Diet coke anyone?
As of resent there is much debate over the use of artificial sweetener in our favourite low-calorie drinks. It has helped many a dieter achieves their weight loss goal. But is the weight loss worth the risk to our health? The WHO (World Health Organisation) say maybe, no??
Artificial sweeteners are often a topic of heated debate, so what are they and why?
Food additives such as sugar, salt and vinegar have been traditionally used for preservation of foods for is as long as time begone. Most food additives that are used to preserve foods are believed to be safe, but the possibility of carcinogenic and toxic qualities cannot be ruled out or ignored.
A food additive is any substance that is used in or added to food in order to preserve its quality, taste colour or relevant feature which is prone to destruction. They improve the degradation of food and its shelf life.
Sugar and salt are the most common food additives, and it is the excess of the two which must be avoided Food additives may be natural or artificial and this is where our artificial sweeteners come into play. It is often the misconception that natural equals safe – whether an additive has been naturally or synthetically obtained does not validate the safety of additive.
What is Aspartame?
This is the name given to the artificial sweetener used in Diet coke and many other low-calorie products Sold under the different brand names it is 200 times sweeter than natural table sugar.
Although they do contain calories, they are several thousand times sweeter than regular sugar, so the amount needed to sweeten products is so small that you end up consuming almost no calories – providing nearly zero calories.
The For
Randomised controlled studies (the gold standard) report that artificial sweeteners may reduce body weight, fat mass and waist circumference and reduce the number of daily calories you consume.
Those with diabetes may benefit from choosing artificial sweeteners as they offer a sweet taste without the accompanying rise in blood sugar levels. It has been shown that artificial sweetener decreases the likely hood of tooth decay.
Overall, may have benefits for weight loss blood sugar control and dental health.
Against
Your gut bacteria play an important role in your health and poor gut health is linked to numerous problems.
Gut bacteria are affected by what you eat including artificial sweetener. Artificial sweetener has been seen to have an adverse effect on gut bacteria. Growing evidence shows some artificial sweeteners like sucralose reduce insulin sensitivity and affect gut bacteria.
Also, it has been proven that Certain food additives are believed to have side effects such as increased risk of hyperactivity, allergies and asthma however more research is needed to confirm.
Diet drinks are essentially a mixture of carbonated water artificial or natural sweetener colours flavours and other food additives. This would make them low calories but also a low nutrition food.
The IARC now consider aspartame as a class 2B carcinogen. So, what does this mean for us?
4 Classes of carcinogens
Group 1 –Carcinogenic to humans
Group 2A – Probably carcinogenic to humans
Group 2B – Possibly carcinogenic to humans
Group 3 – Not classifiable as to their carcinogenicity to humans
Group 4 – Probably not carcinogenic to humans
It basically means there is a probability that it could be cancer causing as there is sufficient evidence from animal bioassay data to suggest this. However, as there is limited human evidence more research is needed to move it up the scale. They do however feel there is increasing amount of evidence and the possibility is even more present.
The level of risk is low but consuming something over many years and in low amounts may possibly add to risk. Listing aspartame as a possible carcinogen is intended to motivate research.
