Are Sweeteners Evil?

Ingredients as scapegoats

According to a Wall Street Journal article, soda sweeteners, whether cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, are evil. The word “evil” wasn’t literally used in the article, but the message was clear from the title: “Soda Sweeteners Leave a Bitter Taste with Scientists.” Or, translated into common parlance: Knowledgeable people have concluded that certain food ingredients are bad for us. Articles such as this are common and they all share some weaknesses that deserve to be highlighted.

What do we know? Sweetened drinks, whether sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup or cane sugar, are associated with obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. The word associated means there is a correlation but the correlation coefficient is less than one—the correlation is imperfect. Your risk goes up with drinking more sweetened sodas, but you may or may not have problems.

The correlation is imperfect for two reasons: our evidence is hazy, at best, and our evidence acknowledges that there are some who consume a high dose who won’t develop these health problems while others who consume a low dose will develop them.

Why is the evidence hazy? We can’t run a randomized controlled trial in which we put people into different groups and require them to consume certain doses of sweetened drinks. Such a study would be unethical, expensive, and effectively uncontrollable. Instead, diet studies are based on surveys, which are subject to poor memories (what did I eat yesterday?), poor understanding (how many ounces is that glass in which I had my “one glass” of wine?), self-lying, whether conscious or not, (I’m a better person than most and therefore my diet must be better than most), social desirability biases, (I know many people frown on those who eat a lot of donuts, so I’ll underreport the number of donuts I ate to avoid having them disapprove of me), and selection bias (highly motivated people participate while others, with different characteristics, don’t).

And then there are the egregious respondents. There’s the person who completely misreads the question: “Glasses of wine? I thought the question was glasses of water consumed each day.” And there’s the person who likes causing problems: “Those data analysts will blow a gasket when I tell them I eat 41 pizzas a day.” To say nothing of those who mash the keyboard and put in random responses.

Why will some people have problems with these sweeteners while others don’t? Part of it is other lifestyle choices: overall diet, calories consumed, exercise, stress, weight, sleep, attitude, etc. Part of it is luck via age, genes, microbiome, and metabolism.

The WSJ article fits the mold of articles that attack one or more types of foods in which the food itself is portrayed as the problem while, ultimately, the problem is the dose consumed, luck, and the lifestyle choices that accompany the consumption of that food.

For instance, one of my relatives has a rule to never eat high-fructose corn syrup. If the product contains high-fructose corn syrup, she puts it back on the shelf. According to this simplistic thinking the ingredient itself is the problem.

First, this ignores how similar different sweeteners are. Cane sugar is 50% fructose and 50% glucose while high-fructose corn syrup is 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

Second, many problems have more than one possible solution. What about simply consuming less high-fructose corn syrup? What about eating an otherwise healthy diet? What about keeping excess weight off? What about taking long walks or swimming? What about lifting weights? What about stress reduction techniques?

Ultimately, these sorts of health problems are the result of excess doses, poor choices, and bad luck. To blame one ingredient is unfair.

This is a good example of taking a complex situation and simplifying it to a point where the true meaning is perverted and one of the contributing factors is unfairly assigned all the blame, opening the door to politicians such as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who may eventually try to outlaw high-fructose corn syrup or even all sweetened soft drinks.

If the ingredients themselves are bad, the solutions become obvious. RFK, Jr. should outlaw evil foods! Politicians should protect the health and wellbeing of Americans!

And, for those of us who love truth and freedom, we get to witness a complex situation being oversimplified and the narrative twisted into untruths and, ultimately, further encroachments on our lifestyles and liberties by ambitious politicians who think they can legislate the good life.

With apologies to Patrick Henry, give me sweetened drinks or give me death!