Steffen, Brian T., Lusczek, Elizabeth R., Jacobs, Prof David R., Chen, Chi, Murthy, Venkatesh L., van Horn, Linda V., Terry, James G., Carr, John Jeffrey, & Steffen, Lyn M. (2025). “No evidence of metabolomic disruptions from real-world intakes of aspartame or saccharin: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study.” Journal of Diabetes, 17(8), e70138. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-0407.70138
Artificial sweeteners, like aspartame and saccharin, are common in the food supply, but there is ongoing debate about whether consuming them regularly is safe. This study looked at whether eating these sweeteners is linked to changes in blood metabolites—small molecules in the blood that indicate how the body is processing nutrients and energy.
The study included 2,160 adults, with an average age of 32 years. Researchers measured 549 different blood metabolites using advanced laboratory techniques. Participants reported their diet using a validated questionnaire, which allowed researchers to estimate how much aspartame and saccharin each person consumed. Statistical models were used to examine associations between sweetener intake and blood metabolites while accounting for other factors that could influence the results. Additional analyses were conducted to confirm the findings.
Results showed that heavy aspartame consumption (five or more servings per day) was associated with higher blood levels of saccharin, caffeine, myo-inositol, and several caffeine-related metabolites. Saccharin intake was only associated with higher blood saccharin levels. Importantly, neither aspartame nor saccharin was linked to changes in sugars, carbohydrates, fats, amino acids, or other metabolites that would suggest metabolic problems. These findings were supported by multiple sensitivity tests.
In conclusion, this is the largest study of its kind, and it found no evidence that aspartame or saccharin disrupt metabolism. However, the study cannot rule out the possibility that extremely high intakes of these sweeteners might have metabolic effects.
FIGURE 1
Volcano plots of plasma metabolites associated with intakes of (A) heavy aspartame (≥ 5 servings/day); and (B) saccharin (> 0 servings/day).