#57 How to Not Slow Down Your Metabolism with Intermittent Fasting and More Q&A

Siim Land (0:00)

Do artificial sweeteners give you diabetes and brain cancer?

What's the best way to put on quality lean muscle on keto? How to not slow down your metabolism with intermittent fasting?

SPEAKER_2 (0:14)

This thing is lightning in a bottle.

Siim Land (0:16)

Why is the world full of hatred and resentment?

This and much more in today's Q&A episode of the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. My name is Siim, and before we get on with the show, I want to let you know of a few upcoming events that I'm going to be organizing in Estonia. First, the Biohacking Bootcamp on July 7th to 8th.

It's a two day immersive experience with workshops, hands on biohacking, training, saunas, foraging, cooking and so much more. The location is in Tallinn, and about 50% of the spots are already full. And I'm only going to let in a few limited amounts of people to participate because a smaller group is going to be more effective and enjoyable. So if you are interested in meeting and getting coached by me in person, then check out the link at www.simland.com forward slash body dash mind dash biohacking dash bootcamp forward slash. I'm going to share with you all my secret biohacks and how I structure my own nutrition exercise and see for maximum gains and efficiency. And speaking of getting more information, it's now time for Body Mind Empowerment.

SPEAKER_2 (1:27)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (1:32)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_2 (1:34)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (1:38)

There were many questions like will sucralose from whey protein kick me out of ketosis and are artificial sweeteners safe at all? So I decided to dig a bit deeper and kind of summarize how these noncaloric sweeteners and diet drinks, how they affect your overall body. Then you can decide whether or not or how much you want to consume these kinds of things. Sweet. So are artificial sweeteners safe?

There's definitely a lot of conflicting opinions and research about artificial sweeteners, especially what effect they have on your health long term. Some studies show that drinking diet sodas reduces the intake of calories, which reduces the intake of total calories and thus promoting weight loss. Sounds like a reasonable deal. You get to drink a beverage that tastes as good as the real one, but it doesn't have the same amount of sugar.

It's like biohacking almost.

However, other studies find that there is no such effect and some people even gain weight. This also seems obvious in my opinion, because if a lot of people eat double cheeseburgers and fries, but they rationalize it away with a diet coke, then there's no difference. They're gonna think like, okay, at least I'll save a few hundred calories, even though I'm already 1000 calories above my maintenance with those fries.

One 2013 study found that both regularly sugared sweetened beverages, as well as artificially sweetened beverages, were linked with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. However, more research is definitely needed for a causal link.

Some studies have raised the possibility that sugar and artificial sweeteners in diet beverages may increase the risk of dementia and stroke. People who consume non-caloric diet drinks suffered three times more strokes and dementia. In a large study called the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis, drinking diet soda daily was associated with a 36% increased risk of metabolic syndrome and a 67% increased risk of type 2 diabetes. One large meta-analysis reviewed seven randomized controlled trials with 1,000 people, and it also reviewed 30 cohort studies with over 400,000 subjects. Amongst the seven randomized controlled trials, non-nutritive sweeteners didn't have any significant effects on BMI or other secondary health outcomes. However, the average follow-up in these studies was just six months. Amongst the 30 cohort studies, non-nutritive sweetener consumption was associated with a slight increase in BMI, and there were more incidence of obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events. Those cohort studies included over 400,000 people with an average follow-up of 10 years.

The meta-analysis concluded that evidence from randomized controlled trials show that artificial sweeteners do not have a beneficial effect on weight management, and observational studies link sweeteners with increased BMI and cardiometabolic risk. Although the golden standard in scientific research is the randomized controlled trial, more research is clearly needed to fully understand the long-term risks and characteristics of consuming non-nutritive sweeteners. Somebody bring me a diet coke! It means that artificial sweeteners may be associated with increased risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and weight gain, although the evidence is not conclusive. There are probably many other lifestyle factors and dietary habits that have to be controlled, such as what kind of a diet they're following. Someone eating the standard American diet and swapping out their regular coke with diet soda is probably already eating more calories despite the quote unquote healthier option. Double cheese on the fries and a diet coke, please. Someone eating a whole foods based diet will probably have better biomarkers to begin with, and the consumption of some artificial sweeteners may not have a deleterious effect. Someone having a medical history of diabetes or insulin resistance will naturally react differently to different kinds of sweeteners because they could potentially raise their blood sugar much more than a healthy person. Someone having eating disorders may also react differently to artificial sweeteners which will cause them to either get more cravings or simply over-consume diet soda, which definitely can't be healthy in the long term. Someone eating a naturally lower carb diet will have developed a slightly different microbiome than someone who is eating more carbs. Even different foods like grains, legumes and starch will change the composition of the gut flora. They are going to have different strands of gut bacteria and if we know one thing, then we know that we don't know anything about the gut and we definitely don't know how certain artificial sweeteners affect certain strands of bacteria and what effect it has. The human body is quite adaptable to different ingredients and poisons by developing tolerance to them in small amounts. I think it's safe to say that artificial sweeteners are mild toxins and it's very important to pay attention to the amounts and other conditions that vary between individuals.