Artificial sweeteners and artificially sweetened foods are often used by dieters as a way to cut sugar consumption without eliminating that sweet taste. Today, artificial sweeteners are found in a variety of foods like beverages, ice-creams, baked foods, etc. The allure of artificial sweeteners is the lack of sugar and its accompanying calories.
However, evidence that consuming artificially sweetened products leads to weight loss or better blood sugar control is weak. In fact, recent studies have shown that regular consumption of such sweeteners may actually contribute to weight gain and type-2 diabetes. In one such study, researchers have concluded that consumption of Sucralose might lead to glucose intolerance or insulin resistance. Researchers at Mahidol University (Thailand) aimed to study the effects of chronic exposure to Sucralose on glycemic response and insulin secretion and sensitivity in healthy subjects.
Our body’s normal response to rise in blood sugar levels is to secrete the hormone insulin which attaches to cells, acting as a key that allows absorption of sugar from the blood into cells. Thus, insulin plays an important role in maintaining a proper level of blood sugar in our body. Patients with type-2 diabetes do not respond well to insulin or are resistant to it. Insulin resistance, generally, occurs when cells grow tired of responding to the hormone; this, in turn, allows for build up of glucose or sugar in blood. Decreased sensitivity to insulin, or increased resistance to it, is considered the first symptom of type-2 diabetes in adults.
For this particular study, researchers selected 15 healthy volunteers who did not consume artificial sweeteners after asking them to undergo an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). OGTT is normally conducted to measure how well the cells in our body absorb glucose (sugar) after consumption of a specific amount of sugar. During a four-week period in a blind test, participants were asked to consume pills that either contained 200mg of Sucralose or a placebo. After a certain period of consumption, participants again underwent an OGTT to record their body’s response. Researchers also gathered data on levels of plasma glucose and insulin by asking participants to ingest tablets of 75mg glucose. The day after ingestion of said pills, an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IGTT) was conducted to evaluate acute insulin response (AIR).
Results from these tests showed that AIR was lower after exposure to Sucralose than after the placebo. Furthermore, whole body insulin sensitivity was also lower in participants who consumed Sucralose compared to those who ingested the placebo. This led the researchers to conclude that Sucralose may affect blood sugar control by activating sweet taste receptors and falsely triggering release of insulin. The fact that insulin sensitivity was lowered, just after four weeks of trial, shows that Sucralose has detrimental effects on a healthy body, by inducing conditions of a type-2 diabetic patient. The alarming results of this study should caution people who are accustomed to sprinkling a packet of artificial sweetener into coffee or tea. Although such sweeteners have been traditionally considered to help reduce blood sugar levels, they are actually inducing dangerous conditions in our bodies.
This is not the first study to point out the harmful effects of such sweeteners and researchers are confident that more supporting studies in the future are bound to change our views on the so-called benefits of these sweeteners. They did, however, agree that the significant results of this study need to be examined in greater detail by conducting larger and more long-term clinical trials. They are also considering the possibility of examining the body’s response to artificial sweeteners other than Sucralose.
