Micah Stanley
Sweeteners are low in calories, making them a popular ingredient in most diets. If you want to lose weight or want to prevent weight gain, use aspartame. This measure may help you lose weight, but it is not healthy – according to a study by York University in May 2016. Yes, the glucose metabolism is apparently worse with sweeteners than with people who use normal sugar. With aspartame, the risk of diabetes also increases significantly.
Aspartame: risk of diabetes increases
It is usually considered very healthy if you lose excess weight and slowly but surely approach your ideal weight. Blood lipid levels normalize, chronic inflammation decreases, blood pressure drops, joint pain improves and blood sugar levels level off again. Of course, the latter also reduces the risk of diabetes. But if you use artificial sweeteners, then this could even increase the risk of diabetes.
Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame, etc. help to reduce the number of calories in meals, as they do not provide any energy (calories) and are not digested. However, some sweeteners do not seem to leave the body quite as undigested as was previously believed.
Researchers at York University in England have now discovered that intestinal bacteria are apparently able to break down aspartame, which is said to be anything but beneficial to health.
The study used data from almost 3,000 adults from the so-called NHANES III study (Third National Health and Nutrition Survey).
Aspartame is more harmful than sugar – at least for the blood sugar level
“Our study shows that obese people who consume artificial sweeteners — particularly aspartame — have glucose metabolism problems (insulin resistance) that are worse than those who don’t use artificial sweeteners or regular sugar or fructose,”
explains Professor Jennifer Kuk, an obesity researcher at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science.
The risk of diabetes is therefore significantly higher in aspartame users than in people who prefer sugar.
“We found that gut microbial breakdown does not occur with saccharin or natural forms of sugar,”
says Kuk.
“Now we need to determine whether the potentially harmful health effects of artificial sweeteners outweigh their potential weight loss benefits.”
However, since studies have already shown that sweeteners even lead to weight gain in the long term, the benefits should be limited. If you then consider the consequences of insulin resistance or diabetes, there are hardly any convincing arguments in favor of the consumption of artificial sweeteners.
