SWEETENERS IN ANIMAL NUTRITION III. BENEFITS OF SWEETENERS IN ANIMAL NUTRITION

From the animal nutrition point of view three main benefits can be highlighted:

PRODUCTION PARAMETERS. Many factors affect the palatability of feeds, for example in recently weaned piglets limited intake will cause intestinal villous atrophy and reduced growth. This demonstrates that palatability is an important factor for consideration when seeking maximum production potential. This has been the classic argument to include sweeteners in feeds. However, it must be pointed out that their inclusion must be determined, since high concentrations of high-intensity sweeteners could have negative consequences in terms of daily consumption.

GLUCAGON-LIKE PEPTIDE-2 (GLP-2). The fact that sweeteners are capable of increasing GLP-2 secretion has also been demonstrated previously. In 2019, Sun et al. showed that supplementation with saccharin, NHDC or aspartame could stimulate GLP-2 secretion in calves and lambs. This peptide is associated with intestinal benefits such as improved intestinal development, improvements in nutrient absorption and reduced intestinal inflammation.

MICROBIOTA. Despite the sparsity of literature on this subject, there is some information, mainly relating to NHDC and stevia. Some studies suggest that these sweeteners promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria. Daly et al. worked with NHDC and isolates of Lactobacillus OTU4228 and Wu et al. with stevia and bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus. Although much more research is needed, some sort of link does appear to exist.