Dr. Doron Sher - 'Artificial Sweeteners'

Dr. Doron Sher completed his medical degree at the University of New South Wales in 1991. Following this he completed a Masters Degree in Biomedical Engineering. His research thesis on Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction won the Evelyn Hamilton Memorial prize from the Australian Orthopaedic Association.
Dr. Sher's Orthopaedic training was completed on the Sydney Orthopaedic Training Scheme. Following this he travelled overseas for 18 months undertaking sub-speciality fellowships in The United States, Canada and Italy where he worked with many of the world's leading surgeons. He is also the former Head of the Department of Orthopaedics at Concord Repatriation Hospital.
Dr. Sher developed an interest in low carbohydrate nutrition after discovering the ineffectiveness of traditional diets in helping his patients lose weight and avoid surgery. His passion for helping patients avoid unnecessary surgery has led to his involvement in two successful metabolic, arthritis, weight loss and sports performance clinics.

[@ResidualResonance42]

Time Chemical: cal/g; insulin response; other notes 12:37 Malitol, Sorbitol, Xylitol: 2.6; yes (about half of sugar); GI issues 12:37 Erythritol: 0.24; minimal; GI issues 13:50 Stevia: 0?; no but insulin sensitivity in the pancreas concerns; see also monk fruit 16:57 Oligofructans (derived from inulin): 1.5?; no; inulin? 18:40 Saccharine: 0; maybe 19:27 Cyclamate: 0; 20:21 Ace-K: 0; yes in rats; DNA concerns 21:51 Aspartame: 0; no; breaks down with heat, danger for phenylketonurics, gut bacteria concerns 23:13 Neotame: 0; maybe 23:25 Sucralose: 0; yes 24:20 Trehalose: ?; ?; lowers freezing point, C diffilus infections concerns

[@mrt445]

Thanks

[@blogshagify]

OMG! Thank you so much for the topic time frame list.

[@rob28803]

Good work! Thanks.

[@emicra-pl]

Thanks

[@asherbernardi]

Also, cyclamate banned in the USA

[@alphacause]

People need to get over their fixation with sweet things. That way, regardless if artificial sweeteners impede weight loss or not, they won't have to worry about it. If you abstain from sweets long enough - whether it is regular sugar, a sugar alcohol, or an artificial sweetener - you stop craving them. As a former "sugarholic", I noticed that after few months of complete abstinence from sweet substances, I lost my craving for them completely. When I used to use artificial sweeteners, I would continually have cravings for sweets, and it would always make it that much more difficult to walk by a bakery or the candy section in a grocery store without succumbing to temptation. While the abstinence period was tough, once you get over the several months it takes to eliminate the craving, you never want to go back. Its liberating. If artificial sweeteners truly did aid people in losing weight, we should have observed a precipitous decline in weight in the population upon the introduction of these sugar substitutes. The exact opposite is true. People gained weight despite the increased usage of artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols. If I were to speculate as to why, it probably has to do with the fact that by "tricking" the brain into thinking it ate something sweet, but at the time providing no calories, probably causes an increase in appetite. Also, even if people do not feel increased hunger as a result of sugar substitutes, they may think that the calories saved gives them license to over consume other foods. Whether it is through physiological means or psychological means, any substance that engenders over consumption, is a bad thing.

[@y.g.1313]

Way better logic and reasoning than the whole presentation on artificial sweetners, lol. It does not matter how many degrees those people collect, if they lack healthy foundations in their thinking, they just regugitate junk. Thank you.

[@kmichalene]

Drake Santiago But what if we like sweets, Drake. I agree a dependence on sweets is not ideal, but the way you say “we gotta get over it” is a little pushy on your part...

[@liyacarolyn6055]

@@kmichalene nowadays we have unnatural access to food, before modern ages sweet food was rare

[@Britonbear]

I'm not sure a natural drive to consume sweet foods is fairly described as a 'fixation' and your description of the way artificial sweeteners are consumed is silly. I have two or three mug cakes a week (okay, three or four) and each contains a tablespoon of erythritol; given the cakes contain cream cheese, coconut flour and an egg, and that they are consumed with cream, it's hardly 'no calorie'. I think the evidence shows that the obesity epidemic is driven by carbohydrates, sugar and seed oils.

