Want to lose weight? Ditch the diet foods pleads DR CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN

Some science around the additives is concerning, especially on sweeteners
READ MORE: What it’s REALLY like being married to a healthy-eating fanatic

Until recently I used to feed my family ‘no-added-sugar’ foods such as Heinz baked beans on toast as a quick and easy midweek meal.

I believed, like any other normal parent, that I was doing the properly healthy sugar-free thing for my wife Dinah, this paper’s fashion editor, our two children — Lyra, six, and Sasha, three — and me.

We all know a high-sugar diet is associated with weight gain and rots your teeth. So swapping sugar for artificial sweeteners seems a no-brainer, right?

But three years ago, I started researching a book on the dangers of ultra-processed foods (UPF) — packaged convenience foods made with additives you don’t typically find in a domestic kitchen — and I found that artificial sweeteners are a very common additive.

In general, the main issue with ultra-processed foods is not the additives, but rather that those additives are a sign a product is engineered to have addictive properties, so it may be very hard to stop eating it.

Until recently I used to feed my family ‘no-added-sugar’ foods such as Heinz baked beans on toast as a quick and easy midweek meal. Pictured Dinah (L) and Chris (R)

But some of the science around the additives themselves is concerning, especially on sweeteners.

Basically, artificial sweeteners are sold on a lie. They promise to be better for our health than sugar — but there is growing evidence that this is not the case.

This isn’t just me banging on about my book; the World Health Organisation has just issued official guidance warning people not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss on the grounds that it simply doesn’t work and may even raise your risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Avoiding them is easier said than done, however, especially if you’re on a diet. Even the NHS recommends calorie-counting as part of a healthy weight-loss plan and, as artificial sweeteners have very few calories, most ‘diet’ foods are packed with them.

While we still need to do much more science on the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners, the research at the moment is sufficient to worry the WHO and make me clear my kitchen shelves of them.

Exactly why artificial sweeteners aren’t better than sugar isn’t entirely clear.

One theory is that if we replace sugar with a zero-calorie alternative, our bodies sense the sweet taste and prepare for the influx of calories from real sugar — but are then confounded when those calories don’t appear.

Basically, artificial sweeteners are sold on a lie. They promise to be better for our health than sugar — but there is growing evidence that this is not the case

It’s possible that this confusion sends our metabolisms awry. Precisely what happens is a scientific mystery, but the result is that, over the long term, our bodies preserve their weight and some people will even gain more.

Some research shows artificial sweeteners can even result in increases in the levels of sugar in our bloodstreams, which may raise the risk of Type 2 diabetes.

It also seems that the chemicals in artificial sweeteners may disrupt the delicate balance of our gut microbiome — the teeming world of stomach bugs that help our bodies to regulate the levels of sugar in our blood. Disrupt your gut and boost your risk of diabetes.

It’s all quite the opposite of the ‘healthy’ halo that the makers of ultra-processed foods and drinks build around their products with million-pound ad campaigns.

No wonder we’re confused.

I’m a doctor but even I was being gulled by the apparently virtuous glow around products such as No Added Sugar Heinz Beans and Muller Light Greek Style Yoghurt, which contains the sweetener aspartame. (Luscious Lemon flavour was my then three-year old daughter’s favourite; now she has regular yoghurt with honey or jam.)

Indeed, I found it harder than I imagined to create a sweetener-free household. It’s very difficult, for example, to find any fruit squash without added sweeteners. Even the ‘full-fat’ Ribena contains sucralose.

To make a difference at home, therefore, I had to instil quite a radical change — we don’t buy any artificially sweetened ultra-processed foods and, instead of sweetened drinks, my kids drink only milk or water.

I find that, for me, it’s better to eat a little of something with sugar, in the knowledge that sugar in large quantities is bad for me, than consume artificial sweetener under the perilous illusion that any quantity of it is good for you.

Squirting low-sugar ketchup all over my fries was making me think they were healthier. But I no longer believe that’s the case.

So how do the popular low‑calorie foods stack up?

DIET DRINK CONFUSION

Diet Coke

Artificial sweetener: Acesulfame K

If you look at the NHS-recommended Change 4 Life app, which recommends ‘healthy swaps’ for less healthy but popular foods, it advises buying Diet Coke instead of sugary sodas.

Diet Coke is a superb example of an ultra-processed drink

I think that’s a big problem. Not just because artificial sweeteners themselves may be no better than sugar, but because Diet Coke is a superb example of an ultra-processed drink, something made for the exclusive purpose of profit, rather than nourishment.

As well as the sweetener Acesulfame K, caffeine, flavouring and colouring, it contains phosphoric acid, which rots teeth and leaches the minerals out of our bones. Whether or not it’s a tiny bit better or worse than full-sugar Coke is moot — they’re both terrible for your body.

Laboratory studies suggest consuming Acesulfame K may disrupt the balance of your microbiome, the ‘friendly bacteria’ that live in your gut.

This, in turn, may increase the levels of harmful inflammation in the body and also lead to a gain in weight after a month, reports the University of North Carolina research on rats in 2017 in the journal PLoS One.

More recently, in 2021, Japanese researchers warned in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology that in lab rodents, Acesulfame K can cause inflammation in the gut itself.

This may lead to bacteria leaking from the gut into the bloodstream, causing inflammation throughout the body, which can raise the risk of serious illnesses such as Type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Sucralose may reduce the effectiveness of a person’s insulin response

NOT-SO-SWEET SQUASH

Robinsons No Added Sugar Squash

Artificial sweetener: Sucralose

Research published in the prestigious journal Cell in 2022, from a microbiome study, reported that consuming sucralose disrupts the gut microbiome in ways that also disrupt a person’s blood sugar level.

It may also reduce the effectiveness of their insulin response.

These two effects combined may raise their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

‘LIGHT’ ISN’T ALWAYS RIGHT

Aspartame is also shown by some studies to interfere with human metabolism

Muller Light Greek Style Yoghurt

Artificial sweetener: Aspartame

Aspartame is also shown by some studies to interfere with human metabolism.

Research on more than 2,000 young girls in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2015 associated it with their entering puberty earlier than normal.

And a Canadian study in the journal PLoS One the previous year on rats found that consuming aspartame upped their levels of blood sugar and lowered the effectiveness of their insulin response, which may raise the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

It appears that erythritol may be involved in increasing the risk of developing blood clots

In a report, Stevia raised blood sugar in all participants who consumed it

UN-ANGELIC ICE CREAM

Halo Top Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Artificial sweetener: Erythritol

This year researchers have warned that consuming erythritol is associated with an increased risk of major heart attacks and strokes.

It appears that erythritol may be involved in increasing the risk of developing blood clots that block veins or arteries, reports the Cleveland Clinic study in the journal Nature Medicine.

STEER CLEAR OF STEVIA

Heinz 50% Less salt & sugar Tomato Ketchup

Heinz No Added Sugar Baked Beanz

Sweetener: Both contain Steviol Glycosides

In the prestigious 2022 Cell report, stevia raised blood sugar in all participants who consumed it, and altered the microbiome in ways that seem to be associated with high blood sugar.

Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food . . . And Why Can’t We Stop?, by Chris van Tulleken, is published by Cornerstone.

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