healthmedicinet

Sugar: it’s in everything we eat, we love it, and it’s absolutely killing us. Deaths from type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease have all been linked to sugar intake, and yet our national consumption has never been higher. Thank goodness we had nutrition expert and bestselling author Cynthia Sass on the show to help navigate us through this sugar nightmare.

I know how sugary sodas can be. But I love them too much to stop drinking them completely. That’s why I make the responsible decision and just drink diet sodas. They’re sugar free, so they must be healthier. That’s why they make them, right?

Wrong. The sugar-free sweeteners these sodas use can be just as bad, if not worse than their regular sugar counterparts. In fact, Cynthia want us to go one step further and eliminate all unnatural ingredients from our diets entirely. “I’m not a fan of anything artificial in food” she says, “whether it’s colors, flavors, or sweeteners.” There’s enough natural food out there where we shouldn’t be putting anything artificial into our bodies. “It’s like polluting,” she says, “when you’re putting something in your body that serves no purpose and doesn’t help you in any way.”

There are serious health and diet consequences as well. Cynthia mentions that these artificial sweeteners have been shown to “disrupt appetite regulation,” making it harder for your body to tell if you’re hungry or full. They also may initiate a different type of “sweet tooth”, one that will keep you going back to the “unsweetened” drink more than you should. Some statistics even show that people who drink diet soda actually weigh more than people who don’t! Cynthia thinks this is probably a result of the “disrupted appetite regulation” mentioned earlier, and another reason why the sugar-free isn’t necessarily the answer. Guess I’ll think twice before my next Diet Coke!

Watch my full interview with Cynthia Sass here.

Check out Cynthia’s new book Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches With Real Food, Real Fast, in stores now!

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