A new study reveals that a chemical formed during the digestion of a popular sweetener is ‘genotoxic’, meaning it breaks down DNA.
The object of thestudy presented by the University of North Carolina is sucralose, a commonly used artificial sweetener. Previous work by the same research team established that several fat-soluble compounds are produced in the gut after sucralose ingestion. One such compound is sucralose-6-acetate.
“The European Food Safety Authority has set a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day,” says Susan Schiffman, corresponding author of the study and assistant professor in the Joint Department of biomedical engineering at the University of North Carolina. “Our work suggests that traces of sucralose-6-acetate in a single sucralose-sweetened drink exceed this threshold. And that doesn’t even take into account the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after sucralose consumption.”
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of in vitro experiments exposing human blood cells to sucralose-6-acetate and monitoring for genotoxicity markers. “In short, we found that sucralose-6-acetate is genotoxic, and that it actually destroyed DNA in cells exposed to this substance,” Schiffman said.
The researchers also performed in vitro tests that exposed human intestinal tissue to sucralose-6-acetate. “Other studies have found that sucralose can negatively affect gut health, so we wanted to see what might be going on there,” Schiffman says. “When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to the epithelial tissues of the gut – the tissue that lines the lining of your gut – we found that both chemicals cause a ‘porous gut’. Basically, they make the lining of the intestine more permeable The chemicals damage the ‘tight junctions’, or interfaces, where the cells of the lining of the intestine connect to each other A porous intestine is problematic because it means that substances that would normally pass out of the body in the stool instead leak out of the gut and are absorbed into the bloodstream.”
The researchers also looked at the genetic activity of intestinal cells to see how they reacted to the presence of sucralose-6-acetate. “We found that intestinal cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate had increased activity in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation, and carcinogenicity,” Schiffman says.
“This work raises a host of concerns about the potential health effects associated with sucralose and its metabolites. It is time to review the safety and regulatory status of sucralose as evidence mounts that it poses significant risks . I encourage people to avoid products that contain sucralose. It’s not something you should be eating.”