The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a new guideline on non-sugar sweeteners such as saccharin or stevia in which it advises against their use for controlling body weight. The recommendation is based on the results of a systematic review of the available evidence, which suggests that the use of sweeteners does not provide any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children. In addition, if lifestyle and eating habits are not changed, it may increase the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and mortality in adults.
“Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not seem to help with long-term weight control. People should consider other ways to reduce their intake of free sugars, such as eating foods with natural sugars, such as fruit.” , or eating foods and beverages without added sugar,” said Francesco Branca, WHO director of nutrition and food security. “Unsweetened sweeteners are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should completely reduce the sweet taste of the diet from an early age to improve their health,” said the expert.
This recommendation applies to all people, except those with pre-existing diabetes, and includes all synthetic and natural or modified non-nutritive sweeteners that are not classified as sugar and are found in food and beverages. or are sold plain for use. Consumers add them to food and beverages. Common non-nutritive sweeteners include acesulfame K, aspartame, avantame, cyclamates, neotame, saccharin, sucralose, stevia, and stevia derivatives.
This recommendation does not apply to hygiene and personal care products containing these sweeteners, such as toothpaste, skin creams and medicines, nor to sugars and low-calorie sugar alcohols (polyols), which are sugars or sugar derivatives that contain calories and That’s why the one without sweetness is not considered sweet.
Because the evidence-based link between sweeteners and disease outcomes may be confounded by baseline characteristics of study participants and complex patterns of use of these substances, the recommendation is assessed as conditional, following WHO processes for guideline development.
This indicates that policy decisions based on this recommendation may need to be discussed in specific national contexts, for example, as to the extent of consumption in different age groups. The WHO guideline on non-sugar sweeteners is part of a set of existing and future guidelines on healthy diets, which aim to establish lifelong healthy eating habits, improve diet quality and reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases worldwide have to reduce
A report published a year ago by the WHO warned that the already high negative impact of obesity on the population worsened during the years of the pandemic. The disease is already reaching “epidemic levels” on the continent, with almost 60% of adults and a third of European children suffering from overweight or obesity, according to the agency’s European office. However, the most worrying trend is “No country is on track to reach the target of halting the increase in obesity set for 2025,” Kremlin Wickremesinghe, a WHO official, said at the presentation of the report.