[@anthonyca]

@@kmichalene I am a sweet addict. The fact is that these chemical reactions in the brain and body are facts.

[@user-tv2sh2ce1e]

Thank you for the uploading. Great stuff, as always

[@pachamama8586]

Thank you for uploading and all the best to you!!

[@Anuojat]

Most important question to ask yourself combined with the knowledge found here is this: Can you go on for 1 week without any sweetners or sugar? If the answers is NO. Then you surely have a problem.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

And the remedy to the problem is in no way aspartame. Lack of aspartame never caused weight gain, and never caused tooth decay. Time for people to finally grow up and these problems will solve themselves

[@justeli8953]

Here in the UK, two of the main 'supermarket' Stevia's are Truvia and Pure Via. What neither product says on it's ingredients tag, is that they are cut with Dextrose. Both admit to this on their websites, but neither lists the % dextrose, so it still leaves me feeling this is a deliberate lie. I' m sure if I went to a specialist shop I could find a pure stevia, or stevia/erythritol mix, but my days pretty full, and I'd rather not spend my weekends reading ingredient tags.... Being honest, I'm still a keto/if newbie, (6 weeks, 40 lbs) and still experimenting/finding my way. Some people might say I'm being picky... *shrug* maybe I'm making much ado about nothing, but to me it seems important. Regards,

[@keapixhoudini6263]

Yay someone mentions and explains the after taste to stevia. I recall hearing artificial sweetener drinks tend to make you eat more, as they are empty calaries so nice to see him mention this is real

[@blessedamerican3541]

Excellent lecture

[@infernus6278]

I've lost about 50kgs with drinking 1-2 liters daily of diet sodas (which i wouldnt recommend to anyone). You cant give up on everything. Especially if you want to completely change your life style. If you need a soda its always better to take one with aspartame than the one with sugar

[@archimedesmaid3602]

Ridiculous. Eating aspartame does not cause weight loss. One has exactly NOTHING to do with the other. Eating less sugars/carbs and getting sufficient exercise causes weight loss. Period. Same thing goes for the idea that aspertame remedies tooth decay. One has nothing to do with the other Perhaps it is time to begin to grow up and realize if you "need" a soda, and that soda must contain a poison to be "healthy for you, that you probably should leave the soda alone

[@pennydaum4983]

Aspartame is Poison! Educate yourself! Give up all sodas

[@benkuharik]

I agree!

[@disnalee]

I gave up sugar and it maybe the best thing ive ever gave up for health reasons. I do crave bread, process foods, plant fats, grains, high carbs, rice, and sugar but my body cannot support this diet.

[@akanecortich8197]

Have been taking aspartame in my coffee for around 30 years. I do not touch sugar, bread, rice, pasta, potato, fruit or sauces. My BS has been totally under control and BMI 22.5 And if I want to make a sweet curry (low carb - No carb) I can add aspartame at the end, and it tastes exactly like sweet curry. I think the AS can be a very useful tool in managing a low carb or keto diet.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

Evidently your BS is not under control, and your sweet tooth isnt either

[@ruthlesskumquat2918]

I havent had any issues losing weight and still consuming diet drinks and sucralose sweetened water enhancers however I have no idea if my weightloss could have been quicker had I given them up so its time to give that a try. I'll still use organic stevia extract and the occasional homemade dessert sweetened with Monkfruit but as for artificial sweeteners I'm done!

[@DrSamsHealth]

It's not diet sodas causing obesity, obese people tend to drink more diet sodas as they try to lose weight, hence this odd association.

