If you’re trying to lose weight, you should avoid using sugar substitutes – according to a new guideline by the World Health Organization.
Sugar substitutes are substances that are used in place of sweeteners with sugar (sucrose) or sugar alcohols. They may also be called artificial sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS), and noncaloric sweeteners.
The global health Organization said a systematic review of the available evidence had suggested that use of non-sugar sweeteners, or NSS, “does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.”
The review also found that long-term use of sugar substitutes can cause “potential adverse effects” such as increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“Replacing free sugars with 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,” Francesco Branca, WHO director for nutrition and food safety, said in a news release. “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.”
According to WHO, the recommendation includes low-calorie or non-chemically modified, low-calorie or contains non-caloric artificial sweeteners and natural extracts. The health body said its recommendations apply to everyone except those with pre-existing diabetes.
A total of 283 studies were included in the review. WHO said the recommendations were “conditional” because the associations found between sweeteners and disease, outcomes could be confounded by complex patterns of sweetener intake and characteristics of study participants.
“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,” the news release said.
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