An Australian team studied the effects of artificial sweeteners in the brain ant found out that these fake sugar would just make an individual more hungry and causes people to eat more.
There are researches in the past that looked into the effects of artificial sweeteners in human and animal subjects and the studies found out that fake sugar actually trigger cravings. This new findings provides new details explaining the effects caused by artificial sweeteners in the brain's taste perception and appetite.
Researchers from Garvan Institute of Medical Research together with Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney conducted the research and discovered a new brain system that detects and mixes the food's energy content and sweetness level. The lead researcher, Greg Neely, found that animals started to eat more after a 'chronic exposure' to an artificial sweetener, sucralose. Greg Neely is an associate professor from the Faculty of Science, Tech Times reported.
The team used fruit flies in the research. They subjected the flies to an artificial sweetener diet, using sucralose, for five days. They have observed that the flies consumed 30 per cent more calories compared to when the flies are exposed to natural sweeteners, according to the report published in Cell Metabolism journal.
The research discovered that both the food's energy content and the sweet sensation are integrated in the brain's 'reward centers'.
When the sweetness and energy ratio is out of balance for a certain period of time, the brain recalibrates and increases the total calories consumed. The chronic exposure to fake sugars increases the intensity of the real sugar's sweetness. This motivates the flies to eat more. This research also found that artificial sweeteners resulted in poorer sleep quality, hyperactivity and insomnia, says Greg Neely.
It can be concluded, therefore, that these sugar substitutes are not actually healthy.
