Soda sweeteners may harm the liver, initial study finds

Two sweeteners commonly used in zero-sugar sodas may affect the liver’s detoxification function, says a new, early-stage study.

These substances, which manage to leave a sweet taste in drinks without the use of sugar, would hinder the action of a liver protein essential for the excretion of toxic substances from the human body. The conclusion is from researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin, a US institution.

The work was recently presented at the Experimental Biology 2022 conference, but has not yet been published in a scientific journal.

A preliminary study by this team of scientists had already observed that baby mice exposed to so-called non-nutritive sweeteners showed changes in the detoxification process of the liver.

It was from that study that the researchers designed this second one. In it, the effects of the sweeteners acesulfame potassium and sucralose on P-glycoprotein, which acts in the metabolism of drugs and in the elimination of toxins from the body, were examined.

The investigation also took into account the dose recommendations for the sweeteners as recommended by the FDA (the agency that regulates medicines and food in the US). Thus, the effects of the two substances were measured at levels below and above the entity’s guidelines.

“We observed that sweeteners affected P-glycoprotein activity in liver cells at concentrations expected from consumption of common foods and beverages, well below the maximum limits recommended by the FDA,” Stephanie Van Stichelen, lead of the research team, told the agency. news from the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Giovanni Faria Silva, a hepatologist and president of the SBH (Brazilian Society of Hepatology), which is not related to this research, comments, however, that it is still too early to assess the impact of this work. “What was presented in this study does not yet have an article published to see in detail how the methodology was adopted, for example”, he says.

In addition, the study was carried out only in the laboratory. The ideal, according to Silva, is that investigations continue in order to carry out further research of an observational nature or, mainly, clinical studies, which are considered the gold standard for having control and experimental groups.

“These results are interesting, but it is important that they are reproduced in order to have an evaluation and to proceed with this hypothesis that was launched”, he adds.

If what was observed in the study is really recognized by other research, the effects on the body would be mainly in the short term, since the metabolism of drugs by P-glycoprotein would not occur properly, generating side effects in the patient. But chronic effects could also happen, depending on new findings.

“What can have more are more expressive side effects at first [e de forma aguda]. Long-term problems would have to be better analyzed in other research”, says Silva.