Artificial sweetener debate: is it really bad for you?

Despite a new study linking them to diabetes, scientists still can't agree on artificial sweeteners

Packages of Equal and Splenda artificial sweeteners
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty)

Consuming artificial sweeteners could increase the risk of developing diabetes, a controversial new study has found. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel discovered that the sweeteners disrupted healthy microbes living in the gut, causing a rise in blood pressure.

"Our findings beg reconsideration of the massive, unregulated use of these substances," according to lead researcher Dr Eran Elinav. However, not everyone is in agreement. “This new report must be viewed very cautiously,” Stephen O’Rahilly, director of the Metabolic Diseases Unit at Cambridge University told the Guardian, “as it mostly reports findings in mice."

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