Sweetener in sugar-free products may increase liver disease risk
So-called “healthier” sugar substitutes in sugar-free products may be fueling fatal liver disease.
Alarming new research suggests that sorbitol, a common sweetener and naturally occurring sugar alcohol, may trigger metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by allowing dangerous fat to accumulate in the liver.
Once known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the condition now affects one in five Britons but experts fear the real figure could be much higher.
The study, published in Science Signaling, used zebrafish to investigate what happens when the gut microbiome, the army of “friendly” bacteria that normally breaks down sorbitol, is disrupted.
When these bacteria were destroyed with antibiotics, researchers found that sorbitol rapidly accumulated, traveled to the liver, and triggered fatty liver disease, even when the fish were fed a normal diet.
Worse, adding sorbitol directly to food caused the same harmful effect.
Chief investigator Dr. According to Gary Patti, sorbitol is “one conversion away from fructose,” the sugar notorious for overloading cancer cells and triggering fatty liver.
While the body naturally produces small amounts of sorbitol during digestion, the microbiome normally clears it safely.
However, Dr. Patti warned: “If you don’t have the right bacteria, that’s when it becomes a problem… sorbitol doesn’t break down and doesn’t get to the liver.”
Even people with healthy gut bacteria are not completely protected. Too much glucose or sorbitol can suppress these microbes, causing the sorbitol to escape into the liver, where it converts to a fructose derivative and contributes to fat accumulation.
The study concluded that excessive sorbitol intake “may pose a risk for the development of MASLD.”
The findings come at a time of growing concern about artificial sweeteners. While experts warn that sugar substitutes are still preferable to sugar itself, the idea that they pass harmlessly through the body “may not be true”, researchers warned.
