Sweeteners and the intestinal flora: study shows how “light” products are harmful to health

Various studies have shown that sweeteners damage the intestinal flora. Here you can find out exactly how sweeteners work in your body and what consequences this can have.

Would you like to avoid industrial sugar and therefore use sweeteners? According to scientific research, you are not necessarily making the healthier choice. This is because sweeteners can affect the intestinal flora by converting healthy intestinal bacteria into pathogenic microbes.

Sweeteners vs. sugar substitutes: these are the differences

Beverages, chewing gums, yoghurts, sweets – all of these products are now available sugar-free. Many consumers use so-called “light” products to avoid sugar. After all, sugar is not only high in calories, but can also trigger tooth decay and diseases such as diabetes.

Instead, food manufacturers sweeten their products with sugar substitutes or artificial sweeteners. There are differences between these two sugar alternatives:

• sugar substitutes: Sugar substitutes are alcohols of single and double sugars and are therefore also called sugar alcohols. The sugar substitutes are chemically made with sugars like glucose (Glucose), fructose and sucrose related. However, they have significantly fewer calories than table sugar (sucrose), cause blood sugar to rise only minimally and have little or no cariogenic effect (causing tooth decay). They have slightly less sweetening power than white sugar. This category includes, for example erythritol (E 968), sorbitol (E 420), isomalt (E 953) and maltitol (E 965).
• sweeteners: Chemically speaking, sweeteners are very different from sugar substitutes because they are not closely related to table sugar. These are very different and chemically complex substances hardly any calories included, but have a much greater sweetening power. Some sweeteners (like Stevia) occur naturally in nature. Most, however, are synthetic fabrics made in the lab. These include, among other things acesulfame k (E950), aspartame (E951), cyclamate (E 952), sucralose (E 955), aspartame acesulfame salt (E 962) and saccharin (E954).

According to the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), sugar substitutes are considered harmless. For larger amounts, however, they can gas, Diarrhea and stomach pain cause because they are difficult to digest.

The BfR also considers all sweeteners to be harmless in the specified daily maximum amounts. Only the substances aspartame and aspartame-acesulfame salt are toxic for people who suffer from the metabolic disorder phenylketonuria and should therefore avoid the substance phenylalanine. However, this is in aspartame. Therefore, products containing aspartame must be labeled “contains a source of phenylalanine” stand.

But the suspicion that sweeteners can also have negative effects on health is becoming increasingly substantiated.

This is how sweeteners affect the intestinal flora

As early as 2014, Israeli researchers were able to prove that artificial sweeteners can lead to weight gain and trigger glucose intolerance, a precursor to diabetes. This is because sweeteners can change the intestinal flora in such a way that the sugar metabolism is disrupted. This happens because sweeteners promote the proliferation of microbes that can adversely affect human metabolism.

Although sweeteners are actually lower in calories than table sugar, they change the metabolic activity of the intestinal flora in such a way that more energy is absorbed from the food consumed. This means: “Light” products can still lead to obesity due to the better energy yield.

A 2021 study followed up on these findings by examining how exactly sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin unbalance the gut flora. The scientists at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge were able to show that sweeteners can cause healthy intestinal bacteria to become pathogenic, i.e. disease-promoting. These pathogenic bacteria are Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis.

According to the biomedical scientist and study leader Havovi Chichger, Escherichia coli and Enterococcus faecalis are characterized, among other things, by increased adhesion and invasion into human intestinal cells. This means that the pathogenic bacteria attach themselves to so-called Caco-2 cells. The cells are in the intestinal wall. The microbes will invade and kill them over time. This allows the harmful bacteria to enter the intestines. This in turn can lead to infections and, in the worst case, to blood poisoning.

According to the study, the amount of sweetener contained in two cans of diet lemonade is already sufficient to change the intestinal flora.

Better than sweeteners: Less sugar

Sweeteners can therefore pose serious health risks. “Light” products are therefore not a healthy alternative. Although they may be lower in calories and less likely to cause tooth decay, they promote various clinical pictures.

A healthier approach is to avoid “diet” foods and enjoy table sugar in moderation or replace it with fruit and dried fruit. You can do that with one sugar-free dietin which you too sweet, but sugar free snacks can integrate.

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