Artificial sweeteners may make us eat more

NEXT time you drop an artificial sweetener into your coffee thinking of the weight you’ll lose by avoiding sugar, think again.

A study published in Cell Metabolism this has found artificial sweeteners with a low carbohydrate diet significantly increases the quantity of calories consumed.

The study led by the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and School of Life and Environmental Sciences offered fruit flies diets with varying amounts of carbohydrate and sweeteners and tracked food intake.

Flies that consumed artificial sweeteners alongside a low carbohydrate diet showed an immediate increase in food intake. The increase varied with the dose of sweeteners provided and was not observed in flies consuming unsweetened foods.

Importantly, a previous study reported consumption of an artificial sweetener in a higher carbohydrate diet suppresses food intake, and therefore may help reduce calories consumed.

However when examined in detail, these results were not reproduceable, and flies offered a higher carbohydrate diet and higher doses of sweeteners did not reduce their food intake.

Lead researcher Professor Greg Neely said the new findings supported the team’s previous conclusions.

“Distorting the perceived energy value of food, by manipulating sweetness through artificial means, has unanticipated consequences in these animal studies,” he said.

“Although originally considered benign, a growing body of research including our own makes clear a connection between artificial sweeteners, hunger and food intake.”

Previous research by the University of Sydney team on flies and mice revealed chronic consumption of artificial sweeteners increased feelings of hunger because of a complex neuronal network that responds to artificially sweetened food by telling the animal it hasn’t eaten enough energy.