Latest news with #FrancescoBranca
Time of India
2 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Metabolic doctor shares 7-day routine to lose belly fat naturally
Belly fat isn't just about appearance, it's closely linked with metabolic health, hormones, and even sleep cycles. While many people jump into extreme diets or endless crunches, Dr. Sudhanshu Rai, a metabolic doctor and sports physio, believes the real solution lies in resetting your body's natural rhythm. In his post, he emphasizes that you don't need to count calories or punish yourself with workouts. Instead, by making small, consistent changes in daily habits, you can nudge your metabolism to work with you. His 7-day plan promises a natural way to trim belly fat, without fad diets or late-night guilt trips. Stop sugar chai/coffee, bakery items and snacks at night Cutting added sugar trims empty calories that drive overeating. The World Health Organization advises keeping 'free sugars' under 10% of daily calories (and ideally below 5%) because lowering sugar intake is linked with lower body weight. Dr Francesco Branca, Director of WHO's Department of Nutrition for Health and Development said, "We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay. " Late eating adds a second problem: circadian biology. Controlled crossover trials show that eating later increases hunger, reduces calories burned, and shifts fat tissue toward storage—even when calories are identical. The study puts it plainly: late eating 'had profound effects on hunger' and lowered leptin (satiety). Drink warm cumin or carom water in the morning Cumin and ajwain are often used in Indian kitchens, but research suggests they may also support digestion and weight management. In overweight adults, cumin (Cuminum cyminum) has shown benefits in randomized trials—for example, one study found that combining cumin with lime improved both weight and cholesterol compared to a placebo. Evidence for ajwain (Trachyspermum ammi) is less solid in humans, though it's known as a digestive spice and has even been studied for liver health (NAFLD). Eat protein breakfast before 10AM Protein does more than build muscle—it helps you feel full, keeps lean mass intact, and even slightly boosts calorie burn. In one study on teens who usually skip breakfast, a higher-protein morning meal reduced hunger through the day and cut down on late-night snacking. Adults may benefit too: research shows that eating a 'big breakfast and smaller dinner' led to more weight loss and better metabolic health compared to the opposite, even with the same calories. Aim for 25–35 g protein by mid-morning—think eggs, Greek yogurt, or lentils. Walk 30 mins/day Walking is one of the simplest and most underrated ways to lose fat. Research reviews of walking programs show real drops in weight and BMI—even without strict diets. Larger umbrella reviews also confirm a clear 'dose-response,' meaning the more regular walking you do, the more benefits you get. Aim for 30 minutes a day, or three 10-minute brisk walks that get your breathing up. The key is consistency—walking regularly works better in the long run than going too hard and giving up. Add amla or lemon daily Amla (Indian gooseberry) isn't just a traditional remedy—human RCTs and meta- analyses show it helps improve cholesterol, blood sugar, and inflammation, all of which affect weight control. Citrus fruits like lemon contain flavanones such as hesperidin. Studies and systematic reviews link these compounds to better heart health, blood sugar control, and even appetite regulation (some trials used blends like lemon verbena with hibiscus). Sleep by 10:30PM Not getting enough sleep can mess with your hunger hormones and make you eat more the next day. In a randomized trial , people who usually slept less ate fewer calories and created a natural energy deficit just by extending their sleep—no diet rules needed. Going to bed earlier also helps you avoid late-night snacking and keeps your eating pattern in sync with your body clock. Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep, with lights out by around 10:30 p.m. if you wake up at 6–7 a.m. Avoid post-dinner snacking Try to finish dinner 2–3 hours before going to bed and 'close the kitchen' for the night. In a controlled study, eating the same calories late made people feel hungrier, burn less energy, and store more fat compared to eating earlier. In daily life, even a small late-night snack can tip the balance toward weight gain. Instead, unwind with caffeine-free tea or sparkling water. As Dr. Rai puts it, 'You don't need abs. You need rhythm. Fix it naturally.' Small, steady lifestyle shifts done at the right time can be far more powerful than quick fixes. Disclaimer : This routine is for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your doctor or a qualified health provider before starting any new diet, supplement, or exercise plan, especially if you have existing health conditions.
CNN
30-03-2025
- Health
- CNN
Artificial sweetener found in diet drinks linked to brain changes that increase appetite, study finds
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. CNN — A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss. 'Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,' Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO's department of nutrition and food safety, said at the time. Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink. 'Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,' said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said. In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal. The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificials sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K and sodium saccharin. 'This is a very high quality study, using state of the art methods and careful analysis,' said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, via email. Katz, founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, was not involved in the study. The authors interpreted their results carefully yet make a strong case that 'non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health,' Katz said. A spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group, which manufactures Splenda, said that low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners are backed by research and expert recommendations. 'Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water, and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels,' the spokesperson wrote via email. Study findings support prior research The idea that artificial sweeteners may be increasing hunger signals from the mammalian brain isn't new — a prior study coauthored by Page found women and people with obesity were especially sensitive. 'Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects,' Katz said. However, 'this is, to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center.' All cells in the body require glucose for energy. The brain is the biggest user, gobbling up to half of all sugars circulating in the blood. Nature, however, designed the brain to respond to natural sugars such as glucose found in whole fruits and some vegetables. Artificial sweeteners, therefore, appear to confuse the brain, Page said, by sending signals of sweetness without delivering the needed calories the brain requires. Scientists have hypothesized that when those promised calories don't arrive, the brain may send out a signal to eat more. Same people, three drinks The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, asked 75 people to consume one of three drinks on three separate occasions: plain water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose. During each visit, the research team tested participants' fasting blood sugar levels, followed by a brain scan called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which tracks blood flow to capture activity in different regions of the brain. 'They came out of the scanner and consumed one of the three drinks, and went back into the scanner,' Page said. One glass contained 300 milliliters of water and 75 grams (about 2.5 ounces) of sugar (sucrose), which is the equivalent of a 16-ounce can of sugary soda, Page said. Another drink contained enough sucralose to match that sweetness. Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The third drink was plain water, which served as a control. During the brain scanning, Page and her team did another round of blood sampling at 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 120 minutes after consuming the drink and asked participants to rate their hunger level. '(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis,' said Kyle Burger, a scientist at the nonprofit Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which investigates human senses of taste and smell. Burger was not involved in the study. Three possible explanations In addition to finding that drinks with sucralose increased the sensation of hunger by about 17%, Page and her team found increased connections to other parts of the brain responsible for controlling motivation. 'Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills,' Page said. 'For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision.' In addition, blood tests showed sucralose had no effect on hormones the brain uses to tell when we are satisfied and no longer hungry, Page said. 'There's no signal, no signal at all,' she said. 'There's a sweetness signal, but there's no hormone signal telling you you're full. Sucralose doesn't have an effect on those hormones.' Not everyone, however, may feel the combined effects of sucralose in the same way, Katz said. 'Those with insulin resistance, for instance, may be especially prone to disruption of normal appetite control with sucralose,' he said. What to do? Recommendations on how to manage the body's reactions to artificial sweeteners are currently complex, Page said. For example, the American Diabetes Association tells people with insulin resistance and diabetes to use no-calorie drinks and foods, but sparingly. 'I'm an endocrinologist so I see patients for diabetes and obesity,' Page said. 'I would never say drink or eat more sugar. 'Instead, I tell my patients to not rely on non-caloric sweeteners as a substitute for sugar and try to reduce the overall intake of dietary sweeteners in general,' she said. Katz agreed, preferring to suggest a form of taste bud 'rehab ' that can reduce overall use of sugars, no matter what their form. 'A truly wholesome diet has little added sugar in the first place, and thus no sugar to 'replace' with sucralose and related compounds,' Katz said. Just as many people have cut their use of salt, it's possible to cut your use of sweeteners by teaching taste buds to desire fewer sweets, he said. Taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, research has shown. Start out by finding hidden sources of sugar in foods you may not realize are sweetened, Katz told CNN in a prior interview. 'If I asked you to boycott all the desserts in your life, you would probably rebel or fail,' Katz said. 'But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips.' By choosing products without sweeteners, he said, it's possible to reduce a person's daily intake of sugar or sweeteners 'by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet.'
