Artificial sweeteners should not be used by individuals as a weight-loss tool because they are ineffective in the long term and could have a negative impact on your health, the World Health Organization said last week.

The WHO, citing a systematic review of the available evidence, said non-sugar sweeteners do not “confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children.” 

“Results of the review also suggest that there may be potential undesirable effects from long-term use of NSS, such as an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality in adults,” the new guidelines said.

Francesco Branca, WHO director for nutrition and food safety, said in a statement that replacing free sugars with these products “do not help with weight control in the long term.” 

“People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages,” Branca said. “NSS [non-sugar sweeteners] are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health.”

The only exception to the recommendation is for “individuals with pre-existing diabetes,” the statement read.

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has encouraged our subscribers to live a balanced, healthy lifestyle because without a healthy body and positive state of mind, economic and geopolitical trends take a distant backseat. (See “FAKE SUGAR LINKED TO REAL ANXIETY AND COULD BE GENERATIONAL” 20 Dec 2022 and “BIG SODA DECREES: ‘DIET’ IS DEAD. SAY HELLO TO ‘ZERO SUGAR’.”

It is worth noting that the WHO identified aspartame and saccharin as non-sugar sweeteners. Stevia, which is made from plants, also falls into this category.

We feel compelled to point out that sugar is a fairly straightforward (and natural) ingredient that has been around for centuries, and its long-term effects on the human body, while far from beneficial—(See “DRINK LOTS OF SODA AND DIE” 11 Aug 2020 and “COKE’S PROFITS SPARKLE: GOOD AND BAD” 27 Jul 2021)—are at least known.

Dozens of studies have linked aspartame—the world’s most widely used artificial sweetener—to serious health problems, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, seizures, stroke, and dementia.

But one of the lingering problems is that many people continue to look for the easy way out when it comes to weight control, which is why more than one-third of adults in the U.S. were considered obese in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In the U.S. alone, obesity carries a price tag that was estimated by the National Institutes of Health to be about $200 billion in 2020.