Doctor's warning for anyone who puts sweeteners in tea or coffee

Doctor's warning for anyone who puts sweeteners in tea or coffee They may be affecting us in ways we don't know. A world-renowned scientist and doctor says there's evidence that everyday sweeteners used in several foods and soft drinks, as well added to tea and coffee at home, may be "distorting" our bodies, disrupting our gut microbiome and potentially increasing our risk of diabetes. Professor Tim Spector was referring to a study on humans by the Elinav Lab at the Weizmann Institute, a research group made up of immunologists, cancer biologists, metabolism experts, physicians and data analysts. In the study, researchers selected 120 people "who were found to strictly avoid any artificially sweetened foods or drinks". They split the people into six groups. Four of the groups were handed a different sweetener (one per group) of a common sweetener, containing amounts that were lower than the acceptable daily intake. They were: - saccharin - sucralose - aspartame - stevia. The two other groups served as controls and weren't given any sweeteners. The researchers found that "two weeks of consuming all four sweeteners altered the composition and function of the microbiome and of the small molecules the gut microbes secrete into people’s blood". It added that each sweetener did this "in its own way". They also found that "two of the sweeteners, saccharin and sucralose, significantly altered glucose tolerance – that is, proper glucose metabolism – in the recipients. Such alterations, in turn, may contribute to metabolic disease." Metabolic disease includes things like type 2 diabetes, obesity and gout. Broadly speaking, it is a condition that happens when abnormal chemical reactions in your body disrupt the normal process of turning food into energy. They said: “Our trial has shown that non-nutritive sweeteners may impair glucose responses by altering our microbiome, and they do so in a highly personalized manner, that is, by affecting each person in a unique way. The health implications of the changes that non-nutritive sweeteners may elicit in humans remain to be determined, and they merit new, long-term studies. In the meantime, it’s important to stress that our findings do not imply in any way that sugar consumption, shown to be deleterious to human health in many studies, is superior to non-nutritive sweeteners." Reacting to the findings, Prof Spector said on the Zoe Science and Nutrition podcast that a "major finding" of the study was that two of the sweeteners, saccharin and sucralose, which are contained in many common food and drink products, "could, over time, lead to an increased risk of diabetes". He added: "The other finding was that all four [sweeteners] affected the gut microbiome and caused what we call a dysbiosis. So they shifted the gut microbes in ways they think were broadly negative. "So it's a bit of a complicated story but what it's saying is two things: there are definitely some sweeteners that straight away cause problems with your glucose metabolism. All of them to some extent cause a distortion of your gut microbes. All of them potentially can be doing harm, but we're all going to react to them differently." He added: "It's even more complicated because nowadays the food manufacturers put multiple sweeteners into the same product. So its very hard to avoid one because it's nearly everywhere in small amounts. This study and a number of other studies have definitely shown that these substances are not inert — and that's what we were told, that these sweeteners were inert and had 1,000 times the potency of sugar, therefore would be a dream to get us less addicted to sugar. But it turns out that there's no such thing as a free lunch and turns out that we do pick up these chemicals, and our bodies do react with them, and what we're seeing is they react in slightly unpredictable ways." Professor Sarah Berry, a world-leading nutritional scientist and professor of nutritional sciences at King's College London, said on the same podcast that we may well be eating lots of sweeteners without realising because "they're hidden in so many foods". Of course, many of us add them to our tea and coffee too. What does the NHS say about sweeteners? The NHS says: "All sweeteners in Great Britain undergo a rigorous safety assessment before they can be used in food and drink. All approved sweeteners are considered a safe and acceptable alternative to using sugar." It adds: "The findings from research into sweeteners and health is mixed. Evidence from short term trials on drinks sweetened with no-calorie sweeteners show that when they are consumed instead of sugary drinks, they can support lowering of energy intake and weight gain. Evidence from longer term observational studies on weight show conflicting results but this type of research is limited and the findings cannot be directly linked to sweetener intake." Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine says: "Most artificial sweeteners are created from chemicals in a lab. These sweeteners don’t contain calories or sugar, but they also don’t have beneficial nutrients like vitamins, fibre, minerals or antioxidants. Some experts believe that artificial sweeteners pose health hazards, from weight gain to cancer. But research on this is ongoing. Studies on people have shown these products to be generally safe if more than the acceptable daily intake for each is not consumed." Is sugar bad for you? "Sugar isn’t inherently bad," explains Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine. "Actually, it’s necessary: our bodies run on sugar. Removing natural sources of sugar and other carbohydrates from your diet — fruits, dairy products and grains — is not a healthy choice. "There’s a big difference between added sugar and naturally occurring sugar. Much sugar is added to processed foods. The result is that many people consume a large amount of added sugar that has no nutritional benefits. And too much added sugar can lead to health problems including high blood sugar, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, dental issues such as cavities, increased triglycerides, obesity and type 2 diabetes." The Elinav Lab research was led by Dr Jotham Suez, a former graduate student of Elinav’s and now principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Yotam Cohen, a graduate student in Elinav’s lab; it was conducted in collaboration with Prof Eran Segal of Weizmann’s Computer Science and Applied Mathematics and Molecular Cell Biology Departments.