Experiment: Anyone monitor their glucose with 'sugary' tasting liquids

Hi folks -

After the complete type of diet change I've gone through in the past couple years, I've got about a single crutch left in my diet... diet, flavored drinks like Crystal Light.

Now, I have a pretty good idea that at best, artificial flavors are neutral in health, but probably at least a bit negative, right?  So I've been thinking of transitioning away from artificial sweeteners, now that I've stopped: soda, carbonated water, beer, white refined carbs, sweets, all other carbs, trans fats, saturated fats, unicorn meat, etc., etc., everything that helped to get me fat in the first place.

Here's my question:  I've read a bunch of studies that suggest that just drinking something sugary (like Crystal Light) that doesn't actually contain sugar WILL increase blood sugar a bit, affecting fat metabolism and hunger.  I'm curious if there's any diabetics out there, or others that monitor their blood sugar if they have seen this effect or not?

The scientist in me is about to buy a glucose monitor from Amazon just so I can see if that's happening in my own body.  Would like to know if others see their blood glucose increasing after having a zero calorie drink or food (like sugar-free Jello)

Never experimented on myself.. my mother has one though. I've only stuck myself a couple times for fun/experiments. Yes, I am a geek.

Did you know that even thinking about food, or smelling food causes an insulin response.. just as it gets gastric juices flowing in anticipation.. to my understanding it will not cause a blood sugar rise (the opposite actually happens) as you are not ingesting anything caloric, but a mild insulin rise does shuttle our receptors to store triglycerides (fat) vs allowing the release of energy to burn..

Hey, book recommendation for you.. I think you'd appreciate it, actually two.. Gary Taubes Why We Get Fat, and the deeper, longer, more scientific book Good Calories Bad Calories. Neither is a "diet" book, just a look at how our bodies metabolically work in regards to fat storage and the effect hormones like insulin have on it. My local library carries both, but they are worth the $ if not.


Here's some odd references for entertainment..

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0026049587901065

http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/238/4/E336.short

Hey, once again, you leave an awesome post!   I have already read Good Calories, Bad Calories a year or two ago, but I will buy Why We Get Fat, thanks!

Also, I'm a scientist, so I don't know if you happen to have access yourself, but I can get most of these articles complete and e-mail them if you ever like ;)  Lay people aren't going to pay $35 per article, LOL.  I'm going to take a look at these articles on Monday, but the abstracts are pretty compelling. 

This makes me think... I've read posts on here about people trying to cope with their new food demands, and they speak about chewing up bad food, tasting and savoring it, and spitting it back out... this research would indicate that's roughly half as bad as going ahead to actually swallow the food!  Ugh.  Always seems like an uphill battle.

I may take you up on that offer someday if I need an abstract on some weird health issue I'm obsessing about! Edit- meant article..

Sure thing!  I think it's unfortunate we make it so difficult for people to access primary research, and instead force most people to get their science information from the media, which tries well, but sometimes distorts or misrepresents outcomes.

For instance, a drug that often helps improve a form of cancer is often interpreted as "CANCER CURE!" by media and websites.   Blah.  Sorry about the soapbox.

No problem.. many wouldn't understand the nuances of it if presented the way the research actually generally is.. so we have the wonderfully helpful objective media to help us. /sarcasm

Just as my pet peeve the "liver shrinking pre op diet." Yes, as obese folks most of us have fatty livers, but that takes a long time to resolve.. what they are trying to do is make the liver less snotty-slick by having us stay on a strict almost no-carb diet to use up the slippery glycogen so they can hold the bloody thing out of the way. IF they would just not dumb it down, so many fewer pre-ops would be less inclined to deviate from the diet as they would really understand it's purpose and not just see it as another diet like any other.. and if they deviated they may make a much better choice like a steak vs cheesecake.. 

I don't know what it physically does to the body, but when I stop to think about the ingredients in those beverages, I cringe a bit.  This week I bought a lemon and a lime and sliced them up and stored them in the fridge.  I've been squeezing a little slice into my water bottle then throwing it in to lightly flavor the water naturally.  Not the same as a vitamin water 0 (which I love), but I'm liking it for one bottle a day- and it's way cheaper.  :)

Good luck with your experiment- let us know how it goes...

I test glucose as part of what I do professionally. I have seen a clients blood glucose elevated to 7.5 after a 12 hour fast. Upon questioning, I found out that they had a drink of flavored water sweetened with artificial sweetener. I also had another client show high after a 12 hour fast with only ingesting a single tic tac.

So to answer your query, yes they do drive blood glucose just as sugar does.

P.s. I would be very interested in those papers you talked about. Thanks.
Take care
Straw Walker