Artificial sweeteners: If you have ditched sugar for those artificial sweeteners, it could be a reason for your disturbed metabolism. They mess with glucose and energy balance of your body and hence alter your digestion.
When you hear the term 'artificial sweeteners,' you think of them as sugar substitutes, only used by someone who is either trying to control their blood sugar or aiming to lose weight. What you don t think of, is the fact that you too are unknowingly consuming large quantities of artificial sweeteners as they are a large component of soft drinks, instant breakfasts, gelatin desserts, cereals, tea beverages, sugar-free chewing gums, etc. Sugar is a major component of various other foods like cupcakes, candy, etc., which you should avoid.
The most common artificial sweeteners permitted in India are:
Aspartame: Aspartame is about 180 times sweeter than sugar and 1 g of aspartame is equal to four calories. Its sold commercially as Equal, Nutrasweet, Equal Measure, etc.
Acesulfame potassium: Also known as Acesulfame K, it is a calorie-free sweetener, which is around 200 times sweeter than table sugar.
Sucralose: It is almost 600 times sweeter than sugar and has no calories, and it is believed to be the best sweetener available in the market. It is commercially sold as Sugar Free Natura and Splenda.
Saccharin: Saccharine is also a zero-calorie sweetener, which is around 300 times sweeter than table sugar, easily available in the market as Sweet n Low.
Also, there are other sweeteners available in the market called sugar alcohols like sorbitol, mannitol and xylitol, which have fewer calories and are less sweet than sugar. Researchers have recently found a sweetener made from tequila plant which could help diabetics and obese.
Apart from health benefits like helping in weight loss or controlling blood sugar, artificial sweeteners have a grim side too. They are known to cause metabolic diseases and give rise to certain dietary complications as well.
Side effects:
Weight gain: Although this is contradictory to one of the most popular uses of artificial sweeteners-weight loss, studies have shown that artificial sweeteners, rather non-caloric sweeteners promote weight gain. Frequent consumption of non-caloric sweeteners which are low in energy, trigger the body s response to consume food with more calories or energy, and hence promote weight gain.1
Disturbed metabolism: Consuming artificial or non-caloric sweeteners has shown to mess with the body s metabolism by breaking the link between calorie intake of the body and its glucose and energy balance. This interference results in deranged metabolism.2
Preterm delivery: Studies have shown that pregnant women who consume artificial sweeteners are at a higher risk of preterm delivery.3 Although, another study has also shown that prevalence of preterm delivery in pregnant women was also associated with their low standard of living and habits, such as smoking.4
Increased risk of type 2 diabetes: Studies have shown that increased consumption of artificially sweetened beverages increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.5 Non-caloric artificial sweeteners, have shown to alter the microorganism in the gut, thus affecting their metabolism. This altered metabolism of the microorganisms induces glucose intolerance.6 Glucose intolerance can further develop into metabolic syndrome, such as type 2 diabetes.
Although clinical evidence suggests that artificial sweeteners are associated with the above mentioned diseases, it would be a biased opinion, because equal number of clinical studies prove that artificial sweeteners are not associated with any of these risks except, for the fact that they do confuse the body, but still no conclusive statement can be made about them being either safe or unsafe. The fact remains that artificial sweeteners are fairly new to our diets and more evidence needs to be gathered to arrive at a conclusion. Until then, it would be safe to say that consumption of artificial sweeteners is not harmful but, limited use is warranted. Avoiding artificial sweeteners for diabetics could be difficult, they can opt for stevia, which is a natural sweetener.
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References:
Davidson TL, Martin AA, Clark K, Swithers SE. Intake of high-intensity sweeteners alters the ability of sweet taste to signal caloric consequences: implications for the learned control of energy and body weight regulation. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2011 Jul;64(7):1430-41. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2011.552729. PubMed PMID: 21424985; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3412685.
Swithers SE. Artificial sweeteners produce the counterintuitive effect of inducing metabolic derangements. Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2013 Sep;24(9):431-41.doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2013.05.005. Epub 2013 Jul 10. PubMed PMID: 23850261; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3772345.
Halldorsson TI, Str m M, Petersen SB, Olsen SF. Intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks and risk of preterm delivery: a prospective cohort study in 59,334 Danish pregnant women. Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Sep;92(3):626-33. doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.28968. Epub 2010 Jun 30. PubMed PMID: 20592133.
Englund- gge L, Brants ter AL, Haugen M, Sengpiel V, Khatibi A, Myhre R,Myking S, Meltzer HM, Kacerovsky M, Nilsen RM, Jacobsson B. Association between intake of artificially sweetened and sugar-sweetened beverages and preterm delivery: a large prospective cohort study. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012 Sep;96(3):552-9.doi10.3945/ajcn.111.031567. Epub 2012 Aug 1. PubMed PMID: 22854404; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3417215.
Fagherazzi G, Vilier A, Saes Sartorelli D, Lajous M, Balkau B, Clavel-Chapelon F. Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverages and incident type 2 diabetes in the Etude Epidemiologique aupres des femmes de la Mutuelle Generale de l'Education Nationale-European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Mar;97(3):517-23. doi:10.3945/ajcn.112.050997. Epub 2013 Jan 30. PubMed PMID: 23364017.
Suez J, Korem T, Zeevi D, Zilberman-Schapira G, Thaiss CA, Maza O, Israeli D, Zmora N, Gilad S, Weinberger A, Kuperman Y, Harmelin A, Kolodkin-Gal I, Shapiro H, Halpern Z, Segal E, Elinav E. Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Nature. 2014 Oct 9;514(7521):181-6. doi:10.1038/nature13793. Epub 2014 Sep 17. PubMed PMID: 25231862.
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