12/21/2022
Got anxiety? Did you know that what you eat may be making it worse?
It’s hard to know what’s up and down with nutrition sometimes. A good rule of thumb is to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible, avoiding food that has been altered by processing. Michael Pollan’s maxim is a good one to follow (paraphrasing here): eat (real) food, mostly plants, not too much.
There’s so much we still don’t know about artificial food additives! A new study sheds some light on one of the issues with artificial sweeteners.
Man-made/artificial dyes, sweeteners, and other flavoring should be avoided for many reasons. This recent study shows that artificial sweeteners can activate anxiety pathways in people who consume small amounts (15% of what the FDA says is an acceptable level). Additionally, these activated pathways can express themselves in the next generation of those who consumes artificial sweeteners! Full article here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213120119
"Extrapolation of the findings to humans suggests that aspartame consumption at doses below the FDA recommended maximum daily intake may produce neurobehavioral changes in aspartame-consuming individuals and their descendants," they write.
"Thus, human population at risk of aspartame's potential mental health effects may be larger than current expectations, which only include aspartame-consuming individuals," they [the authors] add.
Ihttps://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/985861?src=WNL_trdalrt_pos1_221220&uac=188110DX&impID=5011216
