GENEVA: A new study has found that sucralose, a commonly used artificial sweetener found in many diet drinks and sugar-free products, may stimulate appetite rather than suppress it — potentially undermining efforts to manage weight.
The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, suggests that sucralose consumption may activate hunger-related brain activity, leading to increased food cravings.
The findings add to growing concerns over the effectiveness of non-sugar sweeteners in weight management.
“Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger,” said lead author Dr Katie Page, associate professor and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at USC.
Dr Page said that people who consumed water sweetened with sucralose reported an almost 20 per cent increase in appetite compared to those who drank water mixed with regular table sugar.
Sucralose is widely used in a number of artificial sweetener products, including the well-known brand Splenda in the United States.
In Europe, it is labelled as E955 and found in products such as Canderel Yellow, Zerocal, SucraPlus, and others.
The study comes in the wake of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) advisory last year discouraging the use of non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) for weight control.
“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight for a long term,” said Dr Francesco Branca, Director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety.
The WHO has previously highlighted mounting evidence linking the use of non-caloric sweeteners to weight gain and metabolic issues, despite their widespread promotion as weight management tools.
Commenting on the new findings, Dr David Katz, a leading expert in preventive medicine and founder of the True Health Initiative, called the research “a very high-quality study” in an email to CNN.
He said that the study “presents a compelling argument that non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health.”
However, the manufacturer of Splenda, Heartland Food Products Group, defended the use of sucralose and other low-calorie sweeteners.
In a statement issued in response to the study, a company spokesperson said: “Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organisations for diabetes and weight management, based on trusted scientific research.”
The statement further asserted that such sweeteners “have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels.”
It is worth noting that the study focused exclusively on sucralose and did not examine other widely used artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-K, or sodium saccharin.
