Whether it’s aspartame in soda, sucralose to sweeten yoghurt, or acesulfame potassium in chewing gum, additives have long been used to sweeten foods without using sugar.
In a recent report, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety states that there is 4.5 times less aspartame in diets today than 10 years ago. But other so-called “intense” sweeteners are still present.
Now, a study led by scientists from the UK’s University of Leeds suggest that this might not necessarily be a problem from a nutritional standpoint. In a study published in The Lancet, they conclude that replacing sugar with artificial and natural sweeteners in foods does not make people hungrier.
“The use of sweeteners and sweetness enhancers has received a lot of negative attention, including high-profile publications linking their consumption with impaired glycaemic response, toxicological damage to DNA, and increased risk of heart attack and stroke,” said lead study author Graham Finlayson, professor of psychobiology at Leeds’ School of Psychology.
“These reports contribute to the current befuddlement concerning the safety of sweeteners and sweetness enhancers among the general public, and especially people at risk of metabolic diseases.
“Our study provides crucial evidence supporting the day-to-day use of sweeteners and sweetness enhancers for body weight and blood sugar control.”
The difference with previous studies is that this research doesn’t focus solely on comparing aspartame to a control: specifically, it looks at stevia, a natural sweetener, and neotame, an artificial sweetener.
Moreover, most previous scientific research on the subject has focused on the impact of sweeteners using sweetened beverages as the base product. Here, the participants were asked to eat cookies with a fruit filling containing either sugar, stevia or neotame.
“Very few studies have examined the effect of repeated daily intake of a known sweetener or sweetness enhancer in the normal diet,” the experts explained, indicating that consumers should not take the study findings as a reversal of scientific opinion.
The trial involved overweight or obese patients, who were asked to eat the given cookies for three fortnightly periods. Blood samples were taken to study glucose levels, as well as insulin and appetite-related hormones such as ghrelin.
The scientists found no evidence that sweeteners and sweetness enhancers negatively impacted appetite. Moreover, blood sugar levels were reduced, as were insulin levels, compared to sugar.
The conclusion is as surprising as it is straightforward. According to professor Anne Raben from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, “the findings show that sweeteners are a helpful tool to reduce intake of added sugar without leading to a compensatory increase in appetite or energy intake, thereby supporting the usefulness of sweeteners for appetite, energy and weight management”.
But that doesn’t mean you should make sweeteners a permanent part of your diet. In 2022, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research suggested that their consumption could be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
More specifically, aspartame may be correlated with cerebrovascular disease, while acesulfame-K and sucralose may be more closely associated with coronary heart disease.