CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 300Biochemical Analysis and Sensing TechniquesDiet, Metabolism, and DiseasePharmacology and Obesity Treatment

Non-nutritive sweeteners: Review and update

Shankar, Padmini, Ahuja, Suman, Sriram, Krishnan·2013·Nutrition
DOI 10.1016/j.nut.2013.03.024
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Obesity has become an epidemic, not just in the United States, but also across the globe. Obesity is a result of many factors including poor dietary habits, inadequate physical activity, hormonal issues, and sedentary lifestyle, as well as many psychological issues. Direct and indirect costs associated with obesity-related morbidity and mortality have been estimated to be in the billions of dollars. Of the many avenues for treatment, dietary interventions are the most common. Numerous diets have been popularized in the media, with most being fads having little to no scientific evidence to validate their effectiveness. Amidst this rise of weight loss diets, there has been a surge of individual products advertised as assuring quick weight loss; one such product group is non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). Sugar, a common component of our diet, is also a major contributing factor to a number of health problems, including obesity and increased dental diseases both in adults and children. Most foods marketed towards children are sugar-laden. Obesity-related health issues, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and hypertension, once only commonly seen in older adults, are increasing in youth. Manufacturers of NNS are using this as an opportunity to promote their products, and are marketing them as safe for all ages. A systematic review of several databases and reliable websites on the internet was conducted to identify literature related to NNS. Keywords that were used individually or in combination included, but were not limited to, artificial sweeteners, non-nutritive sweeteners, non-caloric sweeteners, obesity, sugar substitutes, diabetes, and cardiometabolic indicators. The clinical and epidemiologic data available at present are insufficient to make definitive conclusions regarding the benefits of NNS in displacing caloric sweeteners as related to energy balance, maintenance or decrease in body weight, and other cardiometabolic risk factors. Although the FDA and most published (especially industry-funded) studies endorse the safety of these additives, there is a lack of conclusive evidence-based research to discourage or to encourage their use on a regular basis. While moderate use of NNS may be useful as a dietary aid for someone with diabetes or on a weight loss regimen, for optimal health it is recommended that only minimal amounts of both sugar and NNS be consumed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.nut.2013.03.024

Cites

60 of 60 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Based on animal experiments and limited human data, artificial and non-nutritive sweeteners may not be benign, with potential impact on cognitive processes, oral-gastrointestinal taste receptors, glucose-insulin and energy homeostasis, metabolic hormones, and the gut microbiome.

    “However, based on animal experiments and limited human data, these artificial and non-nutritive sweeteners may not be benign, with potential impact on cognitive processes (e.g., reward, taste perception), oral-gastrointestinal taste receptors and glucose-insulin and energy homeostasis, metabolic hormones, and the gut microbiome.262-265”

    From Dietary and Policy Priorities for Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity: A Comprehensive Review (2016) · cites this paper as [263]

  • Based on animal experiments and limited human data, artificial and non-nutritive sweeteners may not be benign, with potential impact on cognitive processes, oral-gastrointestinal taste receptors, glucose-insulin and energy homeostasis, metabolic hormones, and the gut microbiome.

    “However, based on animal experiments and limited human data, these artificial and non-nutritive sweeteners may not be benign, with potential impact on cognitive processes (e.g., reward, taste perception), oral-gastrointestinal taste receptors and glucose-insulin and energy homeostasis, metabolic hormones, and the gut microbiome.262-265”

    From Dietary and Policy Priorities for Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity: A Comprehensive Review (2016) · cites this paper as [264]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Shankar, P., Ahuja, S., & Sriram, K.
Affiliations
  • Georgia Southern University (US)
  • Lincoln University - Missouri (US)
  • John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County (US)
Corresponding author
Shankar, Padmini
ORCID
Venue
Nutrition
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2013-11
Volume
29
Issue
11-12
Pages
1293-1299
ISSN
0899-9007 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.nut.2013.03.024
OpenAlex
W2097558914
Cited by
300
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 38 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 1
FWCI
2.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Nutrition (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diet, Metabolism, and Disease
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Pharmacology and Obesity Treatment
Keywords
artificial sweeteners, obesity, weight loss diet, type 2 diabetes, cardiometabolic risk factors, energy balance, food marketing to children, sugar consumption, dental caries, industry-sponsored research
MeSH terms
Animals, Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Diet, Disease Models, Animal, Humans, Obesity, Risk Factors, Recommended Dietary Allowances, Non-Nutritive Sweeteners

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review