American researchers have discovered that a chemical present in the sweetener sucralose is capable of breaking DNA and endangering intestinal health. The threshold limit set by the European Food Safety Authority could be exceeded with the consumption of just one drink containing this sweetener per day.
An article published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health at the end of May 2023 shows that sucralose, known by the code E955, an artificial sweetener widely used worldwide as a replacement for sugar, is the cause of DNA damage. Sucralose is used in many foods, beverages and pharmaceutical products, and has a sweetening power six hundred times greater than that of sugar. It is marketed under a variety of names, including Canderel, Aqualoz and Splenda.
Researchers conducted in vitro experiments, exposing human blood cells and intestinal tissue to sucralose-6-acetate, a chemical by-product formed during the digestion of sucralose, but which can also be found in the raw sweetener even before it is consumed. This substance has been shown to be genotoxic, i.e. capable of breaking the DNA of cells to which it is exposed.
Sucralose and its by-product also cause a phenomenon known as leaky gut, which allows substances that are normally eliminated from the body through the stool to escape the intestine and enter the bloodstream. Intestinal cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate also showed increased activity in genes linked to oxidative stress, inflammation and carcinogenic risk.
The study’s lead author, Susan Schiffman, points out that the European Food Safety Authority has set a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances at 0.15 micrograms per person per day, and that her team’s work suggests that traces of sucralose-6-acetate in a single sucralose-sweetened daily drink exceed this threshold. She recommends avoiding products containing sucralose.
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