When mice and rats eat artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose for a long time, their gut bacteria get out of balance, lose variety, and start acting more inflammatory—which might explain why these sweeteners could make the body more prone to inflammation.

Some sugar-free sweeteners like saccharin might mess up your gut bacteria and make your intestines leakier, which could lead to problems like higher blood sugar and trouble with insulin.

Eating sugar substitutes like Splenda or Sweet'N Low doesn't seem to hurt your health, based on what we know now—even though some mouse studies saw gut changes when they gave way too much.

When rats and mice eat sucralose, a common artificial sweetener, their guts get more inflamed, their intestinal lining gets weaker, and the good and bad bacteria in their intestines change — all of which might cause body-wide inflammation.