One thing which always has a mixed reaction from people is artificial sweeteners and much of this is due to what they feel are perceived issues from consuming them. One big reason for the worry is from rat studies which have shown some health issues when rats are given massive doses that no human could actually consume.
Are there issues with artificial sweeteners on a carnivore diet? If you read medical studies they will show you that there should be less concern over artificial sweeteners for most people. It has been shown that some people when consuming artificial sweetener will have an increase in caloric intake or have raised sugar cravings.
Since we have an understanding that studies show no real issues hopefully this has put your mind more at ease. What should a carnivore do to ensure they are doing their best to get results and to help clear up their symptoms.
Well, we are going to dive in and just quickly cover reasons why you would want to add in artificial sweeteners to your diet along with some reasons why adding them into your diet can cause you issues or at best derail results.
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When you are looking at whether you should add in artificial sweeteners there are some reasons in which adding them in can help you in continuing on your diet.
One of the larger benefits is that it can help you manage your sweets craving if you have them, though you should look to lower your intake to remove dependence.
Many of you will come from a lifetime spent having sweetened items for every meal all day, you are really addicted to sweet foods more than you would ever admit to yourself.
The most difficult thing is to cut it out cold turkey which can make you stressed and grumpy, instead of trying this you can slowly temper the number of sweets to slowly remove them from your diet.
You can use cool water additions like Mio or other drink additions which can add you in some electrolytes at the same time as getting something other than just water.
There are some cases where it is negative for you to intake continual artificial sweeteners, typically when you are addicted to caffeine and zero carb drinks like soda, for example.
Typically it isn't the artificial sweetener you are addicted to but instead, you are addicted to the drink or food that has it added. If this is true for you then the best approach is to actually work on eliminating your addiction as this will help your health out long term.
On interesting fact I found while looking into studies is that intense sweetness has been shown to be more addicting than cocaine. (study)
It has been shown that saccharin, sucralose, and stevia actually make changes to the gut microbes (study, study 2). In addition isomalt, maltitol, lactitol, and xylitol all are able to reach the large bowel and due to this also increases the numbers of bifidobacteria in humans.
Now I hope you know whether you are planning to add artificial sweeteners or not, don't worry about what others say and you should do your diet for your success. Stop worrying whether something "is the carnivore diet" or "not the carnivore diet".
This will increase your happiness which also ensures that you stay on the diet for the long term benefits and not quit when things don't go your way.
If you read this far you are amazing! I would love to hear from you in the comments below if I helped you gain knowledge and useful information, additionally I would like to know if I got anything incorrect that you believe should be researched more and updated. As always to get the word out please join our new Carnivore Rx group on Facebook and share this out on social media!
