Real sugar can quickly add calories, but artificial sugar can lead to diabetes.
Scientists are now warning that some artificial sweeteners may alter the body’s microbes in a way that alters blood sugar levels, according to new data published in the journal “Cell” and reported by the Southwest News Service. is in accordance.
Sugar substitutes — which include saccharin and aspartame — are in thousands of diet products such as fizzy drinks, desserts, prepared meals and cakes and can even be found in chewing gum and toothpaste.
Manufacturers have long denied that the substitutions could have adverse effects on the human body, and experts have previously noted that blood sugar levels are not affected by them.
However, new data suggested that caution may be necessary.
Senior author and Professor Aron Elinav from the German National Cancer Center told SWNS: “Among subjects consuming non-nutritive sweeteners, we can identify very different changes in the structure and function of gut microbes and the molecules they interact with.” secreted into the peripheral blood.
“It appears that gut microbes in the human body are responsible for each of these sweeteners,” he said.
“When we looked at consumers of non-nutritive sweeteners as groups, we found that two non-nutritive sweeteners – saccharin and sucralose – significantly affected glucose tolerance in healthy adults.
“Interestingly, changes in microbes were highly correlated with the changes noted in people’s glycemic responses,” Elnav explained.
The professor’s team identified the same phenomenon with rats in 2014. Curious about what would happen to humans, Alinav and his colleagues examined more than 1,300 people and found 120 who strictly avoided artificial sweeteners in their daily lives.
That bunch was split into six groups — two controls and four who consumed significantly less than the daily allowance of aspartame, saccharin, stevia or sucralose recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Microbial samples from subjects were then injected into germ-free mice raised under completely sterile conditions with no gut bacteria.
The results of the experiment eventually suggested that microbiome changes in response to human consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners “may, at times, induce glycemic changes in consumers in a highly individualized manner,” concluded the professor, who noted that the effects of sweeteners may vary per person due to the unique composition of one’s microbiome.
Previous research has found that artificial sweeteners can have a bad effect on one’s metabolism and appetite control.
A report published in March by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine also found that vaping can lead to high blood sugar and diabetes.
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)