New study identifies sugar replacement sweetener as biomarker for weight gain

(Mike Glasbrener) #1

Interesting. I’ve been afraid of artificial sweeteners since moving to Keto. After reading Fung’s book “obesity code” I learned that even though artificial sweeteners may not trigger a BS response they can still trigger an insulin response which is a problem for weight loss and diabetes. This study confirms that.

(Tom Seest) #2

My only caution is comparing “artificial sweeteners” as a group. It’s like saying all fat is bad too. Find the ones that work for you, and if none do; toss them aside. I’ve lost over 320 pounds now eating artificial sweeteners, and I haven’t gained any of it back. But, I’m only n=1.

#3

From the abstract:[quote]Therefore, endogenous production of erythritol from glucose may contribute to the association between erythritol and obesity observed in young adults.[/quote]

Endogenous means “from the body” doesn’t it? To me this reads like the study isn’t saying that the students who gained weight consumed erythritol in their diets, but that there is something else metabolically happening with them.

(Mike Glasbrener) #4

The actual study has to be paid for.

Cornell was one of the authors and from their news article:

“The study shows a novel metabolic pathway for dietary glucose with erythritol, an unrecognized product of glucose metabolism. Results found that erythritol is not only absorbed from food but is also produced by the body. By substituting carbon atoms in glucose with “heavy” carbon (13C), the researchers followed the route of glucose throughout metabolism in the body.”

So both consumed and produced by body…

"“This result proves that the body can synthesize the sugar alcohol itself,” said Hiller. “Erythritol is not consumed and released from the body unchanged; it has an impact on the metabolism of our body. This finding is in contrast to all previous assumptions.”

According to Cassano, “With the finding of a previously unrecognized metabolism of glucose to erythritol and given the erythritol-weight gain association, further research is needed to understand whether and how this pathway contributes to weight-gain risk.”"

They don’t understand the details of the weight gain mechanism but the study indicates a connection.

Again the learning thing for me in glycemic index is not everything! A weight gain response (insulin?) can be provoked w/o a BS rise. It’s just something to be noted. IMO

(Mike Glasbrener) #5

:+1:
Agreed in every way.
:+1:
Avoiding them entirely then adding them back one at a time to see which ones affect your weight is an excellent way to do a n=1 experiment. It wouldn’t even surprise me if the results of the experiment might change over time… But that’s purely a speculative opinion.

(Tom Seest) #6

I agree. Re-testing on an ongoing basis, as metabolic changes continue, would be important.

#7

If I understand the study correctly, at least some of the students actually drank glucose which the body turned into endogenous erythritol. It seems to me the correlation is really with glucose (and its resulting endogenous erythritol), not dietary erythritol.

The study shows a novel metabolic pathway for dietary glucose with erythritol, an unrecognized product of glucose metabolism. Results found that erythritol is not only absorbed from food but is also produced by the body. By substituting carbon atoms in glucose with “heavy” carbon (13C), the researchers followed the route of glucose throughout metabolism in the body.

The result was surprising. When participants drank 13C-labeled glucose, the labeled carbon was metabolized and appeared in blood erythritol after some time.

“This result proves that the body can synthesize the sugar alcohol itself,” said Hiller. “Erythritol is not consumed and released from the body unchanged; it has an impact on the metabolism of our body. This finding is in contrast to all previous assumptions.”

According to Cassano, “With the finding of a previously unrecognized metabolism of glucose to erythritol and given the erythritol-weight gain association, further research is needed to understand whether and how this pathway contributes to weight-gain risk.”

(Siobhan) #8

Yes. The study found that when people drank glucose, they produced some erythritol.
It did NOT suggest that when people drank erythritol, they produced glucose (as all studies have shown does not happen).

It is saying that erythritol can be a PRODUCT of glucose metabolization, not the other way around.

#9

Which means the headline (as all too often happens) is very misleading…

BTW, I’m a journalist and at most publications, the reporters (or in this case, researchers) don’t write the headlines. Very often, the page designers do it after reading the first few lines of the story. Which is why headlines are so often flat-out wrong.

(Mike Glasbrener) #10

They used consumed glucose with a substituted carbon atom (13C) for tracking purposes to study metabolic effects of erythritol in the BS. They also point out that erythitol is directly absorbed from consumption to BS. Without reading the details of the study it’s hard to say exactly the inputs and the results and thusly draw conclusions. But if the study accurately shows a correlation between BS erythritol and weight gain then I’ll assume it doesn’t matter how it got there.

However, if your postulating it’s not related to erythitol and just related to glucose consumption through which BS erythitol was incidentally raised then the whole study would be junk science…

Coincidently, Fung recommends avoiding sugar alcohols because they provoke and insulin response in some people. That data would correlate with what the authors think their study indicates…

#11

Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering. Not quite postulating, just wondering… the article leaves me totally confused.

Of course, I like using erythritol maybe I’m just looking for excuses lol. At least it doesn’t seem to throw me out of ketosis.

(Tim W) #12

I didn’t know this, thanks for the peek inside.

(Jenn Monaghan) #13

I used to work in the digital department at a media company and I’m the one who was re-writing some of the headlines. They made us change them to be certain lengths and be front loaded and all that. I always read the whole articles but I know others who did not.

(KetoCowboy) #14

I loved the journalistic insight, but secretly hoped that you would conclude your response with this:

-30-

#15

You were one of the real troopers! I knew many like you way back in the day, but in the past few years… well, we’ve all seen what’s happened to newspapers.

#16

Made me laugh! :smiley:

#17

I suppose this still leaves an open question with just some slight nudges about consuming erythritol. But, it could end up being that consumed erythritol has no affect on erythritol in the blood stream or elsewhere, similar to how we know that consumed cholesterol has negligible or no affect on cholesterol in the bloodstream (among other similar examples).

(Mike Glasbrener) #18

Fung’s book Obesity Code devotes a whole chapter to artificial sweeteners. He says they raise insulin levels even though their glycemic index is low. So they’re counter productive. I think detecting insulin response is very difficult for average people to determine since there’s no insulin monitors commercially available. I haven’t had any at all since fixing my woe because I’m not ready to figure out that one for me. Of course everyone is truly different. I would guess some people it doesn’t affect them. Others more so. It’s just something to be aware of.

BTW… Fructose does NOT raise BS much. But it’s horrible for you.

#19

I just want to stop chasing the “sweet”. I want to get sweetness from life differently. Whether a sweetener is “natural” (like erythritol) doesn’t seem to help me switch my focus. Whether my insulin raises (and I think it must) or not, I feel just too focused on sweets once I start eating them regularly. I wonder if the body prepares for a huge wallop of sweetness from substances that are 200-600 times as sweet as table sugar in a manner that is detrimental over the long course.

(Carol E. ) #20

This thread came up my Mr. Google’s search results of the keywords “delayed impact of erythritol”. Thanks for this elucidation on this particular study. In my experience, erythritol may not have an immediate, post meal impact on my blood glucose however there is some latent or delayed impact on subsequent readings. Of course, there are a bucket of other factors that contribute to my muddled observations.