[@phreedomphile]

Much appreciated clarifications, Dr. Sher. HOWEVER, there's still some ongoing confusion in the keto academic sphere on whether or not stevia on its own raises insulin. According to the information in books I read written by Dr. Steven Gundry and Dr. Jason Fung, stevia stimulates insulin release - as much as table sugar (Fung). And from Fung's exhaustive look at many clinical studies, we know insulin is the main driver of health dysfunction rather than elevated blood sugar. For example, when blood sugar was tightly controlled in studies via intensive drug management, to include insulin in some cases, the heart disease rates and overall mortality went up substantially.

[@nilton61]

Some interesting points: I have done some periods of 8-10 water fasting and at the same time monitoring my blood sugar with a flash glucose mter ( freestyle libre). That way i found out that aspartame worked havock vwith my glucose levels, probably by affecting my insulin

[@KR-jg7gc]

And this is what is used in sugar free soda in my country and or Ace-K

[@toni4729]

Thank you Dr. Sher, this was very enlightening and a lot of fun.

[@ThunderIronFamilyAdventures]

It's great to bring awareness to the dangers of these things... #thunderironfamily

[@Feinrizulwur]

What is the reason for eating sweet ? Not growing up from early childhood ? Mothers milk contain a lot of sugar. How are gene expressions affected by sugar ? Staying in childhood for the rest of your life some people said 100 years ago.

[@vangojo4u]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@toni4729]

Sorry. "If it has a lable it shouldn't be eaten." Dr. Robert Lustig. Kick the sweeteners.

[@markentwistle2158]

Thanks for publishing. I found the tour of all the many sweeteners in the main body of the presentation really informative. I wonder whether the way conclusions are presented at the end are misleading though, as correlation is not causation. The conclusions as presented are highly suggestive to the audience that consumption of artificially sweetened beverages are shown by the cited studies to CAUSE increased health risks, suggested as the "science [we] should believe". On cursory review of just one of the studies, The San Antonio Heart Study, it appears correlation, not causation is demonstrated. Its probably good advice to avoid artificial sweeteners, but the evidence would be more appropriately qualified as associative, not causal.

[@ShinAlive]

He basically ended up giving a conclusion that doesn't match the data... something he noted at 27:03 about all other studies. He ended the presentation with a bunch of correlation 'fact' slides. In a world of numbers, 13% increase chance of type 2 diabetes almost proves the opposite: it's not a causation but a lifestyle factor. To swap it the other way around: 87% people who consume sweeteners daily have no increase in metabolic risks compared to people who never drink sweeteners. Isn't it safe to say that sweeteners are probably not the trigger then? To put in perspective, since most of us are on low carb: imagine what percentages we're going to deal with if we compare the risks of cancer and type 2 diabetes of people who never consume sugar and people who consume sugar daily.

[@clover7359]

Why the need for need for sweeteners for meat and poultry? The bacon and turkey bacon industries might be able answer that.

[@jonnyy4088]

Bought vitamin D spray that contains xylitol.My choices were tablets with titanium dioxide or caplets with 'vegetable' oil? Least worrying was xylitol,I thought?

[@TheMangineer]

24:10 - For Sucralose, what is "excess" defined as? 5g per day? 20g per day? 100g per day? And what is a safe amount per day that would cause no issues?

[@tommycharles4666]

For sucralose, get a pure liquid source, not powdered. The powders contain modified starches that can cause GI problems. And liquid allows you to dose accurately. One drop is potent, you don't need much. Then I'd suggest only using it when you're going to be eating anyway. That should lessen any potential insulin issues. And then, finally, if you're having trouble losing weight, consider limiting its use to weekends only while still doing the above. Eat non-starchy veggies too to keep gut bacteria stocked, especially if you use aspartame.

[@dbmgna3951]

Thank you....since I often find the sweeteners in keto recipes, do you have a chart that shows us how to make substitutions?

[@Ann-qf3lg]

I’ve read that aspartame has been linked to lymphomas. Is this true?

[@diablominero]

Why the hell should I listen to epidemiological studies that found hazard ratios below 2? Aren't those the ones I'm supposed to treat as having found nothing, since hazard ratios below 2 arise so often out of the noise that they reveal nothing except researchers' biases?

