Sweeteners have been around for decades, but what’s their purpose? Initially they were used as a substitute for sugar in sweetening tea and coffee. Then food manufacturers started to use them in soft drinks and sodas so that they could promote their ‘diet’, sugar-free brands. But what effect have they had? Have they helped people to reduce weight? Has the world become a slimmer, healthier place because of them? Absolutely not!

Since sweeteners were introduced they have had zero effect on peoples’ weight – in a positive sense. They have been so ineffective that we are now in the middle of an obesity crisis. The reality is that instead of helping people lose weight they have contributed to their weight problem.

Here is a brief and simplistic explanation why sweeteners don’t work. When you drink a diet drink sweetened with a sweetener, your brain interprets the sweet taste as something enjoyable and your reward system releases dopamine and prepares for a carbohydrate rush. When it doesn’t materialise it feels cheated and actively persuades you to go and find something to make up for it’s loss – preferably something sweet. Instead of consuming less, you end up by consuming more.

To assuage the mounting pressure to reduce sugar in processed food, food companies are now preparing a con, a big, if not bigger than con than the ‘low-fat’ con they perpetrated in the 1970s, an which persists today. Soon you will see ‘sugar-free’and low-sugar’ labels appearing everywhere, in fact it has already started. Do not be fooled! These products will be stuffed full of sweeteners. Remember food companies inerests, rather like politicians’, come before yours. You have just have to be aware of their game and make the right choices.