By Gom Mirian
The World Health Organization (WHO), on Monday in a recently published recommendation on non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) advised against using NSS to manage body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).
The advice is based on the findings of a systematic review of the available evidence which found that the use of NSS does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.
The review’s findings also imply that prolonged use of NSS may have unfavourable effects, such as an increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality in adults.
“Replacing free sugars with NSS does not help with weight control in the long term. People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intakes, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages.
“NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health,” said Francesco Branca, WHO Director for Nutrition and Food Safety.
The recommendation applies to all people except individuals with pre-existing diabetes and includes all synthetic and naturally occurring or modified non-nutritive sweeteners that are not classified as sugars found in manufactured foods and beverages or sold on their own to be added to foods and beverages by consumers.
According to the report, common NSS include acesulfame K, aspartame, advantame, cyclamates, neotame, saccharin, sucralose, stevia, and stevia derivatives. Added that the recommendation does not apply to personal care and hygiene products containing NSS, such as toothpaste, skin cream, and medications, or to low-calorie sugars and sugar alcohols (polyols), which are sugars or sugar derivatives containing calories and are therefore not considered NSS.
“Because the link observed in the evidence between NSS and disease outcomes might be confounded by baseline characteristics of study participants and complicated patterns of NSS use, the recommendation has been assessed as conditional, following WHO processes for developing guidelines. This signals that policy decisions based on this recommendation may require substantive discussion in specific country contexts, linked for example to the extent of consumption in different age groups.
“The WHO guideline on NSS is part of a suite of existing and forthcoming guidelines on healthy diets that aim to establish lifelong healthy eating habits, improve dietary quality and decrease the risk of NCDs worldwide.”
