February 15, 2008 – Consuming sugar substitutes may be more harmful than helpful when trying to lose weight. This is what emerges from a laboratory experiment conducted on mice at Purdue University in the United States.1.
The researchers found that mice fed sweetened saccharin yogurt consumed more calories and gained more weight than those fed sweetened yogurt containing real sugar.
When it picks up the taste of sugar, the digestive system prepares to ingest calories, the researchers say. However, sweeteners would encourage the body to eat more to compensate for the lack of calories.
The researchers made another discovery which tends to support this thesis. Usually, body temperature rises after consuming calories, which was not the case in mice fed saccharin. The sweetener could therefore impair appetite control mechanisms, the researchers note.
Although the study looks specifically at saccharin, other sugar substitutes, such as aspartame and sucralose, have the same effect on the body, argue the study authors.
The sale of saccharin is prohibited in Canada, but Health Canada is reassessing the relevance of this ban.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
According to CBC and The Globe and Mail.
1. Swithers SE, Davidson TL, A Role for Sweet Taste: Calorie Predictive Relations in Energy Regulation by Rats, Behavioral Neuroscience, February 2008, Vol. 122, No. 1, 161–173. The full study is available at the following address: www.apa.org.pdf [consulté le 15 février 2007].
