Are Artificial Sweeteners Good For You??

 If you're anything like me, you occasionally experience strong cravings for something sweet. You want to indulge, but you're also aware of the health risks, which makes it challenging to resist. It often takes all your willpower to hold back from giving in. Picture this, you are about to crack open a can of Monster Energy, but you read the nutritional label and see that it has 54 grams of sugar! So now, you think back to the extensive research diving into how sugars like glucose leave humans at a greater risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and other metabolic-related diseases. Ugh, don’t you wish there was a sugar alternative? Oh wait, there is! But… are artificial sweeteners actually good for you? We know that they help decrease one's caloric intake, but how do we know that they don’t also cause diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or other terrible diseases that could put you into the grave at the age of 50? 

Artificial sweeteners such as aspartate, sucralose, advantame, and more, have been deemed safe by the FDA, however, the long-term effects of consuming them are just recently starting to be researched. An article published in 2024 called “The Contentious Relationship Between Artificial Sweeteners and Cardiovascular Health” dives into the reality of artificial sweeteners and answers the pressing question of whether or not these sugar alternatives are good for you. This article mentions how artificial sweeteners are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

First, the article discusses how artificial sweeteners change your gut microbiome. They hypothesize how these sugar alternatives may alter the expression of genes that control and regulate carbohydrate metabolism, which impacts the activity of the gut microbiome, which eventually can lead to metabolic and inflammatory changes. I decided to look into this idea more and read another article which found that the artificial sweeteners saccharin and sucralose cause a shift in the populations of the gut microbiota which leads to altered metabolic pathways involved in glucose tolerance and an imbalance of the bacterial species in the gut; suppressing some while promoting the growth of others. This is one potential side effect of these alternatives that leads to cardiovascular disease as if the gut is imbalanced, it can lead to leaky gut and cause bacteria and other toxins to enter the bloodstream eventually reaching the heart. 

Another hypothesis as to how alternative sweeteners (AS) lead to CVD is their impact on the development of atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries due to build-up of plaque). This article hypothesizes that these sugar alternatives accelerate atherosclerosis and senescence (loss of a cell's power of division and growth) by impairing the structure of apoA-I and HDL cholesterol, both of which are essential for heart health and aging properties. Long-term usage of AS can lead to modifications of apoA-I via non-enzymatic glycation (the attachment of this protein to sugar) and cause harmful products to be produced. This takes away the antioxidant properties of apoA-I which are crucial for maintaining healthy cholesterol levels. The loss of these functions leads to oxidative stress (too many free radicals in the body and not enough antioxidants to neutralize them), which further accelerates atherosclerosis. Also, aspartame, a common AS, has been shown to cause oxidative stress in cardiac tissue, structural changes in the heart, and a slight increase in end-diastolic pressure in the left ventricle which can impair the heart's ability to relax properly. 

There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of researching the impacts of long-term consumption of AS. Although these alternatives can offer a calorie-free alternative to sugar, consuming them should be in moderation as their effects are just now starting to be understood. I hope this blog post taught you something new about artificial sweeteners because I sure learned a boatload of information I was oblivious to before. I guess I will just eat fruit when I have that edging sugar craving. Thanks for reading!!