So for the last hour I have been trying to figure out a way to simplify this article to where it makes sense, and without all the fluff in the article. I have been looking around the web finding articles people have written about this, and lets face it, not much has been said that someone can take home with them and actually use. I find it funny to listen to scientist explain their findings, they all talk from the understanding that everyone who reads their reports has a science degree.

So here is the break down from the article, for all of us simple folks who don’t want to go to college to understand it.

Lets use a fruit for this example, a cup of peach slices - 66 calories, and in your mind think of something with 20 calories in it, that contains one of these sweeteners that have saccharin - Sweet N Low, Equal, etc.

When you take a bite of the peaches your body immediately reacts to the sugar in the peach. So here’s what happens, simplified of course.

1. Your body Temperature increases, this is the result of your metabolism speeding up in anticipation of a calorie surge
2. With your Metabolism going strong, your body starts immediately breaking down the peaches and using the energy, IE the calories.
3. So now these 66 calories in the peaches are converted to instant energy, and in an ideal situation is burned off in short order. Your body with it’s new found energy, signals for you to be full.

This is a trained response we all have in our bodies. Sugar = instant energy and rush of calories. So the body speeds up. Fruit is also very easy for the body to break down, and get instant use of the calories. Simple I know, but that’s the point of this post.

Now lets use the 20 calories from a food product that contains saccharin.

1. You take a bite of the food with saccharin, your body does not recognize it as a sugar, so you do not have the temperature increase, which translate into no metabolism speed up.
2. The body doesn’t immediately start breaking down the food, and thus not using the calories. In my estimation, I would say the food is lightly broken down then sent to the intestine where the body tries to continue the breaking down process for energy.
3. Once the 20 calories are extracted, the body doesn’t have the racing metabolism process, so the 20 calories are most likely put towards energy storage. IE Fat

But there is another part to this equation, people who use saccharin tend to eat more calories.  So I am going to post my theories for this.

1. Your body is not getting the instant calorie rush from eating the peaches, so it has not sent the signal to the brain saying you are full and to stop eating.
2. Your body is expending extra energy to break down the saccharin food, so your body tries to combat against this cellular energy drain, by signaling for you to be hungry and eat more calories.
3. The food with saccharin is sitting in your intestine, slowly breaking down, and gumming up the digestion process; thus not allowing the flora in the intestine to break down other food for energy. So your body now believes it has not gotten the nutrients it needs, so it signals for you to eat more food in hopes of getting the nutrients it needs.

For all I know it could be doing all 3 of these things causing a triple threat in the body, that is working against you to lose weight. But in effect making you gain unnecessary weight. This is a simplified example and I hope this sheds light on what the findings mean for you.

Read the article From Time

If you have any thing you would like to add to this post, please leave a comment.