No More Sweeteners

I am so lucky that I'm not addicted to much. But I do have a sweet tooth. I try to eat little or no sugar. For sweetener, I use Stevia. I guess I should stop.

I read a WaPo article: How fake sugars sneak into foods and disrupt metabolic health

One rigorous study...looked at what happened when people were given aspartame, saccharin, stevia, or sucralose in amounts well below the FDA’s daily allowances. The study found that these sweeteners caused changes in both the function and composition of the participants’ gut microbiomes, the communities of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in the intestines.
...
(They) found that artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes can alter your microbiome in ways that are detrimental to your metabolic health.

Two sweeteners in particular, saccharin and stevia, worsened the participants’ blood sugar control. Some participants had more dramatic responses to the sweeteners than others...
...
some studies have found that regularly consuming sugar substitutes can disrupt that process, causing your cells to stop responding properly to insulin and leading to chronically elevated blood sugar levels.
...
Sweet taste receptors on your tongue tell your brain that you’re eating something sweet. This sends a signal to your brain and your body that an influx of calories is coming.

But because these sweeteners are more potent than normal sugar with few or none of the calories, they can confuse your brain and your taste receptors.

I guess it's naive to think I can stimulate my taste buds without affecting the rest of my body. After all, the feelings are in my brain, not my taste buds. A cup of artificially sweet tea makes my whole body feel a bit more energetic. It makes sense that the brain would prepare my system to release insulin. If there's no real sugar coming in, the insulin will quickly empty the sugar out of my blood and then decrease.

So drinking a large mug of tea with sweetener, I'm telling my body to release insulin, but there's little sugar in my blood. So I'm essentially training my body to NOT release insulin in response to sweetness.

I do know my blood glucose level is borderline high. The healthy range is 70-99 and mine comes in at 100-103. My doctor says I'm "borderline diabetic."

The question is, does the pancreas release insulin in response to - glucose in the blood,
 - signals from the brain
 - glucose produced by the liver
 - something else
 - some combination

It makes sense that it's complicated...

I will give up sweeteners. They say, "in moderation", but any just feeds the addiction. I guess a little occasionally hidden in processed foods is okay. I try to eat few processed foods, and none with additives.

I guess when I feel the urge for sugar, I'll do some exercises and drink water...

If I "need" to snack? A piece of fruit, a vegetable, or some nuts. The only sugar I'll eat is the occasional unsweetened, dried fruit.

(I recently gave up chocolate (sweetened with Stevia) because of the high lead level in all chocolate, but especially the brand I was consuming.)