Article Review: WHO advises against non-sugar sweeteners for weight control

A recent article written by Aude Lecrubier announced that the WHO recently came out with new recommendation guidelines for non-sugar sweeteners (NSS). The WHO advised against using NSS for controlling weight, risk of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

The list of NSS in the study included synthetic, naturally occurring, and modified nonnutritive sweeteners, specifically: aspartame, acesulfame K, advantame, saccharine, sucralose, and stevia and its derivatives. All of these are commonly found on processed food and beverage ingredient labels. The WHO recommends these NSS be limited in the diet.

These recommendations come from a recent systematic review of 283 studies on different populations, including adults, pregnant women, and children.

The studies reviewed found that these NSS did not produce any long term benefits in fat reduction in adults or children. They also found that there may be undesirable effects in using NSS in the longterm. Long term use has also been associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In pregnant women longterm use has been tentatively associated (low certainty of evidence connection, but a noticed possible pattern) with higher risk for pre-term birth.

The studies did find that short term use produced a slight success in fat reduction and BMI reduction in adults, but did not have success in lowering cardio metabolic factors, such as blood glucose, insulin, or blood pressure, or adiposity (the amount of fat in the body). Therefore, the weight reduction could be coming from other loss, such as muscle or water, and not truly fat reduction.

"NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health," he added.

The best way to avoid NSS, is by choosing foods that have natural sugar, such as fruits, or unsweetened foods and beverages.

Written by Jane Pfeufer, Ellen Byron and Associates

References

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/993009?form=fpf https://www.who.int/news/item/15-05-2023-who-advises-not-to-use-non-sugar-sweeteners-for-weight-control-in-newly-released-guideline