Low-calorie sweeteners may sound like a solution for those looking to decrease their calorie count, but new research suggests that consuming such sweeteners could predispose people — particularly those who are obese — to prediabetes and diabetes.
Stem cell-based research shows that low-calorie sweeteners encourage extra fat accumulation. Specifically, “as the dose of sucralose is increased more cells showed increased fat droplet accumulation,” Dr. Sabyasachi Sen, associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said in a statement. Sen presented this research Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago, and says it will be submitted for publication this week.
Researchers studied both stem cells from human fat tissue (ones that could become mature fat, muscle, cartilage or bone cells) and human fat samples for the study.
They exposed the cells to increases in sucralose — a zero-calorie artificial sweetener — in Petri dishes over 12 days, the amount equal to the concentration found in four cans of diet soda per day.
In the cells with added sucralose, investigators saw an increase in gene expression for those deemed markers of fat production and inflammation.
Next, the scientists looked at the abdominal fat of 18 people (four of healthy weight and 14 with obesity) who said they consume low-calorie sweeteners. Most of these were sucralose, though aspartame and/or acesulfame potassium were also reported sources of sweetener. The subjects who were obese or overweight had higher sugar transport into their cells as well as an overexpression of fat-producing genes, as opposed to the subjects who didn’t ingest low-calorie sweeteners.
Such sweeteners could advance metabolic syndrome (a combination of risk factors like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, abdominal fat and unhealthy cholesterol levels), the research suggests. These factors double the risk of both blood vessel and heart disease, and also can mean a three-to-five-time greater risk of developing diabetes.
The findings may be more concerning for obese people diagnosed with prediabetes or diabetes because they already have a higher risk for suffering a stroke or a heart attack, according to Sen.
The International Sweeteners Association pushed back on the research in a released a statement, saying the findings “are wholly inconsistent with the strong body of evidence based on a wealth of well-controlled human clinical studies showing that when used in place of sugar, low calorie sweeteners, including sucralose, can help in reduced overall energy intake and weight loss.”
Still, Sen offered thoughts on where the research could go next. In the future, he says researchers need to test more subjects, specifically giving them sucralose and taking samples. Ideally, he says he would take samples at six months and a year because three months or less wouldn’t be enough time to show changes in fat cells. Stem cells show changes more quickly.
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Consuming Low-Calorie Sweeteners Could Predispose You to Diabetes originally appeared on usnews.com
