AsianScientist (Jul. 13, 2016) – Studies in both animals and humans have suggested that consuming artificial sweeteners can make you feel hungry and actually eat more, according to a study co-led by the University of Sydney. Published in Cell Metabolism, the results shed light on the effects of artificial sweeteners on the brain in regulating appetite and altering taste perceptions.
Millions of people worldwide consume artificial sweeteners and they are prescribed as a tool to treat obesity, despite little being known until now about their full impact on the brain and in regulating hunger.
In the present study, researchers from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Center and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have identified a new system in the brain that senses and integrates the sweetness and energy content of food.
Fruit flies that were exposed to a diet laced with sucralose, an artificial sweetener, for prolonged periods—more than five days—began eating a lot more, consuming 30 percent more calories when they were subsequently given naturally-sweetened food.
“Through systematic investigation of this effect, we found that inside the brain’s reward centers, sweet sensation is integrated with energy content. When sweetness versus energy is out of balance for a period of time, the brain re-calibrates and increases total calories consumed,” said lead researcher Associate Professor Greg Neely from the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science.
Using this response to artificially-sweetened diets, Neely said, the researchers were able to functionally map a new neuronal network that balances food’s palatability with energy content. The pathway the research team discovered is part of a conserved starvation response that actually makes nutritious food taste better when you are starving.
The researchers also found artificial sweeteners promoted hyperactivity, insomnia and decreased sleep quality—behaviors consistent with a mild starvation or fasting state—with similar effects on sleep also previously reported in human studies.
To discover whether artificial sweeteners also increased food intake in mammals, Professor Herbert Herzog’s lab from Garvan then replicated the study using mice. Again, the mice that consumed a sucralose-sweetened diet for seven days displayed a significant increase in food consumption, and the neuronal pathway involved was the same as in the fruit flies.
“These findings further reinforce the idea that sugar-free varieties of processed food and drink may not be as inert as we anticipated,” Herzog said.
The article can be found at: Wang et al. (2016) Sucralose Promotes Food Intake through NPY and a Neuronal Fasting Response.
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Source: University of Sydney; Photo: Zemlinki!/Flickr/CC.
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