Why I would rather use sugar in my tea than an artificial sweetener, says professor Tim Spector
If you have recently enjoyed a low-fat yoghurt, a diet drink, a biscuit or even a dollop of reduced sugar ketchup on your chips, there's every chance you have consumed aspartame — the artificial sweetener that has been a popular sugar substitute since the 1980s. I'm not a big believer in rat studies to tell me whether food is safe or not, as they're hard to extrapolate to humans, and although esteemed charities such as Cancer Research UK and the European Food Safety Authority continue to insist — based on such studies — that aspartame is safe, it's unclear what data they have to actually prove it. We need to be concerned by this because, whether it's a child or an adult, there's evidence that some sweeteners cause a similar spike in blood glucose levels to sugar — causing a mismatch between the brain signals and the actual calories and reward. Most food and drink firms have since reformulated popular treats to contain less sugar — by using much higher levels of sweeteners.
Sugar tax: 20 per cent tax on sugary drinks will save 1,600 lives over 25 years, says study
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