Does it help or hinder?
Scientists have discovered an unexpected effect of a sugar substitute
American nutritionists have found out that sucralose – an artificial sweetener, which is considered one of the most harmless – increases appetite and increases cravings for food, which, according to scientists, can negate the effect of dietary products and drinks with it, recommended for weight loss.
The results of the study are published in the journal JAMA Network Open (Yunker et al., Obesity and Sex-Related Associations With Different Effects of Sucralose vs Sucrose on Appetite and Reward Processing: A Randomized Crossover Trial).
Manufacturers of dietary products actively use artificial sweeteners. According to statistics, non-nutritious sweeteners (NNS) are used as a calorie-free way to satisfy cravings for sweets by more than 40 percent of American adults. However, there is still no consensus among scientists and nutrition experts on the effect of NNS on appetite, glucose metabolism and body weight.
Researchers from the Keck Medical School at The University of Southern California conducted the largest study to date on the effect of artificial sweeteners on brain activity and appetite response in different categories of the population.
"There are disagreements about the benefits of artificial sweeteners, but many people use them for weight loss," the press release says. The words of the head of the study, MD Kathleen Page (Kathleen Page). – While some studies show that artificial sweeteners can be useful, others say that they contribute to weight gain, the development of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. We have studied various population groups to identify the reasons for these contradictory results."
The authors recruited 74 volunteers, who were divided into three groups. During three sessions, participants from the first group drank 300 milliliters of a drink sweetened with sucrose (natural sugar); from the second – a drink with sucralose; in the third, control group, people drank pure water.
Over the next two hours, the researchers measured three parameters in the participants: activation of areas of the brain responsible for appetite and cravings for food; levels of glucose, insulin and other metabolic hormones in the blood; and the amount of food eaten in the buffet after each session. The groups included an equal number of men and women with normal, overweight and obese.
Visual studies conducted by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that after drinking beverages containing sucralose, activity in the brain regions responsible for cravings and appetite in women and obese people was even higher than in participants from the first group who consumed drinks with natural sugar. The study also showed that participants from the second group had lower levels of hormones that send a signal of satiety, compared with participants from the first and third groups. As a result, after each session, they ate more food in the snack buffet.
Hence, the authors of the study conclude that artificial sweeteners, in particular sucralose, increase food cravings and appetite, cause an additional feeling of hunger, especially in women and obese people.
"Our study points to the ambiguity of the results of previous studies regarding the nervous and behavioral effects of artificial sweeteners," says Page. "By studying different population groups, we were able to show that women and obese people are more sensitive to artificial sweeteners. For these groups, drinking artificially sweetened beverages can make the brain feel hungry, which in turn can lead to consuming more calories."
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