{"id":351,"date":"2019-12-17T19:51:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T19:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/?p=351"},"modified":"2020-02-14T15:12:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T15:12:01","slug":"artificial-sweeteners-change-your-gut-for-the-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/post-1-spring-2019\/artificial-sweeteners-change-your-gut-for-the-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"Artificial Sweeteners Change your Gut for the Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">R. Fenner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artificial\nsweeteners (AS) are marketed to be a guilt-free alternative to sugar since they\nlack calories. They have been a popular sugar substitute among Americans for\ndecades, and many will turn to AS so that they can eat the food they desire and\nnot be concerned with the repercussions. A 2014 study conducted on mice by Suez\net al. however, challenges this popular practice. The study revealed that\nprolonged usage of AS altered vital intestinal bacteria and caused glucose\nintolerance in the mice tested. Causing hyperglycemia in the blood, AS and\ntheir ability to trigger type-2 diabetes outweigh their short-term benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Suez showed the effect that the AS saccharin had on mice, compared to the control that consumed glucose during the experiment. These data indicate that AS caused potential to develop type-2 diabetes, as the mice who were fed the AS consistently displayed higher amounts of the sugar in their system than the control. However, although a glucose intolerance is indicated by the data, one cannot be certain that the mice continued to show signs of diabetes after the experiment. The figure only reports blood glucose levels for 2 hours and does not contain any post-experiment follow-ups. Despite this discrepancy, these findings are still valid, as the figure displays a p value of &lt;0.03, which indicate that there is a correlation between AS usage and glucose intolerance. It is safe to extrapolate these results and assume that the glucose intolerance of the mice would continue with prolonged consumption of AS as seen in humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"370\" height=\"316\" src=\"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/image-18.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/image-18.png 370w, https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/image-18-300x256.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><figcaption>Blood glucose levels in mice fed either glucose (black) or an AS (blue). <em>*(Suez et al.)<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By\nproviding experimental evidence that AS can prevent glucose from exiting the\nblood stream, Suez et. al provide powerful insight when it comes to the role of\nAS such as saccharin. When people drink zero-calorie soda to avoid weight gain,\nthey are introducing the possibility of multiple other health issues that\ninclude diabetes. With the ability to alter an organism\u2019s intestinal bacteria,\nAS can in fact predispose them to diabetes and the number of health issues that\nare associated with it, which raises the question of whether AS are truly worth\nusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">*Suez, Jotham et al., <em>Nature, <\/em>vol. 514, no. 186, 2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R. Fenner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Artificial sweeteners (AS) are marketed to be a guilt-free alternative to sugar since they lack calories. They have been a popular sugar substitute among Americans for decades, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-sweeteners","category-post-1-spring-2019","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalprojects.davidson.edu\/writingscience\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}