Artificial sweeteners -- considered by many to be "healthier" than sugar -- may in fact present a possibility of increasing glucose intolerance, a known risk factor of diabetes, a study suggests.
The substances were found to alter the balance of microbial populations in the gut intestine have been linked to a susceptibility to certain metabolic diseases including diabetes, researchers say.
Calorie-free artificial sweeteners are widely used in foods and drinks and are often recommended for weight loss and for treatment or prevention of diabetes.
The just might be having the opposite effect, researchers say.
"In our studies we found that artificial sweeteners may drive, or contribute to ... an exaggerated elevation in blood glucose levels -- the very same condition that we often aim to prevent by consuming them," says study co-leader Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.
Elinav's team found that mice whose drinking water was supplemented with glucose and any of three common artificial sweeteners -- saccharin, aspartame of sucralose -- developed marked glucose intolerance compared with mice drinking water alone, or water with just sugar.
"These results indicate that non-caloric artificial sweeteners may exacerbate, rather than prevent, metabolic disorders such as glucose intolerance and diabetes," the researcher said in their study published in the journal Nature.
However, some experts cautioned, because the study was done on mice and the reported results are preliminary, the findings should not be taken as a reason to immediately consider changes about recommendations on the use of non-caloric artificial sweeteners, or NAS.
"This research raises caution that NAS may not represent the 'innocent magic bullet' they were intended to be to help with the obesity and diabetes epidemics, but it does not yet provide sufficient evidence to alter public health and clinical practice," says epidemiologist Nita Forouhi at Britain's Cambridge University.
Previous studies have confirmed that different bacteria are often present in the gut of overweight people as compared to what is found in slim people, but whether there's link between the bacteria and obesity or the development of diabetes is unknown.
As for any involvement of artificial sweeteners in diabetes, some other previous studies have seemed to directly contradict that.
A large study published last year, which involved tens of thousands of subjects, found an association between diabetes and beverages sweetened with sugar, but detected no comparable link between the disease and soft drinks containing artificial sweeteners.
