Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jun 11;15(12):2711.
doi: 10.3390/nu15122711.

Effect of Non- and Low-Caloric Sweeteners on Substrate Oxidation, Energy Expenditure, and Catecholamines in Humans-A Systematic Review

Sabina S H Andersen  1 , Ruixin Zhu  1 , Louise Kjølbæk  1 , Anne Raben  1   2
Affiliations

Effect of Non- and Low-Caloric Sweeteners on Substrate Oxidation, Energy Expenditure, and Catecholamines in Humans-A Systematic Review

Sabina S H Andersen et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

The use of non- and low-caloric sweetener(s) (NCS and LCS) as a means to prevent overweight and obesity is highly debated, as both NCS and LCS have been proposed to have a negative impact on energy homeostasis. This systematic review aimed to assess the impact of NCS and LCS on fasting and postprandial substrate oxidation, energy expenditure, and catecholamines, compared to caloric sweeteners or water, across different doses and types of NCS and LCS, acutely and in the longer-term. A total of 20 studies were eligible: 16 studies for substrate oxidation and energy expenditure and four studies for catecholamines. Most studies compared the acute effects of NCS or LCS with caloric sweeteners under non-isoenergetic conditions. These studies generally found higher fat oxidation and lower carbohydrate oxidation with NCS or LCS than with caloric sweeteners. Findings for energy expenditure were inconsistent. With the limited number of studies, no convincing pattern for the remaining outcomes and comparisons could be seen. In conclusion, drinks or meals with NCS or LCS resulted in higher fat and lower carbohydrate oxidation compared to caloric sweeteners. No other conclusions could be drawn due to insufficient or inconsistent results. Further studies in this research field are warranted.

Keywords: carbohydrate oxidation; catecholamines; energy expenditure; energy homeostasis; fat oxidation; low-caloric sweeteners; non-caloric sweeteners; respiration chamber; ventilated hood.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

A.R. has received honoraria from Nestlé, Unilever, and the International Sweeteners Association.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow chart showing the selection process of the studies.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias assessment for randomized controlled trials. The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessment of risk of bias in randomized trials was used [36,37,38,39,40,41,42,44,51,52,53,55,56,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Risk of bias assessment for controlled non-randomized trials. The Cochrane Collaboration tool for assessment of risk of bias in non-randomized trials was used [43,54,57].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization . Noncommunicable Diseases Country Profiles 2018. World Health Organization; Geneva, Switzerland: 2018.
    1. World Health Organization (WHO) Guideline: Sugars Intake for Adults and Children. World Health Organization; Geneva, Switzerland: 2015. - PubMed
    1. Msomi N.Z., Erukainure O.L., Islam M.S. Suitability of Sugar Alcohols as Antidiabetic Supplements: A Review. J. Food Drug Anal. 2021;29:1–14. doi: 10.38212/2224-6614.3107. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rice T., Zannini E., Arendt E.K., Coffey A. A Review of Polyols–Biotechnological Production, Food Applications, Regulation, Labeling and Health Effects. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2020;60:2034–2051. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2019.1625859. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chattopadhyay S., Raychaudhuri U., Chakraborty R. Artificial Sweeteners—A Review. J. Food Sci. Technol. 2014;51:611–621. doi: 10.1007/s13197-011-0571-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources