Does artificial sweeteners cause carb cravings?

(Keirra) #1

I recently made a keto cheesecake using erythritol and it was indistinguishable from the real thing. Once I started eating it I would crave it in the middle of the night the same way I did with carbs when I was addicted to them. This may sound silly but is it possible my body has been convinced it’s eating carbs?

#2

For me it doesn’t, some people say it does. Plus it can be sweetener dependent for others. We all seem to have some pretty different results when it comes to the artificial sweeteners. Especially the sugar alcohols.

(Joey) #3

Short answer: Yes, it’s entirely possible.

As @lfod14 notes, different people react differently to different sweeteners. My understanding is that certain sweeteners trigger an insulin response even though they are technically carbohydrate-free. The insulin spike and resulting hormonal avalanche can then cause the hunger/craving cycle shortly thereafter.

Best to avoid sweeteners if you can - especially to give yourself a chance to lose the “sweet tooth” preoccupation and develop habits and tastes for other flavorings/spices. But if you really feel the need to create replacement recipes for sweet things, clearly you need to test yourself and avoid those that are problematic.

FWIW, my wife and I have had great success using Stevia Extract (PURE - i.e., NOT spiked with other ingredients which is VERY common, so read the label carefully!) in our occasional home-made ice cream or dark 100% cacao treats.

I’ve even tested my blood glucose repeatedly after drinking Stevia-spiked water to confirm there was no glucose change - which implies no insulin effect. But again, everyone’s metabolism is their own, so you’ve got to experiment and explore what works well for you.

Best wishes!

(Carnivore for the win) #4

They do for me

(Jack Bennett) #5

Whether or not they trigger physiological carb cravings, they do seem to habituate the palate to sweet tastes.

If you don’t use sweetener, carrots might taste pretty sweet, and sugary dessert or soda might be overwhelming. If you’re accustomed to keto desserts, it might be easier to slip into “just one bite” of sugar-sweetened food and to enjoy it, causing a binge.

But everyone is different, so that’s just one possible scenario. For others, it might be just the “treat” needed to adhere to keto.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

If you think the erythritol made you crave carbohydrate, then it probably did. Responses to non-sugar sweeteners seem to be quite individual. Some people find them an aid to staying on their ketogenic diet, while others find that they are better off avoiding sweet tastes altogether. Some people find that such sweeteners impede their fat loss, even if they don’t react to the taste per se. If you find that such sweeteners whet your appetite for carbohydrate, then they are best avoided, for that reason alone.

(Tracy) #7

Friend, I know your struggle. I’ve been Keto for a year and a half and only 2 weeks of that did I go completely off sweet tasting foods. I’m a pastry maniac so I didn’t know how I would survive on keto, but I have. After I discovered allulose, erythritol, and other sweeteners that don’t have hidden carbs (maltodextrin, maltitol, etc.) I feel like they are the reason I can continue. My weight goal has been reached and hasn’t changed, so I will just keep enjoying my muffins with my coffee.

(Marianne) #8

I was on a homemade keto ice cream kick for a while, using erythritol. As you say, it tasted just like the real, premium ice cream made with sugar. I found that instead of eating it just as a treat, I wanted it more and more, so I just stopped making it. For that reason, I don’t make fat bombs or keto baked goods. I see some of these pictures of frosted cakes, cheesecakes and fat bombs, and I know positively that I would want to binge on them and would. After being “delivered” from a lifetime of food obsession for almost two years now, I just don’t want to tempt fate. I am perfectly satisfied without indulging my sweet tooth, although I’m sure those things would be very delicious. If we have a special occasion (probably me or my husband’s birthdays), I may make keto ice cream again, but once it’s done, I won’t make more until many months later. Christmas passed and New Year’s will as well with nothing more than some delicious meat and a vegetable. In spite of not allowing myself “sugar” or a sugar substitute, I still can’t believe we can eat the rich foods that we do. Best “diet” ever!

#9

Please post your recipes with allulose. I bought some and don’t know how to use it yet…

#10

This was my first thought too (not in such nice words though).
And if the mind wonders about sweets, it’s not a big jump to remember carby sweets even though one never actually crave the carbs themselves anymore and some keto dessert would be good enough, even preferable. The thought is there, maybe nostalgy, sometimes curiosity… Things can escalate quickly if we aren’t determined enough to stay on path, can’t persuade ourselves…etc. I am familiar with that.
When I tried carnivore and stopped eating plant carbs and sweeteners, my relationship with sweets drastically changed. Eating sweets every day vs occasionally is very different for me.

(Polly) #11

Yes. I cannot use artificial sweeteners for this very reason and now, having retrained my taste buds, I find I don’t like the taste anyway.

(Tracy) #12

One other point I want to make. Allulose, monk fruit, stevia, are natural. They aren’t artificial. I think there is a stigma in the keto community about eating foods that contain these ingredients. If they don’t raise your insulin or blood sugar, and you are able to control yourself, then eat them. Just because they closely resemble a food that did us so much harm in the past, isn’t a reason to rid them from our lives. There are TONS of keto foods that some people can’t control themselves around, like nuts. Many people just have to not keep them around, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a great keto food. If cheesecake in particular triggers something that makes you uncontrollable, then don’t make often. I can’t have a whipped cream in the fridge because I won’t stop until it’s gone. It will take a while to figure out what is helpful and what hinders your progress.

