Splenda (sucralose) may cause weight gain during and after use by weight dysregulation

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Tuesday, November 04, 2008 12:18 pm Email this article
Splenda (sucralose) reduces good bacteria in the gut and causes weight gain in rats both during use and after Splenda is stopped according to a study from Duke University.

This appears to be a form of weight dysregulation according to the Duke researchers. Gut bacteria plays a role in body weight

Reducing good gut bacteria may cause weight gain

“The increase in body weight at the low dose of Splenda is in agreement with the recent findings that composition of intestinal bacteria plays a major role in body weight regulation (Bckhed et al., 2004; Ley et al., 2006; Turnbaugh et al., 2006),” the researchers noted.

 

Weight Gain Probably Not Caused By Increased Food Intake

Previous study found that Splenda did not increase food intake

“It is unlikely that the increased body weight at 100 mg/kg is due to increased food consumption because a previous 26-wk gavage study in rats (Goldsmith, 2000) [where rats are force fed via a tube stuck down their throat] found no statistically significant differences in food intake by sucralose-treated rats when compared with controls.”

 

Another possible cause of the weight gain

Another possible cause of the weight gain

“Another potential cause of this body weight gain is the recent finding that sucralose modulates the Na+-glucose transporter (Margolskee et al., 2007) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (Jang et al., 2007) in the intestinal lumen.”

 

Weight Gain Due to Weight Dysregulation

Weight gain both during and after use of Splenda due to weight dysregulation

“Thus, the elevated body weight after low-dose Splenda treatment as well as after recovery from Splenda appears to be a form of body weight dysregulation.”

 

Lower Doses Cause Weight Gain

Lower doses cause as much weight gain as higher doses

“The lack of a dose-response effect of Splenda on body weight [that is, rats given higher doses did not gain more weight than those given lower doses is because]... At the higher concentrations, less Splenda was absorbed…”

REFERENCE

Abou-Donia MB, El-Masry EM, Abdel-Rahman AA, Mclendon R, Schiffman S. Splenda alters gut microflora and increases intestinal p-glycoprotein and cytochrome p-450 in male rats. J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2008, 71(21):1415-29.

AUTHOR’S CONTACT INFORMATION

Mohamed B. Abou-Donia
Department of Pharmacology
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA
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