A new study released this month tries to give a definitive or almost definitive answer to the fateful question: is using sweeteners in your diet good or bad for your health? And what doses, if any, are considered safe? It is certainly a very important issue.

The market for light products, which use sweeteners instead of normal sugar, is constantly growing.

While the same cannot be said of sugar-based products. Still, previous studies have raised more than a few doubts about their healthiness.

This study is a meta-analysis and also a systematic review of approximately 56 studies.
It analyzed all previous studies to find significant associations between sweetener consumption, body weight and health risks.
The result is not quite a green light. Here’s what came out.

SWEETENERS IN THE DIET: GOOD OR HARMFUL?

From the study, published in the journal BMJ, and which examined over thirteen thousand cases, it came out a little what was already suspected. That is, the studies that spoke of increased risk of weight gain, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome due to sweeteners were too short in duration to draw conclusions.
In short, long-term studies on the safety of sweeteners are lacking, but for the moment, according to the data available, there are no dangers if one chooses sweeteners in the diet instead of sugar or honey.

However, there are no advantages either.
Those who use sweeteners in their diet have no lower body weight than those who don’t.
On the other hand, minimal use (less than 6 grams per day) is correlated with lower body weight but according to only one study. Fasting blood sugar is lower in people who use sweeteners, but insulin is the same as those who don’t use them and choose sugar.
The percentage of body fat is identical in both sweeteners and sugar users. This, strangely, despite those who use sweeteners in their diets tend to eat fewer calories.