Proof Engine Verification (PARTIALLY VERIFIED): Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose promote weight gain and metabolic disease.

Automated fact-verification of the claim: "Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose promote weight gain and metabolic disease." Verdict: PARTIALLY VERIFIED Key Findings SC1 (Association) — HOLDS: 3 independent peer-reviewed sources confirm a statistically significant association between artificial sweetener consumption and weight gain / metabolic disease outcomes in humans (B1, B2, B3 — all citations fully verified). SC2 (Causation) — FAILS: Only 1 source was identified for the causal sub-claim (B4 — a mechanistic mouse-model study), far below the threshold of 3. Multiple meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) — the gold standard for causal inference — actively contradict the causal claim, showing neutral or mildly beneficial effects on weight. The observational association is likely confounded by reverse causality: people who are already overweight or at metabolic risk preferentially choose diet/low-calorie products, creating a spurious association in observational data. Sucralose specifically lacks the observed association: the CARDIA 2023 longitudinal study found no significant adiposity associations for sucralose (all ptrend > 0.05), while aspartame and saccharin showed significant associations. Files proof.py — Re-runnable Python verification script proof.md — Structured proof report proof_audit.md — Full verification audit trail proof_narrative.md — Plain-language summary proof.json — Machine-readable structured data Generated by Proof Engine v1.3.1.针对以下声明的自动化事实核查："人工甜味剂如阿斯巴甜、三氯蔗糖可促进体重增加与代谢性疾病的发生"。 核查结论：部分证实（PARTIALLY VERIFIED） 核心发现 SC1（关联关系）——成立：3份独立的同行评议文献证实，人类摄入人工甜味剂与体重增加/代谢性疾病结局之间存在统计学意义上的显著关联（B1、B2、B3——所有引用均已完成完整核查）。 SC2（因果关系）——不成立：仅识别到1份针对该因果子主张的文献（B4——一项基于小鼠模型的机制研究），远低于3份的最低阈值。多项针对随机对照试验（Randomized Controlled Trial, RCT）的荟萃分析——因果推断的金标准——明确反驳该因果主张，结果显示人工甜味剂对体重仅存在中性或轻度有益影响。 该观察性关联很可能存在反向混杂偏倚：已超重或存在代谢风险的人群会优先选择低糖/低热量产品，这使得观察性数据中出现虚假关联。 针对三氯蔗糖的特殊情况：CARDIA 2023纵向研究未发现三氯蔗糖与体脂相关的显著关联（所有趋势检验P值均>0.05），而阿斯巴甜与糖精则表现出显著关联。 关联文件 proof.py —— 可重复运行的Python核查脚本 proof.md —— 结构化核查报告 proof_audit.md —— 完整核查溯源记录 proof_narrative.md —— 通俗语言总结 proof.json —— 机器可读的结构化数据 由Proof Engine v1.3.1生成。