
Explore the health evidence on non-nutritive sweeteners like xylitol and erythritol, their dental benefits and enamel erosion concerns, weight management controversies, and mixed impacts on glycemic control and diabetes risk.
Non-nutritive sweeteners reduce caries and support dental health, while their effects on weight management, glycemic control, insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular risk, gut microbiome, and diet quality remain debated.
Compare maltitol, erythritol, stevia, and monk fruit as sugar substitutes; note their glycemic impact, tabletop availability, and label considerations when blends with erythritol occur.
Explore sucralose, saccharin, and cyclamates as cheap, widely used table top sweeteners found in many foods, including protein powders, noting their heat stability and the potential laxative effects of sucralose.
In this course, you are going to learn about the different non-nutritive sweeteners used in households, food and pharmaceutical industries. By the end of the course, you will be able to correctly identify the non-nutritive sweeteners used in the food products or pharmaceutical products you might be using. Also, you will be able to know who should and should not use the non-nutritive sweeteners in their daily lives. You will be learning about specific side effects of certain non-nutritive sweeteners and an overview of the use of these sweeteners in specific medical conditions such as Bariatric patients. Everything in this course is evidence based and extracted from different review articles.
One of the main sources is UpToDate and the other references are cited as follows:
1. Heuberger, R. A. (2023). Non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS). Literature review current through Oct 2023; Topic last updated Mar 03, 2023.
2. Richardson, I. L., & Frese, S. A. (2022). Non-nutritive sweeteners and their impacts on the gut microbiome and host physiology. Frontiers in Nutrition, 9:988144. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.988144.
3. Wilk, K., Korytek, W., Pelczyńska, M., Moszak, M., & Bogdański, P. (2022). The Effect of Artificial Sweeteners Use on Sweet Taste Perception and Weight Loss Efficacy: A Review. Nutrients, 14(6), 1261. doi: 10.3390/nu14061261.
4. Conz, A., Salmona, M., & Diomede, L. (2023). Effect of Non-Nutritive Sweeteners on the Gut Microbiota. Nutrients, 15(8), 1869. doi: 10.3390/nu15081869.
5. Lohner, S., Toews, I., & Meerpohl, J. J. (2017). Health outcomes of non-nutritive sweeteners: analysis of the research landscape. Nutrition Journal, 16(1), 55. doi: 10.1186/s12937-017-0278-x.
6. Russell, C., Grimes, C., Baker, P., Sievert, K., & Lawrence, M. A. (2020). The drivers, trends and dietary impacts of non-nutritive sweeteners in the food supply: a narrative review. Nutrition Research Reviews, 34(2), 185-208. doi: 10.1017/S0954422420000268.