Are Low-Calorie Sweeteners Making Your Baby Fat?

Obesity is a major risk factor for problems conceiving and pregnancy complications. Obesity is a potentially modifiable risk factor, meaning this is something that you can change to improve your chances of getting pregnant, having a healthy pregnancy, and having a healthy kiddo. This subject is so important that I thought I would blog about it again.

In December, our blog brought you new data that revealed that people that used low-calorie sweeteners in their lifetime were more likely to be obese than those who didn’t use these sweeteners.

Today, we want to caution you even more about using these sweeteners. Researchers have found that women who drank at least one artificially sweetened beverage per day during pregnancy had children who were more likely to be obese by the time they turned 7 years old. These findings suggest that artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy are not likely to be any better at reducing the risk for later childhood obesity than sugar sweetened beverages! So these patients may have been drinking the diet version without any measurable benefit for their children; diet versions may have actually lead to harm! Interestingly, substituting a glass of water for a sweetened beverage reduced their children’s obesity risk by nearly 20%!

I am always cautious in interpreting data, particularly when it comes to weight because we know that so many other factors could influence children’s weight gain (Ex: physical activity, etc). Although the data doesn’t prove that maternal artificially sweetened beverage consumption caused children to gain weight, the data is strong enough for me to counsel my patients to avoid drinking any drinks with artificial sweeteners when pregnant.

Take home points:

• Limit using artificial sweeteners during pregnancy
• Consider trying some of these more natural sweeteners; note that there are limited long-term studies of these alternatives in pregnancy.
• If all the natural sweetener options are overwhelming, stick to the basics: a cold glass of water!