I struggled to wake up enough to make it to my 8 a.m. class. Out of habit, I made a cup of hot tea to compliment my cereal. My morning wasn't complete without it. Like other college students, my days are full of long hours and study sessions that go late into the night, and the weapons in our battle against energy deficit litter my dorm kitchen: coffee makers, Splenda sweeteners, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Dr. Pepper, and in my case, lots of tea.
Many of our favorite drinks are made with artificial sweeteners. They are a part of our daily routines. They augment the drinks that provide us with energy, comfort us through stressful situations, and encourage us to get out of bed in the morning. More than once, I have overheard students remark that they didn’t know how they would function in the morning without their cup of coffee…and sweetener.
Artificial sweeteners have infiltrated nearly every corner of our daily lives, but for the better or for the worse? I had to find out.
As I skimmed through Google articles, I found something that caught my attention. The heading read, “Certain gut bacteria may induce metabolic changes following exposure to artificial sweeteners." This was exactly what I was looking for. Unsure of what to expect, I read through the article and then through the study it was based on. I read that these scientists had connected artificial sweeteners to metabolic changes in gut bacteria, resulting in a glucose intolerance. This alone could lead to an increase in obesity and diabetes, which the sweeteners were previously believed to combat. Say what?!
In their experiment, mice were given either water, sugar water, or artificially sweetened water to drink. Even with different dosages, their results came out the same – those drinking the artificially sweetened water were becoming glucose intolerant. The mice showing this intolerance were given antibiotics to eradicate much of their gut bacteria - the results? The mice were no longer glucose intolerant. The intolerance was related to the bacteria in their guts. They even transferred the glucose-intolerant bacteria from one mouse to a ‘sterile’ mouse, resulting in a transmission of the glucose intolerance.
The scientists went on to find out if this occurred in humans as well. They found that some groups of bacteria induced glucose intolerance when exposed to the sweeteners while others had no effect. The exact reaction to the sweeteners is not yet determined, but they hypothesized that the bacteria react to the sweeteners by secreting substances, which provoke an inflammatory response (not unlike sugar overdose) that changes the body’s ability to utilize sugar = glucose intolerance.
I find this recent research a little alarming. Glucose intolerance via consumption of artificial sweeteners may not seem directly harmful, but we must think of our internal flora as well as overall health effects. This research will definitely need a follow up, someone to discover what it is that leads certain bacterial species to react in the presence of artificial sweeteners and why others are unaffected. These scientists have cracked open the door to this mystery, all that is left is to explore what is waiting on the other side. Isn’t that what research is all about?
I understand that this may drastically change how some of you get yourselves out of bed in the morning or stay awake cramming late into the night…. But for myself, I am safe from the struggles of change. My beliefs prior to this article and after remain constant: You can’t go wrong with a cup of hot tea.
Image 1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.
Image 2 Source: USDA
This entry was written as part of the MICR 354 (Scientific Writing) student-blog series for NDSU VMS.
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