A study shows that synthetic sweeteners cause brain aging

A new study of nearly 2.5 people shows that artificial sweeteners may be associated with a faster drop in cognitive function. The researchers examined seven conventional sweeteners and followed the participants for five years, and as a result, people who had the highest consumption experienced the highest decay rates.

The sweeteners have existed for decades and are widely used as sugar alternatives in foods and drinks. But these materials, like many food additives, have aroused different opinions. Previous studies have linked sweeteners such as aspartame to increase the likelihood of cancer. But besides research showing that sweeteners can be harmful, there are also studies that find their effect neutral or even beneficial to health.

Supervisory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continue to support the use of these additives in current values. In particular, in the case of aspartame, the FDA has called it one of the most common additives in food supply, saying that its scientists have no safety concerns about using it.

Among this vague situation, a new study of Brazilian researchers has been published. They focused on seven common sweeteners:

• Aspartame
• Saharin
• Aseulfam -K
• Errritol
• Zyleitol
• Sorbitol
• Tagatos

These substances are often found in superfluited foods, including chewing gum and sugar -free chocolate, energy drinks, low -calorie yogurt and flavored water. Some of them can also be purchased separately as a replacement for sugar for cooking or adding to coffee.

For this study, they monitored 2.5 adults from all over Brazil for 5 years. The average age of participants at the beginning of the study was 5 years.

At the beginning of the study, participants completed questionnaires showing that Sorbitol was the most consumed sweetener among the seven sweeteners with an average of 5 mg a day. The group that consumed the highest sweetener had an average of 2 mg / day, which is about a can of diet drinks.

Participants initially participated in cognitive performance tests to evaluate active memory, word reminder, verbal psychological and processing speed. After 5 years, considering other factors affecting cognitive performance, the results showed that people who consumed the highest sweetener experienced a 5 % faster cognitive decline than those who consumed the least. This amount is about 1.5 years older.

Further investigations, the relationship between excessive sweetened consumption and faster cognitive performance drop was found only in participants under the age of 5 and was more prominent in people with diabetes. One of these sweeteners, the tagatosis, was not associated with cognitive decline at all.

“Low -calorie, calorie sweeteners are often considered a healthy option rather than sugar, however our findings show that some sweeteners may have negative effects on brain health over time.”

This study was published in the journal Neurology.