(Tracy) #13

Abi34 - check out the thread of “What did you Keto Today”. We are always posting pics of what we eat. You’ll get lots of ideas and it’s just fun to see what everyone is eating. As far as allulose goes, it’s so expensive it’s not possible to use it in every thing. I have to use monk fruit, stevia, or erythritol in most recipes. The only thing I use allulose for is when it MUST take on the properties of real sugar, like caramel sauce or meringue. So it pretty much sits in my cabinet waiting for the holidays.

(Joey) #14

@gingersmommy FWIW, I make ice cream regularly - whipping cream, 100% cacao chocolate powder, a splash of pure vanilla extract, sliced almonds, and PURE Stevia extract (no additives) - and we do love it as an occasional treat. We freeze it in a deep glass casserole dish, let it soften just a bit out of the freezer, carve out a few chunks, then promptly refreeze.

It’s so rich that even a small scoop is a grand way to top off a dinner meal with a glass of red wine. But, importantly, we’ve found the Stevia does not seem to cause any subsequent cravings in either my wife or myself.

As is said many times: different ingredients affect individuals differently.

But since you’ve determined that erythritol has this effect on you - as it does many others - ditch it for good.

If you’re set on trying to find a “sweet tooth” palliative, I suggest considering (pure) Stevia extract as a possibility. The pure form is much pricier, but you only require the smallest little squirt or two for considerable sweetness.

If you’re going to give this a try, note that Walmart sells little squirt bottles of their store brand “Great Value”… do NOT buy these as they’re a mix with other sweeteners. Read the fine print.

Instead, stick to the brand “Pyure” Stevia Extract (ingredients: organic stevia extract + alcohol) sitting next to the store brand on the same shelf.

Best wishes! :ice_cream:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

This is true, and so are many other sweeteners, including the dreaded aspartame. I believe that the term “artificial sweetener” was coined by the sugar industry to discourage people from doing without sugar. The sweetener that is the most “artificial” would be sodium saccharin, which is derived from coal tar, but coal tar is ultimately derived from plants, so . . . .

The problem is that there is really no term that accurately describes all of these alternative sweeteners, though “alternative sweeteners” is probably better than most. I believe the U.S. FDA uses the term “non-nutritive sweeteners,” but some of them do contain digestible calories. A while ago I took to calling them “non-sugar sweeteners,” forgetting about allulose.

So perhaps we should just continue using the term “artificial sweeteners” while remembering that most of them actually occur in nature. After all, we still use the terms “sunrise” and “sunset,” and Copernicus lived how many centuries ago?

If there is a stigma (which I am not entirely sure about, but you may be right), it is more likely from the amount of processing required to produce the products that contain them. The keto community does have a discernible bias towards whole, real foods. I have heard lectures by Dr. Phinney in which he gives his take: Alternative sweeteners may possibly have some bad effects on the body (much research still needs to be done), but if they help you cut out sucrose and other carbs from your diet, then why not make use of them, at least in the short term?

The problem that plagues nutritional research is that the results reported in published studies often correlate strongly with the industry that paid for the study in question. (I know that correlation does not necessarily imply causality, but one does have to wonder.) For example, the aspartame debate is so polluted with studies paid for by the sugar industry and its competitors (it’s either the Devil’s scourge or full of wholesome natural goodness) that I doubt we’ll ever know the actual truth. And lot of the scare about saccharin and cyclamates being possible carcinogens was bought and paid for by the sugar industry. It was on the basis of this spurious research that the U.S. FDA precipitously pulled them from the market.

As far as a well-formulated ketogenic diet is concerned, one fact is clear: the human body has no actual need of sugar or any other sweet-tasting substance. I have found that over time my taste has changed enough that I now generally find sweet foods to be far too sweet to be edible. In fact, at the moment, what I crave is not so much the glazed doughnuts that used to be my bane, but yeast bread, which doesn’t have to be sweet at all to set my mouth watering.

(Vic) #16

If those refined products are natural then we going to have to call Cocaine natural.

Calling them deceptive chemicals with no nutritional value would be more accurate.

Jm2c

Yep, I’m not a fan :grin:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #17

You are absolutely correct. Arsenic and cyanide are also “natural.” That’s the problem that makes the term not as useful as we might like.

(Polly) #18

I think there may be a disconnect between natural and real food. I only eat real food. If you are eating things which are not real food [and the non sucrose sweeteners fall into that category] then you are not doing yourself any favours.

(Joey) #19

… By the same token, isn’t sugar “natural” as far as food products go? It comes from cane plants and is cited in hundred/thousands of years BC in India in Sanskrit texts (from which the word sugar is derived).

I suggest we consider sugar as a natural (non-artificial?) ingredient. Natural doesn’t mean healthy, though. Hopefully there’s no confusion among us over that distinction. Being eaten by a tiger is perfectly natural. :grimacing:

(Jack Bennett) #20

Natural != safe
Natural != healthy
Artificial != deadly

And the opposite is not necessarily true either.

The key thing with natural ingredients and whole foods is that there’s a longer track record. We haven’t had much exposure to seed oils or eating 100lb/yr of sugar in our evolutionary history, and the experiment thus far is not encouraging…

Same thing with aspartame or ace-K - they seem fine but it might have some adverse effects on a population level…