Sugar or artificial sweeteners: what's the best sweetener for gut health? (2024)

FAQs

Sugar or artificial sweeteners: what's the best sweetener for gut health? ›

An excessive intake of refined sugar is linked with gut dysbiosis, which occurs when there's a lack of diversity of gut bacteria. Sweeteners like honey, stevia, and monk fruit extract may be better for gut health, while some options like sucralose may be detrimental.

Artificial Sweeteners

They can be 200 to 700 times sweeter than table sugar. These sweeteners don't contain calories or sugar, but they also don't have beneficial nutrients like vitamins, fiber, minerals or antioxidants. They are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as food additives.

RESEARCH ALERT: Artificial Sweeteners Significantly Alter the Small Bowel Microbiome. Cedars-Sinai investigators found that artificial sweeteners are not benign for the microbiome of the gut.

As per our expertise, stevia and erythritol are two of the healthiest sugar alternatives due to their: low glycemic index.

Monk fruit is free of carbs and calories and may help support better blood sugar management. It also contains compounds with anti-inflammatory properties.

Humans have a sugar sense. Animals and humans prefer sugar over artificial sweeteners in experiments, and that could be because a specific gut sensor cell triggers one of two separate neural pathways depending on which it detects, researchers suggest in a January 13 study in Nature Neuroscience.

An excessive intake of refined sugar is linked with gut dysbiosis, which occurs when there's a lack of diversity of gut bacteria. Sweeteners like honey, stevia, and monk fruit extract may be better for gut health, while some options like sucralose may be detrimental.

Although research is still ongoing, aspartame is often accused of contributing to many long-term health concerns. In fact, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified aspartame as a Group 2B carcinogen, meaning it can potentially cause cancer in humans.

You can opt for coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar, which are some good and healthy options. Another good option is shakkar, an unprocessed sugar rich in nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, and magnesium. You can also use jaggery to sweeten up your desserts and beverages.

An artificial sweetener called neotame can cause significant harm to the gut, my colleagues and I discovered. It does this harm in two ways. One, by breaking down the layer of cells that line the intestine. Two, by causing previously healthy gut bacteria to become diseased, resulting in them invading the gut wall.

What sugars are bad for your gut? ›

High-sugar diets have been linked to higher levels of inflammation, especially for sugars like high-fructose corn syrup. This inflammation can irritate the gut, damaging the protective mucus layer and decreasing the amount of good bacteria.

Following the March 2024 FDA approval, the sweet protein may soon be the new big sugar substitute in the US. As one report published April 2024 argues, brazzein may be a promising sugar alternative that offers sweetness without the caloric burden.

Because monk fruit sugar is metabolized differently than regular sugar, you can reduce your caloric intake by using it. It doesn't affect blood sugar. Monk fruit sugar doesn't affect your blood sugar levels and can improve your glycemic control. It's anti-inflammatory.

The Health Concerns: Why Did the FDA Have Issues with Stevia? Stevia was initially banned because some highly alarming early studies suggested that the sweetener might be linked to cancer. There were also other concerns about the sweet compounds in stevia leaves, known as steviol glycosides.

Raw honey contains oligosaccharides (sugars) that can serve as a fuel source (prebiotic) for beneficial bacteria in the gut. Raw honey contains small amounts of polyphenols that protect good bacteria and displace bad bacteria.

Preliminary research suggests monk fruit mogrosides may act as prebiotics, or compounds that promote the growth and activity of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. Although mogroside V shows promise as a prebiotic ingredient, research in humans is needed to confirm its potential gut health-promoting properties.

Which type of sugar is healthiest? ›

You can opt for coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, and agave nectar, which are some good and healthy options. Another good option is shakkar, an unprocessed sugar rich in nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, and magnesium. You can also use jaggery to sweeten up your desserts and beverages.

The FDA also sets an acceptable daily intake (ADI) for each sweetener, which is the maximum amount considered safe to consume each day during a person's lifetime. The FDA has set the ADI for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram (1 kg=2.2 lb) of body weight per day (50 mg/kg/day).

WHO advises not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control in newly released guideline. The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new guideline on non-sugar sweeteners (NSS), which recommends against the use of NSS to control body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

So is there a definitive answer to which is healthier, honey or sugar? Both should be consumed in limited amounts. Honey may have a slight edge, but excess consumption of either is more dangerous to your health than the advantage of choosing one over the other.