When coaching our clients on healthy eating, sticking to principles is the best bet. For example, what about those artificial sweeteners?
Since we started this company in 2003, we have emphasized the principle that chemicals are not food and, “if it ain’t food, don’t eat it.” After nearly 20 years, more science is coming around. In fact, according to this study published in PLOS Medicine, the consumption of artificial sweetener like aspartame and Acesulfame-K are linked to higher rates of cancer.
With all the science being thrown around here and there, make it easy for your groups. If it’s not a food … if it never grew … if it never had a mamma and a daddy … if it will never degrade (which means that bacteria won’t even eat it), it’s not a food. So are you really surprised to learn that it is associated with cancer?
The analysis looked at over 100,000 adults over an average of eight years of follow-up. They found that participants who consumed the most artificial sweeteners had a 13% higher risk of developing cancer compared with those who didn’t consume artificial sweeteners.
The sweeteners aspartame and acesulfame-K were associated with the highest risk, according to the data, particularly with risk of breast cancer and obesity-related cancer.
Look, it’s just as important to provide our employees with full disclosure, for complete integrity.
This study shows a strong correlation, not causation. So, even though drinking artificial chemical sweeteners is associated with increased cancer rates, it certainly may be that some other factor somewhere is actually causing it. Like maybe those people using these sweeteners also do ….. somthing else?? … that is responsible for the cancers?
The thing is, while science sorts itself out, in the interim we encourage our groups to eat clean and do that in control. That’s a key principle of the Mediterranean approach, which is associated with lower weight, healthier hearts, and longer lives. But yeah, whatever you want to do.
