The title is rather a bold statement. It seems though that based on research conducted by the University of Washington (Head researcher: Adam Drewnowski) in the USA, consumers of low-calorie sweeteners – the intense sweeteners like acesulfame K or Stevia, are likely to have a better diet and exercise more.
The researchers drew their conclusions by looking at the data on 22,000 people in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2008, which assessed various lifestyle parameters like diet as one of the overall parameters. The NHANES is a survey produced by the National Health Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The type of food and beverage consumed, with the type of sweetener, albeit none at all, or low- or reduced calorie was examined. The quality of the diet was measured using the Health Eating Index (HEI). The HEI is a tool implemented by the US Department of Agriculture which looks at physical exercise levels, their alcohol consumption and smoking habits and observes people’s compliance with dietary recommendations.
The NHANES always offers useful data for making predictions about lifestyle and choices. It was shown in an earlier study that US citizens were reducing their sugar consumption generally which indicated a greater intent to improve diet and lose weight. by reducing calorie consumption (see article). Low-calorie sweeteners provide an alternative to full sugar although careful choice for product development is required. Consumption of low-calorie sweeteners appears a valuable marker about those people making particular lifestyle choices including a ‘better’ diet, not smoking so much and doing more exercise.
References
Drewnowski, A., Rehm, C.D. (2014) Consumption of Low-Calorie Sweeteners among U.S. Adults Is Associated with Higher Healthy Eating Index (HEI 2005) Scores and More Physical Activity. Nutrients, 6, pp. 4389-4403; doi:10.3390/nu6104389
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