Artificial sweeteners may tip scales toward metabolic problems

In mice and people, saccharin upsets gut microbes, glucose metabolism

artificial sweetener packets

BITTERSWEET  The artificial sweetener saccharin, an ingredient in Sweet'N Low, meddles with the gut’s microbial community, setting in motion metabolic changes associated with obesity and diabetes.

Alex Cameron/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Eating artificial sweeteners may spur the very health problems that dieters try to avoid.