Artificial sweeteners provide an answer for individuals who have a sweet tooth and do not need the high amounts of calories from refined sugar or other regular sugars such as honey, dates and maple syrup.
Because artificial sugars are generally man-made synthetic substances that are not tracked in nature. Such synthetic substances can be harmful to the human body. This is what the study published in The BMJ suggests about these artificial sweeteners.
The findings suggest that these food additives, consumed daily by millions of people and present in thousands of foods and beverages, should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar, in line with the current position of many health agencies.
Aspartame, Sucralose, Acesulfame K, Saccharin, Xylitol are some common artificial sweeteners. Artificial sugar substitutes such as saccharin are considered unsafe.
Artificial sweeteners are widely used without sugar or as a low-calorie substitute. They represent a $7200m (£5900m; EUR7000m) global market and are found in thousands of products worldwide, most notably ultra-processed foods such as artificially sweetened drinks, some snacks and low-calorie prepared meals.
Several studies have linked the consumption of artificial sweeteners or artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) with weight gain, high blood pressure and inflammation, but findings remain mixed about the role of artificial sweeteners in causing a variety of diseases, including heart disease (CVD). . Furthermore, several observational studies have used ASB consumption as a proxy for detection of CVD risk, but none have measured artificial sweetener intake from the overall diet.
To investigate this further, a team of researchers from the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and their colleagues drew on data from 103,388 participants (mean age 42 years; 80% female) of the web-based Nutrinet-Sante study. did. Launched in France in 2009 to investigate the relationship between nutrition and health.
Dietary intake and intake of artificial sweeteners were assessed by repeated 24-h dietary records and taking into account a range of potentially influential health, lifestyle and sociodemographic factors.
Artificial sweeteners and types (aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose) from all dietary sources (beverages, table top sweeteners, dairy products, etc.) were included in the analysis.
A total of 37% of participants consumed artificial sweeteners with an average intake of 42.46 mg/day, which roughly corresponds to an individual packet of table top sweetener or 100 mL of diet soda.
Among participants consuming artificial sweeteners, the mean intake for the low and high consumer categories was 7.46 and 77.62 mg/day, respectively.
Compared to non-consumers, high consumers are younger, have a higher body mass index, are more likely to smoke, are less physically active, and follow a weight-loss diet. They had lower total energy intake, and lower alcohol, saturated and polyunsaturated fat, fiber, carbohydrate, fruit and vegetable intake, and higher intake of sodium, red and processed meat, dairy products, and no-sugar beverages. However, the researchers took these differences into account in their analysis.
During a median follow-up period of nine years, 1,502 cardiovascular events occurred. They included heart attack, angina, angioplasty (a procedure to widen blocked or narrowed arteries in the heart), transient ischemic attack, and stroke.
The researchers found that total artificial sweetener intake was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (absolute rate 346 per 100,000 person years in high consumers and 314 per 100,000 person years in non-consumers).
Artificial sweeteners were more specifically associated with cerebrovascular disease risk (absolute rates 195 and 150 per 100,000 person years in high and non-consumers, respectively).
Aspartame intake was associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular events (186 and 151 per 100,000 person years in high and non-consumers, respectively), whereas acesulfame potassium and sucralose were associated with increased coronary heart disease risk (acesulfame potassium: 167 and 164 per 100,000 person years; sucralose: 271 and 161 per 100,000 person years in high and non-consumers, respectively).
This is an observational study, so causation cannot be established, nor can researchers rule out the possibility that other unknown (confounding) factors may have influenced their results.
Still, this was a large study that assessed individuals’ artificial sweetener intake using accurate, high-quality dietary data, and the findings are consistent with other studies linking exposure to artificial sweeteners with several markers of poor health. Huh.
As such, the researchers say that their results suggest no benefit from substituting artificial sweeteners for added sugar on CVD outcomes.
They further state that further prospective cohort studies are needed to confirm these results and that experimental studies are needed to elucidate the biological pathways.
In the meantime, they suggest that this study provides important insight into the context of artificial sweetener reevaluations currently being conducted by the European Food Safety Authority, the World Health Organization and other health agencies.
With inputs from agencies.
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