"Effect of Sucralose (Splenda) on the Microbiome"
On April Fool’s Day, 1998, the FDA approved the artificial sweetener
Sucralose, aka one-six-dichloro-one-six-di- deoxy-beta-D-fructo-furanosyl-
(say that 5 times fast)
four-chloro-four-deoxy-alpha-D-galacto-pyranoside,
but despite its scary name, the worse it seemed to do
is just be a rare migraine trigger in susceptible individuals.
To which the manufacturer of sucralose replied
look, you have to weigh whatever risk there may be
against its broader health benefits,
helping to mitigate the health risks associated
with our national epidemic of obesity.
That’s what the hope was, to provide a healthy sugar substitute
to provide a sweet taste without the calories or spikes in blood sugar.
However, that’s not how it appears to have turned out,
with population studies tying consumption of artificial sweeteners,
mainly in diet sodas, with increased risk of developing
obesity, metabolic syndrome, and Type 2 diabetes.
But an association is not causation.
You’ve got to put it to the test.
If you give obese individuals the amount of sucralose
found in like a can of diet soda,
they get a significantly higher blood sugar spike
in response to a sugar challenge
requiring significantly more insulin;
20% higher insulin levels in the blood,
suggesting sucralose causes insulin resistance,
potentially helping to explain
the links between artificial sweetener consumption
and the development of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
So sucralose is not like some inert substance,
it affects the blood sugar response.
But how?
The Splenda company emphasizes that sucralose is hardly even absorbed
into the body and so stays in the digestive tract
to be quickly eliminated from the body.
But the fact that it’s not absorbed in the small intestine,
means it makes it down to the large intestine
and may affect our gut flora.
There had been studies done on artificial sweeteners
and the gut bacteria of rats going back years,
but there had never been any human studies…
until now.
They tested saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame,
the artificial sweeteners in Sweet & Low, Splenda, and NutraSweet,
and found that non-caloric artificial sweeteners
induce glucose intolerance by altering the microbes in our gut.
The human studies were limited,
but after a few days on saccharin, for example,
some people get exaggerated blood sugar responses
tied to changes over just one week to the types of bacteria
they had in their gut.
Acesulfame K, another common artificial sweetener,
was also found subsequently to be associated
with changes in gut bacteria.
So all this time artificial sweeteners were meant to stave off
chronic diseases but may actually be contributing to the problem
due to microbial alterations.
Some in the scientific community were surprised that even minor concentrations
of a sweetener—they’re talking about aspartame here—
are sufficient to cause substantial changes
in gut inhabitants.
Others were less surprised.
Each molecule of aspartame is after all metabolized into formaldehyde.
That may explain why some people who are allergic to formaldehyde
have such bad reactions to the stuff.
Therefore it’s not unexpected that even small amounts
might modify bacterial communities.
The reports about the safety of aspartame are mixed.
All of the studies funded by the industry
vouch for its safety,
whereas 90% of independently funded studies report that
aspartame can cause adverse health effects.
And that should tell you something.
Undoubtedly, consumers of these food additives,
which are otherwise perceived as safe,
are unaware that these substances may influence their gut bacteria.
This may be of particular importance
to patients with diseases correlated with modifications of gut bacteria,
such as inflammatory bowel diseases
like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
These individuals may not realize artificial sweeteners
may be affecting their gut.
Might the effect be large enough to actually see changes
in the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease?
Well, let's look at Canada.
They were the first country to approve the use of sucralose—
what happened to their rates of IBD?
Rates did seem to double after the approval of sucralose.
Hmmm. What about in the United States?
After decades of relatively stable rates of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease,
rates did appear to start going up.
In China, after the approval of sucralose,
IBD rates rose 12-fold.
Again, these could just be total flukes,
but such correlations were also found on two other continents as well.
The more graphs that you see like this,
the harder it is to dismiss a possible connection.
The good news is, is that after stopping artificial sweeteners
the original balance of gut bacteria may be restored within weeks.
Now of course the negative consequences of artificially sweeteners
should not be interpreted to suggest we should all go back
to sugar and high fructose corn syrup.
For optimal health it is recommended that we all try to cut down on both.