SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

What's the verdict on sucralose? You will have read it in the SuppVersity news on Facebook ( Sunday, September 16, 2018 ): Scientists from the  Unidad de Investigación en Enfermedades Metabólicas, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán  in Mexico City are the first to present  somewhat convincing evidence that the insulin sensitivity of healthy individuals can deteriorate (at least transiently) within only 14 days of consuming a high but realistic amount of sucralose (2.25mg/kg total) with every of your three main meals. Today, sucralose, which has been pulled from the diet drinks of the biggest players in the beverage industry, i.e. Pepsi and Coke (allegedly because people didn't like it - conspiracy theorists listen up ;-), is still used in selected diet drinks, diet sodas, flavored iced teas, fruit-flavored waters, hot chocolate, as well as various sweetened condiments, dairy products, chewing gums, candy and your supplements ...

Meanwhile, even many of those who are against the use of sweeteners admit that drinking diet coke is less of an obstacle to weight loss than regular coke. That it could, as the study at hand clearly indicates, even promote weight loss compared to water is controversial, though. It is one of the die-hard rumors in the fitness industry: Artificial sweeteners will stall your weight / fat loss and have your weight jojo back up, when you stop dieting . As a SuppVersity reader you know that this claim is not supported by science. For the first part, controlled trials like the 2014 study by Sørensen et al.  actually show that the exact opposite is the case, i.e. that the consumption of artificially sweetened beverages promotes, not hinders weight loss. Skeptics, however, will say that "in a caloric deficit, and in comparison to regular beverages", which was the scenario in the Sørensen study,  "everything will work" - a valid argument, I have to admit. After all, the...

Should you freak out about a small increase in body weight in a small-scale rodent study that is attributed to the consumption of saccharin in yogurt? While epidemiological studies show that the consumption of products containing non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) is associated with increased adiposity (Colditz. 1990; Fowler. 2008), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease (Dhingra. 2007; Lutsey, Steffen. 2008). A mechanistic link between aspartame, sucralose, stevia & co and weight gain as well as its ill metabolic and cardiovascular consequences in humans is non-existent  ( learn more ). Rather than weight increases controlled human studies show that the consumption of artificially sweetened foods promote, not hinder the loss of body fat  (Sørensen. 2014). You can learn more about sweeteners at the SuppVersity Aspartame & Your Microbiome - Not a Problem? Will Artificial Sweeteners Spike Insulin? Sweeteners & ...

Implications for diet coke? None! While I have deliberately ignored all previous studies discussing potential detrimental effects of saccharin on human health based on super-dose animal models, the one at hand is worth mentioning, because the dosage used is way below the RDA of 0.44mg/kg. But let's tackle one thing after another. In contrast to the myths about aspartame which are still  totally unfounded, the rumors about ill effects of saccharin on kidney and liver metabolism have been concrete enough for all the major players to pull saccharin from their products (see Table 1 ). You can learn more about sweeteners at the SuppVersity Unsatiating Truth About Artif. Sweeteners? Will Artificial Sweeteners Spike Insulin? Sweeteners & the Gut Microbiome Each is Diff. Sweeter Than Your Tongue Allows! Stevia, the Healthy Sweetener? Sweeteners In- crease Sweet- ness Threshold In fact, Tab, a diet cola soft drink introduced in 1963 and was created by Coc...