Are Artificial Sweeteners Bad For You?

Artificial sweeteners were introduced into the food industry as a sugar alternative, however scientists quickly disagreed as to whether they are bad or good for you and your health. Sweeteners are many times sweeter than natural sugar. Some examples you may have heard of include Acesulfame-K, Aspartame and Sucralose. They were introduced because they provide the sweetness of sugar without the calorific intake and were a controversial means of preventing obesity.

This debate still continues today, with debate for and against artificial sweetener use being a controversial topic in research. However, many in favour of natural nutrition and wellness have concluded that artificial sweeteners are bad for you.

After the introduction of bans of certain food colourings in the United States, the attention has turned on artificial sweeteners. This has been a topic of public health interest for many years, including in other developed western nations. A big concern, particularly in scientific research, that has always been present, is the interwoven relationships between business and government.

Artificial Sweeteners As A Threat To Public Health

These relationships sometimes pull the wool over the eyes of the general public, clouding their ability to determine fact from fiction. The use of artificial sweeteners in foods has been linked to side effects to cognitive and brain performance in particular. In addition to this, artificial sweeteners have also been linked to the development of diabetes.

With the explosion in obesity rates in recent years worldwide, it is easy to see why artificial sweeteners were developed. However, artificial sweetener use asks an important question, as to whether the public would be making their issue worse rather than better. There are other questions too. Including how there are such prevalent rates of malnutrition in both developed and poor countries, across the globe, as well as high levels of obesity.

Here we will present the side effects or consequences that are associated with artificial sweetener use, to allow you to determine whether you think they are bad for you or not.

Possible Side Effects Of Artificial Sweeteners

There is a wealthy amount of research into artificial sweeteners and their possible side effects. Some of the potential harmful effects of artificial sweeteners are more researched than others. While science is making excellent progress, half the battle with sweeteners is looking out for their names on food product packaging.

Some major health issues thought to be worsened or caused by artificial sweeteners include Alzheimer’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome and brain cancer. There are other minor safety issues including skin problems, headaches, mood variations, allergies and seizures.

Artificial Sweeteners & Diabetes

We have already mentioned that artificial sweetener use is linked to the development of diabetes. The consumption of artificial sweeteners has been shown to cause insulin resistance in long term studies. Insulin resistance is a cause of diabetes, so the regular consumption of sweeteners is of concern to people.

The studies linking artificial sweetener use to diabetes aren’t limited to one study or sweetener. They include sucralose, saccharin and acesulfame-K.  Long term studies have found that artificial sweeteners might actually increase cortisol levels, inflammation and may not actually improve glycemic controls.

These factors can lead to increased risk of insulin resistance as well. There are also studies that show that artificial sweeteners might not positively affect body weight either. All of this outlines how artificial sweeteners are likely to be bad for you.

Artificial Sweeteners & Gut Microbes

There are various studies that point to the consequences of artificial sweetener use and your gut microbiota. Your gut microbiota are thought to be quite important for optimal brain health. Again, these disruptions have been linked to the development of diabetes.

Changes in gut microbiota are linked to inflammatory responses. These might also be linked to glucose intolerance, as found with aspartame that changes the composition of your gut microbes.  These finding show that artificial sweeteners are also likely to be bad for you and your gut microbes.

Artificial Sweeteners & Cancer

The very first experiments on the health consequences of artificial sweeteners found a link between bladder cancer and the artificial sweetener known as saccharin.

In recent years there have been other links made between sweeteners and cancer, including leukaemia and lymphoma. Certain sweeteners like saccharin and sucralose caused the most DNA fragmentation of all artificial sweeteners.

These results led to a cascade of studies in Europe that pointed out how artificial sweeteners were linked to a higher mortality and cancer risk. There is also a risk of injury to the liver with artificial sweetener use, especially with aspartame. One study pointed to acesulfame-k as being a causative agent of higher cancer risk.

Sucralose has also got some harmful consequences on pancreatic cells, where initially the sweetener engages with the receptors on the pancreas stimulating insulin release. This causes insulin resistance, where the body becomes habituated to the sweetener and insulin resistance is linked to higher cancer risk. Shortly after decreases in insulin are detected.

Some of the health effects from artificial sweetener intake have been found to be so bad, that pregnant mothers may need to review whether they should consume them.

Obesity

When considering whether artificial sweeteners are bad for you or not, an ironic consideration is whether they make you obese.

Animal studies have linked fatty liver disease with the consumption of artificially sweetened drinks. These original studies have been followed up with major developments that come to the same conclusions.

One of the biggest offenders is sucralose, having been studied extensively for its negative effects on the liver. Sucralose stimulates cytokine production, these are proinflammatory and linked to cortisol production. They cause the body to come under greater stress. Aspartame consumption is also linked to higher cell stress or cortisol levels, reductions in body antioxidant levels and therefore consequences to brain health too. These effects lead to diseases such as obesity and cancer.

They have also been linked to oxidative stress caused reproductive damage. Aspartame also reduces hormone levels. Including testosterone and thyroid hormones. These effects are possibly linked to weight gain. Artificial sweeteners have been shown to increase leptin levels, increased leptin hormone levels are linked to weight gain and obesity. While leptin gene defects can cause obesity. This may be how sweeteners are causing some people to gain weight. Various sweeteners have been implicated in metabolic diseases, including xylitol and sorbitol. These are quite damning findings, indicating that artificial sweeteners are bad for you and your wellbeing.

Brain Health & Sweeteners

Many studies have also implicated sweeteners in causing harm to the brain. Artificial sweeteners are thought to be able to restrict the useable amount of calories in the brain. This can produce effects like fatigue and lack of concentration as seen with the use of some sweeteners. They could also have harmful effects through nerve overstimulation and inflammation and this could lead to the death of nerve cells.

Artificial sweeteners may also produce oxidative stress damage to nerve cells, which might make diseases like Alzheimer’s worse. Sweeteners including aspartame, saccharin and sucralose were investigated for neurone count and brain lipid oxidative stress markers. There were significantly lower neurone counts and higher lipid peroxide levels with regular sweetener use. Artificial sweeteners may harm cognition and the hippocampus. Taken together, these finding all indicate that artificial sweeteners are harmful to the brain and are bad for you.

Conclusion

From their inception, artificial sweeteners have been the subject of intense debate and cause debate in nutritional research today. The opinion of artificial sweeteners in the wellness community has been very clear for many years.

While sweeteners were introduced because they have a sweet taste, without causing obesity like excess sugar does, there is a certain irony in that they cause other harmful effects or even obesity.

Artificial sweeteners have been linked to increases in risk in obesity, diabetes, cancer and brain health deterioration. Side effects of artificial sweeteners in the short term include including skin problems, headaches, mood variations, allergies and seizures. Artificial sweeteners have also been linked to increased risk of multiple organ damage and impaired gut health. Your gut microbiota are important for maintaining optimal brain health, but also are implicated in inflammatory responses in the body.

Here we have covered these health consequences from consuming artificial sweeteners in detail. Some of the biggest offending artificial sweeteners include acesulfame-k, sucralose and aspartame. Our conclusion is that artificial sweeteners should eventually be phased out of the foods industry and completely banned. While they can be avoided, many people can’t make accurate decisions because of health misinformation and lack of understanding. As with the recent ban on a particular red food colouring, there is a likelihood that artificial sweeteners could also go in that direction.

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