Sylvetsky Allison C, Conway Ellen M, Malhotra Sheetal, Rother Kristina I
Endocr Dev. 2017;32:87-99. doi: 10.1159/000475733. Epub 2017 Aug 15.
Humans have an innate liking for sweetness, which may have an evolutionary basis. Sweetness typically signals the presence of calories and nutrients and thus, universal liking for sweet taste once served to support survival. In the modern food supply, however, sweetness is often delivered via added sugars and sweeteners devoid of other beneficial nutrients. Nonnutritive sweeteners (NNS) provide sweetness with no or few calories, and therefore may offer a potential strategy to maintain food and beverage palatability, while reducing the caloric content. Despite marked increases in NNS use, their metabolic and health effects are not well-characterized, and particularly little is known about their effects when exposure starts early in life. Herein, we critically review existing data on NNS exposure in utero, during lactation, and throughout childhood and adolescence with respect to taste preferences, weight trajectory, and development of chronic disease. We specifically focus on potential mechanisms through which sweetness exposure during early development may affect key metabolic outcomes.
人类天生喜欢甜味，这可能有其进化基础。甜味通常表明存在卡路里和营养物质，因此，对甜味的普遍喜爱曾经有助于支持生存。然而，在现代食品供应中，甜味往往是通过添加糖和缺乏其他有益营养成分的甜味剂来提供的。非营养性甜味剂（NNS）提供甜味但不含或仅含少量卡路里，因此可能提供一种潜在策略，既能保持食品和饮料的适口性，又能降低热量含量。尽管NNS的使用显著增加，但其代谢和健康影响尚未得到充分表征，尤其是在生命早期开始接触时其影响知之甚少。在此，我们批判性地回顾了关于子宫内、哺乳期以及整个儿童和青少年时期接触NNS与味觉偏好、体重轨迹和慢性病发展相关的现有数据。我们特别关注早期发育期间甜味接触可能影响关键代谢结果的潜在机制。
