About the link of artificial sweeteners to glucose intolerance

This is the article I looked at:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22329872-600-artificial-sweeteners-linked-to-glucose-intolerance/

What is the article actually about?
The article describes how there could possibly exist a link between consuming artificial sweeteners and getting glucose intolerant which can lead to diabetes and general obesity. In the text there the summary of an investigation of mice in context of this topic. The article discusses further, how this investigation could relate to humans and there is also a trial with humans in relation to sweeteners. In the following text I will list the effects on mice and humans, which are followed by my conclusion of the text and my opinion of how to progress this scientific case. 

What are the effects of the artificial sweeteners on mice?

• Experiments suggest that artificial sweetener changes gut bacteria in mice
• Eran Elinav and Eran Segal co-supervised the work and found out: artificial might increase risk of diabetes
• the sweeteners taste 20000 times sweeter than sugar and can't be digested (therefore no calories) and hence they are said to help in a healthy diet
• Segal and Elinav are concerned because studies show a link of weight gain with the use of sweetener
• they tested mice, trialed them over 11 weeks with giving half of them sweeteners and half normal glucose and afterwards testing there glucose tolerance by looking at their insulin production
• the result was that mice fed with sweeteners showed glucose intolerance
• sweeneners get undigested into our intestine and changed the bacterial composition
• an experiment by whiping out the gut bacteria showed that the glucose intolerance problems abolished> experiments support this
• Analysis shows that serveral different bacteria can be found in the gut of mice after taking sweeteners
• however many reassessments in the past prove the use of sweeteners to be harmless for humans

What are the effects of artificial sweeteners on humans?

• trial with seven healthy people; four showed after day 5 significant glucose intolerance
• the 3 healthy people showed different gut bacteria base
• link of global increase of sweetener use with obesity (says Segal)
• ASE and ISA argue against this statement
• The EFSA will through this study consider to reassess the relationship of sweetener and diabetes
• Link of sugar rich drinks have a link with weight gain while sweetener products are still unsure (Naveed Sattar), therefore he prefers sweetener products

My conclusions of this article
I think that the trial had a too small sample and is therefore not very reliable. However the article shows great evidence that there is a link between the consumption of sweeteners and glucose intolerance. In my opinion the trial should be enlarged and other links which could cause glucose intolerance should also be considered. When deciding between the consumption of sweeteners and sugar there should also be considered which one has the worst side effects and not just making it dependent of one factor like this glucose intolerance argument.