LORIE JOHNSON: This country's weight problem

is only getting worse.

The CDC reports a staggering 71% of adults

qualifies as overweight or obese.

The result, things like heart disease, cancer, diabetes.

In June, "The New England Journal of Medicine"

reported the whole world is getting fatter and paying

a price.

Four million deaths, 60% caused by obesity but the other 40%

by just being overweight.

Health experts say the root cause of our weight problem

can be summed up in one word--

sugar.

Most Americans consume about 160 pounds of it a year.

Often times, it's hidden in foods

you'd never expect, like yogurt, peanut butter, pasta

sauce, and bread.

Then other times it's right out front, like in soda.

This one can contains more than nine teaspoons of sugar.

It's no wonder so many people turn to diet sodas containing

zero calorie artificial sweeteners

to reduce their sugar intake.

But that's a bad choice for a number of reasons.

A new Boston University study revealed

people who drank diet soda have three times the risk

of developing dementia and having a stroke.

And that's people who just drink one a day.

So artificial sweeteners we think

are much worse than we ever thought.

LORIE JOHNSON: The Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Michael Roizen

says artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin,

and sucralose can disrupt what's known as our microbiome.

Your microbiome is the bacteria inside your gut.

Those artificial sweeteners cause a separate breed

of bacteria to grow inside you.

LORIE JOHNSON: Neurologist David Perlmutter

says artificial sweeteners throw off the delicate balance

of good and bad bacteria.

The bacteria that live within our gut nurture the brain when

they're treated right.

They reduce inflammation, for example.

Inflammation is the key player that causes multiple sclerosis,

Parkinson's, and even Alzheimer's

and coronary artery disease and diabetes, for that matter.

LORIE JOHNSON: Perlmutter says in addition

to avoiding artificial sweeteners consider

taking probiotics to increase good bacteria

and prebiotic to maintain healthy levels

We consume artificial sweeteners to control our weight.

But believe it or not, a number of scientific studies

show they actually cause us to gain weight.

One reason goes right back to the gut.

The body thinks it's starving and holds on to every calorie

that a person consumes.

So here are people consuming diet drinks and gaining weight.

And that doesn't seem to make any sense

and yet we now see that it's happening because

of changes in the gut bacteria.

The risk of developing diabetes is dramatically

increased twofold in people who drink

a lot of sugarless beverages.

Who knew?

LORIE JOHNSON: Nutritionist JJ Virgin

says the artificial sweeteners Stevia, Xylitol, Erythritol.

and Monk Fruit appear to be better choices for the gut.

However they can still lead to weight gain.

There's also a phenomenon that happens

called calorie dysregulation that they

saw with artificial sweeteners.

When you eat something that's got a sweet taste

with no calories, your body can't calibrate the degree

of sweetness with how many calories so it

causes you to tend to overeat.

LORIE JOHNSON: Then there's our own DNA.

Genetics predispose an estimated 3/4 of us

to have an addiction to sweets.

Meaning the more we take in artificial sweeteners,

the more we crave all sweets.

That's why health experts recommend

removing the taste for sweets all together.

Sweet is a learned taste.

If you go off sweet, if you go off sugar,

if your brain doesn't get used to it,

if your taste buds don't get used to it, you can avoid it.

And that's a much healthier state.

LORIE JOHNSON: Virgin proved this theory

with 700 sugar addicts.

First we taper down for a week, we don't go cold turkey.

But then we lower their sugar impact down.

We start using more spices and more savory

and getting enough protein in and getting healthy fats in.

And then at the end of two weeks, you go back and test.

And the sugar addicts told me that sweet food just

tasted gross.

LORIE JOHNSON: So while eating too much sugar

is definitely hazardous, artificial sweeteners

can be just as bad for you, maybe worse.

That's why the healthiest solution

is to remove all sweets from your diet, both real and fake.

Lorie Johnson, CBN News.