Nutrition articles often tell us that sugar free drinks are bad for us if they contain artificial sweetener. Can someone explain why this is so?
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Hi!
There are lots of issues.
It depends on what specific sweetener you are referring to, and what you mean by “bad for us” or “contribute to obesity”
* As far as bad for us – [sucralose can be a trigger for migraines](https://www.libgen.is/scimag/10.1111%2Fj.1526-4610.2006.00543_1.x)
The paper [Body & brain: No-cal sodas can trick the brain: Sugar-free sweeteners may contribute to obesity risk](https://www.libgen.is/scimag/10.1002%2Fscin.5591820117) has lots of details. I’ll try to summarize
>saccharin and other sugar-free sweeteners — key weapons in the war on obesity — may paradoxically foster overeating.
This was not a big data study, only 24 subjects.
>One strong link to higher diet soda
consumption was reduced activation of
the caudate head, an area associated with
the food motivation and reward system.
Green and Murphy note that decreased
activation of this brain region has also
been linked to higher risk of obesity.
It finds a link (but not proven causality) that the area of the brain lit up (fMRI studies) in response to diet soda was the same area that is associated with obesity.
in earlier studies
> Swithers’ group showed
that rats that always received a saccha-
rin-sweetened yogurt learned to modu-
late their food intake to account for the
sweetener’s failure to deliver calories. But
rats that alternately got saccharin- and
sugar-sweetened yogurts got fat.
If you are curious about the research, [Bisphenol-A, found in BPA plastics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A) has been linked to obesity. Childhood exposure causes people to want more sweet foods.
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