If you want to reduce sugar intake, should you go for sugar-free food? Here’re the shocking facts.

If you have a sweet tooth, I’m sure one of the best things in life would be to enjoy treats such as cakes, pastries or soft drinks. With sugar being a cause of obesity, many of us think of taking sweet stuff as a guilty pleasure that we indulge in occasionally.

If you are planning on losing weight, one of the things you will either avoid or reduce will definitely be sugar. To cut down on sugar intake, you will look for sugar-free substitutes which will no doubt help to reduce the sugar in your diet, but did you know that sugar-free food comes with a price as well?

Here’re some reasons why sugar-free is not totally good for your bodies.

Make regular food unappealing
Many of you are familiar with foods that are marketed as being free of sugar and the fact is that many of these foods do not contain sugar, but contain artificial sweeteners that provide the sweet taste you would get in place of sugar.

Such artificial sweeteners may be good to cut out those calories, but it was mentioned that excessive intake of artificial sweeteners may cause problems such as making regular food taste less appetising as the strong taste of artificial sweeteners may trick your taste receptors into thinking that food with regular sugars such as fruits taste bland.

Aspartame
Another worrying fact is that certain artificial sweeteners may be carcinogenic. Research has linked excessive intake of aspartame, an artificial sweetener found in sugar-free substitutes of drinks with an increase in the risk of developing cancer. The reason is that some of the chemicals used as part of the ingredients to make aspartame can increase the risk of cancers.

Addictive
Due to the intense taste of sweetness they provide, artificial sweeteners may also cause you to be addicted to them. Research have found that taking artificial sweeteners may be as addictive as drugs such as cocaine. Taking them over prolonged periods may reset our taste buds and make us crave for them even more to satisfy the intense taste of sweetness that we associate with these artificial sweeteners.

In conclusion, anything in excess is definitely bad for your health and if you are planning on a diet, although it is best to cut out sugar, perhaps what you can do is to get your sugar intake from natural sources such as fruit and cut down on intakes of stuff such as soft drinks or desserts instead.