Sweeteners help maintain weight loss after dieting
Overweight people who want to lose weight successfully are better off supplementing their healthy diet with sweeteners than with foods containing sugar products. An international study, in which Maastricht University (UM) participated, shows that people who supplement their diet with sweeteners are better at maintaining a lower weight after a period of weight loss than people who continue to use products containing sugar. In addition, the composition of their gut bacteria also changes in a positive way. The research results were published today in the scientific journal Nature Metabolism.
Losing weight
A total of 341 adults who were overweight or obese participated in the study. They followed an energy-restricted diet for a period of eight weeks and lost an average of ten kilograms. The participants then followed a healthy diet for a year. One group obtained a maximum of 10 per cent of their energy requirements from products containing sugar, while another group replaced sugar-rich products with sweeteners such as Stevia, sucralose and saccharin.
The participants who replaced sugar-rich products with sweeteners were better able to maintain a healthy weight. “These results show that consuming sweeteners in the context of a healthy, sugar-restricted diet can contribute to better weight control,” says Ellen Blaak, professor of Human Biology in Maastricht and last author of the study. “Replacing sugar-rich products with sweeteners can therefore be a good strategy for the prevention and treatment of obesity.”
Gut bacteria
The scientists did not only look at the weight of the participants; they also investigated the effect of sweeteners versus sugar intake on the composition of their gut bacteria. The study clearly showed that this composition changed in a positive way.
‘The composition of the gut bacteria changed towards bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids,’ explains Ellen Blaak. ‘These fatty acids have positive effects on body weight and health in humans and may therefore have contributed to better weight maintenance in the group that used sweeteners.’
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