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A study has suggested a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption and increased cardiovascular disease risk, including heart attack and stroke.
Artificial sweeteners are widely used as no or low-calorie alternatives to sugar. They represent a $7200 million global market. Artificial sweeteners are found in thousands of products worldwide, particularly ultra-processed foods such as artificially sweetened drinks, some snacks, and low-calorie ready meals.
Several studies have linked the consumption of artificial sweeteners or artificially sweetened beverages (ASB) to weight gain, high blood pressure, and inflammation, but findings remain mixed about the role of artificial sweeteners in the cause of various diseases, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). What's more, several observational studies have used ASB consumption as a proxy to explore CVD risk, but none have measured artificial sweetener intake from the overall diet.
To know more about it further, a team of researchers at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and colleagues, drew on data from 103,388 participants (average age 42 years; 80% female) of the web-based NutriNet-Sante study, launched in France in 2009 to investigate relations between nutrition and health, news agency ANI reported.
The researchers observed dietary intakes and consumption of artificial sweeteners by repeated 24-hour dietary records and a range of potentially influential health, lifestyle, and sociodemographic factors were taken into account.
Artificial sweeteners from all dietary sources (beverages, tabletop sweeteners, dairy products, etc) and by type (aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose) were included in the analysis.
A total of 37% of participants consumed artificial sweeteners, with an average intake of 42.46 mg/day, which corresponds to approximately one individual packet of tabletop sweetener or 100 mL of diet soda.
Among participants who consumed artificial sweeteners, mean intakes for lower and higher consumer categories were 7.46 and 77.62 mg/ day, respectively.
Compared with non-consumers, higher consumers tended to be younger, have a higher body mass index, were more likely to smoke, be less physically active, and follow a weight loss diet. They also had lower total energy intake, lower alcohol, saturated and polyunsaturated fats, fibre, carbohydrate, fruit, and vegetable intakes, and higher intakes of sodium, red and processed meat, dairy products, and beverages with no added sugar. However, the researchers took account of these differences in their analyses.
During an average follow-up period of nine years, 1,502 cardiovascular events occurred. They included heart attack, angina, angioplasty (a procedure to widen blocked or narrowed arteries to the heart), transient ischemic attack, and stroke.
The researchers found that total artificial sweetener intake was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (absolute rate 346 per 100,000 person-years in higher consumers and 314 per 100,000 person-years in non-consumers).
(With ANI inputs)