Health Update: WHO Advises NOT to Use Artificial Sweeteners

Mark Smith • August 21, 2023

Hello again:

 

The World Health Organization has stated that they are now advising against the use of non-sugar sweeteners…something that most natural health advocates have warned against for decades. Here is what they have to say:


15 May 2023 

Departmental news

 The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a new guideline on non-sugar sweeteners (NSS), which recommends against the use of NSS to control body weight or reduce the risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).


The recommendation is based on the findings of a systematic review of the available evidence which suggests that use of NSS does not confer any long-term benefit in reducing body fat in adults or children. Results of the review also suggest that there may be potential undesirable effects from long-term use of NSS, such as an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and mortality in adults.


"Replacing free sugars with NSS does not help with weight control in the long term. People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages,” says Francesco Branca, WHO Director for Nutrition and Food Safety. "NSS are not essential dietary factors and have no nutritional value. People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health."


The WHO guideline on NSS is part of a suite of existing and forthcoming guidelines on healthy diets that aim to establish lifelong healthy eating habits, improve dietary quality and decrease the risk of NCDs worldwide.


https://www.who.int/news/item/15-05-2023-who-advises-not-to-use-non-sugar-sweeteners-for-weight-control-in-newly-released-guideline

 

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240046429

 

Bottom Line:

 

These reviews did not focus on potential negative effects of these NSS’s, such as other known toxic effects including how they impair the microbiome and how that negatively effects our health and inflammatory burden (see the link below). So, our best bet is just to avoid these chemicals altogether and focus on consuming a super healthy food plan…i.e., a predominantly whole food plant-based diet!!


https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35987213/

By Mark Smith April 6, 2026
Health News Update: Sleep Timing, Mood & Performance 4.6.26 Hello everyone: In taking a history at the start of a healthcare process, I often find people of all ages have sleep schedules that do not match optimal circadian rhythms and have un-knowingly contributed to degrading their health. Sleep is a significant component of leading an anti-inflammatory lifestyle as it fosters autophagy (an immune based essential self-cleaning function, hormonal regulation, stress reduction, immune resilience, optimal aging, and more. As it turns out, getting your sleep timing right lowers depression, reduces morning fatigue, improves physical functions, and can markedly increase your ability to think, recall things and overall cognitive functions. Proper sleep timing aligned with our natural circadian clocks may also decrease mortality risks. Background There is conflict between living according to our endogenous biological rhythms and our external environment, with disruptions resulting in negative consequences to health and performance. This is often documented in shift work and jet lag , but ‘societal norms’ (eg, typical working hours) can create profound issues for ‘night owls’, people whose internal biological timing predisposes them to follow an unusually late sleep-wake cycle. Night owls have also been associated with health issues, mood disturbances, poorer performance and increased mortality rates . Results Overall, participants demonstrated a significant advance of ∼2 h in sleep/wake timings as measured by actigraphy and circadian phase markers (dim light melatonin onset and peak time of the cortisol awakening response), whilst having no adverse effect on sleep duration. Notably, the phase advance was accompanied by significant improvements to self-reported depression and stress, as well as improved cognitive (reaction time) and physical (grip strength) performance measures during the typical ‘suboptimal’ morning hours. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945719301388?via%3Dihub resetting sleep timing improves brain function and overall health. Bottom Line: For long term health, assisting recovery, optimal aging, improving immune resilience, lowering your total inflammatory burden thus reducing your risk for developing chronic diseases…it looks like a very good idea to get your sleep cycles in line with your natural biological rhythms. The researchers aimed to accomplish this using only simple practical natural lifestyle methods…no medications. Here is some of what they did: · Avoid blue light after dark. · Get some early morning sunshine…even 5 minutes will help. · Exercise in the morning or early afternoon. · Adopt early time restricted feeding schedules (eTRF). · Fix a time to sleep and stick to it. If you have any chronic health issues, or just want to optimize the aging process, simply adopt a few simple lifestyle strategies. I have seen this clinically be one of the major keys to the success when it comes to overcoming fatigue, brain fog, digestive issues, and any chronic health problem. Best wishes to you for a healthy life!
By Mark Smith March 30, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith March 23, 2026
Health News Update: How To Fight Inflammation and Chronic Disease 3.23.26 Hello again everyone: You might wonder why I keep focusing on food…so here are some of the reasons: food choices are the leading cause of death in the U.S. and spreading around the world. Poor food choices lead to inflammation which slowly destroy health. It is that simple, plain, and clear and backed by research. The next question: how do we fight back? Introduction The positive impact of food on health was postulated by the ancient Hippocrates, father of modern medicine with his famous quote: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” [1]. In the 21st century, scientists have focused on the effect of nutritional habits in diseases. Nowadays, it is well documented that food plays a noteworthy role in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases namely cardiovascular diseases (CVD), metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus type II, and cancer [2–5], as it correlates with others with the lipid pattern, the blood pressure, and the endothelial function. The scientists examine the effect of nutritional habits on disease emergence and progression in both individual nutrient intake and dietary patterns models. Worldwide, two dietary patterns are usually compared—the Mediterranean diet (MD) and the Western diet (WD) [3,6]. The Mediterranean diet reflects the food culture of most Mediterranean countries based on olive oil consumption, seasonal fresh vegetables, cereals, and plants in balance with low consumption of meat [7]. The Western diet, on the contrary, is dominated by high-fat dairy products processed and red meat [8]. However, discordance in the different MD patterns and consumed food doses had been recognized. Without any doubt, those discrepancies could confine and restrict our knowledge on the health benefit mechanisms of the MD [9]. Due to the above, the medical community along with nutritionists and dieticians take a keen interest in MD and its traits [7]. https://www.academia.edu/45378994/biomedicines_Mediterranean_Diet_as_a_Tool_to_Combat_Inflammation_and_Chronic_Diseases_An_Overview?email_work_card=view-paper food choices can fight inflammation and chronic disease Bottom Line: This is a 2020 paper and since then literally hundreds of papers on the MD have emerged showing how the food plan lowers inflammation and the risk for developing multiple chronic illnesses. Even still, lots of research needs to be done to elucidate the many mechanisms of how food impacts our system and how to optimally individualize dietary recommendations. At this point, our best strategy to prevent and/or recover from any chronic condition is to eat as clean and natural as possible. It has become rather obvious that the further away from a natural diet we get, the sicker we become. On top of that, I have yet to see a full recovery from any health issue without the foundation of a predominantly plant-based, unprocessed, whole foods approach…which is why I keep posting about this subject. All the best to you and yours!
By Mark Smith March 16, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith March 2, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith February 23, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith February 22, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith February 16, 2026
New Title
By Mark Smith February 2, 2026
New Title
More Posts