CNN
29-03-2025
- Health
- CNN
Artificial sweetener found in diet drinks linked to brain changes that increase appetite, study finds
A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss. 'Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,' Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO's department of nutrition and food safety, said at the time. Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink. 'Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,' said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said. In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal. The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificials sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K and sodium saccharin. 'This is a very high quality study, using state of the art methods and careful analysis,' said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, via email. Katz, founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, was not involved in the study. The authors interpreted their results carefully yet make a strong case that 'non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health,' Katz said. A spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group, which manufactures Splenda, said that low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners are backed by research and expert recommendations. 'Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water, and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels,' the spokesperson wrote via email. The idea that artificial sweeteners may be increasing hunger signals from the mammalian brain isn't new — a prior study coauthored by Page found women and people with obesity were especially sensitive. 'Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects,' Katz said. However, 'this is, to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center.' All cells in the body require glucose for energy. The brain is the biggest user, gobbling up to half of all sugars circulating in the blood. Nature, however, designed the brain to respond to natural sugars such as glucose found in whole fruits and some vegetables. Artificial sweeteners, therefore, appear to confuse the brain, Page said, by sending signals of sweetness without delivering the needed calories the brain requires. Scientists have hypothesized that when those promised calories don't arrive, the brain may send out a signal to eat more. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, asked 75 people to consume one of three drinks on three separate occasions: plain water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose. During each visit, the research team tested participants' fasting blood sugar levels, followed by a brain scan called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which tracks blood flow to capture activity in different regions of the brain. 'They came out of the scanner and consumed one of the three drinks, and went back into the scanner,' Page said. One glass contained 300 milliliters of water and 75 grams (about 2.5 ounces) of sugar (sucrose), which is the equivalent of a 16-ounce can of sugary soda, Page said. Another drink contained enough sucralose to match that sweetness. Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The third drink was plain water, which served as a control. During the brain scanning, Page and her team did another round of blood sampling at 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 120 minutes after consuming the drink and asked participants to rate their hunger level. '(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis,' said Kyle Burger, a scientist at the nonprofit Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which investigates human senses of taste and smell. Burger was not involved in the study. In addition to finding that drinks with sucralose increased the sensation of hunger by about 17%, Page and her team found increased connections to other parts of the brain responsible for controlling motivation. 'Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills,' Page said. 'For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision.' In addition, blood tests showed sucralose had no effect on hormones the brain uses to tell when we are satisfied and no longer hungry, Page said. 'There's no signal, no signal at all,' she said. 'There's a sweetness signal, but there's no hormone signal telling you you're full. Sucralose doesn't have an effect on those hormones.' Not everyone, however, may feel the combined effects of sucralose in the same way, Katz said. 'Those with insulin resistance, for instance, may be especially prone to disruption of normal appetite control with sucralose,' he said. Recommendations on how to manage the body's reactions to artificial sweeteners are currently complex, Page said. For example, the American Diabetes Association tells people with insulin resistance and diabetes to use no-calorie drinks and foods, but sparingly. 'I'm an endocrinologist so I see patients for diabetes and obesity,' Page said. 'I would never say drink or eat more sugar. 'Instead, I tell my patients to not rely on non-caloric sweeteners as a substitute for sugar and try to reduce the overall intake of dietary sweeteners in general,' she said. Katz agreed, preferring to suggest a form of taste bud 'rehab' that can reduce overall use of sugars, no matter what their form. 'A truly wholesome diet has little added sugar in the first place, and thus no sugar to 'replace' with sucralose and related compounds,' Katz said. Just as many people have cut their use of salt, it's possible to cut your use of sweeteners by teaching taste buds to desire fewer sweets, he said. Taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, research has shown. Start out by finding hidden sources of sugar in foods you may not realize are sweetened, Katz told CNN in a prior interview. 'If I asked you to boycott all the desserts in your life, you would probably rebel or fail,' Katz said. 'But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips.' By choosing products without sweeteners, he said, it's possible to reduce a person's daily intake of sugar or sweeteners 'by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet.'
