Effect of Non-nutritive Sweeteners of High Sugar Sweetened Beverages on Metabolic Health and Gut Microbiome

Summary

Increasing evidence suggest that artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose may not be as metabolically safe as they first appeared, and it has been proposed that their consumption may be linked to important disturbances in the gut microbiome. Some in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that the recently approved sugar substitute Stevia (eg. steviol glycosides) can also influence intestinal homeostasis. However, it is not clear whether this natural non-nutritive sweetener (NNS) could also cause metabolic and microbiome disturbances as proposed for their synthetic counterparts. In fact, steviol glycosides may even have a beneficial impact on glucose homeostasis and lipid metabolism possibly through a positive action on intestinal health and gut microbiome, but this has yet to be experimentally tested in a rigorous study.

The main objective of this project is to evaluate whether steviol glycosides sweetened beverages (SGSB) or aspartame/acesulfame K sweetened beverages (AASB) exert beneficial, neutral or detrimental effects on metabolic health of regular consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), and whether modulation of the gut microbiome is involved in the resulting impact of these NNSs on metabolic health.

As chronic overconsumption of SSBs is clearly associated with an increased cardiometabolic risk, this study will be the first to determine the metabolic impact of replacing SSBs by potentially "healthier alternatives" such as the increasingly popular stevia-based soft drinks and aspartame-based soft drinks. The investigators will further investigate whether these NNS can cause pernicious effects on intestinal health and the gut microbiome. It is a crucial concern since the importance of this unsuspected key "organ" has been ignored for too long and its important implication in many chronic societal diseases has just been discovered.

Results of this study could have a direct influence on health, nutrition and even agricultural policies as well as dietary guidelines around the world. This project is also critically important as an increasing amount of health professionals such as physicians, nurses and registered dietitians seek to provide evidenced-based guidance to individuals looking for healthier alternatives to SSBs including stevia-based or aspartame-based soft drinks.

Conditions

• Gut Microbiota
• Metabolic Syndrome

Interventions

OTHER

710 ml of regular soft drinks, taken daily for 10 weeks

Subjects will consume regular soft drinks to test if there is a significant difference on the impact on gut microbiota composition and metabolic syndrome parameters between this treatment and the active treatments (diet and stevia beverages).

OTHER

710 ml of diet soft drinks, taken daily for 10 weeks

Subjects will consume diet soft drinks during 10 weeks to test the possible effects of aspartame/acesulfame-K sweetened beverages on gut microbiota composition and on metabolic syndrome parameters.

OTHER

710 ml of stevia-sweetened soft drinks, taken daily for 10 weeks

Subjects will consume soft drinks containing stevia during 10 weeks to test the possible effects of steviol glycosides sweetened beverages on gut microbiota composition and on metabolic syndrome parameters.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Laval University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Marie-Claude Vohl · Laval University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

QUADRUPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-10-18

Primary Completion

2021-12-20

Completion

2025-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations