–often a red-flag in scientific research.

“Until the controversy about sugar substitutes is further elucidated, I will stubbornly remain among those who advocate zero tolerance for these potentially harmful synthetic chemicals,” says Dr. Hoffman. "I’m with physician and immunologist Eran Elinav, lead author of the new Israeli study, who is quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying: ‘The scope of our discovery is cause for a public reassessment of the massive and unsupervised use of artificial sweeteners.’ In other words, sorry, there’s still no way you can have your cake and eat it too!"

See the full article at drhoffman.com