Before anyone goes and grabs something artificially sweet, remember it could affect your gut microbiology. Large populations of bacteria live and thrive in the stomach and lower areas of the intestines, and new studies are now showing subtle shifts can cause dramatic changes in the metabolism of glucose, leading to added weight, metabolic issues, and Type 2 diabetes. Demonstrating a correlation between artificial sweetener use and glucose intolerance.
According to the research recently published in the journal Nature, scientists in Israel observed mice fed various sweeteners, such as saccharin (Sweet’N Low), sucralose (Splenda), and aspartame. In order to test their theory, scientists added a second group, which were only given water spiked with regular table sugar. After one week, the mice that drank the artificial sweeteners had noticeable glucose intolerance.
In later experiments, scientists, who happened to give antibiotics to the artificially sweetened mice group to kill the bowel bacteria, saw the subjects symptoms disappear. And when healthy mice were injected with bacteria from mice exhibiting glucose intolerance, they also developed glucose intolerance.
Humans are also prone to the same diet issues as mice. A study of 381 non-diabetic individuals showed a correlation between artificial sweetener use and glucose intolerance. And when a group of seven participants were given saccharin in the maximum dose allowed by the Food and Drug Administration, subjects had the same outcome, meaning glucose intolerance.
Even though the research is very new, the results are alarming.
It is critical to maintain healthy bowel flora, with sound eating habits and supplementing with probiotics.
