artificial sweeteners Archives

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sweetener?

Have you been wondering, as many people have, if stevia is really a “gut-safe” sweetener?

Whether it’s artificial sweeteners or sugar, both create problems with the gut by blocking proteins that help you maintain a healthy weight or altering the healthy composition of your gut bacteria.

As concerns about real sugar and artificial sweeteners have grown, many have considered stevia, a sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant.

Stevia is marketed by manufacturers as a natural sweetener, although it’s processed or combined with other ingredients to create a sweetener and, just like artificial sweeteners, it contains no calories. But, it is up to 400 times sweeter than table sugar.

Some experts believe stevia is a better choice for your overall health, and recommend that you use it as you would table sugar. However, before adding stevia to your grocery list, it’s important to ask yourself if stevia really is a gut-safe sweetener.

The answer will surprise you…

A Disruptive Presence

Despite very different approaches, a pair of research teams from Israel in separate studies came to very similar conclusions that stevia may have a disruptive effect on the gut.

In a 2021 study featured in the journal Molecules, scientists at Ben Gurion University studied the effect of stevia extracts (steviol, Reb A and Stevioside) when they come in contact with a strain derived from harmful E. Coli bacteria with an emphasis on digesting food

In this case, the use of stevia disrupted the healthy microbial balance by delaying how gut bacteria communicate in the microbiome, which can often lead to problems with gas, constipation, stomach pains and other gut-related issues.

These disruptions were far more evident in a very recent study conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science that compared the gut health of patients consuming three artificial sweeteners (saccharin, sucralose and aspartame) or stevia far below suggested “normal” levels for two weeks.

During that short interval of time, any sugar substitute used — stevia or artificial sweeteners — altered the composition of gut bacteria very differently and they were related to a patient’s impaired glucose tolerance.

The Take-Home Message

Despite the not-great news about stevia and other zero-calorie sweeteners, you do have lots of options at your disposal to protect your microbiome and keep the pounds off. And, you can act right now to protect your gut microbiome by taking these steps.

Stay hydrated with clean fresh water. (A healthy tip: Add lemon slices along with a dash of cinnamon or turmeric to your water for extra flavor.)
Moderation, moderation and moderation. Pay attention to what you’re eating or drinking and how your body feels afterward (even if it tastes great).
Read the Nutrition Facts labels displayed on any processed foods you eat for signs of added sugars. You’ll be surprised about how many added sugars are used to produce processed foods. (Brands of flavored yogurt labelled as low-fat may contain as much as 33 grams of sugar per serving!)
Protect the bacteria in your gut so they keep working as they should behind the scenes by taking a probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

If you’ve been looking for a proven probiotic, ideally formulated with beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families, consider the proprietary blend of 10 strains plus a proven probiotic (FOS) in each daily dose of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

EndoMune is built to protect your microbiome and keep it communicating, even in the presence of a “natural” sweetener like stevia.

And, if you need some extra help to get started on your weight loss journey, consider EndoMune Metabolic Rescue, a probiotic uniquely formulated with Bifidobacterium lactis and the prebiotic XOS that promotes a sense of fullness in addition to protecting the health of your gut.

References

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sweetener? Read More »

Middle aged man holding bag of groceries overstuffed with produce

How Men Can Avoid the Colon Cancer “Diet”

Diet, Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

How Men Can Avoid the Colon Cancer “Diet”

There’s no doubt in the world that one of the easiest things you can do to protect your health and avoid serious disease — eating a nutrient-dense diet packed with lots of unprocessed whole foods, fiber and natural sugars — is one of the best things too.

Unfortunately, we see the old adage, You are what you eat!, play out every day in rising mortality rates on a global scale due to poor diets than smoking and car accidents.

A recent study appearing in The BMJ underscores the risk of poor diets, concluding that men raise their risk of developing colon cancer by 29 percent just by eating highly processed foods.

