There’s been debate over whether “you can have your cake and eat it too,” i.e. whether zero-calorie sweeteners are safe to eat or, in the long-term, are detrimental to health.
The short answer is “no,” and here are three reasons why. Many artificial sweeteners:
- (I) spike your blood sugar just like real sugar, setting you on the “insulin roller coaster”
- (II) screw up your microbiome to cause glucose intolerance
- (III) mess directly with your neurochemistry and brain function!
1. Do Artificial Sweeteners Drive Hormonal Hunger?
Let’s start with blood sugar spikes and the insulin roller coaster. When it comes to your body’s hormones, insulin is like your blood glucose’s shadow. When you blood sugar goes up, insulin tends to follow. The problem is that many sweeteners spike your blood sugar, which then comes crashing down.
The insulin roller coaster refers to the hormonal shifts that pattern this rise and fall in blood sugar, which research reveals activates the reward center of the brain, the nucleus accumbens, and drives the sensation of hunger ( 1).
The punch line is that most artificial sweeteners drive hormonal hunger (which is different from when your body is truly hungry for nutrients), compelling you to eat every few hours, constantly spike your insulin, and remain on the sickening coaster.
Most artificial sweeteners drive hormonal hunger, compelling you to eat every few hours, constantly spike your insulin, and remain on the sickening coaster.
2. How Do Artificial Sweeteners Affect the Microbiome?
But, in my opinion, an even scary facet of artificial sweeteners is their potential impact on the gut microbiome — the community of microorganisms that live in our gastrointestinal systems and govern almost every aspect of our health.
Artificial Sweeteners in Mice
And paper published in the journal Nature ( 2) reveals a shocking truth that is anything but sweet. The researchers behind this paper began by examining what happened to different groups of mice fed any of three different artificial sweeteners (saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame) as compared to mice fed normal sugars (glucose and sucrose).
Worryingly, all of the mice that were fed the artificial sweeteners quickly developed glucose intolerance, a harbinger of diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease. The researchers also noted that the artificial sweeteners altered the mice’s gut bacteria.
