Artificial sweeteners cause diabetes!

One of my favorite nutrition publications I get is Health Alert by Dr. Bruce West. Each month I look forward to the latest edition. The official title is Health Alert: When All Other Treatments Fail. I think you get the picture. Dr. West is a Chiropractor and a big fan of Standard Process products. He is also a big fan of the truth. February’s issue was full of juicy nuggets that I’d like to share.

Nugget #2: Artificial sweeteners cause diabetes! A study of mice showed that consuming artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, sucralose (Splenda), and aspartame (Equal, Sweet n low) cause glucose intolerance or type 2 diabetes. In the study one group of mice was fed the artificial sweeteners and another group fed sugar. The ones fed sugar did not develop diabetes, just the artificial sweetener group. This was replicated in a small group of healthy human subjects who were placed on a diet containing artificial sweeteners. Within just one week over 50% of the humans developed glucose intolerance! 

How does this happen? The artificial sweeteners alter our gut flora in the large intestines which changes our metabolism to favor glucose intolerance. This was proven by transplanting feces from the two groups of mice into germ-free mice. The mice that got the feces from the artificial sweetener fed mice developed diabetes. Not so with the mice getting feces from the sugar fed mice. This proves the artificial sweeteners affected the gut flora and led to glucose intolerance!