[@loganwolv3393]

For me the sweetest thing i recently tasted is the pop cola, wich apperently has some stevia extract, some psudeo sucralose sweetner and a bunch of plants to give it some unique flavour. And that thing again is unbelivably sweet... i notice it's pretty different kind of sweetness... it's different enough for me to notice the difference, but simmilar enough to recotnize it as sweet. And if i take a small sip especially, my sweetness receptors go crazy, but if i drink more at once, the sweetness dosen't really scale. It's like there's some limitation to these receptors.

[@akanecortich8197]

I think the study on artificial sweeteners ought to be on the effectiveness of diets, long term health with and without. If the AS keep you on your diet, weight loss, blood sugar control, then there should be no concerns as the alternative is far worse. Let us not forget that the majority of diseases is associated with Inflammation and that it is strongly associated with blood sugar spikes and levels, long term. No matter your weight really, if you have controlled your blood sugar for 20 years then you are going to be far less risk than somebody 20 KG lighter but has never bothered to control BS.

[@xG4mx]

With regards to stevia and insulin sensitivity, does he suggest that the pancreases produces unneeded insulin?

[@p5rsona]

Yes

[@tommycharles4666]

@28:00 weren't those epidemiological studies? Those people are probably also eating a lot more Doritos and Pop Tarts.

[@nswhorse]

Yeah, the evidence is very sketchy. The work simply hasn't been done to prove the correlations are a causal relationship. The best note of caution is the still dominant false paradigm that saturated fat is bad and causes heart disease from epidemiological studies where the real culprit was actually smoking, which no one at the time even considered as a possibility. Also people don't tend to ask the why question, they just find a link and run with it. I can also speak to my own experience. I made a deliberate switch from Coke to Coke Zero about a decade ago, in order to lower my sugar intake. Problem is I ended up playing myself by treating it as a free pass not to worry about sugar in the food I was eating. That's just one anecdote and doesn't prove anything, but indicates the sort of confounding factor that can be and very often is overlooked. Which is why you need controlled double blind causal studies.

[@the_yeeteor_3604]

a simple rule of thumb: If it tastes sweet you shouldn´t eat it. Maybe hard, but it works.

[@megaswenson]

I think you're right. Thinking back to pre-Stevia days, when (aside from fresh fruit) there wasn't a single sweet thing in my childhood homes, we were a lot skinnier.

[@alexi8741]

This is idiotic and misinformed. So no one should eat: bananas, apples, oranges, any type of fructose accompanied with fiber. Don’t give dietary advice if you’re not qualified.

[@anonmouse956]

Ebay is the only place where I've been able to find pure stevia. All the other stevia I see for sale is mostly something else, usually corn starch or erythritol(sp?). Real stevia so strong you only need a tiny amount. If you need amounts visually similar to the amount of sugar you would usually use then its cut with something else.

[@JasonBuckman]

Amazon has pure stevia powders.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

Why not step back, take a good look at this hilarious situation, chuckle, and decide to grow up? What is this about needing everything to be sweet??

[@LaneCodeRedCarnivore]

I am mostly carnivore and avoid all sugars and grains . I do use stevia in my coffee - several cups . Stevia gave me hypoglycemia because there was no sugar input . Read an article from a medical doctor who also does research studies. She said people doing low carb or carnivore should not use stevia .

[@AudraAJames]

Interesting. I'm not ready to give up my artificial sweeteners though! I do use Stevia and I love Splenda. I stil think its better than regular sugar.

[@theprophet2444]

Audra A James since it contains no fructose it's probably better

[@dougmartin7129]

Audra A James Research the ingredients of Splenda........you’ll never use it again.

[@orandachildren1051]

Guess you're going to an early grave.

[@nelcredit1295]

They hijack the brain so it's hard to give up - not even close to being better then sugar .

