Artificial Sweeteners May Raise Diabetes Risk

Consumption of noncaloric artificial sweeteners appeared to induce glucose intolerance in both mice and humans by altering gut microbiota in a series of experiments conducted by researchers in Israel.

Rather than helping to prevent obesity and metabolic disease, use of noncalorie sweeteners may have contributed to the epidemic rise of these conditions, wrote Eran Elinav, MD, of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and colleagues, online in the journal Nature.

Their research is among the first to examine the impact of a specific food additive on gut microbiota and the findings are compelling, said microbiome researcher Suzanne Devkota, PhD, of Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. Devkota was not involved with the research.

“This was a very well done study, and the fact that they had a human component was a big plus,” she told MedPage Today.

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