Rising Rates of Colon Cancer

You’ve probably read similar reports we have about the rising rates of colon cancer, leading scientists to predict it will become the leading cause of death for patients under age 50 by the end of this decade.

Researchers at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy already had assumed diet was a major contributor in a colon cancer diagnosis, but who was more vulnerable and why.

Scientists reviewed data from more than 205,000 patients across three large studies that tracked dietary intake along with how often people consumed a list of some 130 foods for more than 25 years.

During that time, men were far more susceptible to colon cancer than women, largely due to eating diets full of highly processed meats, poultry, pork and fish, ready-to-eat meals and sugar-sweetened drinks.

These results led researchers to consider the possibility that other factors could be responsible for rising colon cancer risks among men, like the role food additives play in harming the balance of bacteria in the gut and promoting inflammation.

Reduce Your Colon Cancer Risks

Eating a healthier, fiber-rich diet made up of fewer highly processed meats along with incorporating some movement into your daily routine will go a long way toward reducing your colon cancer risks. However, we recommend adding a couple of things to your to-do list.

For one, get screened for colon cancer as soon as you’re able. Although the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended lowering the age for a first screening to age 45 last year, if you have a family history of colon cancer take the initiative and do it sooner.

Also, given what we already know about the health-harming use of antibiotics and their effect on raising your colon cancer risks, we recommend taking a daily probiotic with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria and a proven prebiotic (that feeds the beneficial bacteria in your gut).

You can get the protection you need with the proprietary blend of 10 proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families and the prebiotic FOS contained in each serving of EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

Resources

Tufts Now

The BMJ

People

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The Gut’s Connection To Psoriasis

Diet, Digestive Health, Women’s Health / By @drHoberman

The Gut’s Connection To Psoriasis

We’re getting more evidence by the day about the harmful effects of the Western diet, a nutrient-poor mix of highly processed foods full of fats, refined grains and sugars, and its relation to the gut.

It doesn’t take much to create unhealthy imbalances in the gut that lead to newly discovered problems, as researchers from the University of California Davis have recently discovered.

The reduction of microbial diversity and the loss of beneficial bacteria, better known as the dysbiosis of the human gut, is so harmful that it can leave you vulnerable to inflammatory skin conditions like psoriasis and more serious related problems such as psoriatic arthritis.

As many as 30 percent of patients who have psoriasis also suffer from psoriatic arthritis, a condition that causes painful, swollen joints. (This could be the first or only symptom of psoriasis.)

How Processed Foods Affect Psoriasis

To study the harm poor diets can do to the gut, scientists worked with mice, starting off by feeding them a Western diet for six weeks then injecting them with Interleukin-23 (IL-23), a chemical that drives inflammation, to induce a response that mimics psoriasis.

After that first six-week period, the mice were divided randomly into two groups, with half of them maintaining a Western diet while the rest eating a more balanced diet for an additional four weeks.

No surprise, mice that were fed a Western diet for the entire 10 weeks experienced skin and joint inflammation which wasn’t a surprise. In fact, test animals that were switched to a balanced diet had fewer skin problems and reduced ear thickness.

“It was quite surprising that a simple diet modification of less sugar and fat may have significant effects on psoriasis,” said Zhenrui Shi, a visiting assistant researcher in the University of California Davis’ department of dermatology and lead author on the study.

But that’s only part of the solution…

We’ve shared a lot of research with you recently about the benefits of maintaining a healthy gut to treat common skin conditions like acne and prevent bone loss by taking a probiotic with beneficial bacteria.

Any probiotic you take to protect your gut should contain multiple strains of beneficial bacteria to make a healthy difference, like the 10 proven strains from the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium families found in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

EndoMune also features a prebiotic (FOS) made of digestible plant fibers and carbohydrates that do important work behind the scenes to feed the bacteria in your gut and stimulate their growth.

References

Journal of Investigative Dermatology

UC Davis Health

Mayo Clinic

Science Direct

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Four spoons holding different types of sugar and artificial sugars. Text: Should you use artificial sweeteners?

