Integration of Sweet Taste and Metabolism Determines Carbohydrate Reward

mangrothian

There has been a journal paper published in Current Biology that looks at how the ratio between sweetness and caloric load influences metabolic response.

Integration of Sweet Taste and Metabolism Determines Carbohydrate Reward.Unfortunately, it's not an open access article, but here is the summary from the paper:

Post-ingestive signals related to nutrient metabolism are thought to be the primary drivers of reinforcement potency of energy sources. Here, in a series of neuroimaging and indirect calorimetry human studies, we examine the relative roles of caloric load and perceived sweetness in driving metabolic, perceptual, and brain responses to sugared beverages. Whereas caloric load was manipulated using the tasteless carbohydrate maltodextrin, sweetness levels were manipulated using the non-nutritive sweetener sucralose. By formulating beverages that contain different amounts of maltodextrin+sucralose, we demonstrate a non-linear association between caloric load, metabolic response, and reinforcement potency, which is driven in part by the extent to which sweetness is proportional to caloric load. In particular, we show that (1) lower-calorie beverages can produce greater metabolic response and condition greater brain response and liking than higher-calorie beverages and (2) when sweetness is proportional to caloric load, greater metabolic responses are observed. These results demonstrate a non-linear association between caloric load and reward and describe an unanticipated role for sweet taste in regulating carbohydrate metabolism, revealing a novel mechanism by which sugar-sweetened beverages influence physiological responses to carbohydrate ingestion.

Vox has also posted a review article, with the clickbaitish title of Study: diet soda can really mess with your metabolism. It gives a little more palatable description and discussion of the study, but since I can't see the full journal publication myself, I can't really see if they're cherry picking the data out of it to make their story.

Regardless, considering all the posts we get in the forums around artificial sweeteners being linked to weight gain and the correlation/causation rhetoric that goes with it, I thought it might be an interesting one to post to see peoples thoughts on what the study is showing.

I would like to add that on personal opinion, I find no issue with artificial sweeteners beyond certain ones stopping me from diving mouth first into a bag of sugar free gummy bears, that I don't feel that it has impeded my weight loss, and that some peoples anecdotal n=1 opinions may differ when it comes to their own experience. I've made this thread for looking at this study in particular, rather than it turning into "I drink loads of diet X, and I'm fine/not fine/turning into an aspartame zombie" posts. I think that dead horse has been flogged enough.