Are sweeteners really unhealthy?

19 May 2022

White sweetener tablets on a pink background

Sweeteners such as sucralose, saccharin or aspartame are many times sweeter than sugar, but have no calories because they are not metabolised. In addition, unlike sugar, they do not promote tooth decay. Wait - sweet without calories? That sounds much too good to be true! Many people have therefore been sceptical about sweeteners from the very beginning. And in science, too, studies have been conducted again and again since the discovery of sweeteners in order to unravel the sweet secret. Are sweeteners really unhealthy? We'll tell you now!

Myth 1: Sweeteners increase the risk of cancer

Hardly any other myth about sweeteners is so persistent. And this despite the fact that it is precisely this aspect that is now the best researched. In one of the earliest animal experiments with the sweetener aspartame, researchers believed to have discovered a connection between the sweetener and cancer. However, the results were hastily interpreted and could not be transferred to humans. In the meantime, there are numerous large-scale studies that clearly confirm: there is no connection between aspartame and cancer in humans.

Myth 2: Sweeteners promote type 2 diabetes

While isolated small studies have been able to gather evidence for this, more recent studies now refute the connection between sweeteners and diabetes. Often, even diabetes associations recommend the consumption of sweeteners instead of sugar, as these do not cause the blood sugar level to rise and the body therefore does not need insulin to counteract this. Therefore, diabetics in particular often consume products with sugar substitutes. So there is no question of sweeteners being unhealthy!

Myth 3: Sweeteners promote cravings

There are no clear studies on humans for this myth either. Although sweeteners, like sugar, dock on the "sweet receptors" on the tongue, the body is smart enough to distinguish between sugar and sweetener, which is why no insulin is released when sweeteners are ingested. Since sweeteners are not metabolised, the blood sugar level remains unaffected, so sweeteners per se cannot trigger cravings.

Myth 4: Sweeteners make you fat

This myth is in itself misleading, because how can something without calories make you fat? The use of saccharin in animals is often used as an argument here. But this is used to help young animals make the transition from sweet breast milk to normal food. If rapid weight gain were the goal, then sugar would simply be added, which is a lot cheaper than sweetener.

Sweeteners do not make you fat, on the contrary: the sweet taste helps many people to satisfy their appetite for sweets without having to consume sugar and thus calories. In this way, sweeteners can contribute to a sugar- and calorie-reduced diet and thus even promote weight loss. This is why many people turn to alternatives without unnecessary sugar, such as GAMERS ONLY, to quench their thirst for sweet drinks.

Myth 5: Sweeteners change the intestinal flora

This myth has also been disproved in recent studies with sucralose. The amounts of sweetener that you would have to consume for it to have an effect on your intestinal flora are simply too large and therefore have no relevance in practice. So as long as you consume sweeteners in everyday amounts, you are on the safe side!

TL;DR: Sweeteners: Are they really unhealthy?

Sweeteners are sweeter than sugar.
Sweeteners dock onto "sweet receptors" on the tongue.
Sweeteners are not metabolised, have no calories and do not promote tooth decay.
As a result, sweeteners can provide a low-sugar, low-calorie diet and help with weight loss.
To date, there is no study conducted on humans that can clearly prove the above myths when sweeteners are consumed in everyday quantities.
All sweeteners go through strict controls in the EU before they are classified as safe. You can recognise this by the so-called "E-numbers". Sweeteners are therefore not unhealthy!