The Wake

Illustration by Sarah Morean

Artificial sweeteners have been a boon to the diet foods industry, allowing companies to market foods to a weight obsessed populace with an insatiable sweet tooth. In the U.S. artificial sweeteners are a $1.5 billion market. “Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr. Pepper,” the TV tells us. “Zero calories!” the bottle of Coke Zero screams at us from the shelf. “Drink as many as you want!” But should we?

Most of the concern over artificial sweeteners stems from their possible carcinogenic properties. The most commonly used artificial sweeteners in the U.S. are aspartame (Equal), saccharin (Sweet ‘n Low), and sucralose (Splenda). Aspartame and saccharin have a long history of controversy over their carcinogenic potential. The FDA has been on the verge of banning saccharin several times, and up until 2001 all products containing saccharin had to bear the warning label, “Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals.” Similarly, rats fed high doses of aspartame had increased incidences of lymphoma and leukemia, and a 1996 report associated the approval of aspartame with an increase in the number of people with brain tumors.

Illustration by Sarah Morean

However, according to the National Cancer Institute, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, there is no clear evidence of an association between artificial sweeteners and cancer in humans. The results found in studies performed on lab animals are unique to those animals and their specific metabolism. In 2000, saccharin was removed from the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Report on Carcinogens, and subsequently the labeling requirement was removed. Data from a National Cancer Institute study of over half a million retirees found no association between an increase in consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and the development of lymphoma, leukemia, or brain cancer.

It seems as if half of the products one encounters daily are linked, in one way or another, to cancer, and the immediate and pressing health problems and social stigma associated with being overweight outweigh the far-off risk of cancer. Disregarding any risk of cancer, if there is any, artificial sweeteners seem like good products. They do not cause tooth decay, and are diabetic and hypoglycemic-friendly. On the surface they appear to be great weight loss aids, allowing people to eat the same sweet foods, which they find palatable, while consuming fewer calories.

Nevertheless, a recent study published by Purdue University found that rats whose diet was supplemented with yogurt sweetened by saccharin, ate more and put on more weight overall than rats whose diet was supplemented by yogurt sweetened by glucose. Rats eating saccharin sweetened yogurt consumed five to ten percent more calories, gained 20 percent more weight, and had an increase in body fat of over five percent. These results indicate, though they do not prove, that rather than helping in weight loss, artificial sweeteners may make weight loss more difficult.

When we taste something sweet, it signals to the body that calories are on the way. By simulating sweet taste without delivering on the calories, the authors of the study have hypothesized that artificial sweeteners disrupt the systems controlling calorie intake and appetite.

Critics inevitably point out the fact that humans are not rats. While these results are certainly interesting and merit further study, they are not directly applicable to humans. Furthermore, studies performed on humans have shown opposite results to the rat study. A 1990 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adults drinking aspartame sweetened soda lost around one pound, while those drinking soda sweetened with high fructose corn syrup gained around 1.5 pounds. A Danish study published in the same journal in 2002, using both food and drinks sweetened with a variety of artificial sweeteners, found similar results. However, larger, longer studies have found a positive correlation between drinking diet soda and weight gain and higher obesity rates.

Clearly, there is no definitive answer. More research is needed to determine if and how artificial sweeteners disrupt calorie intake and appetite control systems, and, if they do, how this disruption influences diet efforts and weight gain. One thing that we know for sure is that if you’re worried about weight gain, the best bet is to save your money and drink some truly zero-calorie water instead.