Are Nonnutritive Sweeteners Obesogenic? Associations between Diet, Faecal Microbiota, and Short-Chain Fatty Acids in Morbidly Obese Subjects
Table 1
Characteristics of the 89 subjects (the number of patients is given in brackets if less than 89).
Subject characteristics
Number (%) (mean and/or median)
SD and/or range
Gender (male/female)
14 (15.7%)/75 (84.3)
Age (years)
44.6
8.7
Height (cm)
170
8.1
Weight (kg)
121.1
16.4
BMI (kg/m2)
41.8
3.6
Coffee (cups/day)
3.0
2.3
Smoking (daily/previously/never)
11 (12.4%)/42 (47.2%)/36 (40.4%)
Diabetes (no 86) (yes/no)
20 (23.3%)/66 (76.7%)
Metformin use (yes/no)
16 (18.0%)/73 (82.0%)
Protein (g/day)
110 (median 106)
36 (40 to 213)
Fat (g/day)
97 (median 87)
47 (21 to 283)
Carbohydrates (g/day)
273 (median 246)
128 (65 to 903)
Sugar (g/day)
45 (median 25)
75 (0.8 to 632)
Starch (g/day)
132 (median 122)
51 (24 to 336)
Fibre (g/day)
35 (median 35)
11 (12 to 72)
Nonnutritive sweeteners (units/day)
7.5 (median 3.2)
10 (0 to 43)
Dysbiosis (yes/no)
58 (65%)/31 (35%)
Dysbiosis Index (score 1–5)
3.0 (median 3.0)
1.3 (1 to 5)
Alternative dysbiosis index (−14–14)
−0.5 (median 0.0)
2.7 (−8.0 to 7.0)
SCFA total (mmol/kg wet weight)
36.7 (median 28.7)
21.6 (5.9 to 149.2)
Acetic acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
19.9 (median 16.4)
10.8 (2.9 to 67.9)
Propionic acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
6.4 (median 5.2)
4.2 (1.3 to 25.6)
Isobutyric acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
0.7 (median 0.7)
0.6 (0.0 to 5.2)
Butyric acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
7.2 (median 5.6)
5.4 (1.0 to 34.5)
Isovaleric acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
1.1 (median 0.9)
1.0 (0.0 to 7.8)
Valeric acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
1.0 (median 0.8)
0.9 (0.0 to 5.1)
Isocapronic acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
0.0 (median 0.0)
0.0 (0.00 to 0.08)
Capronic acid (mmol/kg wet weight)
0.32 (median 0.06)
0.53 (0.00 to 3.10)
Index A†
0.19 (median 0.19)
0.10 (−0.11 to 0.44)
Index B#
1.84 (median 1.55)
1.61 (0.00 to 13.04)
One unit = 100 mL beverage with nonnutritive sweeteners or 2 tablets/teaspoons of nonnutritive sweeteners for coffee or tea. †Index A: saccharolytic fermentation, i.e., the concentration of acetic minus propionic and butyric acid divided by the total amount of SCFA. #Index B: proteolytic fermentation, i.e., the sum of concentrations of i-butyric and i-valeric acid.
