Overview
- The mouse study, which was published Friday in Frontiers in Nutrition, reports intergenerational shifts after parental exposure to sucralose or stevia at doses comparable to typical human use.
- Researchers split 47 mice into water, sucralose, or stevia groups for 16 weeks, then bred two unexposed generations that were tested for glucose control, gut bacteria, and key genes.
- In glucose tests, first‑generation males from sucralose‑exposed parents showed impaired tolerance, and by the second generation males in the sucralose line and females in the stevia line had higher fasting blood sugar.
- Both sweeteners were linked to more diverse gut bacteria yet lower short‑chain fatty acids across generations, and sucralose was tied to more harmful microbes and fewer beneficial species.
- Gene readouts showed higher activity of inflammation‑related tlr4 and tnf, with sucralose also lowering the metabolic regulator srebp1 across two generations, though authors stress the signals are associative in mice and advise moderation pending human data.