Artificial Sweeteners Disrupt Gut Health

Diet, Digestive Health, Probiotics / By @drHoberman

Artificial Sweeteners Disrupt Your Gut Health

Artificial sweeteners are some of the first options people consider when they want to lose weight yet still satisfy their sweet tooth.

But, as we’ve learned from previous research, there are tradeoffs when you turn to popular products like artificial sweeteners. Some of them may do more harm than good to your health.

An international research team from Israel and Cyprus recently took a second look at how those six artificial sweeteners affect human health.

Based on a new report featured in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, scientists found three of those very popular artificial sweeteners used in so many “diet” foods, sports supplements and carbonated beverages may interfere with how the bacteria in your gut communicate and could increase your risk of disease.

The Unsweet Results

The test was a very simple one as researchers exposed light-emitting bacteria to a half-dozen FDA-approved artificial sweeteners contained in many sports supplements athletes use.

Three of those artificial sweeteners — aspartame, sucralose and saccharin — reduced the light from the light-emitting bacteria, signaling to researchers that communication between bacteria was disrupted.

Why this new knowledge is so important: Labeling on products like popular diet sodas and sports drinks don’t accurately tell us how much of the fake stuff they contain, says Dr. Ariel Kushmuro, who runs the Ben-Gurion University’s Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology.

In other words, how much artificial sweetener is contained in that sports drink and what amount of it creates health problems? Given that aspartame, sucralose and saccharine range in sweetness from 200 to 700 more than table sugar, it’s hard to be completely sure.

Healthier Options

If you’re ready to reduce your intake of diet drinks and sports supplements, you do have better, healthier options, like drinking water that promotes more natural fullness and keeps you hydrated.

However, if you’re not ready to give up on sweet drinks and other products containing artificial sweeteners, it’s a good idea to protect the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut by taking a probiotic with proven strains of beneficial bacteria from the Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus families, like those found in EndoMune Advanced Probiotic.

References

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Ben-Gurion University

Israel 21

Times of Israel

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Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sugar?

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

For a long time, people have been looking for ways to satisfy their sweet tooth cravings without having to sacrifice their waistlines or gut health for it. The real refined sugar contained in most processed foods that populate Western diets (including ones you’d never imagine) is a big no and the same applies for artificial sweeteners.

Whether it’s real sugar or the artificial sweeteners, both can create problems with the gut, either by blocking proteins that help you maintain a healthy weight or changing the composition of your gut bacteria for the worse.

With the reputation of real sugar and artificial sweeteners on the wane, a lot of you may have considered stevia, a sweetener derived from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant that contains nearly no calories.

Like many food products, stevia is marketed by manufacturers as a natural one, even though it’s actually processed or combined with other ingredients to create a sweetener.

But is stevia really good for your gut?

An unbalanced answer

Considering its emerging popularity, scientists at Ben Gurion University in Israel studied the effect of stevia extracts (steviol, Reb A and stevioside) in the lab on a strain derived from the harmful E. coli bacteria with an emphasis on digesting food.

Like other sweeteners, however, stevia created problems, but not by tipping the balance of good versus bad bacteria in the gut as one might assume.

Instead, stevia had the effect of disrupting the communication between bacteria in the gut, which could explain why some people experience constipation, gas or stomach pain after using it in their coffee or in making foods.

This study serves as an initial analysis that shows more work needs to be done “before the food industry replaces sugar and artificial sweeteners with stevia,” says lead researcher Dr. Karina Golberg.

The take-home message

Don’t be too concerned that there’s no “safe” sweetener you can use that will help you in your quest to protect your gut health and keep the pounds off. Here are simple steps you can take that can make a difference today.

Stay hydrated with clean fresh water. (A healthy tip: Add lemon slices along with a dash of cinnamon or turmeric to your water for extra flavor.)
Moderation, moderation and moderation. Pay attention to what you’re eating or drinking and how your body feels afterward (even if tastes great).
Read the Nutrition Facts displayed on the labels of any processed foods you eat for signs of added sugars.
Protect the bacteria in your gut so they keep working as they should behind the scenes by taking a probiotic formulated with multiple strains of beneficial bacteria.

