Study: High doses of saccharin do not lead to diabetes in healthy adults

From the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

For those trying to live a healthy lifestyle, the choice between sugar and artificial sweeteners can be confusing. Is artificial sweetener bad for you? Are certain types better than others? But now, research is showing that we may not need to throw out that Sweet ‘N Low just yet.

A new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds that the sugar substitute saccharin doesn’t lead to diabetes in healthy adults as previous studies have suggested.

“It’s not that the findings of previous studies are wrong, they just didn’t control for things like underlying health conditions, diet choices and lifestyle habits,” said George Kyriazis, PhD, assistant professor of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State and co-author of the study. “By studying the artificial sweetener saccharin in healthy adults, we have isolated its effects and found no change in participants’ gut microbiome or their metabolic profiles.”

In the study, published in the journal Microbiome, healthy participants were given the maximum recommended amount of saccharin every day for two weeks, which is far more than the average consumer would use.

Researchers found that – unlike sugar, which can lead to a number of negative health impacts – artificial sweetener did not cause any biological changes or cause any adverse health effects.

Saccharin is one of six artificial sweeteners approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The use of artificial sweeteners has increased dramatically over the past decade due to growing awareness of the negative health outcomes associated with consuming too much sugar, study authors noted.

“Previous studies elsewhere have suggested that consuming artificial sweeteners is associated with metabolic syndrome, weight gain, obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,” said study first author Joan Serrano, a researcher in the department of biological chemistry and pharmacology at Ohio State.

Serrano added that these findings have raised concerns that consuming artificial sweeteners may lead to adverse public health outcomes. A lack of well-controlled interventional studies contributed to the confusion, he said.

“This is actually what we think is the difference between prior studies and our study right now,” Kyriazis said. “When you have a healthy population consuming a reasonable amount of artificial sweeteners, it’s unlikely to deteriorate any health aspects, or particularly, glucose metabolism.”

Sugar, on the other hand, is well-documented to contribute to obesity, heart disease and diabetes, said Kyriazis.

“If the choice is between consuming sugars and consuming artificial sweetener, right now, the choice should be the artificial sweetener because the effects of a high consumption of sugar in health is really well documented,” he said. “At this point, there’s no comparison in terms of the choice.”

But, he cautions, “like in everything else, in moderation.”

Kelly Scully uses artificial sweetener in her coffee to reduce her sugar intake. A new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds sugar substitutes do not lead to diabetes in healthy adults as previous studies have suggested.

From the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center