Many people trying to lose weight will use non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) instead of sugar to reach their fitness goals. But the World Health Organization (WHO) is now reporting that substitution won’t be effective in helping people achieve long-term weight loss.
“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term. We did see a mild reduction of body weight in the short term, but it’s not going to be sustained,” said Francesco Branca director of WHO’s nutrition and food safety department.
The information applies to everyone except those with preexisting diabetes as people with diabetes were not included in the studies. Therefore, an assessment couldn’t be made.
The study also indicated that NSS could produce unwanted side effects such as an increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
The research is not meant to make a statement on the safety of consumption. It only states that sugar substitutes will not produce the weight loss effects some people are hoping for.
Alternative sweeteners have been a popular choice since 2015 when the WHO recommended that children and adults reduce their sugar intake to less than 10% of their total energy intake. People became more interested in NSS after that announcement was made.
But experts, like nutrition researcher Ian Johnson, emeritus fellow at Quadram Institute Bioscience formerly the Institute of Food Research in Norwich England, warns, “This should not be interpreted as an indication that sugar intake has no relevance to weight control.”
He recommends that people cut back on sugar-sweetened drinks and use “raw or lightly processed fruit as a source of sweetness.”
Critics of WHO’s Research
The recent WHO announcement may make sense to some. But others are criticizing the new research.
Dr. Keith Ayoob, scientific advisor for the Calorie Control Council which represents the international food and beverage industry criticized WHO’s “insistence of focusing only on prevention of unhealthy weight gain and non-communicable diseases is” calling it “at the very least, misguided.”
President of the Calorie Control Council Robert Rankin said, “Low and no-calorie sweeteners are a critical tool that can help consumers manage body weight and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases”.
The Research
The research reviewed 283 studies including observational studies and randomized controlled trials. The randomized controlled trials, which are considered ‘the gold standard,’ found that NSS had a low impact on reducing body weight and calorie intake and had no change on intermediate markers of diabetes.
Observational studies showed that there was a low impact on body weight and fat tissue and no change in calorie intake, However, they did find NSS to produce a low risk of associated diabetes, heart disease, and death cancer.
WHO said the results were conditional due to the complicated patterns of the sweeteners used and the characteristics of the study participants.
The International Sweeteners Association responded by saying, “It is a disservice not to recognize the public health benefits of low/no calorie sweeteners and is disappointed that the WHO’s conclusions are largely based on low certainty evidence from observational studies which are at high risk of reverse casualty.”
Branca notes that more research is needed. “To show that overweight people can reduce their body weight requires a long-term study. And we’re not seeing that impact from the research we have.”