EndoMune Advanced Probiotic is formulated with a proprietary blend of 10 bacterial strains plus a proven prebiotic (FOS) that can keep the microbiome communicating even in the presence of a “natural” sweetener like stevia.

References

Is Stevia Really a “Gut-Safe” Sugar? Read More »

Are Artificial Sweeteners Harming Your Unborn Child?

Children’s Health, Women’s Health / By Staff Writer

There is a lot of focus put on your diet and nutrition during pregnancy. Doctors tell you to eat a wholesome, well rounded diet and to cut back on processed carbs and refined sugars. Many women will largely cut back on sugar while pregnant, only to replace it with foods and drinks that are artificially sweetened. Which makes people wonder; are artificial sweeteners harming your unborn child?

First, let’s answer the question:

What are artificial sweeteners and where are they hiding?

Artificial sweeteners are synthetic sugar substitutes. They add sweetness to food and are many times sweeter than regular sugar while adding virtually no calories to your diet.

You can find artificial sweeteners in a variety of food and beverages marketed as “sugar-free” or “diet” and they are widely used in processed foods, including:

Soft drinks
Baked goods
Candy
Pudding
Canned foods
Jams and jellies
Dairy products

If you find yourself consuming a number of these items, you’re not alone. In a Study by the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, “[artificial sweetener consumption] numbers represent a 200 percent increase in LCS (low-calorie sweeteners) consumption for children and a 54 percent jump for adults from 1999 to 2012” and the numbers are only going up.

Those are some significant statistics to digest!

Artificial sweeteners can look like an attractive alternative because you only need a fraction of the amount you would use with normal sugar, but they can be a double-edged sword, depending on your current health.

A handful of artificial sweeteners have been approved by The FDA as sugar substitutes that people often use to help them lose weight, which is a good thing for sure.

However, the use of artificial sweeteners comes with risks.

Some studies have found that artificial sweeteners may even have the opposite effect of increasing a patient’s risk of developing diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

A newer risk emerged recently when we reported on how consuming the same amounts of two specific artificialsweeteners contained in 1.5 liters of diet soda over just a two-week period was enough to harm the balance of bacteria in the human gut.

These same artificial sweeteners — sucralose and acesulfame-potassium — from this previous study — wereexamined in a new report about exposure in the womb and after childbirth via breast milk in mice.

Scientists exposed more than 200 pregnant and lactating mice to one of the following: (1) the maximum acceptable daily amounts (ADI) of sweeteners, (2) double the ADI or (3) water, according to this new report appearing in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Some amounts of sweeteners are passed on through the placenta and breast milk, but researchers weren’t sure how their bodies would adapt metabolically.

The Real Problem

No surprise, the metabolic and gut health changes that followed in both animal groups exposed to sweeteners were very obvious and should be a concern if you use them regularly.

For one, the benefits of using artificial sweeteners — losing weight and lower blood glucose levels — was only seen in mice fed twice the maximum amounts.

Plus, researchers detected drastic shifts in the gut microbiomes of animals exposed to artificial sweeteners even the smaller typical daily dose.

Currently, future moms are advised to use artificial sweeteners only in moderation, and avoid saccharine altogether.

Yet, with artificial sweeteners turning up in increasing numbers of products apart from foods (toothpaste and mouthwash), it’s hard to keep track of how much your body is being exposed to these substances every day.

Some Solutions

Here are some simple steps you can take right away to protect your health.

Protect your gut by taking EndoMune probiotics everyday. EndoMune Advanced Probiotic safeguards andfortifies the balance of bacteria in your gut with 10 strains of beneficial bacteria and a prebiotic that keeps your good bacteria
Avoid artificial sweeteners as often as possible and be more mindful about cutting back on that extra diet
Do your homework by reading Nutrition Facts Labeling.

