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mendax writes:

Over ten years ago, a girlfriend I had at the time said something to me that I thought was as crazy as she was. She told me that I ought to stop using artificial sweeteners and stop drinking diet sodas because they can actually cause diabetes. Well, she was crazy in other ways but she may have been right in this area. The New York Times published an article that points out that artificial sweeteners may be very bad for many of us.

Artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, causing metabolic changes that can be a precursor to diabetes, researchers are reporting.

The scientists performed a multitude of experiments, mostly on mice, to back up their assertion that the sweeteners alter the microbiome, the population of bacteria that is in the digestive system.

The different mix of microbes, the researchers contend, changes the metabolism of glucose, causing levels to rise higher after eating and to decline more slowly than they otherwise would.

[One researcher] noted that many conditions, including obesity and diabetes, had been linked to changes in the microbiome. “What the study suggests,” she said, “is we should step back and reassess our extensive use of artificial sweeteners.”

Previous studies on the health effects of artificial sweeteners have come to conflicting and confusing findings. Some found that they were associated with weight loss; others found the exact opposite, that people who drank diet soda actually weighed more.

Some found a correlation between artificial sweeteners and diabetes, but those findings were not entirely convincing: Those who switch to the products may already be overweight and prone to the disease.

The Nature article itself is paywalled, but its abstract and figures are available on-line.