Is it possible that artificial sweetener can be just as detrimental to the health of a type two diabetic as pure sugar?
It is. For several reasons.
Let’s go back to our sugar partier example from my previous diabetes post. When you taste "sweet" on your tongue then insulin gets ready to take some sugar to the party. When no sugar arrives the insulin tries to go to the party without a date. The bouncers (cell receptors) shut down the party because without sugar there is no fun to be had. So even if a few molecules of insulin do show up with sugar it’s harder to get in because the bouncers are trying so hard to keep out the insulin that doesn’t have a sugar molecule with them.
This is called decreasing insulin sensitivity. Which leaves lots of insulin floating into the blood stream. Which means that your body is storing whatever it can get it’s hands on since the sugar can’t get into the party. This increases fat formation.
With every bit of sugar you are taking in going directly to storage…nothing gets into your cells. Which is why you get a sharp drop in blood glucose even though you’ve eaten something. Sugar can only be turned into energy after it gets into the cell. If no sugar gets into the party then you get no energy.
Type two diabetics sometimes still produce their own insulin if their pancreas is still working a little bit. So if you take insulin and eat artificial sweetener then your body will try to lend a hand if it perceives that there will be sugar in the blood stream. When that sugar never shows up…because it was artificial …then you get a bigger drop in blood sugar than you expected.
This has been proven to increase appetite as well. With all of this insulin in the blood the body thinks it’s starving. That is why people who consume artificial sweetener actually end up taking in more calories per day on average than people who don’t.
This insulin sensitivity gets worse over time causing you to need more and more artificial insulin to try to force the sugar into the cells….which just makes the bouncers resist harder. It seems like a down hill road.
Fortunately there are herbs and diet changes that can make the bouncers on your cells relax and let some sugar into the party. With specifically dosed botanicals, nutritional supplements, diet and exercise modification, and careful glucose monitoring you can safely restore insulin sensitivity naturally.
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-Dr. Michele Raithel NMD