Brazilian Study: Sweeteners Linked to Accelerated Decline in Cognitive Ability

Research led by Dr. Claudia Kimie Suemoto, associate professor of geriatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of So Paulo in Brazil, has found that long-term consumption of low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners, especially artificial non-nutritive sweeteners (LNCs) and various sugar alcohols, may lead to accelerated decline in memory, language fluency, and overall cognitive abilities. The study observed the effects of 7 different sweeteners on the health of 12,772 subjects and conducted an average 8-year follow-up. Subjects who consumed higher doses of sweeteners experienced a 62% faster decline in overall cognitive abilities, equivalent to aging the brain by 1.6 years. Only the natural sweetener "tagatose" was found to have no association with cognitive decline.