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Review
. 2024 Jun 6;12(2):29.
doi: 10.3390/medsci12020029.

Could Insulin Be a Better Regulator of Appetite/Satiety Balance and Body Weight Maintenance in Response to Glucose Exposure Compared to Sucrose Substitutes? Unraveling Current Knowledge and Searching for More Appropriate Choices

Georgios Antasouras  1 , Antonios Dakanalis  2   3 , Maria Chrysafi  1 , Sousana K Papadopoulou  4 , Ioulia Trifonidi  5 , Maria Spanoudaki  4 , Olga Alexatou  1 , Agathi Pritsa  4 , Aikaterini Louka  1 , Constantinos Giaginis  1
Affiliations
Review

Could Insulin Be a Better Regulator of Appetite/Satiety Balance and Body Weight Maintenance in Response to Glucose Exposure Compared to Sucrose Substitutes? Unraveling Current Knowledge and Searching for More Appropriate Choices

Georgios Antasouras et al. Med Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Insulin exerts a crucial impact on glucose control, cellular growing, function, and metabolism. It is partially modulated by nutrients, especially as a response to the intake of foods, including carbohydrates. Moreover, insulin can exert an anorexigenic effect when inserted into the hypothalamus of the brain, in which a complex network of an appetite/hunger control system occurs. The current literature review aims at thoroughly summarizing and scrutinizing whether insulin release in response to glucose exposure may be a better choice to control body weight gain and related diseases compared to the use of sucrose substitutes (SSs) in combination with a long-term, well-balanced diet.

Methods: This is a comprehensive literature review, which was performed through searching in-depth for the most accurate scientific databases and applying effective and relevant keywords.

Results: The insulin action can be inserted into the hypothalamic orexigenic/anorexigenic complex system, activating several anorexigenic peptides, increasing the hedonic aspect of food intake, and effectively controlling the human body weight. In contrast, SSs appear not to affect the orexigenic/anorexigenic complex system, resulting in more cases of uncontrolled body weight maintenance while also increasing the risk of developing related diseases.

Conclusions: Most evidence, mainly derived from in vitro and in vivo animal studies, has reinforced the insulin anorexigenic action in the hypothalamus of the brain. Simultaneously, most available clinical studies showed that SSs during a well-balanced diet either maintain or even increase body weight, which may indirectly be ascribed to the fact that they cannot cover the hedonic aspect of food intake. However, there is a strong demand for long-term longitudinal surveys to effectively specify the impact of SSs on human metabolic health.

Keywords: acesulfame; anorexigenic peptides; aspartame; body weight; hypothalamus; insulin; non-nutritive sweeteners; orexigenic peptides; saccharin; stevia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The two potential actions of insulin as regulator of glucose homeostasis and appetite/satiety control system and the role of SSs.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The hypothalamic orexigenic/anorexigenic complex system and the potential role of insulin.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Potential molecular mechanisms of the anorexigenic action of insulin.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Potential crosstalk interactions between insulin and leptin that leads to satiety.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Potential adverse effects of sucrose substitutes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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