Impacts of sweets and artificial sweeteners on the body
Sugar is becoming an increasingly alarming issue on our metabolism according to several statistics. Indeed, the consumption of sugar should be among the priorities of safety criteria.
It is important to know and understand that the state of the body can reflect a person's daily life and lifestyle. The amount of sugar and especially sweetener consumed by an individual comes second. But this should not be neglected, given its impact on health. Especially the fact that for some people it becomes a food addiction that proves to be dangerous.
A change of habitat
Over the past hundred years, the sugar level per person has increased by more than 10 times the normal level. Previous research has shown that the way in which people eat has a significant impact on their microbiota.
The multiplication of microbes in the gut, like a pathogen, will have an impact on the use and adaptation to new nutrient environments. The microbiota will inevitably move towards dysbiosis, which can have negative impacts on metabolism and health if the food system is filled with refined sugars, lacks fibre or other molecules that influence the integration of beneficial bacteria.
Behavioural change
In the case of excessive sugar consumption, many researchers testify that bacteria have the power to adapt their metabolic environments to fit into several microenvironments.
Scientists have been able to understand these changes through several advanced methods such as transcriptomics and metabolimics. In addition, the number and behaviour of microorganisms may be due to the change and exacerbation of carbohydrate substrates depending on the environment in which they live.
In general, this phenomenon is the result of several sequencing techniques of microbial genomes. In the end, our life system has the ability to adapt in a genetic way to conditions that attack health, in order to sustain what it is given. For researchers, this system is identical to antibiotic resistance.
In sum, today with the advanced technologies and the results of several researches, the processing of food represents harmful consequences on the organism. According to the scientists: it is better to orientate further studies on the projection of new sugars and sweeteners and then this should be integrated in the think tanks of the agencies that authorise or prohibit this kind of product.
How will the body be affected by these products in the short and long term? What kind of diet will be advised for children, adults and the elderly, and for those in good health versus those in pain?
Many questions without exact answers that science needs to investigate further.
The dangers of artificial sweeteners for the body
Although the original idea was to combat obesity, i.e. the person can consume it to fill the sugar requirement without gaining weight, today the facts are controversial. Artificial sweeteners are categorised as a chemical product that is harmful to health, because of its toxic components that gradually destroy the body.
Currently, artificial sweeteners are present in many products as food additives. More people are attracted to diet or low-sugar drinks. The public consumes them without realising the negative effects on the body and their long-term health.
Researchers from Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and Nanyanf University of Technology in Singapore have done extensive research on the subject. They found that the products that are harmful to the intestines include: aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, advantame and acesulfame potassium.
This is at a very low concentration, at 1mg/mL.
Are sweeteners harmful to the environment?
Research has been carried out using genetically modified E. coli bacteria. They exhibit bioluminescent activities that are easily quantifiable when combined with substances that are toxic to health.
They comprise, according to the experimenters, a unique aspect that represents the complexity of the gut microbiota.
In addition, artificial sweeteners are now being found in groundwater and surface water. According to research, they can resist the treatment process, which poses a risk of finding them in drinking water. Scientists are digging to find procedures to detect sweeteners in the environment, to understand the long-term toxic effects.
Recently, studies have been carried out which show that artificial sweeteners have significant negative health effects, such as increased risk of obesity, diabetes, long-term weight gain, hypertension and heart disease.
The use and consumption of artificial sweeteners, such as sucralose and aspartame, is increasing. While this represents a real danger to human health. Recent research findings suggest that artificial sweeteners may be a danger to metabolism, gut flora and appetite.
On the Canadian Medical Association Journal website, Ryan Zarychanski states that despite the fact that millions of people regularly consume artificial sweeteners, relatively few patients have been followed in clinical trials of these products.
To investigate this further, Zarychanski and his colleagues at the George&Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (University of Manitoba, Canada) and the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, analysed 37 scientific studies that had followed more than 400,000 individuals for an average of ten years.
Toxic effects on humans
Of these studies, seven were generally controlled trials, the gold standard of clinical research, involving 1,003 men and women of all ages who were closely observed for an average of six months.
The researchers noted that the clinical trials did not assess any clear-cut benefit or tangible effect of sweeteners on weight loss. Yet the aim of the research was to prove this.
In summary, long-term research including observations beyond the studies show a strong link between artificial sweetener consumption and the risk of humans gaining weight, becoming obese, having high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other health problems.
Meghan Azad, lead author of the research, says that caution should be exercised until the long-term health effects of artificial sweeteners are fully understood.
Meghan Azad and her team at the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba are also analysing the negative or positive effects of artificial sweetener consumption in pregnant women on the child's weight gain, metabolism and gut flora.
She therefore concluded that given the widespread and increasing use of artificial sweeteners and the current epidemic of obesity and related diseases, further research is important to accurately define the long-term risks and benefits of these questionable products.
