Common sugar substitutes are in the health-risk spotlight again. New science from Brazil claims that folks who consume high amounts of certain sugar alternatives may suffer faster cognitive decline than those who abstain…
This dude would be at Super Big Risk of dementia rate acceleration
if this photo was real… (And I’m not really sure it is!)
Soda fans will be unhappy – maybe alarmed – to learn ‘the latest’. Some of the most popular sugar substitutes used in junk foods – most notably, fizzy drinks – have been demonstrated to accelerate dementia.
Is nothing sacred?
I thought, once artificial sweeteners were cleared of charges they caused cancer and metabolic dis-eases, that I could indulge in my fave fizzy drinks again – without guilt or fear.
But I was wrong. And, if the findings by recent studies by Brazilian researchers are accurate, I might also be doing myself harm.
Say it ain’t so!
I was unsettled – at the very least – by the discovery that common artificial sweeteners can literally rot your brain. The substances involved in the study included: aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K, erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol, and tagatose.
What they did
The researchers followed 12,772 adults hailing from all over Brazil for around eight years and tested their cognitive function at the beginning, middle, and end of the study,” writes at SELF. “Participants had an average age of 52 years old, were 55 percent women, and were 43percent Black or blended race.”
What they found
Participants with the highest combined sugar substitute intake (‘highest-intake category’) declined 62 percent faster in overall cognitive function than the lowest-intake category—a difference roughly com-parable to 1.6 years of aging. Similarly, the middle-intake category had also declined faster, by 35 percent – akin to 1.3 years of aging.
Both the highest-intake category and the middle-intake category had also seen drops in specific cognitive areas, including memory (by 32 percent for the highest-intake category) and verbal fluency (by 110 percent for the middle-intake category, and 173 percent for the highest-intake category).
Curiously, the decrease in cognitive performance was only seen in participants under 60 years old. Also, it was especially strong in participants with diabetes.
What’s going on in there?
“The researchers [believe] that sugar substitutes might produce toxic metabolites during digestion, which, in turn, have a damaging effect. Basically, the authors are saying this link, ‘could be because these sweeteners get broken down into other compounds in the body, and those compounds may cause inflammation in the brain,’ Christine Byrne, MPH, RD, a dietitian and the owner of Ruby Oak Nutrition in Raleigh, North Carolina, explains. Fundamentally, “the thing about studies like this one, that look at correlations between certain behaviours (in this case, consuming artificial sweeteners) and certain health outcomes, is that it’s impossible to know what the mechanism is.”
The takeaway
Obviously more research is needed to determine that mechanism… If future research can figure that out, it could lead to changes which might make those demonized artificial sweeteners safer.
My take
“Choosing artificial sweetener instead of sugar can help with blood sugar control and reduce your consumption of added sugar, too much of which can have negative health impacts,” Christine Byrne, MPH, RD, a dietitian and the owner of Ruby Oak Nutrition in Raleigh, North Carolina, sums up.
And, here, I just recently sang the virtues of tagatose – a newly commercialized sweetener made from slime mould – as the most nearly perfect sugar substitute yet discovered. It checked all the boxes without setting off any alarms. Now, this dire warning about accelerated cognitive decrepitude…
But how much is too much?
Aspartame is by far the most-used artificial sweetener in sodas/soft drinks.
“An acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 40 milligrams/kilogram of body weight per day (40 mg/kg body weight per day) was established by Health Canada before aspartame was permitted for use as a food additive in Canada,” Health Canada advises. “An ADI is an estimate of the amount of a substance in food that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without presenting an appreciable risk to health. The same ADI of 40 mg/kg body weight per day had also been established for aspartame by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).”
That’s based on earlier findings about cancer and other diseases.
Limits different
Given that the ADI the Brazilian researchers set for ‘high intake’ was 200 mg per day… And the average American adult male weights just under 200 lb / 92 kg…
That means the average person would have to consume 3,682 mg of aspartame / 18+ cans of soda a day to suffer worst-case cognitive impairment. That’s a case and half! As for the lower limit that caused any significant cognitive impairment acceleration… The researchers set that at just 22 mg per day. That’s just over 16 ml / 1.35 oz of soda per day.
But it’s estimated the average American drinks no more than 1 can of soda per day. So, there’s no immediate cause for alarm for most of us.
A realistic case in point…
Even on her most stressful days, Erin doesn’t consume more than 7 or 8 cans of diet Ginger Ale, total. If, as the researchers say, folks who consume that much every day suffer cognitive decline acceler-ation at a rate of 1.3 days per year they live, it’s a small price to pay for the solace an extra fizzy drink or two can offer on a Day from Hell…
~ Maggie J.