Effets nutritionnels et métaboliques des édulcorants intenses

Intense sweeteners, food ingredients inducing a strong sweet taste, provide no energy and no sufficient quantity of nutrient to induce, by themselves, significant metabolic effects. However, because their sensory qualities, as the caloric sweeteners (sucrose, glucose…) the sweet sensorial stimulations they provide may, in some circumstances, induce an early insulin liberation called cephalic phase of insulin release. This response, the amplitude of which is very small and inconstant, is insufficient to induce significant metabolic effects. It was however hypothesized that the uncoupling sweet taste and calories may increase hunger sensation and the subsequent food intake, thus promoting weight gain. Numerous scientific works ruled out this hypothesis. Conversely, intense sweeteners, mainly in beverages, may allow a decrease of energy consumption, useful for a better weight management. Some anorexigenic properties of encapsulated aspartame have even been described. Recently, the discovery of sweet taste receptors in the gut endocrine cells secreting the entero-hormones GLP1 and GIP, reactivates the hypothesis that intense sweeteners may be able to directly stimulate the secretion of incretins. Such an effect has not been confirmed by clinical studies performed in human subjects.