Science: Artificial sweeteners aren't very good for you

In a series of experiments, researchers found that several of the most widely used types of non-calorie sweeteners in food and drinks — saccharin, sucralose and aspartame — caused mice to experience increased risk of glucose intolerance, a condition that can lead to diabetes.

"We are talking about very dramatic increases," said one of the study's co-authors, Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

The same scientists also monitored what happened to seven human volunteers who did not typically use artificial sweeteners but were given regular doses of saccharin over the course of a week. Four developed significant glucose intolerance, and the others saw no blood sugar benefits from using artificial sweeteners. [The Washington Post]