If you want to lose weight safely and need a jumpstart to do it, you may want to consider EndoMune Metabolic Rescue. It’s a unique blend of the prebiotic, XOS, that promotes a feeling of fullness and a probiotic, Bifidobacterium Lactis, which supports a healthier gut Microbiome.

Are Artificial Sweeteners Harming Your Unborn Child? Read More »

someone pouring sweetener into their coffee

How Artificial Sweeteners May Hurt You

Diet, Digestive Health, Healthy Aging / By @drHoberman

Artificial sweeteners have found their way into a wide variety of foods — mostly processed products like diet sodas, but even in ones prepared at home — people eat in their efforts to lose weight over the years.

There are always tradeoffs when you make drastic changes in your diet, however, and some may not be worth it based on the state of your health.

Unfortunately, switching to artificial sweeteners could be a serious tradeoff that can cause serious problems for your gut health.

The damage was real, based on the results of a very recent study that monitored the gut health of 29 healthy, non-diabetic Australian patients who consumed artificial sweeteners.

Some patients received the amount of artificial sweeteners you’d drink in 1.5 liters (about 51 ounces) of diet sodas each day for just two weeks or a placebo.

After comparing stool samples before and after the trial, researchers concluded the consumption of artificial sweeteners was enough to change the composition of bacteria in the human gut for the worse.

Not only did bacteria that promote good health significantly decrease, so did the species that fermented foods. Plus, 11 different species of opportunistic bad bacteria increased too.

All of these changes in the gut occurred at the very same time as declines in microbial genes that work to metabolize simple sugars like glucose and a specific hormone (GLP-1) that controls blood glucose levels.

Just to reiterate, all of these changes happened in just two weeks.

A second recent study appearing in the journal Molecules (conducted by researchers in Singapore and Israel) underscored the damage artificial sweeteners could do to your gut health.

This time, scientists exposed modified E. coli bacteria to 1 milligram amounts of a half-dozen popular sweeteners. Interestingly, each sugary substance did its own unique damage, from harming DNA to proteins in bacteria.

Artificial sweeteners are non-natural for good reason. Compared to real table sugar, many high-intensity, artificial sweeteners can be as much as 20,000 times sweeter than the real thing.

For example, the six artificial sweeteners used in the E. coli study are referred to as high-intensity sweeteners, according to the FDA. Here’s why, based how much sweeter they are compared to table sugar.

Aspartame: 200 times
Acesulfame potassium-k: 200 times
Sucralose: 600 times
Saccharine: 200-700 times
Neotame: 7,000-13,000 times
Advantame: 20,000 times

These aren’t the first studies that have called out artificial sweeteners for the possible harmful effects to your gut health, and they probably won’t be the last ones either.

The good news is that you have healthy options that are easy to do. For example, drinking more water keeps you hydrated, and promotes a sense of fullness so you won’t overeat.

If diet drinks are too hard for you to give up, based on this research alone, taking a probiotic — ideally a brand with multiple species of beneficial bacteria like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic — will protect the healthy balance of bacteria in your gut.

And, if you’ve been wanting to lose weight, the unique mix of Bififobacterium lactis and the prebiotic XOS in EndoMune Metabolic Rescue will give your body the jump start it needs to promote a feeling of fullness and protect your gut health too.

How Artificial Sweeteners May Hurt You Read More »

Artificial sweeteners may harm your gut health

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

Earlier this year, we explained how poor gut health can be one underlying factor that contributes to the epidemic of obesity plaguing our country.

So, you start on the right track by getting the right amount of exercise and sleep, cutting down on fatty foods, and switching from products containing real sugar to those made with non-caloric artificial sweeteners (to liven up that early morning infusion of java).

Unfortunately, those artificial sweeteners—specifically sucralose (sold in America as Splenda), aspartame (Nutrasweet and Equal) and saccharine (Necta Sweet or Sweet‘N Low)—may have the opposite effect, according to research published in the journal Nature.

