From Aline, Koko Kai Yogurt
We get asked a lot why Koko Kai doesn’t use artificial sweeteners — why our Plain has zero grams of sugar without a sugar substitute doing the work instead. The short answer is: what those substitutes might be doing to your gut is still being figured out, and the early research gives us reason to stay cautious.
Artificial sweeteners show up almost everywhere now — diet sodas, baked goods, sauces — marketed as the lower-calorie swap for sugar. But newer research is starting to ask a different question: what are they actually doing once they reach your gut? Turns out, these sweeteners aren’t just passing through quietly. Most travel through the body largely unmetabolized, which means they end up interacting directly with the bacteria living in your gut — and, increasingly, showing up in wastewater systems too, which is part of what pushed researchers to look closer.
Some of what they found is genuinely concerning. Saccharin, one of the most studied artificial sweeteners, was shown to make bacterial cell walls more permeable and to significantly increase how readily bacteria exchange genetic material with each other — a mechanism tied to antibiotic resistance. It also slowed the growth of several common bacterial strains. Aspartame showed a similar pattern: increased cell permeability, inhibited growth in certain bacteria, and the same underlying concern about promoting antimicrobial resistance, both in the body and in the environment. Separately, other research has linked sweeteners like saccharin and sucralose to changes in gut bacteria that may affect the body’s ability to tolerate glucose — the opposite of what you’d want from a “healthier” sugar swap.
Not every sweetener tells the same story, though. Monk fruit stood out as an exception — early research suggests it may actually support the growth of beneficial gut bacteria (including strains like Lactobacillus and Faecalibacterium) while suppressing bacteria linked to inflammation.
This is exactly why we recommend steering clear of yogurts sweetened with artificial sweeteners. You’re buying yogurt for the probiotics — the live, active cultures doing the actual work for your gut. If the sweetener sitting alongside them is disrupting the same bacterial environment those probiotics are trying to support, you may be working against yourself without realizing it. A yogurt can list “live cultures” on the label and still undercut the benefit, depending on what else is in the cup.
This is part of why we’ve kept Koko Kai’s ingredient list short and boring, on purpose. Our Plain has zero grams of sugar with no artificial sweetener doing the heavy lifting — just organic coconut cream, filtered water, agar, and 13 live and active cultures. Where we do sweeten a flavor, it’s with something real: organic coconut nectar, coconut sugar, or Hawaiian honey, in small amounts. The science on artificial sweeteners is still developing, and the consensus isn’t settled — but we’d rather build our recipe around ingredients with a long track record than ones still being studied for what they do to the bacteria we’re trying to nourish.
Gut health was the whole reason we started this company. Might as well be consistent about it, all the way down to what’s not in the cup.
Source: HardyDiagnostics, “Do Sweeteners Help or Harm the Gut Microbiome?” by Joe Tripp, Technical Support Specialist II, July 2026.
