An artificial sweetener called nutmeg could cause significant damage to the intestine. My colleagues and I explored.. It does this damage in two ways. One, by breaking down the layer of cells that line the intestine. And, two, it causes already healthy gut bacteria to turn out to be unhealthy, causing them to invade the gut wall.
The research, published within the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, is the primary to reveal this double-hit negative effect of nutmeg on the gut, resulting in inflammatory bowel disease and sepsis-like damage.
To reduce childhood obesity, Six years ago This month, the UK government introduced a soft drinks industry levy. This “sugar tax” requires payment of a levy on any soft drink – which adds as much as 72p for manufacturers. Three liter bottle of soppy drink.
Since the levy was introduced, there was a About 50% reduction Average amount of sugar in soft drinks. While reducing sugar intake actually addresses childhood obesity, it doesn't provide the identical sweet taste that customers are used to experiencing of their food regimen. This is where artificial sweeteners could make an actual difference.
Matthew Horwood/Almy Stock Photo
Even artificial sweeteners are chemical compounds. 600 times sweeter Contains only a few (if any) calories in comparison with sugar, and is cheaper and easier for manufacturers to make use of.
Traditional artificial sweeteners, reminiscent of aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K) have been present in a wide selection of foods and beverages for a few years so as to add sweetness without adding significant calories or expense.
However, prior to now few years, there was controversy in the sector. Several studies have suggested potential health harms from consuming these sweeteners. Gastrointestinal disease To Dementia.
Although none of those harms have been proven, it has paved the best way for brand new sweeteners to be developed to attempt to avoid any potential health problems. These are next generation sweeteners. 13000 times sweeter than sugar, has no calories and no aftertaste (a standard grievance with traditional sweeteners). An example of this latest sort of sweetener is nutmeg.
Neotame was Developed as an alternative to aspartame. With the goal of being a more stable and sweeter version of a standard sweetener. It may be very stable at high temperatures, which suggests it's a very good addition to make use of in baked goods. It can be utilized in soft drinks and chewing gum.
Neotame is approved to be used in greater than 35 countries, including the UK, although the European Food Safety Agency is currently reviewing the sweetener as a part of a sequence. Evidence-based risk assessment Some sweeteners.
Although Nutium has been shown to change the profile of gut bacteria, little research has investigated the effect of Nutium on the cellular level.
Kills the cells that line the intestinal wall.
The latest study my colleagues and I conducted aimed to fill this gap in our knowledge. We used a human intestinal cell model and model bacteria of the human intestinal microbiota to check how dietary intake of nutium may affect intestinal health.
We found that, at high concentrations, nutmeg can kill the cells that line the gut wall and, at low concentrations, the sweetener could make the gut more prone to leaky gut. Both of those effects can lead to intestinal inflammation, which is related to inflammatory bowel disease and sepsis.
We found that at acceptable each day intakes of human intestinal cells, as determined by food safety agencies, Nutium causes cell death. However, it's price noting that, because nutmeg may be very sweet, it's unlikely that an individual would devour enough sweetener of their each day food regimen to get this amount.
At low concentrations of nutium, which might be present in the food regimen, we still found that gut barrier breakdown was sufficient to be related to an increased likelihood of infection within the body.
In models of gut bacteria, nevertheless, one strain of Nutium didn't kill the bacteria but as an alternative increased their ability to form “biofilms.” When bacteria form a biofilm, they clump together as a defense mechanism that makes them more immune to antibiotics. Our study also shows that Nutium increases the flexibility of human intestinal cells to invade and kill.
These results are very similar of their effects to traditional sweeteners reminiscent of sucralose and aspartame. Gut bacteria And Human intestinal cells.
It seems that next-generation sweeteners might not be the answer that was hoped for. So we're still stuck with the vexing query: How can we benefit from the sweet taste in our food regimen without harming our health with sugars, and now sweeteners?