Using sugar substitutes for weight loss? WHO has a warning for you

Cutting on sugar can be a great challenge for someone trying to lose weight. The change in taste in our usual comfort foods can be tough to handle. Many people opt for artificial sweeteners to try to calm down the taste buds. But now World Health Organisation has clearly said that artificial sweeteners do not provide long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.

The WHO has released a new guideline in accordance to which artificial sweeteners are not just without benefits but they also increase the risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even death.

Francesco Branca, Director for Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO said that people need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

"Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) does not help with weight control in the long term. People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages,” said Branca.

"NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health."

Branca was quoted on the official website of WHO.

Common NSS include aspartame, advantame, sucralose, saccharin, neotame, acesulfame K, cyclamates, stevia and stevia derivatives.

However, WHO noted that its recommendation does not apply to personal care and hygiene product that contain non-sugar sweeteners (NSS). This means that NSS in products like skin cream, toothpaste, medications or low-calorie sugars and sugar alcohols (polyols) do not pose the threat WHO has warned about.

Also Read | Research unmasks shocking toll social isolation has on human body

"Because the link observed in the evidence between NSS and disease outcomes might be confounded by baseline characteristics of study participants and complicated patterns of NSS use, the recommendation has been assessed as conditional, following WHO processes for developing guidelines. This signals that policy decisions based on this recommendation may require substantive discussion in specific country contexts, linked for example to the extent of consumption in different age groups," says WHO on its website.

Also Read | Kids using smartphones may face some serious mental health issues as adults, reveals study

“This new guideline is based on a thorough assessment of the latest scientific literature, and it emphasises that the use of artificial sweeteners is not a good strategy for achieving weight loss by reducing dietary energy intake,” said nutrition researcher Ian Johnson, emeritus fellow at Quadram Institute Bioscience. He was quoted by CNN.

So for those of us who were being sneaky and at the same feeling morally superior, it' s time to go back to basics and cut sugar completely!

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE