Energy balance
There is no compelling evidence that non-sugar sweeteners provide important health benefits for weight loss in adults or children who are actively trying to lose weight, nor do they significantly improve glycaemic control or other major health outcomes compared to sugar.
If you are actively trying to lose weight, switching to non-sugar sweeteners is unlikely to provide a significant advantage over other methods. The evidence does not support using NSS as a primary tool for weight loss in this group. Focus on overall caloric deficit rather than just substituting sweeteners.
No evidence of any effect of NSSs was seen on overweight or obese adults or children actively trying to lose weight (very low to moderate certainty). ... There was no compelling evidence to indicate important health benefits of non-sugar sweetener use on a range of health outcomes
Why this rating
Certainty of evidence is 'very low' to 'moderate' due to limited number of small studies and short duration.
Source
Association between intake of non-sugar sweeteners and health outcomes: systematic review and meta-analyses of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials and observational studies
Ingrid Toews et al. · BMJ · 2019
DOI 10.1136/bmj.k4718
More from this paper
- In children, consuming non-sugar sweeteners is associated with a smaller increase in body mass index (BMI) z-score compared to consuming sugar, but there is no significant difference in body weight.Moderate
- In overweight or obese adults, consuming non-sugar sweeteners (NSS) leads to a small but statistically significant reduction in body weight compared to consuming sugar or placebo, whereas no significant weight change occurs in normal-weight adults.Limited
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