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

it's MUCH better

[@wtfronsson]

Why would he just skip the BRAIN DAMAGE at 23:11? Or the gluconeogenesis for that matter, seems like a pretty relevant one here. Aspartame is the number one concern, and he is just glossing over major adverse effects. That he put on the list himself. Why on earth?

[@josephineobyrne1060]

Some companies use both sugar and sweetners together.. Brdtto avoid it all drinks that have combinations of both. If you get to like taste of these sweetners. When they not present you will be adding much more sugar to your diet which is not good. Stick to as natural foods as possible... Very interesting to hear it all explained. But I've been avoiding artificial sweeteners since they rwete first introduced and only Frank ok one a vifenyly diet drink dnd had bad effect within twenty minuits.... Do will drink water instead. Thankd

[@toni4729]

Don't put any of the junk in my food or drinks. It took a while to get used to it but it's possible. One of my favorite drinks is some sliced ginger in water with lime. It's easy to take if you don't like water.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

But you grew up. Most people didnt. That is well evinced by the amount of folks who voted for Biden

[@stefaniafei]

polioli 8'50", E967 xilitolo, E420 sorbitolo, E968 eritritolo; risposta insulinica 11'43": maltitolo, xilitolo e sorbitolo: la metà dello zucchero; eritritolo: risposta minima; 13'50" stevia.

[@bathat11165]

"Makes" you eat more? Everything you put in your mouth is your choice. Going for a run and hitting the gym always made me very hungry, too. Train your brain to put aside your discomfort. If a diet coke is going to trigger a feeding frenzy, then you wont stand a chance watching sports on TV with 20 minutes of TGI Fridays and Papa Johns commercials every hour, let alone the trays of cookies and brownies that appear in every work break room at least once a week. Art sweeteners have been around for 60 yrs or more. The obesity epidemic doesn't seem to have arisen until the last 20, 30 yrs when our lifestyles became sedentary. Get off the couch, put on your Nikes, skip the sugary coke, sugary red bull and the ridiculously sugary Jager and don't feel guilty about having a diet soda after your run. If you're overweight or otherwise unhealthy, diet drinks aren't the cause. Talk to your family physician. They're on the frontlines of our health every single day.

[@garytango]

👍👍👍

[@MrMikearama]

Great video. Learned a lot. HOWEVER, the comment about sucralose causing an insulin response is misleading. Sucralose has never spiked insulin in a study on humans, to my knowledge, EVER! The graph you show uses a 75g glucose test as the catalyst... and the insulin response to the 75g glucose is impacted, compared to water. So sure, Insulin responses to 75g glucose (which no low-carb / ketonian would ever do) is exacerbated... but that is not in response to straight/pure sucralose (which was the measure of all other sweeteners in the speech). Not sure why you’d do that, Doc. The material is therefore misleading on this topic. If you took this info to mean “avoid sucralose”, you have misapplied the info!

[@johapunkt3053]

24:03 "It does cause an insulin response." Well, those graphs actually show oGTTs and the difference of drinking water or sucralose (what sucralose? pure sucralose or Splenda, which ist mostly dextrose and maltodextrin?) with them. This RCT www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273230017301265 showed no significant difference in glucose, insulin, C-peptide or HbA1c. So, at best, I'd say 'inconclusive'.

[@toni4729]

Wow, these days you can't believe the scientists so I guess if you want an anwer you can ask God or go without.

[@Nmyers91]

Personally aspartame spikes my insulin, blood sugar went down from ~85 to 63 after drinking a caffeine free Diet Coke.

[@cassieoz1702]

Yes Noah Myers, the response us very individual. Some people are more likely to reslond with a cortical insulin response regardless of whether the sweet taste is calorific or not. The only way to tell is check your own gluc/ketones

[@pennydaum4983]

It's Poison

[@chidoripillow]

Sooooo can I put Equal in my coffee or not? hahahaha I probably shouldn't :(

[@alchemist585a]

Yes!! use only half a packet and no more than 2 or 3 times per day. This is a small amount that it really can not affect in any way. Avoid all other sweeteners.

