Eating too much sugar is bad for health, but… Replace this substance with artificial sweeteners Cancer risk may increase, according to a comprehensive study published Thursday.
In view of the harm caused by excessive sugar intake (such as weight gain, heart and metabolic diseases, tooth decay, etc.), the World Health Organization recommends limiting sugar consumption to less than 10% of the body’s daily energy needs.
While artificial sweeteners (such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium and sucralose) reduce the amount of added sugar and calories a person eats,Keeping the sweet taste of food and drinksThe safety of these food additives raises a wide debate.
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To evaluate the risks associated with consuming artificial sweeteners, researchers from the French “Inserm” and “INRAE” institutes, the “Sorbonne Paris Nord” University and the Knam Institute analyzed health data related to the consumption of sweeteners in about 103,000 French adults who participated in the study.
The adults, some of whom had been followed since 2009, periodically filled out questionnaires about their diet, citing the names of the artificial sweeteners they ate and the companies producing them.
And after information was collected related to the diagnosis of cancer during the follow-up of the participants, which extended from 2009 to 2021. Statistics were made about the links between consumption of sweeteners and the risk of cancer.
The results of the study, published Thursday in the journal PLOS Medicine, concluded that People who ate more sweeteners (particularly aspartame and acesulfame potassium) were more likely to develop cancer.
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The people who consumed the most sweeteners in this study, that is, those who ate them in quantities above average, “developed an increased risk of developing cancer by 13% compared to those who did not consume these substances,” Mathilde Touvier, director of research at the INSERM Institute, told AFP.
Among the types of cancers observed, the highest risks of breast cancer and obesity-related cancers were recorded.
The authors of this study emphasized the need for additional large-scale research to confirm these findings.
Studies conducted to date indicate that consuming sugary drinks can promote cancer, but no study has specifically mentioned the effects of artificial sweeteners.