An overview into Sweetners
Sweetners can either by natural or artifial. No matter what the source is, some of them might might cause side effects on your body than others. In this article, we will go through some of the most commonly used sweetner additives and evaluvate their safety.
Sugar
Well, one could argue that this is the most safest compared to all other sweetners. This however is the slightly expensive due to less (intensively) sweet - meaning, the manufacturers have to add more sugar to get the same amount of sweetness that they might be able to get with adding 1/10th the amount of some other sugar substite.
According to this article by the American Heart Association, the daily sugar limit for men should be less than 36 grams for men and less than 25 grams for women.
My personal opinion is that the low added sugar you consume a day, the better. But doesn't our brain need glucose to function properly? Yes it does! and you get enough sugar for that to happen from everything else you eat, like bread, fruit and sometimes even vegetables.
Refined white sugar has a higher glycemic index compared to brown sugar, which is almost impossible to find sometimes. However, both of these falls to the higher, riskier side. This could put you at a higher risk of developing Diabetes Mellitus. Fruits on the other hand has a low glycemic index.
ins950 - Acesulfame Potassium
Acesulfame Potassium or Ace-K is found almost everywhere. According to this article, it might also be present in breast milk in small quantities from lactating women who claim to have never consumed Ace-K.
Research done on animals say that it changes the gut microbiome (dysbiosis of the gut), sometimes in ways that might cause weight gain and inflammation. This source and this research suggests that it might cause diabetes mellitus type 2 and metabolic syndrome. This research done in vitro shows that Ace-K acts directly on the pancreatic islets and potentiates glucose-induced insulin release, supporting this fact even further.
This and this observational research (NutriNet-Santé) suggests that both Ace-K and Aspartame are associated with a modestly higher overall cancer risk with a hazard ratio of around 1.13 for higher vs non‑consumers. This research from this same observational group also links to potentially higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
This research tells that Ace-K lacks carcinogenicity but some articles online groups Ace-K with a lot of other sweetners and tells its carcinogenic. The evidence here seems to be pretty mixed.
This research, also done on animals confirms that inflammatory bowel disease can be triggered by Ace-K. This research suggests that it's bad to be consumed during pregnancy as it might induce Glucose Intolerance and Adipose Tissue Dysfunction along with premature birth and other complications according to some other article.
Overall, I personally would avoid this as much as I can.
ins951 - Aspartame
Aspartame is another artificial sweetner that's used as a sugar substitute, sometimes alone by itself and sometimes mixed with other sweetners. This was the go-to option for sugar substitutes back in the late 90s and early 2000s due to it's cheap manufacture costs. The Center of Science in the Public Interest mentions to avoid Aspartame in this article.
According to this article, when consumed, Aspartame is metabolized into Phenylalanine, Aspartic acid and Methanol. Methanol will further be metabolised into formaldehyde and formic acid which are toxic and carcinogenic. Long term consumption of Aspartame ironically is linked to weight gain along with an increased risk of strokes for women.
This research suggests that aspartame consumption might increase the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia but it has some inconsistencies with it's sample group. However, this research seems to support it even more.
After the above research raised some alarms, this research concluded that the daily consumption of aspartame does not seem to increase the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and lymphoid neoplasms.
This research shows that it does not increase the risk of breast cancer in women.
This research does not explicitly link aspartame consumption to liver cancer but it shows that aspartame might influence the CASP1 protien (more info) and other related signaling pathways that are already known to be involved in liver cancer. This might potentially lead to liver cancer but further research needs to be done to confirm that. According to this article, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified Aspartame to be a Group 2B carcinogenic ("possibly carcinogenic to humans") due to most evidence being based in lab studies, mostly on animals.
This research states that Aspartame should not be consumed by patients with phenylketonuria and should be restricted if not completely eliminated during pregnancy.
This research suggests that aspartame alters the gut microbiota, raising Enterobacteriaceae and Clostridium leptum while impairing insulin sensitivity. This research suggests that aspartame elevates the blood glucose levels in high fat diet models.
This and this research ironically confirms that regular and long term consumption of aspartame increases the risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus via oxidative stress, spikes in cortisol levels and it's intereference with the NMDA receptor.
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