Sugar Free Candy/Icebreakers and Insulin Spikes

I got some sugar-free sour icebreakers at albertsons, when I went there to buy some oatmeal. MMMMM, so soury and sugary and good. Ive been cutting for two weeks, and my cravings for sour candy prior to my purchase was up through the roof. Anyway, I wanted to ask, if I ate about 3 little sour pieces of candy a day, (SUGAR FREE), would this affect insulin levels?
 
I know diet COLAS are bad cause of carbonation, but what about little candies? They are 2 calories a pop which is nothing, but Im concerned about insulin spikes with sweetness, even if they are sugar free. What do you guys think? Safe to pop 3 little candies for each part of the day a good idea? They are really helping me satisfy my sweet tooth and I am able to limit myself to just 3 a day, even though there are like 70 in the pack.

The sugar free part is the only problem really IMO. Sugar free = Garbage your body cant even process.
 
If it helping your craving then its a matter of results vs. is it worth it to you to put harmful products in your system.
 
Yea 3 peices a day nothing but over a 1000 peices a year is pretty bad.
 
Yeah balance it maybe you can slowly wing of these candies and go to fruits. Grapefruits is one of my fav's. There are many vitimans in fruits that our bodies need and those will probably help stop your craving for sugar.
 
  

It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.

Insulin is produced to regulate your blood glucose level. Artificial sweeteners can trigger the production of insulin due to their molecular structure, which resembles sugar. Even though they are not actually a carbohydrate the body produces insulin in response to these products. I am pretty sure the only one that has no effect on insulin is sucralose.

Dammit Redjeep, are you serious? This cant be, as manufacturers would surely know the effects of it on the body and realize it wouldnt help people in their diets?

I mean, even diet soda bashing websites and research that ive done say that as horrible as diet soda is bad for you, it WILL not make you fat. It, at most, would just make the body actually crave more and more sugar, as it gets a fake "sugar high".

The manufacturers dont care about helping you with your diet they just want to make you think its helping you

RedJeep


Insulin is produced to regulate your blood glucose level. Artificial sweeteners can trigger the production of insulin due to their molecular structure, which resembles sugar. Even though they are not actually a carbohydrate the body produces insulin in response to these products. I am pretty sure the only one that has no effect on insulin is sucralose.

Stevia has no effect on blood glucose levels.  It's w/o a doubt the best 0-calorie sweetener, nutritionally speaking.

So is what Redjeep saying true? I cant believe how 50/50 everything on the internet is around this topic. Everyone agrees diet sodas and sugar free (alcohol) candies are bad due to chemicals, but on the topic of insulin spikes, it remains 50/50. Do diet/sugar-free foods and drinks cause an insulin spike and thus fat storage? What has a true, genuine, trustworthy study demonstrated?

Artificial sugars are structurally the same as real sugars but they have different side chains. The reason they are incredibly sweet, some like 1000x sweeter than actual sugar is because they mimic the structure of actual sugars. You are right, there is a lot of 50/50 research about these sweetners and it seems to be dependent on which type it is. The real reason to avoid these "sugars" is that many of them contain side chains like chlorine, which is toxic in the body. These are small amounts we are talking about but no one knows the long term affect this can cause. I would stay away from artificial as much as possible. You are bound to consume some because it is in everything these days so I wouldn't knowingly buy stuff with it.

Here is an abstract from a research paper I found about aspartame. Good news I guess if you like diet soda haha

Effects of aspartame in young persons during weight reduction.

Knopp RH, Brandt K, Arky RA.
Given the potential use of a low-calorie sweetener during weight reduction, a toxicity study of chronic aspartame ingestion was conducted. Particular attention was given to possible long-term effects of aspartame on the fuel hormonal alterations characteristically caused by weight reduction. As a group mean age was 19.3 yr, body weight was 164.6 lb, and mean height was 65.4 in. Subjects were an average of 33% in excess of ideal body weight. The aspartame dose was 2.7 g/day and was compared on a double-blind randomized basis with a lactose placebo. Both materials were given in gelatin capsules. An average of 6.9 +/- 1.5 lb was lost by the aspartame group during the 13-wk study on a calculated 1,000-calorie diet. The placebo group lost 4.5 +/- 1.2 lb (no significant difference between the two groups). After an overnight fast, reductions in glucose and immunoreactive insulin were seen in both groups, while rising trends in immunoreactive glucagon were observed. These changes are all characteristic of calorie restriction. In no instance was there a detectable effect of the ingested aspartame. No meaningful effect of weight reduction or aspartame was seen on plasma triglyceride and cholesterol, nor on any other parameter of hematologic, hepatic, or renal function that was measured. Similarly, side effects were equally distributed between asparatame and placebo.

NBSFighter

RedJeep


Insulin is produced to regulate your blood glucose level. Artificial sweeteners can trigger the production of insulin due to their molecular structure, which resembles sugar. Even though they are not actually a carbohydrate the body produces insulin in response to these products. I am pretty sure the only one that has no effect on insulin is sucralose.

Stevia has no effect on blood glucose levels.  It's w/o a doubt the best 0-calorie sweetener, nutritionally speaking.

Stevia in not an artificial sweetner so it is much better.  Most research has been pretty promising with this stuff. However it is very hard to find products that use stevia because it is more expensive for manufacturers than artificial sweetners.

to OP:
And no product manufacturers could give a **** about the health of their consumers, take the fast food industry as proof. The FDA is a joke when it comes to your heath. As long as it does not kill you instantly it will probably meet approval. This is one area where you have to watch out for yourself.

You only live once, satisfy your cravings and eat the candy.  It won't hurt.

"True genius, in many fields of human endeavor, is often revealed in elegant simplicity."

- A smart man

Journal: http://www.wannabebigforums.com/showthread.php?t=117358