R<\/span>ecently published research shows that synthetic sweeteners are associated with a higher risk of cancer. The report followed over 100,000 adults in France as part of the NutriNet-Sant\u00e9 study that has been ongoing since 2009.<\/p>\n Researchers collected data on what people ate and then, an average of almost eight years later, recorded what diseases had developed in the study population. This study showed that people consuming artificial sweeteners were 13% more likely to develop cancer, particularly breast cancer and cancers associated with obesity.<\/p>\n People use artificial sweeteners because they\u2019ve been led to believe that the reduced calories will lead to weight loss. Unfortunately, the opposite is possible.<\/p>\n Intense sweeteners trick the pancreas into believing that lots of sugar is coming. The pancreas releases lots of insulin to head off high blood sugar. However, the sugar doesn\u2019t appear.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, insulin sweeps all available glucose into fat and muscle cells, causing a blood sugar crash. The crash causes intense cravings and hunger which when satisfied, more than makes up for the low-calorie synthetic sweetener.<\/p>\n Although synthetic sweeteners caught the headline of this study, the NutriNet-Sant\u00e9 study<\/a> has yielded many other important findings that put the cancer-synthetic sweetener connection into a greater context.<\/p>\n Looking at synthetic sweeteners alone would leave us vulnerable to cancers caused by other substances found in processed foods, as well as processed foods themselves.<\/p>\n The NutriNet-Sant\u00e9 data has also revealed that participants consumed over 50 food additives, some of which are also associated with cancer.\nThese additives include lecithins (86.6% consumers), mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids (78.1%), carrageenan (77.5%), sodium nitrite (73.9%), di-, tri- and polyphosphates (70.1%), potassium sorbate (65.8%), potassium metabisulphite (44.8%), acesulfame K (34.0%), cochineal (33.9%), potassium nitrate (31.6%), sulfite ammonia caramel (28.8%), bixin (19.5%), monosodium glutamate (15.1%) and sucralose (13.5%).<\/p>\n So it might be safer to consider giving up any food that might contain additives rather than synthetic sweeteners alone.<\/p>\n The NutriNet-Sant\u00e9 data has revealed many other associations.<\/p>\n Conversely,<\/p>\n Given the range of diseases associated with processed foods in general and sugars in particular, it would be misguided to eliminate synthetic sweeteners while continuing to consume other processed foods.<\/p>\n Research shows that processed foods are addictive. My team has written an entire textbook on the subject, Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s a bit of work to get addictive processed foods out of your life, but you can do it with patience, determination, and eyes wide open.<\/p>\n Maybe you\u2019re thinking, \u2018But I loooove processed foods.\u2019 Why not just try it for one week or one month? If you don\u2019t like the results, you can go back to eating processed foods.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you can expect. After 4-8 days of withdrawal, you may notice that cravings are gone. With cravings gone, you get to think about what you want to think about and not what the processed food industry wants you to think about.<\/p>\n When processed foods inflame the brain, we feel it as brain fog. Processed foods, not aging, is the cause.<\/p>\n Energy improves. Anxiety is reduced. Depression is reduced because it can come from the way processed foods downregulate the feel-good pathways in the brain. Those pathways open again when the stimulation from processed foods is gone. Processed foods inflame our hormone regulating system, which means that moods related to hormones can improve when processed foods are removed from the diet.<\/p>\n At end of three weeks, people generally notice that their mood has improved. Blood pressure and blood glucose are heading toward normal. Allergies are better. Sinuses are draining. Joint pain is diminished.<\/p>\n \u2018Old age\u2019 aches and pains could actually be the result of consuming inflammatory processed foods. Inflammation also interferes with respiration, heart function, and mobility.<\/p>\n Processed foods are addictive, so they deprive the frontal lobe of blood flow. This could explain the loss of executive function in old age. This includes attention, learning, decision-making, memory, and impulse control.<\/p>\n Processed foods also feed nasty organisms in our guts. These leak out into the bloodstream and cause physical and mental pain.<\/p>\n The list goes on. It\u2019s fun to get off of processed foods and wake up every day wondering what symptoms of \u2018old age\u2019 will be gone.<\/p>\n Start educating yourself. Check out the Self-Quiz<\/a> for signs of processed food addiction. Sign up to get access to free information. All can be done at www.processedfoodaddiction.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Synthetic Sweeteners and Cancer: The Bigger Picture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-summer-2022","category-spring-summer-2022-columns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12395"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12807,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12395\/revisions\/12807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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Brain fog lifts.<\/h3>\n
Bloating eases off.<\/h3>\n
Dr. Joan Ifland, a nutrition researcher & processed food addiction counselor is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition<\/a> and holds a Ph.D. in Addictive Nutrition. Ifland is a graduate of Stanford University with 20 years of experience in food addiction and recovery. The Founder of Food Addiction Reset<\/a>, Dr. Ifland is a leading expert in the field.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"