A recent study
shows that consuming artificial sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame and
sucralose) may cause us some serious health problems by interfering
with the beneficial microbes in our guts.
Our bodies are covered
inside and out with micro flora- from our skin, to our eyelids, to
our intestines. Although thinking about this may make some squirmy we
are better off with them, than without. Scientists in the artificial
sweetener study found that after an 11 week diet of artificial
sweeteners, mice had very high levels of glucose circulating in their
bodies after meals. Mice who consumed glucose sugar water did not
exhibit this problem. This indicated that the artificial sugar was
interfering with the way the body processes glucose. Humans with
issues processing glucose can develop diabetes or obesity. They found
that the reason this was happening was because the artificial sugar
was altering the microbiota, bacteria and microbes, in the guts of
the mice in a way that prevented the digestive system to work
properly. When a similar test was run on human subjects they began to
see the same results in only a week. This is a big deal because the
reason many people consume artificial sweeteners is to lose weight or
to lower their sugar intake. Consuming the artificial sweeteners
could have the reverse affect, and possible contribute to the onset
of type 2 diabetes.
Caring for our micro flora probably is
not something that many of us think about on a daily basis. However,
the more diverse the good bacteria and microbes are in our guts, the
better our health is. Many foods are suggested to benefit your
microscopic gut friends. Organicgardening.com
suggests 7 foods to improve the diversity and productivity of your
gut micro flora. A quick google search will give you many hits with
similar lists. The recommendations are mostly fermented foods, such
as kefir, kimchi, real sauerkraut and yogurt or items you may find in
a probiotic diet.
Sauerkraut- Great for your gut?!
Humans were able to keep themselves alive using
natural foods and fermentation long before we were cooking up
artificial sweeteners in labs. If you are interested in learning more
about fermented foods I would suggest, as I have in another post, to
read Michael Pollan's latest book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation which devotes an entire section to the
subject of fermented foods, micro flora and the cultural history of
these food items. It is more interesting than reading about
fermentation sounds- trust me!
I am not attempting to advocate a
particular diet, I just believe that this study illustrates once
again how when we mess around too much with the food we consume it
begins to mess with us! Although there are currently many health
issues that can be scary for kids and adults (Ebola, Enterovirus) we
need to understand and educate our children about good bacteria and
microbes along with the bad.
Precautions to prevent spreading germs
are important, as are precautions to preserve good microbes. There
are many educational materials illustrating the importance of our gut
micro flora for children. Unfortunately, one theme in most of what I
found were smiling faces on the microbes...no kids, microbes don't
have faces...but once you get beyond that there is a lot to be
learned! Here is an example of a video lesson put together by TED
EDlessons, and several more can be found in the resources section
below.
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