Why it’s wrong to promote sweeteners to children

Let’s start with why it became a key part of the government’s childhood obesity strategy … to promote diet drinks.
1.    A rise in levels of obesity and the number of children who are overweight when they leave primary school.
2.    Obesity increases the risks of developing several causes of ill health, including type II diabetes and heart disease.
It is from evidence of these two points that lowering the general consumption of sugar is considered beneficial. So far, so good.

Disagreement comes from the targetted approach to replace sugar with artificial sweeteners, instead of a ‘true reformulation’ of products by gradually reducing sugar – and a desire for such sweetness. The evidence for the opposition is strong.
3.    Paradoxically, the use of artificial sweeteners is associated with long-term obesity.
4.    Artificial sweeteners alter the human microbiome, which in turn has an effect on such things as immune response and glucose tolerance (a factor in type II diabetes).
5.    Artificial sweeteners have been associated with dementia. Important, but a newish discovery and as yet there are a limited number of studies.
Research is ongoing to find out more of the way in which these effects come about.

None of the information, points 1 – 5, is disputed, which is why I have not cited particular studies or reviews. The list would be too long. However, as many of them make no specific reference to children, it is perhaps pertinent in this context to note that a review of current evidence led Harvard School of Public Health to conclude that children should not be given beverages where sweeteners have been used; a review of 72 studies on PLOS (the online Public Library of Science) concluded that artificially sweetened beverages should not be promoted as part of a healthy diet.

There are additional concerns in relation to children and the sweetener aspartame. Aggravated by the fact that there is no need to declare the use of neotame (a concentrated derivative of aspartame), or of advantame (a combination of aspartame and vanillin). More on this to come in a later post.

We are asking that artificially sweetened products do not come under the ‘healthy’, ‘better for you’ banner. Under another aspect of the policy they are currently more eligible for low price promotions than their non-artificially sweetened counterparts.


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