Sweeteners do not reduce the number of calories consumed – drinking beverages containing them causes hungry people to crave a large caloric meal, the researchers say. Some of them, like sucralose, are even toxic to the body. Scientists are also skeptical about the study by the European Food Safety Authority, which reported that aspartame was safe for health, saying that it only measured toxicity, not the long-term effects of the compound.
A team of scientists from North Carolina State University and the National Institutes of Health, led by Dr. Susan S. Schiffman and Dr. Kristina Rother, investigated the effects of sucralose – a widely used artificial sweetener – on metabolism. Sucralose (E955) is a sucrose derivative, 600 times sweeter than regular sugar. In theory, it does not provide the body with calories, because it is not metabolized by it, because its molecule contains chlorine atoms. It is metabolized in the body only in 20%, the rest is excreted. It is more versatile than the commonly used sweetener – aspartame, as it decomposes at higher temperatures and greater pH ranges, so it can also be used in bakery and pastry products as well as acidic drinks (e.g. sour fruit).
As sucralose breaks down into two compounds harmful to the body (chloroglucose and chlorofructose), the Schiffman and Rother team set out to investigate the effects of its use on the human body. The research, carried out on a mouse model, yielded alarming results.
Sucralose and the Gut Revolution
With long-term use of sucralose, blood glucose levels and insulin metabolism change. New metabolites are produced in the intestines, the level of toxicity of which is as yet unknown. It is only known that they are harmful, because the level of cytochrome P450 in the digestive tract increases – an enzyme important in the metabolism of fatty acids and cholesterol. Probably these, unknown in terms of toxicity, metabolites of sucralose also negatively affect the flora of the gastrointestinal tract – its balance is disturbed and pathogenic bacteria appear. On the other hand, the histopathological examination of the intestinal specimens also allowed for the conclusion that lymphocytes form inflammatory infiltrates in the intestinal epithelium and damage the intestinal epithelium itself.
According to scientists, such effects are already caused by a dose of sucralose, which has been approved for use in food products by government regulators dealing with food safety both in the European Union and in the USA. However, as scientific data show, sucralose shares many features with other organochlorine compounds, such as pesticides, medicinal substances and even industrial chemicals. The authors of the research believe that it is necessary to re-examine the safety of this sweetener, especially if it is to be added to food products used by children, the elderly, nursing mothers, diabetics, people with diagnosed cancer and during treatment with many drugs at the same time.
Interestingly, this is not the first highly negative research result for this sweetener. In 2008, a team of scientists from Duke University Medical Center, led by Dr. Mohamed B. Abou-Doń, during the research on a sweetener called splenda, the main ingredient of which was sucralose, found on a rat model that even in amounts less than 5 mg per 1 kg of body weight body daily it has a negative effect on the body. However, the distributor of the sweetener appointed its own panel of 9 experts who criticized the research of the Abou-Donia team, accusing, inter alia, methodological errors, insufficient justification of conclusions and their inconsistency with data from other studies.
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They don’t help you lose weight
A team of scientists from Yale University, led by prof. Ivana de Araujo, investigated the real effect of sweeteners on the physiology of consumption. Scientists from Yale University wanted to answer the basic question – can sweeteners really replace sugar? As it turned out during the research, it is possible in a few cases.
Sweeteners are most often used in beverages, diet foods, or desserts instead of sugar. However, as it turned out, it is difficult to trick the brain. In the course of research in a mouse model, it was discovered that there is a signal from the brain that allows you to choose between sugar and sweeteners. This signal regulates the level of dopamine – an important neurotransmitter responsible, inter alia, for regulating the secretion of hormones. Dopamine gives a feedback signal to the brain; however, only when sugar is broken down into simpler compounds that fuel the body’s cells.
As prof. de Araujo, if people eat sweetened foods or drinks while being hungry or tired, their next meal will be very caloric. It is necessary to make up for the energy that was not gained by consuming a low-calorie sweetener. It was evident during the research, when hungry mice always chose water with sugar, despite the fact that there was a drinker with water with a sweetener sweeter than sugar next to it. It was only when scientists gave mice a substance that reduced dopamine levels, that is, interfering with the choice of sweetener or sugar, that the mice chose the sweetener more often. According to the researchers, this means that as a result the sweetener does not fulfill its dietary purpose and if a dietary sweetener were to be created, it would have to contain at least some sugar.
In turn, a team of scientists from Purdue University led by Dr. Susan E. Swithers, analyzing data from previous studies on the effects of sweeteners, found in a material published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism that their constant use produces exactly the same effects as drinking large amounts of drinks and eating sugar-sweetened dishes: metabolic disorders, type 2 diabetes, and even obesity, which confirms the results of research obtained by the team of prof. de Araujo. To make matters worse, their own research in a mouse and rat model by scientists at Purdue University found that these animals consumed sweeteners instead of sugar for a long time showed a marked disturbance in the physiological response to sweet taste. They no longer drank sugar water, but ate very large portions of food or were looking for the most caloric food.
Skeptical about aspartame
According to scientists from the USA and Europe, the results of these experiments indicate that recent research by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on sweeteners did not actually check their long-term effects on the body.
In December this year. The EFSA has announced that aspartame (E951), one of the basic sweeteners commonly used in low-calorie drinks, about 200 times sweeter than sugar, is non-toxic. Aspartame was introduced in the 80s and has been criticized by scientists in this decade. The works of, among others, in the USA, which associated its long-term use with the occurrence of liver cancer and metabolic disorders. It was also supposed to cause the so-called the effect of sweetness in children, manifested by aggressiveness and lack of concentration.
According to EFSA, aspartame and its metabolites are not hazardous at doses permitted for use in the food industry. They are up to 40 mg per 1 kg of body weight, which is about 3 g for an adult male. Due to the sweetness of aspartame, EFSA researchers compare this dose with a daily intake of 0,5 kg of sugar. According to EFSA, for a child of three years of age, the acceptable dose is 600 mg of aspartame. Despite these claims, scientists are skeptical. In their view, EFSA only measured the short-term toxicity of aspartame without measuring its long-term effects and the long-term effects of its metabolites on the human body.
Tekst: Marek Mejssner