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Effects of non-nutritive (artificial vs natural) sweeteners on 24-h glucose profiles

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 71, pages 1129–1132 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Replacing nutritive sweetener with non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) has the potential to improve glycaemic control. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of consuming artificial NNS (that is, aspartame), natural NNS (that is, monk fruit and stevia), and sucrose-sweetened beverages on 24-h glucose profiles. Ten healthy males took part in this randomised, crossover study with the following four treatments: aspartame-, monk fruit-, stevia-, and sucrose- (65 g) sweetened beverages. Participants were asked to consume the test beverage as a preload mid-morning. Medtronic iPro2 continuous glucose monitoring system was used to measure mean 24-h glucose, incremental area under the curve (iAUC) and total area under the curve (AUC) for glucose, and 24-h glycaemic variability. Overall no significant differences were found in mean 24-h glucose, iAUC and total AUC for glucose, and 24-h glycaemic variability between the four test beverages. Twenty-four-hour glucose profiles did not differ between beverages sweetened with non-nutritive (artificial vs natural) and nutritive sweeteners. The simple exchange of a single serving of sucrose-sweetened beverage with NNS over a day appears to have minimal effect on 24-h glucose profiles in healthy males.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants for taking part in the study. This work was supported by the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR, Singapore.

Author contributions

SLT, JH, and CF designed the research; SLT and NS conducted the research; SLT performed statistical analyses and drafted the manuscript; all authors approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Nutrition Research Centre, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore

    S L Tey, N B Salleh, C J Henry & C G Forde

  2. Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

    C J Henry

  3. Department of Physiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

    C G Forde

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  1. S L Tey
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  2. N B Salleh
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  3. C J Henry
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  4. C G Forde
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Correspondence to C G Forde.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Tey, S., Salleh, N., Henry, C. et al. Effects of non-nutritive (artificial vs natural) sweeteners on 24-h glucose profiles. Eur J Clin Nutr 71, 1129–1132 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2017.37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2017.37

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