How'd You Get To Be So Sweet?! Real Versus Artificial Sugar

In society, one of the more controversial issues today is whether artificial sweeteners and sugar substitutes such as saccharin and aspartame have a positive or negative effect on living cells, if they have an effect on them at all. The numerous cases we have found through our research have heightened our curiosity and piqued our interest of these questionable substances. In doing this project, we hope to establish a conclusion on the effects of artificial sweeteners on live organisms, through a series of tests where we compare reactions of live organisms (in plants and other species) to a control substance(water), "real" sugar and aspartame(artificial sweetener).

We predict that if living organisms ingest or absorb the aspartame, then there will indeed be negative effects to these organisms.

Sugar containing Aspartame
"Real" Sugar
TV/VCR/Video-flex Set-up
Planaria
Distilled Water
Petri dishes
Beakers
Graduated cylinders
Quieting Solution
Bean seeds

Potters and soil
Daphnia
Aquarium Water
Pipets
Balance
Slides
Cover slips
Radish Seeds
Paper towels
Needle & Syringe

PLANT EXPERIMENTS: Bean Plant & Radish Seeds (2 experiments)
For each experiment, we had one plant which was:

Watered/injected with regular water(Control)

Watered/injected with an artificial sugar solution

Watered/injected with a "real" sugar solution
Independent Variables

Amount of water

Type of plant

Type of soil (applicable only for bean plants)

Temperature

Watering "schedule"
Dependent Variables

Height/Length of plant growth

"Health" of plants and plant cells

Reaction to solutions

"OTHER" EXPERIMENTS: Planaria & Daphnia (2 experiments)
For each experiment, we had one specimen which was:

Bathed in regular water(Control)

Bathed in an artificial sugar solution

Bathed in a "real" sugar solution
Independent Variables

Amount of solvent and solutes in each solution

Amount of solution per petri dish

Environment
Dependent Variables

Heart rate of daphnia (applicable only for daphnia)

Life spans

Reactions to solutions

(Ongoing throughout project) Research

Gathering of supplies

Bean plant experiment(s)

Planaria experiment (Failed; aborted)

Daphnia experiment(s)

Radish Seed Experiment

Bean plant experiment #2
Please click on the 'Procedure' Link for more detailed explanations.

Bean Plant Experiment
With our original bean plants, the control plant grew and sprouted normally. Our plant watered with artificial sugar was, in essence, growing "upside" down- the roots appeared on the surface before the leaves. Our "real" sugar plant did not grow or sprout. We believe that may have been caused by interferences(being knocked over). The next four times we attempted this experiment, it failed- the plants would not sprout. However, we noticed that with the plants, the soil was "rich" and "healthy" with all samples except the plant watered with artificial sugar- on the surface of the soil for this plant was a white powdery "residue".

Daphnia Experiment
After doing this experiment, we saw that the heartbeat of the daphnia is affected when placed in sugar solutions. However, the results from this experiment "conflicted" with our hypothesis. In this experiment, the daphnia's heartrate increased more when placed in real sugar solution. From conducting a postmortem examination, we observed outer cell membrane deterioration in the daphnia tested with artificial sugar.

Radish Seed Experiment
Our control radish seeds grew quite well. They sprouted on the third day of our experiment. Two of our "real" sugar plants sprouted soon afterwards. The sugar substitute radishes were the last of the group to sprout. The radishes watered with sugar solutions grew slowly whereas the control radishes grew quickly and abundantly. This leads us to conclude that the sugar slowed down growth rate.

Bean Experiment #2
From doing this experiment, we did not really come to any new conclusions that we had not came to beforehand. However, our experiment provided extra evidence that the sugar solutions stunted the growth of the bean plants. However, these new observations do not really support our hypothesis. In order to come to more specific conclusions, we believe that longer term tests should be carried out.

Upon concluding this project, we learned many things. We learned the effects of "real" sugar and artificial sweeteners on plant and other organisms. Also, we learned that artificial sugar substitutes cause erratic heart beats, amongst other things. Since aspartame causes erratic heartbeats, we would recommend that individuals with heart problems avoid the use of aspartame. From analyzing our results, we believe that if there is a prolonged use of aspartame in the body, then there will be long term negative effects. Therefore, we advise people not to use aspartame in large quantities for substantial amounts of time.