TITLE:
Artificial Sweeteners as a Cause of Obesity: Weight Gain Mechanisms and Current Evidence
AUTHORS:
Thiago Magalhães Cabral, Maira Guimarães Barboza Pereira, Amanda Emiko Zensque Falchione, Diana Aristotelis Rocha de Sá, Luciana Correa, Daniela da Maia Fernandes, Larissa Bianca Paiva Cunha de Sá, Alberto Krayyem Arbex
KEYWORDS:
Sweeteners, Weight Gain, Obesity, Microbiota, Cyclamate, Sucralose
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
30,
2018
ABSTRACT: The obesity epidemic gathers growing media attention recently, as overweight and obesity’s prevalence keeps rising. This comes along with an increase in the intake of artificial sweeteners in food products. A causal relationship between the consumption of sweeteners and obesity is so far not clear in the medical literature. This paper describes the development of artificial sweeteners in a historical context. It collects epidemiological and experimental evidence that possibly relates the use of artificial sweeteners with weight gain. Finally, these effects are explained based on the neuroscience of food reward, the possible effects of glucose on the metabolism and the association between sweeteners and gut microbiota.