Artificial sweeteners

Artificial sweeteners can be useful when they replace sugary drinks, but pairing them with carbohydrates may affect metabolic responses, and some sweeteners may change gut-microbiome composition.

1. Dopamine and sweet preferences: Repeated consumption may eventually engage dopamine and reinforce the desire for the sweetener. Pairing its taste with foods that raise blood glucose may further condition responses to that taste. 1 2

2. Gut microbiome: Animal studies report microbiome disruption after high intake of sweeteners such as saccharin or sucralose. The cited discussion distinguishes these results from findings for plant-based sweeteners such as stevia and monk fruit, for which equivalent effects were not established there. 3

3. Replacing sugary drinks: Replacing sugar-sweetened beverages with non-nutritive sweetened beverages was associated with improvements in adiposity and HbA1c-related health markers; these beverages performed better than sugary drinks, while water and non-nutritive sweeteners were similar on health markers. 4

4. Sucralose with carbohydrates: Short-term sucralose consumption with carbohydrate—but not without it—was described as impairing neural and metabolic sensitivity to sugar. 5

Overall, whether a sweetener replaces sugar and whether it is consumed alongside glucose-raising foods are important considerations. 6