Sweeteners could affect your heart if you add them to your morning tea, thinking they are safe and will keep your sugar levels under control.

 

The use of artificial sweeteners is likely to irritate blood vessel linings and cause endothelial dysfunction as a result. The recommendation for reducing refined sugar consumption is justified to prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. However, the cardiologist warns that artificial sweeteners should not be used extensively.

According to a new study, artificial sweeteners may have a link to heart disease and food additives are not safe or healthy alternatives to sugar, according to researchers. More than 100,000 French adults were examined and tracked in the new study, published in The BMJ. Participants’ intake of sweeteners from all dietary sources, including beverages, tabletop sweeteners, and dairy products, was evaluated by experts at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and compared with their risk of heart or circulatory disease. Four out of five participants were female and the average age was 42.

How Did The Studies Find Out?

There were 1,502 cardiovascular events recorded in the study, including heart attacks, strokes, transient ischemic attacks, and angina, over an average follow-up period of nine years. Heart disease was associated with artificial sweetener consumption by nine percent. It was found that artificial sweetener consumption increased cerebrovascular disease risk by 18 percent when risk factors were isolated for every kind of illness. The risk of cerebrovascular events was 17 percent higher for sweeteners with aspartame, but the risk of coronary heart disease was higher for sweeteners with acesulfame potassium and sucralose. A large-scale, prospective cohort of French adults was found to have an increased risk for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and coronary heart disease due to artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose). Based on these results, artificial sweeteners could be considered a modifiable risk factor for preventing cardiovascular disease. According to the study, these food additives, present in thousands of foods and beverages, should not be seen as healthy and safe alternatives to sugar, as several health agencies currently believe.”

What Is The Impact In India?

A leading cardiologist and the president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr K Srinath Reddy, commented on the study: “Artificial food additives have generally proven dangerous. The artificial sweeteners, as shown in this study, also carry risks, because they irritate the lining of blood vessels, causing endothelial dysfunction. Trans fats, introduced to extend shelf life of food products, have now been found to shorten human life. To prevent obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, it is appropriate to reduce the consumption of refined sugar. However, this should not lead to a large use of artificial sweeteners. Nature is the greatest scientist of all time. In order to determine what is best for the human body, the company experiments with a wide variety of its products using evolutionary biology.

Compared to sugar, artificial sweeteners are intense because they are sweeter than sugar. Several studies have examined the effects of artificial sweeteners, which are commonly used in dairy products, chocolates, and drinks. This is a matter of concern because artificial sweeteners are frequently used. Due to the fact that artificial sweeteners do not affect insulin levels or sugar levels, many diabetic patients are also using them. Moreover, it does not raise triglycerides (a type of fat found in the body). As a result, it was believed that it would not be harmful. Nevertheless, another large set of data has been found in a study involving almost one lakh patients, in which it has been shown conclusively that artificial sweeteners do increase the risk of heart attack and CVS by 9 percent, and aspartame, particularly, by 17 percent. In order to avoid consuming excessive amounts of artificial sweeteners, one should limit their consumption.”