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Trial, not randomized · measured the question itself

26-week trial in 101 adults found no clear weight difference with higher sweetener intake

Acero and colleagues · Nutrients · 2020

Original title: Changes in Non-Nutritive Sweetener Consumption Patterns in Response to a Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Reduction Intervention.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

Sweetener intake rose (aspartame +37.2 ± 13.9 mg a day; total +63.7 ± 18.5 mg a day). No significant weight or BMI changes between the three groups over time.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Trial, not randomized
Who or what was studied
101 people · 101 adults in a 6-month program to cut sugary drinks
What was tested
Compared people who cut sugary drinks and raised sweetener intake with those who cut sugary drinks only, or did not cut
What it measured
The question itself: body weight and metabolic health
How long
26 weeks
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No conflict of interest declared.
Journal
Nutrients, 2020
Source
PubMed record 33171645. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Not randomized: the groups may differ in ways that affect the result.
  • •Medium size: 101 people.
  • •Lasted 26 weeks.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: body weight and metabolic health.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •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

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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

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

  • Counted on the ladder, but not quoted in the page’s main findings.

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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