(JNS.org) Artificial sweeteners may actually increase the risk of diabetes and obesity, a team of Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute said last week. “Our research findings attest that consuming artificial sweeteners causes the development of the very health problems they’re supposed to prevent,” Dr. Eran Elinav – co-leader of the Weizmann study, which was published in the journal Nature – told Haaretz. “Our findings beg reconsideration of the massive, unregulated use of these substances.”

According to the study, artificial sweeteners can actually increase intolerance of glucose (a simple sugar) by altering the bacteria. By consequence, the sweeteners can be seen as making someone more susceptible to diabetes and obesity.