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Blood level study

Study of 500 Dutch children: urine saccharin and sucralose linked to higher BMI score

Cai and colleagues · The Journal of nutrition · 2025

Original title: Urinary Sweeteners and Sugars in Relation to Childhood Obesity: The SWEET Project.

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What the study found

Points to harm

Urinary saccharin was linked to higher BMI z-score [βmg/mL: 51.59 (95% CI: 7.96, 95.21)] and sucralose to BMI z-score [291.29 (98.01, 484.58)]. Total sweeteners, acesulfame, cyclamate and steviol showed no link.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Blood level study
Who or what was studied
500 people · 500 Dutch children and teens aged 8 to 17
What was tested
Sweetener and sugar levels in overnight urine, compared with BMI and waist-to-height scores
What it measured
The question itself: body weight and metabolic health
Who has a stake
Company stake
Some authors get research funding from the American Beverage Association, or honoraria from the International Sweeteners Association and others.
Journal
The Journal of nutrition, 2025
Source
PubMed record 41101507. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Links blood levels to health. A blood level can be a sign of illness rather than a cause.
  • •500 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: body weight and metabolic health.
  • –Company stake: Some authors get research funding from the American Beverage Association, or honoraria from the International Sweeteners Association and others.
  • •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

  4. Population studies

    5

    1 benefit, 4 harm

  5. Blood levels and genes

    1

    1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

↓ 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

Few other papers sit on the same step, so there is little to compare it with.

Other papers on the same step

None among the papers we read.

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 two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. 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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