Non-nutritive sweeteners and obesity.

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Science
• Metabolic Endocrinology
• Human Behavior

Background:

• Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNSs) offer sweetness without calories, aiding sugar reduction for diabetics and weight management.
• Recent concerns suggest NNSs may increase hunger and promote weight gain, challenging their utility.
• Evidence for NNSs promoting weight gain stems from taste physiology, metabolic endocrinology, human behavior, and epidemiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate the evidence questioning the effectiveness of NNSs in weight management.
• To assess whether NNSs increase hunger, food intake, or body weight.

Main Methods:

• Review of evidence from taste physiology, metabolic endocrinology, human behavior, and epidemiology.
• Analysis of intervention studies involving the replacement of dietary sugar with NNSs in children and adults.

Main Results:

• The evidence suggesting NNSs increase hunger and promote weight gain was found to be not compelling.
• Intervention studies demonstrated that replacing sugar with NNSs did not increase, and could decrease, energy intake.
• Chronic, covert substitution of sugar with NNSs led to reduced energy intake and body weight in intervention studies.

Conclusions:

• The notion that NNSs promote weight gain is not supported by the evaluated evidence.
• NNSs can be effective tools for reducing energy intake and body weight when used to replace dietary sugar.
• Further research should consider the findings from direct intervention studies on NNSs and energy balance.