Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article discusses a subject particularly relevant to people with special dietary requirements, which often includes autistic people but is definitely not limited to us: artificial sweeteners. It's also relevant to any person trying to lose weight, I suppose.
In short, the six tested artificial sweeteners royally mess up the good bacteria in your guts. The tested sweeteners were: aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame, and acesulfame potassium-k. Take a careful look at your diet pop's ingredients. If you're drinking any of these, you might want to just drink the regular stuff, and less of it. Check your health foods and low-sugar treats, same deal.
I've actually had a personal experience with this gut toxicity, sadly. I went to a semi-sit down restaurant specializing in pasta a few years ago. I usually don't get a fountain drink when I go, and I rarely drink pop, but I used to. I was feeling nostalgic, and the drink machine had a lot of cool options, so I chose one that looked less sugary and drank a nice big glass of it. It tasted decent enough, but within an hour, my guts were extremely angry with me, and I spent a lot of time on the toilet.
Now, this would have been fine if it'd stopped there, but after a week, it was all the same story. Lots of time in the bathroom, no apparent improvement in my guts. I consulted my doctor, who put me on probiotics (the kind you have to refrigerate) to try to rebuild the good bacteria in my guts. The recovery process was unpleasant, to say the least, and I had to take two separate probiotics on alternating days until things evened out. The second probiotic actually had to be divided in two and mixed into applesauce to make my guts accept it.
After everything was said and done, my guts are not back to the way they used to be. I used to suffer from constipation on a regular basis. I now have the opposite problem, and no amount of probiotics in the last couple years seems to change it back. I have to watch what I eat carefully, as too much sugar or other sweeteners makes it much worse.
It is, I would therefore say, much better to simply avoid these sweeteners, rather than having to do this gut reconstruction work.
Instead of any of these sweeteners listed, and instead of sugar, consider trying the sweeteners my doctor recommended: monk fruit extract, stevia, xylitol, and erithrytol. Use the latter two cautiously, or blend them with the first two, as too much of these sugar alcohols can give you gas. I've had decent luck and no ill effects from these four sweeteners.
In short, the six tested artificial sweeteners royally mess up the good bacteria in your guts. The tested sweeteners were: aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame, and acesulfame potassium-k. Take a careful look at your diet pop's ingredients. If you're drinking any of these, you might want to just drink the regular stuff, and less of it. Check your health foods and low-sugar treats, same deal.
I've actually had a personal experience with this gut toxicity, sadly. I went to a semi-sit down restaurant specializing in pasta a few years ago. I usually don't get a fountain drink when I go, and I rarely drink pop, but I used to. I was feeling nostalgic, and the drink machine had a lot of cool options, so I chose one that looked less sugary and drank a nice big glass of it. It tasted decent enough, but within an hour, my guts were extremely angry with me, and I spent a lot of time on the toilet.
Now, this would have been fine if it'd stopped there, but after a week, it was all the same story. Lots of time in the bathroom, no apparent improvement in my guts. I consulted my doctor, who put me on probiotics (the kind you have to refrigerate) to try to rebuild the good bacteria in my guts. The recovery process was unpleasant, to say the least, and I had to take two separate probiotics on alternating days until things evened out. The second probiotic actually had to be divided in two and mixed into applesauce to make my guts accept it.
After everything was said and done, my guts are not back to the way they used to be. I used to suffer from constipation on a regular basis. I now have the opposite problem, and no amount of probiotics in the last couple years seems to change it back. I have to watch what I eat carefully, as too much sugar or other sweeteners makes it much worse.
It is, I would therefore say, much better to simply avoid these sweeteners, rather than having to do this gut reconstruction work.
Instead of any of these sweeteners listed, and instead of sugar, consider trying the sweeteners my doctor recommended: monk fruit extract, stevia, xylitol, and erithrytol. Use the latter two cautiously, or blend them with the first two, as too much of these sugar alcohols can give you gas. I've had decent luck and no ill effects from these four sweeteners.
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