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Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

2-week trial in 17 adults: aspartame or sucralose did not clearly change blood sugar

Ahmad and colleagues · Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquee, nutrition et metabolisme · 2020

Original title: The effect of the artificial sweeteners on glucose metabolism in healthy adults: a randomized, double-blinded, crossover clinical trial.

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What the study found

No difference

Blood sugar, insulin, GLP-1 and leptin responses were similar to baseline for both sweeteners. Insulin sensitivity did not change.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
17 people · 17 healthy adults, average age 24, normal weight
What was tested
Aspartame (0.425 g) or sucralose (0.136 g) each day for 2 weeks, compared with baseline
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
Daily amount
0.425 g a day
How long
2 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed.
Journal
Applied physiology, nutrition, and metabolism = Physiologie appliquee, nutrition et metabolisme, 2020
Source
PubMed record 31697573. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • –Small: 17 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • –Short: 2 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for body weight and metabolic health. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: body weight

    4

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 2 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    7

    1 benefit, 1 mixed, 4 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  4. Population studies

    5

    1 benefit, 4 harm

  5. Blood levels and genes

    1

    1 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Do artificial sweeteners cause weight gain?”

Trials say no; population studies disagree.

Confidence: low. Based on 32 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 6 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 1 mixed, 3 no difference, 1 harm. This one found no difference.

Other papers on the same step

See all 32 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 1 field after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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