Contrary to popular belief, artificial sweeteners may actually increase the risk of diabetes and obesity, a team of Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute said Wednesday.
“Our research findings attest that consuming artificial sweeteners causes the development of the very health problems they’re supposed to prevent,” Dr. Eran Elinav-co-leader of the Weizmann study, which was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday-told Haaretz. “Our findings beg reconsideration of the massive, unregulated use of these substances.”
According to the study, artificial sweeteners-which are a commonly used sugar substitute in “diet” foods and drinks-can actually increase intolerance of glucose (a simple sugar) by altering the bacteria in the digestive tract, even though artificial sweeteners do not contain any glucose.
In an experiment, the Israeli scientists gave a set of mice three commonly used artificial sweeteners approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that were diluted in water, while giving another set of mice regular sugar that was diluted in water. The scientists found that the mice given the artificial sweeteners developed greater glucose intolerance, and by consequence, the sweeteners can be seen as making someone more susceptible to diabetes and obesity.
When the scientists repeated the experiment with mice that were given antibiotics that killed their digestive bacteria, they found that the mice did not develop glucose intolerance.
“The relationships we have with our personal gut bacteria is significant to understanding how the food we eat affects us, and our tendency to develop conditions such as obesity and diabetes,” said Elinav.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Well, of course. Using real sugar is so much healthier than that artificial junk.
when your body tastes sweetness it expects your blood sugar to rise. normally when your blood sugar rises your pancreas releases insulin to lower teh blood sugar.in people with type two diabeites they develop insulin resistance or dont produce enough….its possible that eating such sweetners tricks some people’s pancreas into producing insulin, or sometimes not producing insuin when real sugar is eaten-
Which substitutes did the test include? Aspartame, the most common substitute, has extremely high levels of acidity, which will affect the gut negatively. This isn’t the first study that suggests those sweeteners are unsafe.
Other substitutes, such as stevia or erythriol, are deemed much safer for diabetics and other people with blood sugar issues. Did this study include those sweeteners too?