The story of Pavlov and his dog is important to our understanding of artificial sweeteners, say researchers from Purdue University. In the late 1800’s Ivan Pavlov conducted a study on “conditioned reflexes” based on work he did with his dog. What Pavlov would do is ring a bell when it was dinner time for the dog. The dog soon associated the sound of the bell with the sights and smells of dinner. Later Pavlov found that the sound of the bell alone, without the stimulating sights and smells of food, could make the dog salivate.
As simple or as obvious as the experiment sounds, it was important in establishing that there is a complex interplay of the body’s functions with the mind’s perceptions. Saliva is a digestive juice. It contains enzymes that start the breakdown of food. He showed that if the mind’s perception is that dinner is coming, the corresponding bodily processes are put in motion.
Most of us have experienced this at one time or another. We can see or smell some food and become instantly hungry for it. We crave it. Our mind sets our body in motion.
Consider that from the time we sit down to a meal and the time our bodies actually begin the digestive process there is a lag… But taste, smell, mouth-feel, and other senses are sending signals to our brain immediately. What we don’t have a thorough understanding of is how our body uses the signals from the brain. We don’t fully know what processes are set in motion by the taste of sweet, for example.
The researchers Davidson and Swithers at Purdue found that artificial sweeteners can produce conflicting signals. They propose that the body has a natural calorie counter. The body has some ability to regulate and determine when enough is enough… until artificial sweeteners are thrown into the mix. The artificial sweeteners break the mind – body connection. It may be that the mind is stimulated by the sweets but never receives the feedback from the body, that the body is satisfied… so the natural calorie counter is disrupted.
Dr. Swithers - Talk on artificial sweetners
http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2004/040629.Swithers.research.html