Health Weird, But True We drink more alcohol on Thursday through Sunday, the days when we tend to work out more. Trying to shed some extra weight? Stick to a single glass of Cabernet this weekend.
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HTEXAS.COM
UG AR IS BAD—WE GET IT. But calorie-free sweeteners like sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), saccharin (Sweet ‘N Low), stevia and sugar alcohols (such as xylitol and modified sugar molecules) may be just as bad. A study in the American Journal of Public Health found that overweight and obese people who consumed
diet beverages took in 88 to 194 more calories per day compared to those who didn’t. “This may be because calorie-free sweeteners activate reward centers in the brain and disrupt appetite control, leading to increased food intake,” according to lead researcher Sara N. Bleich, PhD, an associate professor at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. So if you drink a diet soda, you may be more likely to
give yourself permission to splurge on a chocolate croissant or a Three Musketeers bar later on. What’s more, most faux sugars taste even sweeter than the real thing, so they may simply cultivate a preference for overly sweet foods. So the best strategy for subduing a sabersized sweet tooth is to reduce your intake of all types of sweeteners. —Matthew Kadey, MS, RD
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Source: Northwestern Medicine study published in Health Psychology