CNN
29-03-2025
- Health
- CNN
Artificial sweetener found in diet drinks linked to brain changes that increase appetite, study finds
A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss. 'Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,' Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO's department of nutrition and food safety, said at the time. Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink. 'Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,' said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said. In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal. The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificials sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K and sodium saccharin. 'This is a very high quality study, using state of the art methods and careful analysis,' said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, via email. Katz, founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, was not involved in the study. The authors interpreted their results carefully yet make a strong case that 'non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health,' Katz said. A spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group, which manufactures Splenda, said that low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners are backed by research and expert recommendations. 'Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water, and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels,' the spokesperson wrote via email. The idea that artificial sweeteners may be increasing hunger signals from the mammalian brain isn't new — a prior study coauthored by Page found women and people with obesity were especially sensitive. 'Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects,' Katz said. However, 'this is, to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center.' All cells in the body require glucose for energy. The brain is the biggest user, gobbling up to half of all sugars circulating in the blood. Nature, however, designed the brain to respond to natural sugars such as glucose found in whole fruits and some vegetables. Artificial sweeteners, therefore, appear to confuse the brain, Page said, by sending signals of sweetness without delivering the needed calories the brain requires. Scientists have hypothesized that when those promised calories don't arrive, the brain may send out a signal to eat more. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, asked 75 people to consume one of three drinks on three separate occasions: plain water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose. During each visit, the research team tested participants' fasting blood sugar levels, followed by a brain scan called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which tracks blood flow to capture activity in different regions of the brain. 'They came out of the scanner and consumed one of the three drinks, and went back into the scanner,' Page said. One glass contained 300 milliliters of water and 75 grams (about 2.5 ounces) of sugar (sucrose), which is the equivalent of a 16-ounce can of sugary soda, Page said. Another drink contained enough sucralose to match that sweetness. Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The third drink was plain water, which served as a control. During the brain scanning, Page and her team did another round of blood sampling at 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 120 minutes after consuming the drink and asked participants to rate their hunger level. '(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis,' said Kyle Burger, a scientist at the nonprofit Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which investigates human senses of taste and smell. Burger was not involved in the study. In addition to finding that drinks with sucralose increased the sensation of hunger by about 17%, Page and her team found increased connections to other parts of the brain responsible for controlling motivation. 'Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills,' Page said. 'For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision.' In addition, blood tests showed sucralose had no effect on hormones the brain uses to tell when we are satisfied and no longer hungry, Page said. 'There's no signal, no signal at all,' she said. 'There's a sweetness signal, but there's no hormone signal telling you you're full. Sucralose doesn't have an effect on those hormones.' Not everyone, however, may feel the combined effects of sucralose in the same way, Katz said. 'Those with insulin resistance, for instance, may be especially prone to disruption of normal appetite control with sucralose,' he said. Recommendations on how to manage the body's reactions to artificial sweeteners are currently complex, Page said. For example, the American Diabetes Association tells people with insulin resistance and diabetes to use no-calorie drinks and foods, but sparingly. 'I'm an endocrinologist so I see patients for diabetes and obesity,' Page said. 'I would never say drink or eat more sugar. 'Instead, I tell my patients to not rely on non-caloric sweeteners as a substitute for sugar and try to reduce the overall intake of dietary sweeteners in general,' she said. Katz agreed, preferring to suggest a form of taste bud 'rehab' that can reduce overall use of sugars, no matter what their form. 'A truly wholesome diet has little added sugar in the first place, and thus no sugar to 'replace' with sucralose and related compounds,' Katz said. Just as many people have cut their use of salt, it's possible to cut your use of sweeteners by teaching taste buds to desire fewer sweets, he said. Taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, research has shown. Start out by finding hidden sources of sugar in foods you may not realize are sweetened, Katz told CNN in a prior interview. 'If I asked you to boycott all the desserts in your life, you would probably rebel or fail,' Katz said. 'But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips.' By choosing products without sweeteners, he said, it's possible to reduce a person's daily intake of sugar or sweeteners 'by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet.'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Artificial sweetener sucralose confuses brain and increases hunger, study says
Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss. 'Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,' Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO's department of nutrition and food safety, said at the time. Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink. 'Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,' said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said. In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal. The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificials sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K and sodium saccharin. 'This is a very high quality study, using state of the art methods and careful analysis,' said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, via email. Katz, founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, was not involved in the study. The authors interpreted their results carefully yet make a strong case that 'non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health,' Katz said. A spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group, which manufactures Splenda, said that low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners are backed by research and expert recommendations. 'Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water, and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels,' the spokesperson wrote via email. The idea that artificial sweeteners may be increasing hunger signals from the mammalian brain isn't new — a prior study coauthored by Page found women and people with obesity were especially sensitive. 'Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects,' Katz said. However, 'this is, to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center.' All cells in the body require glucose for energy. The brain is the biggest user, gobbling up to half of all sugars circulating in the blood. Nature, however, designed the brain to respond to natural sugars such as glucose found in whole fruits and some vegetables. Artificial sweeteners, therefore, appear to confuse the brain, Page said, by sending signals of sweetness without delivering the needed calories the brain requires. Scientists have hypothesized that when those promised calories don't arrive, the brain may send out a signal to eat more. The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, asked 75 people to consume one of three drinks on three separate occasions: plain water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose. During each visit, the research team tested participants' fasting blood sugar levels, followed by a brain scan called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which tracks blood flow to capture activity in different regions of the brain. 'They came out of the scanner and consumed one of the three drinks, and went back into the scanner,' Page said. One glass contained 300 milliliters of water and 75 grams (about 2.5 ounces) of sugar (sucrose), which is the equivalent of a 16-ounce can of sugary soda, Page said. Another drink contained enough sucralose to match that sweetness. Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. The third drink was plain water, which served as a control. During the brain scanning, Page and her team did another round of blood sampling at 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 120 minutes after consuming the drink and asked participants to rate their hunger level. '(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis,' said Kyle Burger, a scientist at the nonprofit Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which investigates human senses of taste and smell. Burger was not involved in the study. In addition to finding that drinks with sucralose increased the sensation of hunger by about 17%, Page and her team found increased connections to other parts of the brain responsible for controlling motivation. 'Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills,' Page said. 'For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision.' In addition, blood tests showed sucralose had no effect on hormones the brain uses to tell when we are satisfied and no longer hungry, Page said. 'There's no signal, no signal at all,' she said. 'There's a sweetness signal, but there's no hormone signal telling you you're full. Sucralose doesn't have an effect on those hormones.' Not everyone, however, may feel the combined effects of sucralose in the same way, Katz said. 'Those with insulin resistance, for instance, may be especially prone to disruption of normal appetite control with sucralose,' he said. Recommendations on how to manage the body's reactions to artificial sweeteners are currently complex, Page said. For example, the American Diabetes Association tells people with insulin resistance and diabetes to use no-calorie drinks and foods, but sparingly. 'I'm an endocrinologist so I see patients for diabetes and obesity,' Page said. 'I would never say drink or eat more sugar. 'Instead, I tell my patients to not rely on non-caloric sweeteners as a substitute for sugar and try to reduce the overall intake of dietary sweeteners in general,' she said. Katz agreed, preferring to suggest a form of taste bud 'rehab' that can reduce overall use of sugars, no matter what their form. 'A truly wholesome diet has little added sugar in the first place, and thus no sugar to 'replace' with sucralose and related compounds,' Katz said. Just as many people have cut their use of salt, it's possible to cut your use of sweeteners by teaching taste buds to desire fewer sweets, he said. Taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, research has shown. Start out by finding hidden sources of sugar in foods you may not realize are sweetened, Katz told CNN in a prior interview. 'If I asked you to boycott all the desserts in your life, you would probably rebel or fail,' Katz said. 'But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips.' By choosing products without sweeteners, he said, it's possible to reduce a person's daily intake of sugar or sweeteners 'by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet.'
