Artificial Sweeteners Health Effects

Debate on the safety, health impacts, and metabolic effects of artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and erythritol, including insulin spikes, weight gain, and comparisons to sugar.

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II PMC8156656 MSG HN IANAD www.ncbi scientificamerican.com israelscienceinfo.com bodybuilding.com nature.com sweeteners artificial sugar insulin taste body calories spike diet weight

Sample Comments

wrycoder Nov 3, 2022 View on HN

The article points out that different artificial sweeteners have different glycemic responses, so you could try some others.

lordnacho Jan 8, 2022 View on HN

Does it say anything about artificial sweeteners?

anonymouskimmer Jun 12, 2023 View on HN

This depends on the sweetener. There have been recent articles linking bad health effects to erythritol and sucralose that I am aware of.

Surplus7421 Sep 26, 2022 View on HN

"Artificial sweeteners are ten times worse than real sugar" source?

evanlivingston Jun 15, 2014 View on HN

Artificial sweeteners are not free of negative impacts;http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/

gshdg Sep 8, 2019 View on HN

Well, there’s some evidence that artificial sweeteners contribute more to weight gain, metabolic disorder, and type II diabetes than sugar does (due to biological feedback loops), and is more harmful to the gut microbiome. Then there are all the other chemicals (phosphoric acid, iirc?) in the coke flavoring syrup that aren’t so great for you.

epolanski May 31, 2022 View on HN

There's many different sweeteners each of them has its own lifecycle in our body.In general you can eat them safely, most of the studies showing their negative effects are poorly conducted inconclusive experiments (asparthame especially). The other half shows adverse reactions in mice, which have a very different digestion.The point of sweeteners is that you do not digest them, they leave your body with the same structure they had when they entered.I would avoid stevia though, I th

onigiri420 Feb 28, 2023 View on HN

Just stay away from the artificial sweeteners. They are also shown to cause insulin spikes similar to sugar, and in turn they are no better.

Etheryte Oct 2, 2022 View on HN

Yes, it was on the frontpage of HN a few weeks ago. Off the top of my head the results were that certain artificial sweeteners spike insulin and some don't.

davidmurdoch Mar 8, 2024 View on HN

Yes, but needs an asterisk. Artificial sweeteners, like aspartame, are correlated with increased consumption: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/#s3titl...