[@ellenorbjornsdottir1166]

it's better than doing sugar

[@jhowlhow]

can we use equal gold during a fast?

[@cmotherofpirl]

I have no problem doing strict keto, however, I cannot manage to give up diet pop :(

[@archimedesmaid3602]

Hilarious. You are so into "health", that you do keto. On the other hand you do not have the self discipline to give up this poison is these childish drinks. Incredible

[@js1mom]

Its own, please...

[@blessedamerican3541]

Stevia vasodilator Aspartame brain tumors Citric acid in soda etc = weight gain

[@QXSXQxo]

Artificial sweeteners have always tasted disgusting to me. Can’t imagine people like that. 🥴 Asians always think the American desserts are wayyyy too sweet and we actually think they taste BAD. That’s why we prefer to buy cake from Asian bakery for the mere reason that they make desserts less sweet.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

The people from my country, the US are addictive, misguided, have no self discipline, and a huge percentage never grow up. There is your answer

[@TheChazaqingdude]

1 minute in and i don't want to give up diet sodas if they don't kick me out of my fasted state. But I think i know what he's going to say...

[@archimedesmaid3602]

If you are drinking diet sodas you dont care about your health anyway, so why are you fasting??

[@michaelmorris9546]

@@archimedesmaid3602 Wow...I can't criticize your thoughtful delivery, because you left that out while jumping wildly to a conclusion with no basis in fact.

[@Justjoy3366]

Oh no i cant give up coke zero

[@cassieoz1702]

Why? Is this one of those instances where "cant" actually means "dont want to because..."

[@paillote]

I really don't want to watch the whole video, what did he say about coke zero? i love it too haha

[@georgeschofield6099]

I am diabetes so is coke zero not good for me I drink coke zero

[@georgeschofield6099]

@@cassieoz1702 is coke zero bad for diabetes Cassie's

[@andrewchance9847]

This was not particularly helpful. For a 30-minute talk, it provided little data on the actual health effects; you could have found the same info with a quick Google search. And for those sweeteners that raise insulin, there was no absolute value given nor any value relative to sugar. As in, If I drink two beverages, one with sugar and one with sucralose, how does sucralose compare to sugar? If sucralose is equivalent to sugar in causing an insulin release, then I might avoid it. If it causes an insulin release that is 1/10 or 1/100 or 1/1000 of sugar, then it might be worthy using, at least in some situations. When it comes to health and nutrition guidance, I am not looking for morality (get over eating sweet things because they're bad; only eat natural foods because they're good). I'm looking for information that I can use to make my own decisions.

[@archimedesmaid3602]

Put some water in a pitcher, squeeze in some limes and lemons, put it in the fridge. No insulin response. Case closed. Grow up. If you find sugar bad for you, stop the sugar, period. It is not an answer to replace it with something fake. Nobody ever got overweight from a deficiency of aspartame, and nobody ever got tooth decay from a deficiency of aspartame. There is nothing this rubbish does for you which is beneficial

[@KR-jg7gc]

Damit.. new to the best diet in all human history (Carnivore diet 🤣) and I thought I'd be good drinking sugar free sodas

[@birmansunny9706]

Looks like it’s soda water for you 🤣

[@KR-jg7gc]

@@birmansunny9706 yea but.. I realised something. He's not comparing it to anything. Compared to normal soda.. its much much better.

[@tohopes]

Horseshit.

[@ruthlesskumquat2918]

Lol somebody is addicted to soft drinks...

[@RandomPsychic]

agreed i think he should stick to orthpedics....

[@gregorykirkmoore]

What is the horse shit? The Artificial Sweeteners or your attitude?

[@pittsburgh-gal]

that is a natural product, not an artificial one.... so, I guess, eat shit, my friend.....

[@darlafitzpatrick8770]

Oh, are we playing a game where we don't add anything of value to a conversation but merely toss out a random poop word without context or references? Well, okay... Diarrhea.