It is easy to find boosterish articles about monk fruit sweetener online like the article shown at the bottom of this post. By I worry that anything that raises insulin levels too much could lower blood sugar enough to induce hunger. That is the view I take in “Which Nonsugar Sweeteners are OK? An Insulin-Index Perspective.” From that perspective, the evidence in the abstract shown above is worrisome. It is from the paper “Insulin secretion stimulating effects of mogroside V and fruit extract of luo han kuo (Siraitia grosvenori Swingle) fruit extract.” Swingle fruit and luo han kuo are other names for monk fruit.

The article “Insulin secretion stimulating effects of mogroside V and fruit extract of luo han kuo (Siraitia grosvenori Swingle) fruit extract” tries to bill stimulation of insulin secretion as a good thing. I don’t think that is right. Extra insulin secretion is troublesome for many reasons. See:

• Obesity Is Always and Everywhere an Insulin Phenomenon

• Evidence that High Insulin Levels Lead to Weight Gain

• How Low Insulin Opens a Way to Escape Dieting Hell

Another thing to worry about with sweeteners labeled as being monk fruit is that, since monk fruit extract is such a powerful sweetener, the monk fruit extract is typically diluted with other stuff—other stuff that might itself be unhealthy. Check the label to see all the ingredients.

Sweetness itself can also be a concern, though not one that stops me from using carefully chosen nonsugar sweeteners. On that, read “Which Nonsugar Sweeteners are OK? An Insulin-Index Perspective.”

Unfortunately, I don’t know how to get my hands on the full paper “Insulin secretion stimulating effects of mogroside V and fruit extract of luo han kuo (Siraitia grosvenori Swingle) fruit extract,” so I don’t know how strong the insulin-raising effect of monk fruit is if you really get monk fruit extract by itself without other worrisome stuff. It may be that because of its strong sweetness, the quantity of pure monk fruit sweetener needed for sweetening is so small that the effect on insulin would also be small. So I don’t know for sure that monk fruit extract is unhealthy. But the fact that it raises insulin is not a good sign.

For annotated links to other posts on diet and health, see:

• Miles Kimball on Diet and Health: A Reader's Guide