by Natalie Walsh, ND, MS, DipACLM
With colorful packets on every café table and names such as sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame-K on our food labels, non-sugar sweeteners are ubiquitous. Sweeteners may be entirely man-made, such as saccharin, discovered in an 1879 lab accident, or derived from plants such as Stevia, the source of rebaudioside-A. With more awareness of these ingredients in our food supply, it’s no wonder that people are curious about their health effects, and that myths have taken hold, particularly through social media.
About Dr. Walsh Dr. Natalie Walsh practices Lifestyle and Natural Medicine across Private Medical. She attended Dartmouth College, Michigan State University, and Frostburg State University in Maryland, where she received a master’s degree in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology. Dr. Walsh received her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University, where she also completed her postgraduate residency program. Prior to joining Private Medical, she worked in primary care and community medicine in Seattle. She is the first naturopathic doctor to become a Diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. |
Effect on Weight & Metabolic Health
First, their effects on weight and metabolic health. Zero-calorie artificial sweeteners have never been shown to conclusively raise blood sugar or cause weight gain. There may be some mixed results, mostly due to what’s known as reverse causality. Artificial sweeteners may be associated with diabetes because of their use by people with the condition, not because they are a cause of the condition. Studies using sweeteners as a sugar substitute in intervention trials, including one published last month, have generally shown weight loss or maintenance of weight loss. Large analyses of data have shown lower incidence of diabetes when artificially-sweet beverages are substituted for sugar-sweetened ones.
Cancer
Do artificial sweeteners cause cancer? The World Health Organization has classified aspartame (found in diet soda) as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” mostly based on animal studies. However, the doses needed for this kind of toxic exposure would be 9-14 cans of diet soda per day to exceed the safe amount, and exposure would have to continue for years in order for cancer to develop. A later WHO statement stated after further review that aspartame is “not concerning at doses commonly used,” but if you’re having 9 or more cans of diet soda a day, please speak to your physician!
Brain Health & Gut Microbiome
What about the brain and the gut microbiome? In both of these areas, there is more research to be done, but different types of sweeteners may have wholly different impacts on our memory and our gut health.
Regarding brain health, a study performed in Brazil across 8 years looked at numerous sweeteners and found an association between daily consumption of most of them and a faster decline in working memory and verbal fluency in people ages 35-60. Tagatose, a sweetener uncommonly used in the US but naturally derived, had no effects on cognitive aging in the study.
Gut effects from sweeteners show similarly mixed effects. Some studies have found gut microbiome disruption, and changes that suggest a relationship to weight gain. Others have found that sweeteners act as prebiotics, boosting production of nutrients such as short-chain fatty acids.
The Big Takeaway
Looking to maintain weight loss, or control blood sugar? Artificial sweeteners are still an invaluable tool for you, and diet drinks could be far better for your health than sugar-sweetened beverages. It’s possible that naturally-derived sweeteners are the superior choice for brain health, but we need to know more.
Keeping to reasonable amounts of all artificial sweeteners, like one Diet Coke a day or less, and not nine, is probably best for your overall health.
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