The light soda may not be doing your diet any favors.
According to new research, presented at ENDO 2017, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, turning to artificial sweetener sachets or drinking diet soda might not be as healthy as you thought.
The study suggests that this is because artificial sweeteners appear to affect your body’s metabolism. And in doing so, they can even lead to fat accumulation, especially in people who are already obese.
The study used different strategies to reach that conclusion. In the first, researchers tested the artificial sweetener, sucralose, on stem cells extracted from human fat tissue, using a concentration similar to that of the blood of someone who drank four cans of diet soda per day. They discovered increased activation of genes associated with fat production and inflammation.
A second experiment included samples of abdominal fat from eight people who regularly consumed low-calorie sweeteners. The researchers uncovered evidence of increased glucose transport in cells – meaning increased accumulation of sugar in the blood – and overexpression of fat-producing genes, compared with samples from subjects who did not use artificial sweeteners.
The researchers believe the reason may be in part because low-calorie sweeteners appear to increase “sweet taste receptors” in abdominal fat, and allow glucose to enter cells more easily.
Basically, these receptors are looking for a dose of sweet, and low-calorie artificial sweeteners (which are often several times sweeter than sugar) fill that need. The researchers noted that those who regularly consume sweeteners had a 2.5-fold higher sweet taste receptor overexpression than those who do not ingest the substance.
As more glucose enters cells as a result of these receptors, it is absorbed by the body into the bloodstream, raising blood sugar levels. This process often leads to the storage of abdominal fat. Over time, this can affect your metabolism, leading to increased fat production.
However, this study is just one of many on the subject of artificial sweeteners and weight gain – there is still controversy over whether artificial sweeteners are helpful or harmful.