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SWEETENERS THAT MAY IMPERIL YOUR BRAIN





Sugar substitutes can make it easier to cut back on sugar. But a study of nearly 13,000 adults raises a question about what frequent use might mean for long-term brain health.

Researchers found that people who consumed the most low- and no-calorie sweeteners had a 62% faster decline in memory and thinking skills than those who consumed the least. The difference was comparable to about 1.6 additional years of cognitive aging over the study period. Six sweeteners were linked to faster decline; one was not.

The study does not show that sweeteners caused the decline. It found an association, not proof that these ingredients harm the brain.

What the researchers studied

The study, published in Neurology, followed 12,772 adults in Brazil for approximately eight years. Participants were, on average, 52 years old when it began.

At the start, participants reported what they had eaten and drunk over the previous year. Researchers used those answers to estimate their intake of seven sweeteners: aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K, erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and tagatose. These ingredients can appear in products such as diet sodas, flavored waters, energy drinks, yogurt and low-calorie desserts.

Participants also took cognitive tests at the beginning, middle, and end of the study. The tests assessed memory, verbal fluency, word recall,l and processing speed.

The researchers divided participants into three groups by sweetener intake. The lowest group consumed an estimated 20 milligrams a day on average; the highest consumed 191 milligrams a day. That higher amount is roughly equivalent to the aspartame in one can of diet soda.

What they found

After accounting for factors including age, sex, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease, the researchers found that overall cognitive performance declined 62% faster in the highest-intake group than in the lowest. The middle group showed a 35% faster decline, comparable to about 1.3 additional years of cognitive aging.

The association was stronger among people with diabetes. It also appeared among adults under 60, particularly in verbal fluency and overall cognitive performance. Researchers did not find a similar association among participants over 60.

When the team examined sweeteners individually, six—aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame-K, erythritol, sorbitol and xylitol—were associated with faster cognitive decline, particularly in memory. They found no such association for tagatose. That does not establish that tagatose is safer or protects the brain.

“Low- and no-calorie sweeteners are often seen as a healthy alternative to sugar; however, our findings suggest certain sweeteners may have negative effects on brain health over time,” said study author Claudia Kimie Suemoto, MD, PhD, of the University of São Paulo.

What the findings mean—and don’t mean

The “additional years of cognitive aging” figures describe differences in test performance. They are not direct measurements of biological brain aging, and they do not mean that everyone who uses sugar substitutes will develop memory problems.

The study relied on participants’ recollections of their diets, which may not perfectly reflect what they consumed. It also did not examine every sweetener on the market. And because it was observational, other differences between participants could help explain the results, even after researchers accounted for several health factors.

For now, the findings are a reason to investigate sweeteners and long-term brain health more closely—not a reason to assume a diet soda causes memory loss. Further research will need to test whether the sweeteners themselves contribute to cognitive changes and why the links appeared stronger in some groups than others.

The research was supported by Brazil’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development.

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