At one year, babies exposed in utero to false sugars are twice as likely to be overweight, according to a study.
Let’s say it straight away: the mention “light” on your soda bottle is a lure. False sugars are already accused of promoting diabetes and increasing abdominal fat in seniors. A new study published in the JAMA Pediatrics suggests a risk of overweight for babies exposed in utero to sweeteners (aspartame, stevia extracts, sucralose, acesulfame K, etc.) through their mother’s consumption.
Thus, women who drink “light” drinks during their pregnancy are twice as likely to give birth to overweight children at the age of one year, according to this work. “To our knowledge, we provide the first human evidence that maternal consumption of sweeteners during pregnancy can influence body mass index,” the authors write.
Light for one in three women
Data from more than 3,000 women were reviewed by the researchers. The body mass index was measured on their children at the age of one year. Almost 30% of the women in the sample reported drinking sugary drinks with sweeteners when they were pregnant, but the study did not identify which sweeteners were used. Other factors likely to influence the child’s weight have been ruled out (sex, mother’s weight, antecedents, breastfeeding, etc.).
Surprisingly, researchers have found no association between children’s BMI and women’s consumption of sugary drinks (without sweeteners) during pregnancy. According to their hypothesis, this could be explained by the fact that sweeteners encourage appetite and thus lead to weight gain. Another lead concerns the intestinal microbiota, which would be disturbed by sweeteners.
Although the causal link has not been established, and the results must be taken with a grain of salt since they derive from forms based on the declarative, this work provides new information on these sweeteners which replace sugars under the guise of “diet” .
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