The WHO advises against the use of sweeteners such as saccharin or stevia

by time news

2023-05-15 19:38:10

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new guideline on non-sugar sweeteners such as saccharin or stevia in which it advises against their use to control body weight.

The recommendation is based on the results of a systematic review of the available evidence, which suggests that the use of sweeteners does not confer any long-term benefits in fat reduction body in adults or children.

The results of the review also suggest that there may be potential undesirable effects of long-term use of these products, such as increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and adult mortality.

“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help with long-term weight control. People should consider other ways to reduce their intake of free sugars, such as eating foods with natural sugars, such as fruit, or unsweetened foods and drinks“, said the director of Nutrition and Food Safety of the WHO, Francesco Branca.

Likewise, the expert assures that they have no nutritional value. “Non-sugar sweeteners are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should totally reduce sweet taste from their diet, from an early age, to improve their health,” she said.

The recommendation applies to all people, except those with pre-existing diabetes, and includes all synthetic and natural or modified non-nutritive sweeteners that are not classified as sugars and are found in foods and beverages, or are sold plain for use. consumers add them to food and beverages.

The most popular

Among the most common non-nutritive sweeteners are acesulfamo Khe aspartameadvantame, cyclamates, neotame, saccharinsucralose, stevia and derivatives of stevia.

The recommendation does not apply to hygiene and personal care products containing these sweeteners, such as toothpastes, skin creams and medicines, nor to sugars and low-calorie sugar alcohols (polyols), which are sugars or sugar derivatives. that contain calories and are therefore not considered unsweetened sweeteners.

Because the evidence-seen link between sweeteners and disease outcomes could be confounded by the baseline characteristics of study participants and complicated patterns of use of these substances, the recommendation has been evaluated as conditionalfollowing the WHO processes for guideline development.

This indicates that policy decisions based on this recommendation may require discussion in specific national contexts, linked, for example, to the extent of consumption in different age groups.

The WHO guideline on unsweetened sweeteners is part of a set of existing and future guidelines on healthy diets that aim to establish lifelong healthy eating habits, improve diet quality, and decrease the risk of noncommunicable diseases in everyone.

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