New research
suggests that diet drinks are associated with weight gain.
WASHINGTON — Americans have soured on artificial sweeteners.
Once heralded as sweet substitutes for sugar without as many belt-busting calories, consumers once couldn’t get enough sucralose and aspartame. But recently, people have started looking at the molecules with increasing suspicion, amid studies that linked them to increased fat.
Both the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association gave their stamp of approval to artificial sweeteners with statements listed on their websites in 2014, and Americans ate it up.
But an international group of researchers has tried to figure out whether low-calorie sweeteners really live up to their promise over time.
Meghan Azad, a researcher at the University of Manitoba in Canada, and others reviewed dozens of studies about the effects of sugar substitutes, trying to see whether there was a prevailing trend.
The study found that not only were artificial sweeteners dodgy when it came to weight management, but people who drank them routinely had an increased body mass index and risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Close to half of adults and a quarter of children consume artificial sweeteners every day, according to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Many consumers mistakenly believe that a diet soda or two a day is good for them, the same as swigging water, Azad said. Others may be inadvertently consuming artificial sweeteners in products such as yogurt and granola bars.
“We need more evidence from better quality studies to know for sure the cause and effect, but there does seem to be at least a question about the daily consumption of these drinks,” she said.
A link between artificial sweeteners and weight gain appears to exist, Azad said, but the reason is elusive.
Maybe, she postulated, the body tastes sweetness and still thinks it’s eating sugar and rejiggers its metabolic processes accordingly. Or maybe there’s an unknown biological switch that’s triggered by the chemicals in artificial sweeteners.
“I think there’s enough association and questions out there that it made me rethink what I do on a daily basis,” Azad said. “I used to sweeten my coffee with Stevia in the morning and when I wanted a fizzy drink, I’d get a Diet Coke. Now I just use milk and I drink sparkling water.”