Scientific evidence shows that low/no calorie sweeteners may help with weight control and cardiometabolic health
Medellín, October 2024 – The relation between low/no calorie sweeteners (LNCS) and weight control and eating behaviors is becoming an increasingly prevalent topic in Latin America, where about 60% of the adult population is overweight or obese.¹ This situation is directly linked to the rise of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes which is predicted to increase by almost 50%, with 49 million adults possibly living with diabetes in the region by 2045.2
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sugar intake should be reduced to less than 10% of total daily caloric intake.3 This is a strong recommendation by the WHO, meaning that the available evidence is clearly supporting this guideline. At the same time, sugar consumption in many Latin American countries exceeds this recommendation.4 In this context, replacing sugar with LNCS can be a helpful way to reach the goal of sugar and caloric reduction, with a WHO study estimating a potential reduction of 38g of sugar and 135 calories per day thanks to LNCS.5
Scientists from the region discussed this topic at the symposium organised by the International Sweeteners Association (ISA) during the Ibero-American Nutrition Foundation (FINUT) Conference 2024 in Medellín, Colombia, in October. Leading scientific experts weighed in on the use of LNCS in a region facing growing public health challenges including overweight/obesity issues, poor diet, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases in a discussion moderated by the founder and Honorary President of FINUT, Prof. Ángel Gil Hernández.
Dr. Susana Socolovsky, President of the Argentine Association of Food Technologists, discussed how increased consumer interest in low/no calorie sweetened products has raised concerns about the possibility of exceeding the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for each sweetener, which is the amount that can be safely consumed on a daily basis throughout a person’s lifetime without any health problems. However, she clarified that in the past 15 years no studies in Ibero-American countries have found LNCS consumption levels exceeding the ADI, including among children and pregnant women, reinforcing that there is no safety concern for the consumption of these products. Even in countries like Chile, where extensive reformulation efforts led to increased availability of LNCS products as a result of labelling requirements for food and drinks high in energy, sugar, fat and salt, recent studies confirm that the intake levels of LNCS remain well below the ADI.6,7
Dr. Brian Cavagnari, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, presented studies on the health effects of sugars and LNCS and recommendations on their use, including from the WHO.3,8 Research shows that replacing sugar-sweetened products with those sweetened with LNCS resulted in modest but significant reductions in body weight due to a decrease in total energy intake ranging from 135 to 225 calories per day.5,9 These findings, coming from systematic reviews of clinical randomized controlled trials, provide the highest level of evidence on the potential cause-and-effect relationship between LNCS consumption and body weight.
Clinical studies also show that LNCS consumption do not have adverse effects on other health indicators, such as fasting blood sugar and insulin levels, blood pressure or blood lipid levels.10 Therefore, in many countries in Latin America with an alarming prevalence of overweight and obesity, where the population far exceeds the recommendations for sugar intake, the use of LNCS can be an effective tool for reducing both sugars and caloric intake as part of a balanced diet, without the need to sacrifice sweet taste.11
Finally, Prof. Adriana Gámbaro from the Universidad de la República in Uruguay talked about the innate human preference to sweet taste and presented new studies exploring whether exposure to sweet flavors increase the desire for sweet-tasting foods. Current evidence does not support the hypothesis that exposure to sweetness – whether through sugar or LNCS – increases preference for sweet-tasting products.12 In fact, clinical research suggests the opposite: exposure to sweet taste may even reduce the craving for sweets, at least in the short term.
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