Low calorie foods, beverages and sweeteners Can they really contribute to a healthier future? (Part 1)

The desire to eat sweet things does not need to be suppressed, just managed, according to health and nutrition experts meeting at the International Sweeteners Association's conference in Brussels on June 19. At the event, leading scientists in the field concluded that low calorie sweeteners provide an effective solution to fulfilling our natural desire for sweet tastes, without allowing us to over-consume calories and gain weight. The recent findings of research into the relationship between energy balance and body weight have been reviewed. These findings reveal how a minor decrease in body weight (as little as 2 or 3 percent) can result in significant overall health benefits, including reducing the risk of diabetes, cancer and other obesity-related illnesses. It has been concluded that when used as a substitute for sugar in foods and drinks, low calorie sweeteners can play a significant role in facilitating this level of weight loss and maintaining a healthy weight. The desire for sweetness hasn't changed in hundreds of years, but what has altered is that people are eating more and doing less exercise - all of which is contributing to rising obesity levels. Low calorie sweeteners can help provide a solution because they allow us to enjoy that sweet treat without contributing significantly to the overall daily calorie intake. The weight of considered scientific evidence, the result of careful, independent, expert scrutiny, again and again shows that there is no evidence of a risk to health. To argue otherwise, to turn problematic and discredited studies into certain, inviolable pronouncements, to intimate grand and global conspiracies, is to scare the public into abandoning an invaluable weapon in the fight against obesity.