Original title: Environmental impact ramifications of replacing added sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners in a high-calorie Dutch diet: the SWEET project
The researchers compared an average high-calorie Dutch diet with a version where added sugar was replaced by steviol glycosides and a bulking agent such as sorbitol. They estimated each diet’s environmental effects using life cycle data, which account for impacts across a product’s production. Both diets had the same climate impact, but the sweetener diet used more water. They also adjusted the diets to meet nutrition goals and climate targets; those changes could reduce emissions and water use.
Imagine making a familiar meal, then swapping one ingredient for a different one that gives the same sweet taste. The swap may leave one kind of impact unchanged while increasing another, such as the water used to make the ingredients. In this paper, the ingredient swap is replacing added sugar with sweeteners, and the researchers compare the diets’ climate impact and water use.
People choosing low-calorie sweeteners may expect a clear environmental advantage over added sugar. In this Dutch diet analysis, the climate impact was equal, while water use was higher for the sweetener diet—so the environmental comparison depends on which impact is measured.
The abstract describes modeled diets based on Dutch adults consuming more than 2200 kcal/day, not measured outcomes from people changing what they eat. It does not establish health effects or show that the findings apply to other populations, diets, sweeteners, or substitution methods. The authors also identify challenges in modeling realistic dietary substitutions.
Ask anything about this paper. Answers come from its abstract, and say so when the abstract doesn't cover your question.
Environmental impact ramifications of replacing added sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners in a high-calorie Dutch diet: the SWEET project — James R. Suckling, Alessandra C. Grasso, E. Koukouna et al. — European Journal of Nutrition — doi:10.1007/s00394-026-04127-z
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.