Scientists from the Weizman Institute of Science’s Department of Immunology (Israel) made the discovery after feeding 10-week-old mice one of several diets (normal or high-fat) and water laced with one of the artificial sweeteners mirroring amounts sanctioned by the FDA, plain water or water mixed with glucose.

Eleven weeks later, the test animals exhibited signs of glucose intolerance, an indicator signaling several metabolic conditions including adult-onset diabetes or metabolic syndrome. What’s more, repeating the same test with different mice and different amounts of artificial sweeteners produced the very same results.

How test animals react to artificial sweeteners

Then, researchers tested a theory that the gut’s reaction to artificial sweeteners may be triggering glucose intolerance, because our bodies don’t recognize the sugar as food, using only saccharin. Interestingly, they found saccharin isn’t absorbed by the gut but does have contact with the gut bacteria in mice, which triggers glucose intolerance.

Other signs that gut bacteria was affected by artificial sweeteners:

Treating the mice with antibiotics reversed the process completely.
Transferring the microbiota of mice harmed by artificial sweeteners to sterile mice conferred the same results to the new animals.
DNA sequencing revealed contact with saccharin affected the diversity of gut bacteria.
Even placing the affected gut microbiota outside the bodies of sterile mice along with artificial sweeteners was enough to induce glucose intolerance.

How YOUR gut reacts to artificial sweeteners

Lastly, researchers at the Weisman Institute turned to data collected from The Personalized Nutrition Project, the largest human trial to study the connections between the human gut microbiota and nutrition.

Based just on the reporting of some 400 people (at this time only from Israel) participating in the project, scientists discovered a significant connection between their gut bacteria, self-reported consumption of artificial sweeteners and clinical signs of glucose intolerance.

Finally, scientists recruited seven fit and health volunteers who didn’t use artificial sweeteners to incorporate the maximum daily amount of it in their diets for seven days. The gut health of four patients changed to a balance associated with the propensity for metabolic diseases, while the remaining three weren’t affected at all.

Why were some volunteers affected, but others weren’t? Specific bacteria in the guts of those who developed glucose intolerance reacted to the fake sugar by secreting substances that triggered an inflammatory response similar to sugar overdose, thus promoting changes in the body’s ability to metabolize sugar, said Dr. Eran Elinav.

Even more compelling: Treating mice with gut bacteria of volunteers whose gut bacteria developed glucose intolerance triggered the same result.

Taking a probiotic protects your gut

“Our relationship with our own individual mix of gut bacteria is a huge factor in determining how the food we eat affects us,” said Dr. Elinav in a press release. “Especially intriguing is the link between use of artificial sweeteners—through the bacteria in our guts—to a tendency to develop the very disorders they were designed to prevent; this calls for reassessment of today’s massive, unsupervised consumption of these substances.”

Because the effect of artificial sweeteners wasn’t universal, it’s possible that probiotics could be used to shift gut bacteria in order to reverse the damage done by glucose intolerance, said Dr. Eran Segal, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizman Institute to the New York Times.

Because your gut bacteria can change very quickly based on the good and bad foods you eat, it’s more important than ever to take a probiotic, like EndoMune Advanced Probiotic or EndoMune Advanced Junior (for kids), containing multiple strains of beneficial bacteria for your good gut health.

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Not-So-Sweet News For Your Gut

Diet, Digestive Health / By @drHoberman

Multiple studies have been performed on the impact that fructose and artificial sweetners have upon the body. Now new research supports that these items, with the addition of sugary alcohols may contribute to metabolic disorders and obesity by triggering a “Western” gut microbiome. The microbiome occurs as a result of decreased diversity in the intestinal tract.

The impact of this microbiome can range from short-term to long-term, depending on your rate of consumption. To combat its negative impacts and promote a healthily diverse digestive bacteria environment, try a product like EndoMune which delivers both potency and variety.

Check out the full article and learn more about how the impact the “Western” gut microbiome is having upon recent community health.

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