People trying to shed pounds often cut calories by consuming diet drinks, artificially sweetened treats, and other products containing substitute sugars. But according to a new assessment from the World Health Organization, those artificial sweeteners don't appear effective for weight control—and worse, they seem to increase long-term risks of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even death.

想要减肥的人通常会通过饮用无糖饮料、人工甜味剂和其他含有代糖的产品来减少卡路里的摄入。但根据世界卫生组织的一项新评估，这些人造甜味剂似乎对控制体重没有效果——更糟糕的是，它们似乎会增加患2型糖尿病、心血管疾病甚至死亡的长期风险。

In a guidance released Monday, WHO recommended against using artificial sweeteners for weight control or attempting to boost health generally. The recommendation applies to healthy children and adults but is not intended for people with pre-existing diabetes, who may still find benefits from using artificial sweeteners.

在周一发布的指导意见中，世卫组织建议不要使用人工甜味剂来控制体重或试图促进健康。该建议适用于健康的儿童和成人，但不适用于已经患有糖尿病的人，他们仍然可能会从使用人工甜味剂中获益。

Replacing free sugars with NSS [non-sugar sweeteners] does not help with weight control in the long term. People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages, Francesco Branca, WHO Director for Nutrition and Food Safety, said in a statement. "People should reduce the sweetness of the diet altogether, starting early in life, to improve their health," he added.

世卫组织营养和食品安全司司长弗朗西斯科·布兰卡在一份声明中说:“从长远来看，用NSS(无糖甜味剂)代替游离糖无助于控制体重。人们需要考虑其他方法来减少游离糖的摄入量，例如食用含有天然糖的食物，如水果，或不加糖的食物和饮料。”他补充说:“为了改善健康，人们应该从小开始减少饮食中的甜味。”

WHO's conclusion is not surprising; data has mounted for years suggesting that synthetic sweeteners may be backfiring in efforts to improve health. In the US, as obesity rates have risen, so has the use of artificial sweeteners.

世卫组织的结论并不令人惊讶;多年来，越来越多的数据表明，合成甜味剂可能会对改善健康的努力产生适得其反的效果。在美国，随着肥胖率的上升，人工甜味剂的使用也在增加。

For WHO's assessment of the substitute sweeteners, experts systematically reviewed data from 283 unique studies, including 50 randomized controlled trials, 97 prospective cohort studies, and 47 case-control studies. The studies looked at a range of artificial sweeteners, including common ones used in the US: saccharin (Sweet'n Low), aspartame (Equal), acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), sucralose (Splenda), neotame, advantame, stevia, and stevia derivatives.

在世卫组织对代甜味剂的评估中，专家系统地审查了283项独特研究的数据，包括50项随机对照试验、97项前瞻性队列研究和47项病例对照研究。这些研究考察了一系列人工甜味剂，包括美国常用的:糖精(Low Sweet’n Low)、阿斯巴甜(Equal)、安赛蜜钾(Ace-K)、三氯蔗糖(Splenda)、纽甜、有利甜、甜菊糖和甜菊糖衍生物。

In the randomized controlled trials, WHO experts noted that artificial sweeteners lowered calorie intake, body weight, and body mass index (BMI)—at least at first. Most of these trials lasted just three months or less. In the trials that stretched six to 18 months, the findings were muddled but didn't seem to suggest an effect on body weight.

在随机对照试验中，世卫组织专家指出，人造甜味剂可以降低卡路里摄入量、体重和身体质量指数(BMI)——至少在一开始是这样。这些试验大多只持续了三个月或更短的时间。在为期6到18个月的试验中，结果是混乱的，但似乎没有表明对体重有影响。

Part of the problem was how some of the trials compared the use of artificial sweeteners to plain sugar. For some, trial participants were given foods or beverages containing either sugar or artificial sweeteners in addition to their regular diets, resulting in direct comparisons. In these cases, participants who got the artificially sweetened products showed lower body weights than people who ate the sugary bonus treats.

部分问题在于一些试验是如何将人工甜味剂的使用与普通糖的使用进行比较的。对于一些试验参与者，除了他们的日常饮食外，还给他们提供含有糖或人工甜味剂的食物或饮料，从而进行直接比较。在这些情况下，吃人工加糖产品的参与者比吃含糖奖励食物的人体重更轻。

But in real-world settings, many people choose to swap sugary foods and beverages in their current diet for artificially sweetened versions. Only four trials specifically tested this—subbing artificially sweetened beverages, like diet soda, into the diets of people who normally consumed sugary beverages. These studies reported drops in weight from the use of artificial sweeteners, but the drops were smaller than in the direct comparison trials and were statistically insignificant. The beneficial effect on BMI was lost entirely. Notably, some of these trials had groups where participants were switched from sugary drinks to water or nothing (placebo)—and water or placebos were as effective, if not more effective, at reducing weight. WHO experts note that this suggests that the weight loss seen in some trials of artificial sweeteners is likely just down to reducing calories, not an inherent property of artificial sweeteners.

但在现实生活中，许多人选择将目前饮食中的含糖食品和饮料换成人工加糖的。只有四项试验专门测试了这一点——将人工加糖饮料(如无糖汽水)替代到通常饮用含糖饮料的人的饮食中。这些研究报告了使用人工甜味剂后体重的下降，但下降幅度小于直接比较试验，在统计上不显著。对BMI的有益影响完全消失了。值得注意的是，在一些试验中，参与者从含糖饮料换成水或不喝(安慰剂)——水或安慰剂在减肥方面同样有效，如果不是更有效的话。世卫组织专家指出，这表明在一些人造甜味剂试验中看到的体重减轻可能只是减少了卡路里，而不是人造甜味剂的固有特性。