That “fridge cigarette” might be accelerating your cognitive decline.
A new study out of Brazil determined that popular sweetening agents in items like Diet Coke could cause the brain to age 62% faster than brains with less exposure. And the numbers are even more startling for younger people and those with diabetes.
Over eight years, the researchers looked at the effects of common artificial sweeteners like aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K, erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and tagatose on the brain function of over 12,500 adults with an average age of 52.
At the outset, participants were asked about their diets throughout the previous year, reporting what they ate and drank on a detailed questionnaire. They were then split into groups corresponding to their artificial sweetener intake.
Each participant also completed a cognitive test at the beginning, middle and end of the experiment, which assessed their speed in processing information as well as their ability to retain information and recall words.
Over the course of the study, the researchers uncovered some disturbing trends.
After they adjusted for sex, age and major health indicators like cardiovascular disease, they found that the group with the highest artificial sweetener intake aged about 1.6 years faster than the group with the least consumption.
The middle group declined at a slightly slower rate of roughly 1.3 years.
What stood out, as well, was the effect of these sweeteners on participants under the age of 60 and diabetes patients of any age.
Participants under 60 with high artificial sweetener intake experienced a more dramatic decline in verbal communication and general brain health than those in their age bracket with smaller intake. And diabetes appeared to accelerate the decline further, regardless of age group.
All but one of the sweeteners, tagatose, were found to have potential connections to the participants’ memory and overall mental acuity.
Study author Dr. Claudia Kimie Suemoto, of the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said that low- and no-calorie sweeteners are “often seen as a healthy alternative to sugar; however, our findings suggest certain sweeteners may have negative effects on brain health over time.”
This isn’t the first time artificial sweeteners have been in the hot seat.
The synthetic ingredients — often present in heavily processed foods and drinks like diet sodas, energy drinks and sweets advertised as “low-calorie” — have been linked to other serious health concerns, like cardiovascular disease.
The researchers behind the Brazil study have called for an investigation into whether other refined sugar alternatives — like applesauce, honey, maple syrup or coconut sugar — may be safer substitutes.
But many still think of artificial sweeteners as healthier alternatives to real sugar, and confusion about their advantages and disadvantages abounds.
In fact, people with diabetes are more likely to use artificial sweeteners as sugar substitutes, Suemoto said. This is in part because artificial sweeteners were developed to be “hundreds of times sweeter” than natural sucrose, according to a 2022 study on the effects of artificial sweeteners on people with diabetes.
This was originally thought to be good for losing weight and treating diabetes, because less of it was needed in order to achieve the same level of sweetness.
But the metabolic, and potentially neurological, side effects certainly leave a bitter taste.
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