I'm skeptical.

1. Where's the peer review? For that matter, where is anything
but a news release? It's normal to release the study to a
peer-reviewed journal and then talk to the press.

2. The Institute is now offering to tailor a diet for
you...presumably for a price, although you can sign up for the
program free.
http://www.weizmann-usa.org/e-news/1...on-project.htm

3. Who funded the study? It's normal to disclose funding
sources for such research and a peer-review journal would require
that disclosure.

4. No human testing (and only a minimal amount of animal
testing) was done with any artificial sweetener other than
saccharine.

5. Where's the mechanism? What mechanism causes the reported
changes in gut bacteria.

6. All of these sweeteners use maltodextrin as a bulking agent.
Where's the process data showing how maltodextrin was excluded?

7. Where's the dose relationship? All we have from the released
information is that people were fed the *maximum* safe dose of
saccharine for 7 days. What about lower doses? What's the
relationship between dose and effect? How does that dose differ
with the various different sweeteners, which are all chemically
different from one another?

8. Studies of how sucralose and aspartame are processed in the
gut have already been done and no such effects were noted.

9. How did they control for the diet consumed by the test
subjects both before and during the test? Did they keep kosher?
How much saturated fat was in the diet?

--
Mike