Studies Show Ingredient In Artifical Sweetener Alters Brain

A study finds evidence that diet drinks with artificial sweeteners had an increased link to weight gain.

Due to the mounting evidence, the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 stating that low-calorie sodas should not be used for weight loss.

“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term,” Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, stated.

A new study may provide evidence of where low-calorie drinks may cause weight gain. When diet soda is consumed, instead of the brain getting signals to eat less, sucralose can trigger an increase in appetite.

What is sucralose? In the United States, it’s a key ingredient in Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, it’s called E955 and is often found in Candys, Canderel, Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana, and Zerocal.

“Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,” said lead author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Insitute at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

People who drink water with sucralose state that their appetite increased by 20% compared to regular water with added sugar.

In the study, it investigated sucralose’s impact but not other popular artificial sweeteners like aspartame, acesulfame-k, and sodium saccharin.

“This is a very high-quality study, using stage-of-the-art methods and careful analysis,” said Dr. David Katz, a preventive and lifestyle medicine specialist.

The authors carefully interpreted their results and made a strong case that “non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health,” stated Katz.

“Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts, and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels,” said a spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group.

This isn’t the first study to discover that artificial sweeteners can contribute to increased hunger signals. Another study found that obese people were especially sensitive.

“Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects,” Katz said. “However, this is to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center.”

In a new study published by Nature Metabolism, 75 people were asked to consume one of three drinks on three occasions. These drinks were water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose.

The study tested people’s fasting blood sugar levels and a brain scan to track activity.

“(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis,” stated scientist Kyle Burger, who wasn’t a part of the study.

Towards the end of the study, three possible explanations were found. These drinks increased hunger by about 17% percent, and the team discovered that there was increased motivation in the brain.

“Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills,” Page said. “For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision.”

The American Diabetes Association stated that people with insulin resistance and diabetes to only use no-calorie drinks and foods sparingly.

Research has shown that people who reduce their use of artificial sweeteners like they do salt and sodium can teach their taste buds to desire fewer sweets.

“By a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you can expect to be sweet,” said Katz.

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