ZOE Science & Nutrition Recap: The truth about artificial sweeteners | Eran Elinav & Tim Spector
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Dec 2, 2025 
Join immunologist Eran Elinav and epidemiologist Tim Spector as they dissect the surprising truths behind artificial sweeteners. They reveal how these sweeteners can alter gut health and disturb blood sugar control, with colorful tales of saccharin's effects in mice. Elinav shares intriguing data on individual responses in humans, while Spector offers practical strategies to break free from sweet cravings. Together, they unveil why we need to rethink our reliance on low-sugar options for better health.
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Non-nutritive Sweeteners Are Not Uniform
- Artificial (non-nutritive) sweeteners are a diverse group of very intense sweet-tasting chemicals used to replace sugar without calories.
- They are hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and are widely integrated into many foods, often hidden from consumers.
Sweetener Variety Makes Exposure Hard To Track
- There are many types of sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, ACE-K, sugar alcohols, monk fruit, neotame) and they are often used in combinations.
- This mix makes it hard for consumers and researchers to know exact exposure.
Mouse Study Linked Saccharin To Blood Sugar Harm
- Eran Elinav's lab gave saccharin to mice and repeatedly observed the mice developing disturbed blood sugar control and a diabetes-like state.
- Transferring the gut microbes from those mice into naive mice reproduced the effect, implicating the microbiome as the driver.