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Updated: October 26, 2022 @ 4:16 am
Kathy
Kolasa
Kathy
Kolasa
The experts continue to plead with us, especially if we aren’t going to mask or social distance, to get your vaccines and boosters. Reduce your risk by eating healthy, exercising and getting enough sleep.
Q My mom has diabetes and I drink a lot of sodas. Should I switch to artificially sweetened drinks? I hear both good and bad things about them. JG, Ayden
A It sounds like you are considering lifestyle changes to lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Good for you. If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, you can reduce your risks of developing the disease with lifestyle changes. Bridget Gallagher is a third-year Brody medical student, and she will try to help you decide what actions to take. Here is what she wants you to know.
Beverages and foods sweetened with FDA-approved, low-calorie sweeteners including Acesulfame potassium, Advantame, Aspartame, Monk fruit sweeteners, Neotame, Saccharin, Stevia sweeteners and Sucralose are considered safe for all — except people with Phenylketonuria or PKU must avoid aspartame.
You probably recognize the brand names of the sweeteners like Equal, Sugar Twin, Sweet ’N Low, SPLENDA or the color of their bags — pink, blue and yellow. Low-calorie sweeteners give drinks all the sweetness of regular soda or sweet tea with few or no calories. Some people think they can drink all they want. Does that sound too good to be true? It might be.
It’s no secret that regularly drinking sugar-sweetened beverages like soda or sweet tea increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity. So, it might seem like a no-brainer to switch. I will explain a bit later why you need to do so thoughtfully. In the meantime, the evidence remains unwavering for choosing water, coffee or unsweet tea instead of sweetened drinks as the time-tested healthier choice. (According to the American Diabetes Association, sugar substitutes may be effective for some individuals, but it is yet to be proven as a good fit for all who wish to reduce their sugar intake.) Here are a few ideas to ease your palate away from sweetened drinks.
If sweet tea is your beverage of choice, swap out a full cup of sweet tea for half unsweet tea. If you enjoy diet sodas, replace just one of your daily diet drinks with a glass of water and lemon. If you frequent the seasonal sweetened lattes at your local coffee spot, ask the barista for two fewer pumps of that flavored syrup. Ever tried sparkling water? Try chilling plain sparkling water with two teaspoons of fresh lemon juice, some mint leaves, and a few fresh strawberries.
Challenge yourself to make these changes for one week and see how it feels. Have a friend who is also looking to reduce their sugar or sweetener intake? Make the changes together and remember you can experience sweetness in life without drinking it! And now, to explain why.
Arguably the most appealing selling point of beverages using low-calorie sweeteners is they have few if any calories. These sweeteners are made up of chemicals our bodies cannot metabolize and, therefore, cannot gain energy from. However, it may be surprising to learn the evidence is still unclear if replacing the sugar from sodas with artificial sweeteners is sufficient to lower the risk of obesity or type 2 diabetes.
Think about the taste profile of the sodas and why that might be the downside. These sweeteners are all much sweeter than regular sugar — from 100 to 20,000 times as sweet. Similar to how the bitter flavor of coffee or beer grows on your palate over time, repeated stimulation of our sweet sensing taste buds may lead us to prefer that sweetened taste with greater frequency in our diets and that can lead you to eat even more excess calories from all kinds of sugary foods with the risk of putting on even more weight and raising your risk for diabetes.
You need to consider how you will respond to the zero-calorie drinks as you decide. Getting less sugar is important. The Dietary Guidelines say everyone 2 years and older should keep their intake of added sugars to less than 10% of their total daily calories. If you take in about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 200 calories or 12 teaspoons which is what you would get in one soda. The American Heart Association recommends even less added sugar. Could you be happy with one diet drink a day?
Professor emeritus Kathy Kolasa, a registered dietitian nutritionist and Ph.D., is an affiliate professor in the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. Contact her at kolasaka@ecu.edu.
Kathy
Kolasa
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