Used to replace sugar in many beverages, but also in foods, sweeteners could be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a French study published Thursday in the journal. British medical journal.
Given the harmfulness of added sugars, artificial sweeteners are used as alternatives in thousands of foods and beverages to reduce the amount of sugar and associated calories while maintaining a sweet taste.
But the safety of these food additives is debated. People who consume more sweeteners, in particular aspartame and acesulfame-K, have a higher risk of cancer, concluded a French observational study, published in March by researchers from Inserm, INRAE, Sorbonne Paris Nord University and Cnam.
A multi-year study
To explore this time the associated cardiovascular risks, these members of the nutritional epidemiology research team (EREN) used the same methodology on the health and sweetener consumption data of 103,388 French adults who participated in the NutriNet-Health cohort study.
37% of the participants consumed sweeteners, on average 42.46 mg/day, equivalent to an individual sachet of tabletop sweetener or 100 ml of diet soda.
After collecting information on cardiovascular disease diagnoses during follow-up (2009-2021), statistical analyzes investigated associations between sweetener consumption and risk of such diseases. During nine years of follow-up, 1,502 cardiovascular events occurred (heart attacks, angina pectoris, angioplasties, cerebrovascular accidents, etc.).
Until then, studies had suggested an increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with the consumption of sugary drinks. Neither looked at exposure to sweeteners as a whole, according to the authors.
“These results, according to the latest WHO report published this year, do not support the use of sweeteners as safe alternatives to sugar,” concludes Dr. Mathilde Touvier, research director at Inserm and coordinator of the study.
However, this “observational study cannot answer the question posed” because of “large differences in many characteristics of people who consume artificial sweeteners compared to those who do not,” Naveed Sattar, professor of medicine at Metabolic Diseases at the University of Glasgow.
Source: BFM TV
