Artificial Sweeteners May Promote Development of Glucose Intolerance and Weight Gain

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 01 Oct 2014

Image: Electron microscope image of a healthy mouse small intestine showing bacteria (strings) surrounding the gut villi (protrusions). A human small intestine looks very similar (Photo courtesy of the Weizmann Institute of Science).

Recently published findings have stirred a controversy by indicating that noncaloric artificial sweeteners (NAS), a key components of diet drinks and foods, actually promote development of glucose intolerance, metabolic disease, and obesity by causing profound changes in the composition and function of the organisms that make up the intestinal microbiome (gut microbiota).

Investigators at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Rehovot, Israel) worked with mouse models as well as evaluating data accumulated by the Personalized Nutrition Project, a large human trial probing the connection between nutrition and the microbiota.

They reported in the September 17, 2014, online edition of the journal Nature that consumption of commonly used NAS formulations drove the development of glucose intolerance through induction of compositional and functional alterations to the intestinal microbiota. These NAS-mediated deleterious metabolic effects were reversed by antibiotic treatment, and were fully transferable to germ-free mice upon fecal transplantation of microbiota configurations from NAS-consuming mice. Similar changes were observed in anaerobic cultures of organisms from the gut microbiota that were grown in the presence of NAS.

The investigators identified NAS-altered microbial metabolic pathways that were linked to host susceptibility to metabolic disease, and demonstrated similar NAS-induced microbial imbalance and glucose intolerance in healthy human subjects.

Senior author Dr. Eran Elinav, professor of immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, said, "Certain bacteria in the guts of those who developed glucose intolerance reacted to the chemical sweeteners by secreting substances that then provoked an inflammatory response similar to sugar overdose, promoting changes in the body’s ability to utilize sugar. Our relationship with our own individual mix of gut bacteria is a huge factor in determining how the food we eat affects us. Especially intriguing is the link between use of artificial sweeteners, through the bacteria in our guts, to a tendency to develop the very disorders they were designed to prevent; this calls for reassessment of today’s massive, unsupervised consumption of these substances.”

Related Links:
Weizmann Institute of Science
Personalized Nutrition Project