Tuesday Tip: Aspartame & Insulin 🥤

Aspartame, an artificially sweetener common in diet drinks etc, has been around for nearly 50 years, yet it’s still blamed on social media for everything from diabetes to ‘spiking’ insulin just because it tastes sweet.

The idea is that because it tastes sweet it mimics sugar and results in insulin being released, leading to fat storage, diabetes, metabolic damage etc. However the research doesn’t support this. Studies using human randomized controlled trials find that aspartame does not raise blood glucose or insulin when compared with water, placebo, or other low-calorie sweeteners. There’s no spike and therefore no crash. When aspartame is compared with sugar or other carbs, it shows a much lower glucose and insulin response with aspartame. In other words, replacing sugar with aspartame improves—not worsens—glycemic control.

What about longer-term studies? It’s the same story, even at high intakes aspartame shows no effect on fasting glucose, insulin, insulin sensitivity, or HbA1c, even in people with type 2 diabetes. Appetite hormones barely change, adverse effects are rare, and energy intake is often lower when aspartame replaces sugar.

So where does the fear come from? Mostly from misreporting animal studies using massive doses (we would need to consume hundreds of cans of diet drink per day to replicate it), or observational studies that confuse cause and effect.

Aspartame doesn’t circulate in the blood intact—it’s rapidly broken down into amino acids and tiny amounts of methanol, all at levels far below anything shown to cause harm. If aspartame truly triggered insulin without glucose, we’d see hypoglycemia. We don’t.

Replacing sugar with aspartame consistently lowers glucose and insulin exposure and the best evidence we have says it’s metabolically neutral or beneficial, not harmful. The benefits of losing weight (which swapping sugary drinks to diet drinks can help with) vastly outweigh any negatives – the biggest driver of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and mortality is obesity.

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Fake News 📰

We’re all busy, we almost all have smart phones, and there’s so little time in a day that it’s very easy to just scroll through facebook or Instagram for information and it’s all too tempting to take it at face value.

But according to a recent survey social media is the no. 1 source of nutrition and fitness misinformation.

There is zero control over what people put up on social media – design a funky graphic, tap in to a common fear or desire, and you can pretty much say anything and some people will believe you – eggs are bad, eggs are good, eggs cure cancer, eggs cause cancer… eggs contain lysozyme! (long word, sounds scary, must be bad…… it’s not😆) … I could go on!

That’s not to say you can’t trust anything you see on social media but just be a bit critical of what you see. Anything fear-based, food shaming or more about what not to eat than what to eat, or claiming some incredible effect of a specific food is likely to be something to be wary of.

Social media can be a great source of information but check where that info is from – who is posting it? Are they qualified? Do they have a fitness or nutrition qualification?

Are they quoting scientific, peer-reviewed, studies to back up their claims? Are they trying to sell something – if so that’s often a red flag, or at least a reason to investigate a bit more.

In general it’s mostly about balance and moderation – yes we can make grand claims about the awful effects of one food, or the amazing benefits of another – but it usually comes down to quantity. Having a takeaway once a week – not that bad, having it for 2 meals every day – probably not a great idea!

So be critical guys – it’s your body, read the advice, question it, ask for more info if you want – go and do a pubmed search online and find the research…. and yes I’m totally aware of the irony in me posting this on social media, but I’m very happy to chat through the research behind anything I post, and engage in healthy debate about it – any time!

Happy Tuesday 🤗

Xx

Tuesday Tip: Re-train your brain 🧠

One trap many of us fall in to is treating food as a reward, and exercise as punishment; “i’ve had a really good week, I deserve a dessert” or “I’ve had such a bad weekend I need to really work hard at the gym tomorrow”. This cycle is self-defeating and creates a negative relationship with food and exercise. The key is trying to view both food and exercise as ways to fuel and care for your body, so you can sustain a healthy lifestyle long term. Here are some tips to help:

1 Non-food rewards:

Instead of food, reward yourself with other things that are calming/relaxing or fun e.g. massage, manicure, new smellies, a bath, a walk, time reading your book, watching your favourite show etc. Or try things that encourage the healthy habits -new workout clothes, a new experience (e.g. rock climbing) or recipe books. Having nice things to go along with a behaviour makes that behaviour more fun, so your reward motivates you to do better

2 Try not to justify food:

When you think, “I can have this because I’ve been good all week” etc then pause and remind yourself that your behaviour doesn’t determine what you can eat e.g. don’t reward yourself with cake because you went to the gym. Think about what food you want and decide why you want it e.g. you want cake because it tastes good – that’s fine. Re-train your mind to disassociate food from your behaviour. Have cake because you like it, not because you “deserve” it.

3 Find fun workouts:

If the workout you’re doing isn’t enjoyable then change it. Try something new – if you usually run on the treadmill try doing a class, if you do classes have a swim etc – find something you actually like doing.

4 Remember the good times:

Recent research in the journal “memory” has shown that recalling times when you had fun working out can help you look forward to future workouts. So reminisce about a workout you really enjoyed – it could be a fun class, or a race you took part in, or a game of football with your friends, or a walk or cycle outside – anything!
Happy Tuesday 🤗
xx