Skip the Sweet N Low! Do Artificial Sweeteners Make Crohn’s Disease Worse?
The role played by lifestyle and environmental factors
According to Rodriguez-Palacios, the collected evidence suggested that the ingredients induced biological changes known to trigger inflammation, which could be harmful over the course of time. Still, it is important to note that the research was a small study conducted on mice models. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted in order to better understand the impact of sugar substitutes on human beings. “Our next step would be to run experiments directly in patients, but that is more difficult to conduct given the large variability that is inherent to human genetics, microbiome and diet” he said. Furthermore, lifestyle and environmental factors play a larger role than genetically-altered lab mice and this would only increase the challenges of a human study. In order to reach concrete conclusions from human studies, it is likely to take several years of follow-up with two groups: individuals who have IBD and individuals who do not have IBD.
