While it's common knowledge to avoid sugar, many people feel a strong need for a sweet taste. The obesity epidemic has posed a considerable challenge for food producers: how to produce tasty food that will prevent us from gaining weight. Whether sweeteners can contribute to weight reduction - said Prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz.
Should you be afraid of sweeteners?
Published July 5, 2022 10:08
Sugar consumption is associated with significant weight gain in adults and children. Research has shown that drinking two drinks sweetened with sugar increases by about 30 percent. cardiovascular risk. Obesity is the disease with the greatest number of complications, including oncological ones. Therefore, the challenge was to reduce the calorific value of food by changing the technological processes of its production and composition.
Facts and myths about low calorie sweeteners
- Food reform is one of the most important directions of obesity prevention at the social level - informed prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz, head of the Department and Chair of Health Promotion and Obesity Treatment, Medical University of Silesia. One reformulation method is to replace sugar with low calorie sweeteners. However, sweeteners are food additives around which a lot of controversy has arisen. 19 such low calorie sweeteners are authorized for use in the food industry in the EU. The most commonly used are aspartame, acesulfan K, saccharin, sucralose and steviol glycosides.
- EU-approved sweeteners are safe and are also used in the production of many drugs - emphasized prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz. - If a substance is approved, it must meet the safety requirements and may not pose a risk to the health of the consumer. You must also demonstrate a justified need for its use - she explained.
Acceptable standards
In the case of approval of a product for use in the food industry, the so-called ADI, i.e. the value of daily consumption safe for health. Research evaluating average sweetener intake has shown that in Europe it is significantly below their ADI, even in groups with the potential to consume higher amounts of sweeteners containing foods, such as children and diabetics.
According to a study by the Belgian Scientific Institute of Public Health, people who regularly consume products containing sweeteners reach 25%. ADI standards for cyclamate, 17 percent for acelulfame K, 5 percent. for aspartame, 11 percent. for saccharin.
The European Food Agency EFSA supervises the safety of low-calorie sweeteners and monitors their consumption.
Should you be afraid of sweeteners?
Prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz informed that there were reports that sweeteners increase the risk of certain cancers in experimental animals. - The results of recent human studies have not confirmed these theses. Not only in the field of cancer, but also other reports, e.g. toxic effects on the nervous system and cognitive functions, DNA damage and reproductive functions. Controlled clinical trials have not shown any behavioral or neurological effects of aspartame on healthy adults or children, she emphasized.
Obesity prevention
- Eating low-calorie sweeteners does not increase appetite and has no effect on the feeling of fullness. It allows you to reduce the energy density of food. As part of a lifestyle change program, it helps to improve the effects of weight loss. It also has a beneficial effect on postprandial glucose and insulin levels, also in patients with impaired carbohydrate metabolism, including type 2 diabetes - enumerated prof. Magdalena Olszanecka-Glinianowicz. She noted that replacing sugar with low-calorie sweeteners does not do everything. In the prevention of diabetes and obesity, it is necessary to change the lifestyle, and therefore, first of all, exercise and diet. Sweeteners are one of the components.
