Sucralose and microbiomes

Greetings humans,
Before I begin I would like to point out the I am well aware that the amounts of Sucralose used in Huel Vanilla are very low (13% of the recommended daily limit). However, I would like to know if anyone has some insight into the effect of Sucralose on gut microbiome as there are many conflicting studies available online. For instance, some claim that Sucralose, as well as other sweeteners, actually reduce the amount of beneficial bacteria in the gut whilst others claim that it alters your microbes entirely

I would love to hear @JamesCollier ‘s opinion :heart:️
Thank you :slight_smile:

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mark, nice question.

my advice is take unsweetened version and add table sugar.

this should be the safest choice by far.

P.S: don’t forget to wash your teeth after you’ve eaten huel

Are you for real?!

Table sugar? Pffft. :roll_eyes:

I’m always for real, even when I said jokes, they’re always true :slight_smile:

Feel free to argue against what I’ve just said.

You really think sucralose is a safer choice than sucrose?

Do you know of any alternative that is safe and has same taste on the mouth?

I’ve heard about Erythritol but it has an unwanted “cooling effect” in the mouth. And it’s very costly. So why not add some table sugar? I don’t think 20 extra calories of sugar will make anyone fat.

I’ve forgot to say, if table sugar is too humble food for you, then let me recommend honey! :wink:

Honey is one of the few non-vegan food that actually has proven health benefits (at reasonable dosages). Probably it’s because bees make it from flowers so it’s a good mix of phytonutrients.

“There may be a link between sucralose and a reduction in beneficial gut bacteria, with concerns this could result in digestive issues.[21]”

“A 2017 review found that zero-calorie sweeteners such as sucralose may increase rather than decrease weight.[6]”

Sucralose seems to kill bacteria and decrease their caloric expenditure, so it does actually contribute to your caloric intake. Their metabolism maybe confuse it with sugar.

“The amount absorbed from the GI tract is largely removed from the blood stream by the kidneys and eliminated in the urine, with 20–30% of the absorbed sucralose being metabolized.[5] This means that only between 2–8% of sucralose consumed is metabolized, on average.”

Where this 2%-8% that is absorbed will go? Will it kill some of my cells? All the other artificial sweetened were eventually proved toxic, so why should we expect this to be different? The only good thing about sucralose is that it’s very sweet so only a small dosage is needed.

I think it’s an artificial pollutant and I don’t want pollutants going around in my body.

P.S: Sucrose (i.e. table sugar) happens in nature and it makes things taste better. Why should we fear a few grams of sugar? It’s what our palate wants. We should respect that.

2nd P.S: In fact I also recommend adding salt to Huel for the same reason. I want to respect our taste preferences. They’re fine-tuned by evolution. I don’t want fake sugar and fake salt!

Sugar is sugar, whether or not its coming from honey or fructose syrup.

Honestly I can’t see the issue at all with Sucralose at all, it’s safer than sugar in my opinion, it doesn’t contain calories, doesn’t raise insulin or won’t give a sharp rise in blood sugar.

It’s absorption is relatively low too, so the majority of it comes out of the other end one way or another. As you’ve said, yes 8% or whatever is absorbed, but I bet you don’t worry about the plastic packaging your food comes in? Or that paracetamol taken for a headache? I wonder how much deodorant gets absorbed upon application? See my point here? Like most things “absorbed” our body’s do a remarkable job of clearing it though our liver and kidneys.

It doesn’t increase weight, the studies don’t account for people eating more due to thinking they can get away with it because it’s artificially sweetened rather than loaded with sugar, so then eat more, at this point its more of an issue with human physiology than anything else.

Don’t tell me, you’re going to say Stevia is safer next because it’s natural… ?

In nutrition, natural doesn’t imply safe, but safe almost always implies natural. Sucrose is safe because it occurrs naturally almost everywhere. Stevia occurs only in stevia plant.

Safety of sucralose? Nobody knows. Probably not good. Many cholorine compounds are toxic.

You lose your bet, i worry about plastic too. And deodorants or lotions. They’re all health hazards.

