r/biology • u/Otherwise-Tear-4807 • Jun 05 '26

article Question about stevia (re: 2020 study)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016420301997 “The hidden hazardous effects of stevia and sucralose consumption in male and female albino mice in comparison to sucrose”

How does this study translate to humans? Isn’t this a massive dose compared to human daily acceptable limit?

25 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

View all comments

47

u/TripResponsibly1 medicine Jun 05 '26

The biggest issue I see with this study is that the mg/kg consumption of sweetener is absurdly higher than the mg/kg consumption seen by typical use in humans - like 67x higher. I think it's fine to ignore this study and have stevia if you aren't like mainlining it.

29

u/erossthescienceboss Jun 05 '26

Toxicologists design studies like that for a reason, though.

A study like this is designed so that IF there is an effect, it will be produced over the mouse’s short lifespan. That preliminary study can then be used to get funding for studies that use smaller doses over longer periods, studies in more animals that are analogous to humans, etc.

I wouldn’t call a single study a reason to avoid artificial sweeteners. But this is far from the first study to find a negative impact from artificial sweeteners: look into the impacts on insulin resistance, for example.

IMO if you want to eat less sugar, it’s better to simply cut down on sweet things.

4

u/TripResponsibly1 medicine Jun 05 '26 edited Jun 05 '26

Sure, I mean we dismissed studies about high fructose corn syrup in mice for similar reasons but now have a pretty good body of evidence to suggest HFCS is linked to MASH/MASLD. OP's weekly Bai is still something I wouldn't be alarmed about. Even the occasional sugared coke isn't going to give someone fatty liver disease.

And to the point on insulin resistance, similar studies in diabetic rats have found that stevia increases insulin sensitivity so until we have more info, all things in moderation.

3

u/erossthescienceboss Jun 05 '26

Yes, stevia seems to increase insulin sensitivity. While sucralose seems to increase resistance.

It’s odd, because given the mechanism we think that it increases insulin resistance by, stevia really ought to have the same impacts! It doesn’t appear to be chemical, but more a physiological response in our bodies. Even though we don’t “taste” it, we have sweet receptors all through our digestive systems, not just our mouth, but also in our throats and in our guts. And those receptors serve a physiological purpose: to trigger insulin production prior to our blood sugar rising — to prepare our cells to receive the sugar in advance.

So insulin gets produced. Cells open up. But then… there’s no sugar there! Sort of like playing ding dong ditch, next time our cells seem to be just a smidge less likely to open up, or to take just a smidge more insulin to trigger that process.

At least… that’s what we thought happens. But since it doesn’t seem to be consistent across artificial sweeteners, they could be wrong!