Consuming artificial sweeteners can cause heart disease
Consumption of non-caloric, artificially sweetened beverages is associated with an increased risk for chronic lifestyle diseases according to Susan E. Swithers, PhD, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, published online July 10 in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Frequent consumers of these sugar substitutes may be at increased risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

This risk is independent of baseline body mass indexes.

Another earlier study found that children of normal weight who consume artificially sweetened beverages may have decreased weight gain compared with those who consume sweetened beverages.

In another study, overweight and obese adults who substituted water or artificially sweetened beverages for sweetened beverages had no greater weight loss at 6 months than an attention control group.

Artificially sweetened beverages intake was not associated with improved fasting glucose, but water intake was