I don't think it necessarily kills off gut bacteria, it affects the balance of what bacteria are present - bacteria that can digest the sweetener win big, others lose out.
If you go through the graphs and results, what emerges is that only the sweetener saccharin has that altering effect on the gut bacteria. I cannot find among the results any claim that the other NAS that were studied (sucralose and aspartame) have the effect.
The thing is that saccharin is not widely used any more. If saccharin is found to be harmful, that is nice to know, but not highly relevant.
I think everyone started out assuming they had no other effects. Recently, though, evidence has shown up [0] that suggests that they have some unexpected effects on gut bacteria. I don't think anyone has figured out why.
Good point. I worded it very poorly and your answer would definitely fit. I meant to ask whether the artificial sweeteners in diet soda were taking the place of nutrition for the gut bacteria, but don't end up giving the bacteria enough energy/resources to live on.
It's pretty clear to me that there is significant bias in the premise. Why, specifically, should it be artificial sweeteners that are toxic to gut bacteria? Irony is not a scientific motivation, it is a journalistic motivation. What makes artificial sweeteners more likely to be toxic to gut bacteria than, say, food coloring, preservatives, or (dare I say it) natural herbs and spices?
"To our knowledge, there are no data on the potential influences of aspartame on the human gut microbiome. It is hard to understand how aspartame influences the gut microbiota because this NNS is rapidly hydrolyzed in the small intestine. In fact, even with the ingestion of very high doses of aspartame (>200 mg/kg), no aspartame is found in the blood because of its rapid breakdown. Upon ingestion, aspartame breaks down into residual components, including aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol and their components, which are readily absorbed so that they do not reach the large bowel."
As far as I can recall, the last time I read a study on the subject the conclusion was that artificial sweeteners do have an affect on gut bacteria, but the study purposely did not state whether the change is of any actual harm/benefit.
The discussion on the study was here on HackerNews and as I recall most people agreed with the methodology and outcomes. What is problematic is people reading conclusions into the study that were never there: that the change was harmful.
It's disappointing this article only addressed cancer risk but avoided artificial sweeteners' possible impact on gut bacteria.[1][2] I quit Diet Coke cold turkey after reading several of these studies. I won't extrapolate from my personal experiences -- I really do wish there were more studies about gut bacteria's impact on our health -- but I've felt better after avoiding artificial sweeteners and adding probiotic foods to my diet like greek yogurt and kombucha.
There have been studies where mice were fed a diet of various natural and non-caloric sweeteners. The mice were monitored for blood sugar levels and cholesterol as well as other measures. The mice who ate all three of the most popular artificial sweeteners had worse outcomes on several measures. There is some additional evidence that the effect is largely due to the sweeteners' effect on the composition of gut bacteria. I can't tell you if this holds up (or if it holds for humans) but aspartame does not seem to be harmless in these studies.
Speaking of filler, it seems the experiment in question didn’t control for that? Since there’s so little artificial sweetener is it possible the gut flora are reacting to the filler?
This write up also only implicates saccharin in the harmful alterations of the gut flora, not other sweeteners. Yet the introductory text talks about artificial sweeteners are a group.
You cannot confirm the effects of "artificial sweeteners" as a category with an experiment that is based on saccharin. They are all different molecules. A bacterium that thrives on saccharin might not consume sucralose or aspartame.
Also glaringly absent is any mention of the sugar alcohols: sorbitol, xylitol, maltitol.
Who cares about saccharin. It is an outdated sweetener which is not widely used. Where can you find a diet soft drink or protein bar sweetened with saccharin?
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