What are artificial sweeteners?
Last week I spoke about how dairy can be an issue during perimenopause and menopause and I mentioned how artificial sweeteners in yoghurt can be an issue too, but I realised I had never fully covered this topic before, so I thought it was important to discuss it and help you understand why I don’t recommend it.
These are synthetic or chemical compounds that contain very little or no calories, and used to sweeten foods or drinks. Artificial sweeteners are significantly sweeter than natural sugars, so only tiny amounts are needed to get the food to the point where there is the desired sweetness.
Often, people will take these artificial sweeteners as alternatives because they are looking to reduce their calorie intake to help manage their weight, or they may want to reduce their sugar consumption because of their health.
1. Insulin and Blood Sugar Control
Firstly, they can have an impact on your insulin balance. And we know that in perimenopause and menopause, regulation of blood sugar levels via insulin can go haywire, causing your blood sugar to go up and down really quickly. And, if it goes down too quickly, you end up craving sweet things, which can then raise it dramatically. That can then affect how your pancreas produces insulin. And we do know that some people can end up with a type of hormonally-induced diabetes in perimenopause and menopause; so, keeping insulin under control is really, really important.
But if you take artificial sweeteners, that triggers the tongue into thinking you've eaten something sweet, which sends the message to the pancreas to say, "Release insulin to process something sweet coming into the bloodstream." When there isn't, the insulin is hanging about, not knowing what it's going to do. And if you use artificial sweeteners a great deal and for long periods of time, it can actually create insulin insensitivity (also known as insulin resistance), and that can have a huge impact on your blood sugar control and also your weight.
2. Weight
Secondly, weight gain can be a big issue for many in perimenopause and menopause. You can put it on really quickly and then find that you just can't lose it; so, many of you may look at using artificial sweeteners to manage your calorie intake and weight.
Again, because of the insulin control I mentioned above, that can be a big issue. Studies show that the impact of artificial sweeteners can be a particular problem because the benefits are very short-lived. (1) And, over time, it can actually make you crave more sugar. You need more sweeteners to have an impact on your taste buds. You end up craving more, and that ends up with you putting on weight rather than taking it off.
3. Hot flushes and night sweats
Artificial sweeteners can act as triggers for hot flushes and night sweats in some women.
This is something I've looked at quite a lot over the years. And when I've recommended to people to "Cut out the artificial sweeteners", very often the feedback I get is that hot flushes and night sweats have decreased. So, especially if you're getting a lot of hot flushes during the day, it may be an idea to have a look at whether you're eating a lot of foods containing artificial sweeteners.
4. Mood and Mental Health
During perimenopause and menopause, anxiety levels can go up and we can get a much lower mood. We can get mood swings and irritability as well. So again, there's research on this showing the impact of sweeteners, aspartame particularly, may be a big factor here too (2). So that's probably a good pointer if you find that you've suddenly ended up with low mood.
5. Gut health
Again, there's a lot of research coming out looking at how artificial sweeteners are impacting very negatively on the friendly bacteria in our gut. (3) Now, we know that falling oestrogen levels can have a big impact on digestion. The environment in the gut can change, which can have a detrimental effect on our friendly bacteria.
And our friendly bacteria are very important. Research increasingly shows there seems to be a link between hormonal control, hormone elimination, and our friendly bacteria. So, if you're taking something on a daily basis that's having a negative impact on your friendly bacteria, there’s a knock-on effect on your general hormonal balance that's causing you menopause symptoms too.
It can be quite a complex picture, but it's really interesting that just one single thing you're consuming can have such a big impact on all sorts of different areas in your body at this particular time.
What foods and drinks are they in?
So, where do you find these artificial sweeteners? They are in a lot of different foods and drinks. I often go into the supermarkets and just pick something up and look at the ingredient list. And very often, they're down at the bottom in very small writing; so, you may not actually be aware of how much you're consuming.
Anything that says low sugar will probably contain artificial sweeteners, and a lot of foods that say low fat will also contain artificial sweeteners. If you take the fat out of food, you reduce its taste; so, the manufacturers then bump up the sugar or artificial sweetener content to make it taste better.
They can be in sauces or dressings, yogurts or cereal - just about absolutely everything, including things that you just wouldn't think would contain artificial sweeteners.
Tips for managing your consumption of artificial sweeteners during menopause
So, what can you do to help yourself? Here are a few things I recommend:
Moderation is Key: Limit consumption of artificially sweetened products to see if symptoms improve.
Check food labels: Read the ingredients list of whatever you're buying. You can pick up a bottle of good-quality tomato sauce, and there will be a little bit of artificial sweetener in it somewhere. So just have a good look at the ingredient list.
Keep a food and symptom diary: If you think to yourself, "Oh, I'm probably consuming quite a lot," do a little diary to identify any links between artificial sweetener intake and menopause symptoms.
Log each day, when are you taking these foods that contain artificial sweeteners? At what time you’re getting any particular symptoms? The main ones would be things like flushes or sweats, palpitations, headaches, and anxiety. The jitters could be another one. Or if you feel that your mood is suddenly dipping really, really quickly, that can be another indication.
Use natural sweeteners: You can use natural sweeteners that are going to have much less of a negative impact. You could use, very sparingly though, things like natural honey, agave syrup, or maple syrup. You can look at plant-based sweeteners, so that would be things like Stevia. And it's known that Stevia doesn't tend to impact blood sugar levels, which is a really good thing.
If you do a lot of baking, you can use dried fruits such as dates or bananas to sweeten your foods rather than putting in artificial sweeteners or sugar.
Limit certain foods and drinks: Limit processed foods, and please cut out all the fizzy drinks and cans of drinks because they're really not good for you for lots of different reasons.
Adjusting to less sweetness
It can be difficult to cut these out. I think they say it takes about 10 days for your taste buds to change.
Now, many, many years ago, I used to take about two teaspoons of honey in my cups of tea or coffee. And at that point in the past, I probably had a rather lot of tea on a daily basis. When I got to perimenopause, I thought I needed to cut out on so much honey because it was definitely not helping me, so I gave it up. And yes, the first few days were awful, but by day 10 my taste buds had changed.
Now, if anybody puts even a small amount of sugar or honey in my tea or coffee, I can't drink it because it really tastes so awful. So, if you want to give these things up, then bear with it. Within a couple of weeks, you should have a completely different set of taste buds and find that things are much better.
If you are finding giving up the sugar and artificial sweeteners really hard, and you’re getting sugar cravings, then you could look at maybe just a small piece of fruit, some berries, just to quench that craving. One square (only one) of really dark chocolate can often help. Or if you really feel that it's going to be a big problem, there's a supplement called chromium that you can take, that is known to help to balance blood sugar.
I hope you found this helpful. It's a really big one, to be honest. And once you realise how much you're using these artificial sweeteners, you might actually be quite surprised or maybe even horrified. For those of you that have maybe given them up, how did you do it? What was the result? Please share your stories. You know that I always love to read them, and your little bit of information may help so many other people as well.
Until next time, take care and have a lovely week.
