Thread by @GidMK

Artificial sweeteners are constantly demonized, but the fact is that there is just no evidence that they are bad for our health

My latest: Artificial Sweeteners Aren’t Dangerous medium.com/@gidmk/artific…

This blog is about the recent study that purported to show that artificial sweeteners were bad for your gut microbiome

In actual fact, it was a lab-bench study on whether high concentrations could cause a few strains of E. Coli to bioluminesce in a petri dish

And when I say high concentrations, I mean roughly 8x the concentration of Diet Coke

You'd need to eat ~100 packets of Equal to get that in your gut!

This ~may~ eventually lead to some interesting findings, but at the moment any conclusive statements about artificial sweeteners and your gut are probably wrong

In fact, a 2016 systematic review found exactly that!

There just isn't enough evidence to make any conclusions at the moment

Bottom line: artificial sweeteners are enormously well tested, our fears about them are mostly based on nothing at all

Don't worry about Diet Coke and your gut microbiome!