Eating sugar good for your health!

London, Feb 11: Researchers have found that sugar could actually be healthier than low-calorie sweeteners. They felt that a sweet taste could prompt the body to prepare for a large intake of calories. When this does not arrive, the body then becomes confused and either demands more food or burns less energy, with the result showing on the scales.

''The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain than the same food sweetened with high-calorie sugar,'' said the US team behind the research. Other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame which do not lead to the delivery of calories could have similar effects, the researchers said in the journal Behavioural Neuroscience, published by the American Psychological Association.

Scientists at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, fed some rats with yogurt sweetened with saccharin and others with yogurt sweetened with glucose, a natural sugar. The saccharin-fed rats went on to consume more calories and put on more weight and body fat, the Daily Mail reported.

UNI