Editor’s note 21/7/2016: An earlier version of this story included an image of Natvia natural sweetener. Mamamia acknowledges that Natvia is a natural sweetener and not artificial, does not contain sucralose and that this picture was not appropriate for the story.
By the National Reporting Team’s Alison Branley and medical reporter Sophie Scott
Australian researchers have uncovered new evidence explaining why using artificial sweeteners might lead people to put on weight.
Research at the University of Sydney has examined how sweeteners impact the brain’s response to food intake.
Previous studies have already shown an association between people who use artificial sweeteners and eating more.
But the reasons why remained unclear until now.
In the study, researchers at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre looked at two sets of fruit flies over five days.
One group was given healthy food and another was given healthy food with added artificial sweetener.
Afterwards, the fruit flies given the sweetener consumed almost one third more calories and one third more food.
Lead researcher Greg Neely said the research, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, showed the brain sensed both sweetness and energy intake and regulated appetite in response.
In other words, if people eat sweeteners but do not actually get the equivalent amount of calories, they eat more food to make up for it.
“Our conclusions from this study were that the sweetness and energy content of food are integrated in reward centres in the animals’ brain,” Associate Professor Neely said.
“When they’re out of balance, the brain responds and corrects it by promoting more or less food intake, in this case more food intake.”