Zero Sugar Drinks and Your Gut Health: The Surprising Connection

It's the era of zero beverages.

I like the taste of zero beverages because it's delicious. Of course, the real benefit of zero drinks is that they alleviate guilt for my fat.

Zero sugar beverages contain sucralose, aspartame, saccharin, and other artificial sweeteners instead of sugar. Although the types of alternative sweeteners used in each drink vary, sucralose is the most commonly used.

Obesity is the cause of modern diseases, and reducing calories with zero sugar can be considered beneficial for health as obesity is harmful to longevity. However, I have thought about it from a slightly different perspective.

On the one hand, zero sugar can help us reduce calories immediately. However, what happens to our bodies when we consume it frequently?

I am particularly interested in microbiomes, or gut microbes, these days. I found a brief and easy-to-understand paper in a microbiology journal in February 2022, and I will introduce it briefly.

If you consistently consume sucralose for ten weeks, the gut microbiome and glucose and insulin levels in healthy young adults may become imbalanced.

 

The paper title is "Ten-Week Sucralose Consumption Induces Gut Dysbiosis and Altered Glucose and Insulin Levels in Healthy Young Adults."

 

Journal: Microorganisms (Vol. 10(2))

DoI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10020434

I will briefly summarize the paper.

 

The research team confirmed in animal experiments that sucralose consumption changes the gut microbiome and carbohydrate metabolism. Therefore, they wanted to confirm what changes humans may undergo. They examined the changes in Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes in the gut microbiome. Bacteroidetes is known as a slimming microbe, while Firmicutes is known as a fat microbe.

 

In the study, they selected 20 people who drank water as a control group and 20 people who consumed 48mg of sucralose. Participants in the clinical trial were between the ages of 18 and 35, with a body mass index of 18.5 to 29.9, indicating normal weight. They were all non-smokers, and they drank one or less than one alcoholic beverage per week. Here, one alcoholic beverage means 14g of alcohol. Participants had no history of diabetes, high blood pressure, or gastrointestinal disorders.

If you are interested, please check out the link to the free paper.

 

In a study, participants had breakfast between 7am and 9am, and 10 minutes before breakfast, they consumed 48mg of sucralose or drank water. Eating 48mg of sucralose every day is equivalent to consuming about 343mL of zero-calorie drink, as zero-calorie drinks typically contain around 140mg of sucralose per 1L. This amount is less than 15% of the daily intake set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and about 5% of the daily intake set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

A regular can of soda, like Pepsi or Coca-Cola, is about 335mL.

Therefore, the participants in the study consumed about the same amount as drinking one can of zero-calorie soda in the morning.

So, what happens to our body if we drink one can of zero-calorie soda in the morning?

1. Firmicutes, which are associated with obesity, increase. A microbe called Blautia coccoides, which belongs to Firmicutes, increased threefold.
2. Lactobacillus acidophilus, which plays a positive role in regulating insulin and glucose levels, decreases. L. acidophilus is a probiotic known to improve carbohydrate metabolism in obese and type 2 diabetic individuals. However, the study found that L. acidophilus decreases. Based on this result, the research team suggested that further studies are needed to determine whether the decrease of L. acidophilus in healthy individuals can lead to diabetes.
3. Serum insulin peak increases. Participants who consumed sucralose regularly for 10 weeks experienced a 32% increase in serum insulin peak.

In short, repeatedly consuming sucralose can alter gut microbiota, especially into a type of gut microbiota that is prone to weight gain. Also, because serum insulin peaks increase, there is a possibility of becoming prone to weight gain.

The paper had a limitation that only 40 participants took part in the clinical trial, and only 20 participants consumed sucralose steadily for 10 weeks. Therefore, the results of 20 participants cannot be applied to the entire population. However, it is meaningful that there is a statistically significant difference between those who consumed sucralose and those who did not when healthy individuals consumed small amounts of sucralose, such as only one can of soda per day.

Especially, in this paper, I think it is meaningful that only a small amount of sucralose, which can be consumed by only drinking a can of soda a day, was used. It is important to note that consuming a large amount of sucralose may have different effects on the body.

 

In the paper, there is a limitation that only 40 participants took part in the clinical trial, and only 20 people consistently consumed sucralose for 10 weeks. It is not possible to apply the results of 20 people to the global population. However, it is meaningful that there is a statistically significant difference between those who consistently consumed sucralose for 10 weeks and those who did not when healthy people consistently consumed it for 10 weeks.

 

In particular, I think it is significant that this paper used a small amount of sucralose that can be consumed with just one soda can a day. Although it is not a lot, consistently consuming it can increase the obesogenic bacteria and decrease the probiotics that are helpful for health, and increase insulin peaks. This implies that accumulating zero-calorie drinks that I chose to reduce the calories I consume today could change my body into one that gains weight easily.

This is not the first paper on the imbalance of gut microbes caused by consuming sucralose. The same results have been repeatedly reproduced in animal model experiments. However, why are there not many studies targeting humans? Clinical trials should be conducted within ethical limits, and conducting tests while expecting long-term repeated consumption of sucralose to be harmful to the body can be considered an ethical problem. This is because they are conducting a test that may not make participants healthier. Therefore, in the paper I introduced, participants in the clinical trial agreed to participate in the trial knowing that the product they were consuming was sucralose. Typically, clinical trials are conducted on substances that are expected to have beneficial effects on health. To obtain fair and objective results from clinical trials, participants often experiment without knowing whether they are taking placebos (fake pills) or the test material (real medication). This is called a double-blind test. Therefore, when participating in a clinical trial, you know that you are not harming your health, even if you don't know what you are consuming (of course, if there are expected side effects, participants are adequately informed and consent is obtained).

Of course, you might think that if you eat zero calories and consume a lot of probiotics after reading research papers, it will be okay. However, should you choose zero sugar while risking the possibility of developing a tendency to gain weight?

I think it's good to have a variety of choices with the rise of zero-calorie drinks like Zero Coke, Zero Pepsi, Zero Milkis, and Zero Coca Cola. However, to maintain sweetness while having zero calories, other sweeteners are added, and you should remember "Sucralose" among these new sweeteners.

Research has shown that even small amounts of sucralose consumed regularly for a long time can disrupt the balance of our gut microbiota and cause a rapid increase in blood sugar levels.

By the way, if you like zero sugar drinks, it's probably a good idea to eat more probiotics.