Consuming sweeteners during pregnancy would promote the development of obesity in unborn children.
- In 2020, nearly one in two French people (47.3%) was overweight or obese.
- Massive obesity has practically doubled in a decade, going from 1.1% in 2009 to 2% in 2020, and now concerns more than one million French people.
To avoid consuming sugar, many women fall back on sweeteners, which are less caloric. A new study however, has just demonstrated that during pregnancy, it would be a bad reflex.
Obesity risk
“We know that a mother’s diet during pregnancy plays an extremely important role in determining whether her offspring will develop certain diseases later in life,” explains professor and research director Raylene Reimer. “In this study, we therefore wanted to determine how the consumption of low-calorie sweeteners during pregnancy affects gut bacteria and the risk of obesity in unborn children.” he continues.
To do this, his team regularly gave aspartame, stevia or plain water to pregnant rats. After the mothers gave birth, the researchers weighed all of their young and examined their gut microbiota.
Caution
Bottom line: Stevia and aspartame had little effect on spleens, but babies born to sweetener-fed mothers were fat, with a higher body fat percentage than others. In addition, their intestinal microbiota was considerably degraded. “Even though the pups never ingested sweeteners themselves, their gut bacteria and risk of obesity were influenced by those eaten by their mothers during pregnancy,” says Raylene Reimer.
New human studies should confirm these animal results, but in the meantime, this trial urges pregnant women to be cautious about stevia or aspartame.
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