Sucralose: Good or Bad?

Everyone wants to put on their blinders when it comes to sugar substitutes.

“Zero grams of sugar” sounds perfect!

But that teaser should always be a red flag 🚩until you read the ingredient list. Does it contain sucralose?

A new study shows that sucralose raises such serious health concerns that one of the lead researchers said, “it is something you should not be eating.”

➡️➡️The research showed that sucralose breaks DNA and contributes to leaky gut syndrome. A key metabolite of sucralose increases activities of genes related to oxidative stress and inflammation.

This is not just some nutritionist on a rant about artificial sweeteners. This research was done at the Biomedical Engineering Department at North Carolina State University .

And for now?

Check that ingredient list.

Reference

Susan S. Schiffman, Elizabeth H. Scholl, Terrence S. Furey & H. Troy Nagle (2023) Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose: in vitro screening assays, Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B. [study link & news release]

Zero-Calorie Sweeteners: Good or Bad?

Do you still believe that aspartame and other zero-calorie sweeteners have no effect on the body?

❌ It’s not true ❌

Researchers discovered several years ago that zero-calorie sweeteners messed with the gut microbiome in mice, but now?

It’s been confirmed in a human randomized controlled trial of 120 healthy adults (published in the journal Cell 2022)

Here are the study details:

✅ All participants strictly avoided artificial sweeteners before the study.

✅ Participants were given saccharin, sucralose, aspartame, or stevia sachets for 2 weeks (in doses lower than the acceptable daily intake) and compared with controls.

✅ Each of the sweeteners altered the microbiome of the mouth and gut in distinct ways, with sucralose causing the most prominent changes. 

✅ Sucralose and saccharin also impaired glucose tolerance (blood sugar control).

✅ Changes to the microbiome were causally linked with changes in blood sugar control. 

✅ The effects were individualized, differing from person to person.

The bottom line?

Even if sweeteners have zero calories, they are not inert. They might still disrupt blood sugar and might do that through mechanisms that involve the microbiome. 

But one word of caution: this should not be interpreted as a ticket to eat sugar! Too much sugar is known to lead to diabetes, heart disease, and many other issues. 

Instead, let’s take this as a reminder to get back to eating foods in the whole and natural form—with less processing, packaging, additives, OR sweeteners. 

🥦🍅🍑🫐🫑🥕🥑 

Reference

Suez J, Cohen Y, Valdés-Mas R et al. Personalized microbiome-driven effects of non-nutritive sweeteners on human glucose tolerance. Cell. 2022. [link]