Sugar and artificial sweeteners and risk of cardiovascular disease.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review with expert synthesis and without a systematic search methodology reported in the abstract
PubMed 42532778 · doi:10.1016/j.ejim.2026.107090
What was done
This is a narrative review examining the metabolic and cardiovascular disease risks associated with dietary sugar consumption (particularly sugar-sweetened beverages) and non-sugar artificial sweeteners. It also discusses the limited biological evidence available for emerging natural sweeteners such as steviol, monk fruit extract, tagatose, allulose, and sweet proteins.
What was found
The abstract provides no numerical data, effect sizes, or risk estimates. It qualitatively reports that excessive consumption of free and added sugars promotes obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease (including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerotic heart disease, valvular heart disease, kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, and attendant mortality). It also reports that non-sugar sweeteners produce metabolic disturbances and cardiovascular risks according to tabulated meta-analyses, while natural alternative sweeteners remain understudied.
Why it matters
The review reinforces that replacing free sugars with artificial sweeteners may not prevent metabolic and cardiovascular harms, emphasizing overall sweetener reduction and the need for rigorous study of novel natural sweeteners.
Limits
The abstract reports no empirical numbers or search methodology. As a narrative review rather than a primary empirical study or formal systematic review, it provides expert synthesis with inherent susceptibility to selection bias.
Cited by
- supports Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of two joined sugar molecules: glucose and fructose.