Sugar-Free Food is Changing Your Brain.

Artificial sweeteners change your brain chemistry 🧠

They affect your memory, learning, cognitive functions, and even your body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients for proper brain function.

We’re often led to believe that sugar-free foods are a guilt-free alternative, offering sweetness without the calories—perfect for managing blood sugar and weight, right?

But the reality is quite different.

Growing up as a T1D, my parents were always advised by doctors to replace sugar with artificial sweeteners.

Like most, we thought this was the healthier option.

But during my neuropharmacology lecture at university, I learnt something shocking: artificial sweeteners are actually neurotoxic, meaning they harm your nerve and brain cells.

I was stunned—after years of consuming them and seeing them marketed as "safe" and "healthy," especially for diabetics, how could this be allowed⁉️

Here’s what I’ve uncovered:

Artificial sweeteners can dramatically alter your brain chemistry, impacting your memory, learning, cognitive function, and your overall brain health.

So here’s what you need to know:

Our bodies have evolved to crave sweet foods because sugar provides energy in the form of calories. That’s why we love the taste.

Calories are crucial for proper brain function, so don’t be misled by claims that calorie-free is always healthier. (Of course, where we get our calories from matters—but that’s a conversation for another time.)

Although sugar-free and regular sugary foods may taste the same, your body knows the difference.

When we consume real sugar, it activates our brain’s reward pathways, releasing dopamine—the “feel-good” hormone. Artificial sweeteners, however, don’t supply the energy (calories) our brain expects, so the reward pathway is only partially activated.

This is where the danger lies: it tricks your brain into craving more food, leading to overeating as your body seeks the missing energy.

Worse still, this altered dopamine signalling affects your motivation, pleasure, and overall reward system, leaving you feeling unsatisfied and craving more—often resulting in excess calorie consumption.

But the impact doesn’t stop there. Artificial sweeteners not only mess with your brain’s reward system but also completely change your brain structure impacting your cognitive abilities, memory, learning and even how your body absorbs vital nutrients for healthy gut and brain health.

I will share these insights in the upcoming newsletters next Monday and Thursday so stay tuned for my email.

In the meantime, you can sign up for Haema to track your meal and see how it impacts your blood sugar. Haema automatically syncs with your CGM and exercise data so you have all your health data in one place to get a holistic view.

See you on Monday!

Jish 💜

Type 1 Diabetic & Co-Founder @ Haema

References:

Haase, L., Cerf-Ducastel, B. and Murphy, C., 2009. Cortical activation in response to pure taste stimuli during the physiological states of hunger and satiety. Neuroimage, 44(3), pp.1008-1021.

Swithers, S.E. and Davidson, T.L., 2008. A role for sweet taste: calorie predictive relations in energy regulation by rats. Behavioral neuroscience, 122(1), p.161.

Tsan, L., Chometton, S., Hayes, A.M., Klug, M.E., Zuo, Y., Sun, S., Bridi, L., Lan, R., Fodor, A.A., Noble, E.E. and Yang, X., 2022. Early-life low-calorie sweetener consumption disrupts glucose regulation, sugar-motivated behavior, and memory function in rats. JCI insight, 7(20).

Van Opstal, A.M., Hafkemeijer, A., van den Berg-Huysmans, A.A., Hoeksma, M., Mulder, T.P., Pijl, H., Rombouts, S.A. and van der Grond, J., 2021. Brain activity and connectivity changes in response to nutritive natural sugars, non-nutritive natural sugar replacements and artificial sweeteners. Nutritional neuroscience, 24(5), pp.395-405.

Yeung, A.W.K. and Wong, N.S.M., 2020. How does our brain process sugars and non-nutritive sweeteners differently: A systematic review on functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. Nutrients, 12(10), p.3010.