Artificial sweeteners may make you fatter?

Feb 11 2008

According to the latest research from the U.S. artificial sweeteners can lead to greater body-weight gain.

In a study by researchers at Purdue University it was found that rats fed on artificial sweetener still gained weight and the findings have puzzled scientists.

The researchers suspect that a sweet taste followed by no calories may make the body crave extra food; they say that rats fed sugar had lower appetites.

The Purdue University researchers say the data clearly indicated that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain.

Nutritionists disagree and say as part of a calorie controlled diet, artificial sweeteners can help people lose weight or keep it off.

The Purdue study does however show otherwise.

Rats given yogurt sweetened with sugar or with saccharin and then offered a plentiful supply of food, found that the saccharin-fed mice ate more calories, put on more fat, and gained more weight than their sugar-fed counterparts.

What is more they did not make any attempt to cut back on their food later to regulate their weight.

The researchers suggest that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin helped prime the metabolism for the arrival of a calorie-heavy, sweet meal into the digestive system; the body then becomes confused and has difficulty regulating the appetite when other food is around.

They say if this is so, other low-calorie sweeteners such as aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame could have a similar effect.

A recent review of the scientific literature by scientists at the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington concluded that low-calorie or no-calorie sweeteners may be of help in resolving the obesity problem.

That study evaluated a variety of laboratory, clinical and epidemiological studies on low-calorie sweeteners, energy density and satiety and the findings are based on extensive studies with humans.

Several studies conducted in humans have shown that low-calorie sweeteners and the products that contain them can be useful tools in weight control.

Critics say the study is based on 27 rats and not humans and findings in animal studies are not necessarily applicable to humans and the suggestion that low-calorie sweeteners actually cause people to gain weight is irresponsible.

Health experts agree that weight loss is best achieved by a combination of reducing caloric intake, lowering energy density of the diet, and increasing physical activity, and low-calorie sweeteners do help.

The research is published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.