The headline seems counterintuitive, because artificial sweeteners are used precisely when the goal is to lose weight. That is why many people use them, replacing regular sugar in various foods. And yet – recently, certain doubts have arisen about artificial sweeteners. At least about some of them. The research is still in its early stages, so we must accept its conclusions with some caution, but it seems that there may be something to it. The main question that needs to be answered is: To what extent can we generalise the results of the research conducted so far? The answers tend to be cautious, but many experts now admit that the effect of artificial sweeteners on the body is probably not straightforward.
Before we get into the details, we must mention the term microbiome, which is relatively recent. Thanks to modern methods, it has been discovered that our bodies, and undoubtedly those of every living creature, are literally saturated with various bacteria and viruses.
The vast majority of them are still unknown. Some scientists estimate that there are perhaps two kilograms of bacteria in the body of an adult human, the vast majority of which live in the digestive tract. Only gradually are some of them being identified, but it is much more difficult to study their role. There is more or less agreement that they do not harm humans and that our bodies are simply their hosts, but it seems that we actually need some of these microorganisms. Over the long centuries of evolution, the human body and bacteria have somehow become accustomed to each other, and this coexistence is perhaps ultimately beneficial, if not essential. Of course, this only applies to certain types of these microorganisms. At the same time, we now know that we carry a potential threat within us, because if our immunity is reduced, some of these bacteria can multiply and cause a more or less dangerous disease. A similar, usually milder condition occurs after antibiotic treatment, when the doctor sometimes warns us that these drugs have disrupted the intestinal flora, i.e. destroyed some of these bacteria. They then recommend taking lactobacilli or eating yoghurt or sour milk.
Another danger is the possible mutation of otherwise harmless bacteria, which can occur as a result of various influences, including antibiotics.
But now let's turn to artificial sweeteners. In fact, there have been opinions in the past that their use is not as safe as it might seem and as their manufacturers usually claim. Gradually, these doubts grew stronger, but it was more of a mere feeling of some experts, based on various indirect observations. We must not forget that it is very difficult to generalise from such observations, as we will see in a moment.
A more conclusive experiment, in terms of the clarity of its results, was published last year by Israeli scientists. They used ten-week-old mice, giving half of the test animals aspartame or saccharin daily and the other group natural sugar, glucose. After eleven weeks, it turned out that the mice that received natural sugar were perfectly healthy, while the second group, on artificial sweeteners, had abnormally high blood sugar levels, a sign of diabetes, which can lead to other diseases.
According to experts, this meant that mice given artificial sweeteners began to show a reduced ability to remove sugar from the blood and exhibited sugar intolerance.
When searching for the cause of this condition, scientists concluded that bacteria in the intestines could play a role. To verify this, they stopped giving artificial sweeteners to the first group of mice and began treating them with broad-spectrum antibiotics, which killed a significant portion of the bacteria in their intestines. When these mice returned to a normal diet, their sugar intolerance gradually disappeared – they were completely healthy again. So the condition that was artificially induced by sweeteners could be reversed. However, it should be noted that the administration of artificial sweeteners in this experiment was short-term.
This announcement was followed by a series of studies in laboratories around the world, which show that the use of artificial sweeteners can make it more difficult for the body to lower blood sugar levels, resulting first in obesity and then in its typical companion, diabetes, or complications such as cardiovascular disease, impaired liver function and other ailments. The results of these studies generally show that bacteria in the gut play a key role. It appears that some species literally reorient themselves to artificial sweeteners, multiplying and suppressing other bacterial strains that are somehow related to the metabolism of natural sugar. They also affect the production of leptin, a hormone that regulates our appetite.
A leptin production disorder causes the affected person to lose the feeling of satiety that we normally experience after eating, and we have no desire to eat more food. Leptin production disorder is typical in obese people. It is often a vicious circle, because as weight increases, leptin production decreases even more, and the person ends up overeating constantly.
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So, in summary, according to some scientists, the bacteria in our intestines not only regulate the digestion of various substances, but also play a significant role in the production of leptin. However, the question remained whether it was actually artificial sweeteners that disrupted the balance of bacteria, leading to weight gain. Israeli scientists attempted to answer this question by processing data on 380 men and women and found that those who used artificial sweeteners had a higher average body weight and, more importantly, showed reduced tolerance to natural sugar. However, sceptical voices were heard – it was precisely those who were overweight who used artificial sweeteners, but the original cause of their obesity could have been something completely different from these substances. This shows how difficult it is to study people, because each of them has a different past, different eating habits, and has lived in a specific environment, not a uniform one like an aquarium of laboratory mice.
Therefore, an experiment was conducted with seven normal, healthy volunteers who were not obese. They were given the permitted dose of saccharin for five days, after which it turned out that four of them had reduced glucose tolerance even after such a short period of time, and, importantly, a change in the composition of bacteria in their intestines was also demonstrated. After the experiment ended, the condition of those four returned to normal relatively quickly.
We could continue, but this should suffice. What conclusions can be drawn in the current situation? Above all, cautious ones, because the previous experiment was telling – changes appeared in four out of seven people. So it is probably not possible to generalise completely. That is the problem with studying people, as opposed to mice. The mice in the initial experiment were of one species, genetically identical, which is obviously not the case with humans. It is therefore difficult to draw completely general conclusions about humans, because each of us has a different genetic makeup. Not to mention that our bodies are more complex than those of mice, even though we are not so different in terms of basic processes.
The current conclusion is that artificial sweeteners may pose a risk, but it depends on the amount consumed, the duration of consumption, and, moreover, how the body reacts to them. This can vary from person to person. Nevertheless, we can probably conclude that if we want to lose weight, it is better to choose a suitable diet and not try to replace the taste of sugar, which we may miss, with artificial sweeteners.
Instead, treat yourself to natural sugar occasionally, but in small amounts. Forget about feasting at the bakery and homemade cakes. Or eat just one and go for a walk in nature. It doesn't have to be a run, just a reasonable amount of walking.
This article was published with the kind permission of of the magazine Sphere
casopis-sfera.cz / gnews.cz-HeK
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