Artificial Sweetener Enhances Blood Insulin, Findings Suggest

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Unfortunately, and the woes of many, diabetes and obesity go hand in hand. According to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, artificial sweeteners are related to enhanced blood insulin and glucose response.

Although the findings reveal that the elevated insulin response shows patients are able to make enough insulin to deal with spiking glucose levels, it also shows that patients are secreting more insulin and if they can become resistant to its effects it could lead to type 2 diabetes.

“Our results indicate that this artificial sweetener is not inert, it does have an effect,” said first author of the Study Dr M Yanina Pepino. “And we need to do more studies to determine whether this observation means long-term use could be harmful.”

The small study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, analysed the sweetener sucralose (Splenda) in 17 severely obese patients (BMI42.3±1.6) who do not have diabetes and do not use artificial sweeteners regularly.

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