why I say no to sugar free

Please read this! I am copying straight from my certifying entity's, NCSF's newsletter. When I talk about it, it doesn't sound so scientific, but I am serious about my core beliefs and this is just a little proof that maybe sometimes the mad Hungarian is right... check it out:

"Individuals on diets tend to rely on flavored non-caloric soft drinks and beverages as an integral part of their meal plans. Foregoing calories from beverages without giving up taste is a luxury offered in thanks to the development of today’s non-caloric artificial sweeteners. However, recent studies seem to indicate that the artificial sweeteners used in these drinks may possibly have the opposite effect of what was intended when a person incorporates these non-caloric items into his or her diet. The body has a regulatory system in place that, in theory, allows it to anticipate the intake of additional calories related to the sweetness of a food. This trait is believed to be developed early in life, when animals and babies associate breast milk with nourishment. If the anticipated calories do not appear, however, the body’s caloric intake regulation becomes altered to account for the absence of the perceived energy. This action possibly leads to an overall increase of calories. When the adjustment to correct the caloric intake drives a person to consume more calories, the intake can lead to a positive energy balance and potential obesity over the long term.
Researchers theorized that compensatory eating in response to adjustments in the brain mechanism would occur when rats were fed yogurt sweetened with saccharin. The researchers performed three interrelated experiments on different groups of rats. In the first experiment, the researchers fed the rats yogurt along with their regular meals for six days of each week for five weeks. On three of the six days, the sweet-predictive group was fed plain, unsweetened yogurt; the other three days the rats received a yogurt sweetened with glucose. The second group also received plain, unsweetened yogurt three days out of six; on the other days, they ate yogurt sweetened with saccharin. The control group ate glucose-sweetened yogurt only on the days the rats who were assigned to the artificial sugar group received their saccharin-sweetened yogurt. The researchers measured the weight gain at the end of five weeks and found that even though the sweet-predictive group took in 58 additional calories per week, the rats that ate the saccharin-sweetened yogurt gained the most fat weight throughout the five weeks.
Research has also demonstrated that the body has an innate ability to compensate for increased caloric intake by reducing caloric intake later. Researchers looked at this link and attempted to establish a further connection between the real and artificial sugars and the body’s caloric compensation mechanisms. This time the researchers used a 14-day window and employed the same yogurt diets. At the end of the 14 day yogurt diet, the accompanying rat food was removed overnight. The next morning, half the rats in each group were offered a pre-meal chocolate drink that was left out for half an hour before the rat food was returned to all the rats. Again, the rats fed the yogurt sweetened with saccharin consumed the most calories. Also, the rats ingesting the saccharin-sweetened yogurt gained significantly more weight than either the control group or the glucose-sweetened yogurt group. Most significant to this experiment, the rats fed the glucose-sweetened yogurt ate significantly less rat chow on the days they were fed the pre-meal chocolate drink than on the days they did not receive a pre-meal shake; the non-predictive rats fed the saccharin-flavored yogurt did not show such negative caloric compensations. They consumed essentially the same amount of rat food regardless of whether they received the pre-meal shake or not.
Lastly, the researchers examined the theory that a thermogenic response to the taste of sweetened foods would evoke a higher core body temperature, and thus a slightly higher rate of caloric burn, in the rats already familiar with the glucose-sweetened yogurt than the rats not exposed to the glucose-sweetened food. The rats were first implanted with remote-operated transmitters that monitored core body temperature; they were then fed in a manner identical to that of the second experiment. The core temperatures of the rats were affected by the time of the testing, the type of yogurt the rat consumed and whether or not the rat drank the pre-meal shake in conjunction with the saccharin-sweetened yogurt or the glucose-sweetened yogurt. The sweet-predictive rats showed the greatest increases in core body temperature when they were fed the sweetened yogurt as opposed to the plain yogurt, while the non-predictive group showed very little change in body temperature -- only the last test taken an hour after the yogurt was eaten showed a slight increase. The results were similar when testing was performed in conjunction with the pre-meal chocolate drink.
The results of this study seem to indicate a plausible and interesting link between non-caloric, artificial sweeteners, positive caloric balance and weight gain. In each experiment, the rats fed the saccharin-sweetened yogurt ultimately consumed more calories, gained the most body weight and increased body fat. Additionally those same rats showed the lowest thermogenic response to feeding and failed to regulate their caloric intake to compensate for the additional calories in the pre-meal drink like the other rat groups. This link parallels the apparent relationship between the increased use of non-caloric sugar substitutes and the increasing rate of obesity in the country over the past eight years. While sugar substitutes have long been recommended as one way for dieters to reduce calories, this study seems to indicate that the artificial sugars may in fact add a possible hindrance to efforts to reduce one’s weight. It should be noted that humans have cognitive control to mediate internal drive and can regulate actions using psychological controls. Unlike humans, rats simply follow physiological drive with no cognitive, emotional, or psychological association between their food intake and the decisions they make regarding food choices or total calories consumed. Even if the human body mirrors the physiological mechanisms of rats and increase its desire for calories when artificial sweeteners are used, there are certainly still arguments that the zero calorie foods are useful in maintaining lower caloric intakes. More research is certainly needed before switching back to high calorie beverages containing sucrose and high fructose corn syrup. It is still likely beneficial to consume a diet beverage and a turkey sandwich with low calorie, high fiber bread, than a regular sugar-rich cola."