The Real Reason Artificial Sweeteners Are Healthier Than Sugar

​"There's a potential, and probably real, harm from consuming added sugars; there are most likely none from artificial sweeteners."

That statement comes from Aaron E. Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, writing for The New York Times on why artificial sweeteners like saccharin and aspartame aren't nearly as bad as you think. Carroll, who along with his wife aims to curb his kids' consumption of soda, has a few issues with the way artificial sweeteners are perceived. 

Most striking is his assessment of saccharin, that '70s-era boogeyman found in packets of Sweet'N Low and which was said to cause cancer in lab rats. In 1977, Congress mandated that any product containing it must include the message, "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health." Yet 20 of more than 50 studies looking at saccharin in rats were "one generation" studies, meaning they did not look at the rats' offspring. Carroll writes: 

In only one of those studies did huge amounts of saccharin produce cancer, and it was in a type of rat that is frequently infected with a bladder parasite that would leave it susceptible to saccharin-induced bladder cancer.

The link between saccharin consumption and bladder cancer has never been proven in humans, and saccharin was removed from the carcinogen list in 2000. 

A similar issue has plagued aspartame, another artificial sweetener said to cause brain cancer in a 1996 study. Most of the increase in cancer was among people 70 years and older, Carroll writes, who were not the main consumers of aspartame. Also, there were no links:  

Some people still point to later rat studies with aspartame as concerning, but these are highly contested. More important, as we've seen from saccharin, there are also big differences between rats and humans.​

Caroll finally addresses added sugars, the kind not naturally found in foods or carbohydrates in things like fruit. With children consuming between 282 calories (for girls) and 362 calories (for boys) of added sugars per day on average, he says, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it's no wonder obesity has become an epidemic. Sugar intake is said to increase both fat and overall weight, whereas artificial or low-calorie sweeteners have been found to lower both.