By the way, I’ve never used deodorants because I’ve always trusted my own natural body odor (and because I’ve never trusted the magic things that are for sale).

There is also some evidence that vegans smell better than meat eaters. If you don’t want to smell like dead animal flesh, then don’t eat a lot of dead animal flesh. It’s that simple and logical… :slight_smile:

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This statement is also very questionable.

All the so called sugars are different. Fructose is different from Glucose. Lactose is different from both. The various industrial syrups are all different. Different ratios. Different ingredients.

They’ve also different level of sweetness. And they’ve different health concerns.

Sucrose occurs naturally everywhere and the amount necessary for sweetening Huel would be only a few grams. Maybe 5 grams? Do you fear 5 grams of sucrose when it’s used in place of another sweetener?

I think you suffer from an eating disorder, and it’s called “carbophobia”… :slight_smile:

Hmm, fair response, I don’t agree, but I respect your opinion, I don’t see Stevia as safer than Sucralose either, I was just trying to make a point. I also agree plastics to some degree are worth worrying about especially the effect on hormones etc, that one is certainly out for debate still…

You might be onto something with diet and body odour, I know animal protein can increase b/o to some degree, I wonder if its a particular amino acid or something, Carnitine can increase b/o for sure. Although having been vegan, vegetarian, low fat, low carb, amongst other diets I haven’t ever noticed much difference to tell you the truth, apart from whenever Protein is ramped up.

And no. I don’t suffer from “carbophobia”. I just don’t like shoving shit like refined table sugar down my neck tbh.

I’ve just finished eating sweet potatoes . They’re “naturally sweetened” with sucrose and the dosage is similar to what we discuss here, a few grams for 2000 calories. I recommend them especially for Huel users because they’re also approximately “nutritionally complete”.

About body odor, there is a video somewhere on nutritionfacts. It’s basically a proven fact but I don’t remember the details. I’ve also seen another source report the same thing and they’ve also discovered the responsible gas. But I won’t reveal my sources. I like old-style secrecy. :slight_smile:

Still think sugar is good for the gut?

They compared 165g a day with 60g a day. I’m advocating 5g a day.

Yes, however you’d need far more than 5g of sugar per day to equate an equal level of sweetness that is in the Vanilla version of huel.

Either way sugar or sweeteners are going to be bad for the gut which ever way it’s looked at, mental gymnastics aside. However one means extra calories from crap, instead of something nutritious, like even sweet potatos as you mentioned.

On sucralose:

→ https://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/98fr/040398a.pdf

Amount in Huel:

→ Is sucralose safe to eat? – Huel

it’s 100mg per 2000 calories. Assuming it’s 500 times sweeter than sucrose, we would need 50g of sucrose. If it’s only 333 times sweetened, then it’s 33g of sucrose. Well, it’s more than my estimate. But it’s still lower than numbers cited in your studies.

My recommendation actually is to get used to less sweetened food. I think there is some evidence that people are addicted to sweetened food. In my view, people with properly developed taste preferences should prefer the unsweetened version or unsweetened version with a minimum of sucorse added.

When I was using Huel, i was using unsweetened version (without sucrose added). In fact I was adding some oil and salt to it. I was ignorant back then. Today I would add salt and a FEW grams of sucrose.

I was also wrong on sweet potatoes. They’ve ~60g of “sugars” per 1000cals.

So it’s approximately 10 times more than I’ve said. Well, actually, they taste too sweet.

That’s what happens when one copies/paste the first result from google. :slight_smile:

I would need to study your study in detail to provide a decent reply. But a quick look shows that they didn’t report any negative effect. They only reported changes. When you change your diet, there are changes in digestive tract. No surprise here.

My stance is that 5g a day are extremely safe and 50g are at the limit of safety. In fact it’s also (approximately) the limit recommended by authorities. They recommend no more than 10% of calories from refined sugars.

I think 50g a day is drastically safer than sucralose. Sucralose may accumulate over time in your body (where? I don’t know). I’m afraid that nobody knows much about long term sucralose consumption.

The accumulation you mentioned seems potentially dangerous :point_down: