**From the AMA Morning Rounds **
Major newspapers, wire sources, and Internet consumer health outlets cover a study suggesting that the use of artificial sweeteners may interfere with how the body metabolizes sugar and, in some individuals, may even alter bacteria in the gut.
USA Today (9/18, Weintraub) reports that according to a study published online Sept. 17 in the journal Nature, “reaching for artificial sweeteners to avoid sugar may be trading one evil for another.” Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel posit that “differences in gut microbes may explain why some people can handle artificial sweeteners just fine while in an unknown percentage of others the sweeteners lead to diabetes.”
The Wall Street Journal (9/18, A6, Naik, Subscription Publication) reports that in work with mice and then with people, researchers examined the effects of sucralose, aspartame and saccharin on the gut microbiota and on levels of blood glucose.
The Washington Post (9/18, Dennis) reports that mice fed the artificial sweeteners experienced “increased risk of glucose intolerance, a condition that can lead to diabetes.” Researchers then “monitored what happened to seven human volunteers who did not typically use artificial sweeteners but were given regular doses of saccharin over the course of a week.” Four volunteers went on to develop “significant glucose intolerance.”The Post also notes that “the American Medical Association and the American Diabetes Association have cautiously backed the use of non-caloric sugar substitutes as a way to fight obesity and diabetes, saying that the products can be part of a healthy diet as long as the calories saved aren’t replaced by consuming more food over the course of a day.”
The Los Angeles Times (9/18, Netburn) “Science Now” blog reports “genetic analysis” also “revealed that the composition of the gut bacteria in mice had indeed changed after exposure to the artificial sweetener – some types of bacteria became more abundant, while others shrank.” The researchers also “said a computer algorithm looked at the gut microbes of the seven people and clustered them into two groups,” one group with people “affected by the artificial sweeteners, and the other group” with people who seemed to be unaffected by them.
The New York Times (9/18, Chang) “Well” blog reports that the latter finding “suggests that any effects of artificial sweeteners are not universal.” In addition, it “suggests probiotics – medicines consisting of live bacteria – could be used to shift gut bacteria to a population that reversed the glucose intolerance.”
According to the AP (9/18, Ritter), the study “authors said they are not recommending any changes in how people use artificial sweeteners based on their study.” Instead, they, along with “outside experts, said more study is needed, while industry groups called the research limited and said other evidence shows sweeteners are safe and useful for weight control.” The Food and Drug Administration, in a statement, “said the sweeteners ‘have been thoroughly studied and have a reasonable certainty of no harm to consumers.’”
Also covering the study are the NBC News (9/18, Fox) website, Reuters (9/18, Kelland), Nature (9/18, Abbott), TIME (9/18, Park),HealthDay (9/18, Thompson) and Medscape (9/18, Skwarecki).
You must be logged in to post a comment.