Food products containing the artificial sweetener aspartame are on display Friday in New York City.
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Image of Spencer Platt/Getty
Food products containing the artificial sweetener aspartame are on display Friday in New York City.
Image of Spencer Platt/Getty
The World Health Organization announced this week that the artificial sweetener aspartame – used in low-calorie products like Diet Coke, Trident gum and sugar-free jelly – “may cause cancer.” for humans” leading many to question whether food additives are safe to consume.
Thursday’s announcement from WHO International Center for Cancer Researchor IARC, which reclassifies aspartame, has been in widespread use since the 1980s and is sold under brands such as NutraSweet and Equal.
At a press conference in Geneva, Dr Francesco Branca, Director of the WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said that concern was only for “heavy consumers” of diet sodas and other foods. contains aspartame and says that IARC is simply “raising the flag” for further research to be done.
Dr Mary Schubauer-Berigan, a senior IARC official, stressed that “it really shouldn’t be taken as a direct statement indicating that there is a known cancer risk from consuming aspartame.”
The recommended daily amount of aspartame has not changed
Meanwhile, the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which is co-administered by WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), says the daily acceptable amount of aspartame has not changed. It says that to exceed that limit, a 154-pound adult would need to consume between 9 and 14 cans of diet soft drinks containing 200 or 300 mg of aspartame.
The The US Food and Drug Administration said they know the conclusions of both IARC and JECFA, but that “doesn’t mean that aspartame is actually linked to cancer.”
WHO uses a four-tier classification system: carcinogen; can cause cancer; can cause cancer; and does not cause cancer.
EQUAL an article in Science note“Other substances classified as ‘possibly carcinogenic’ include aloe vera extract, traditional Asian pickled vegetables, certain vehicle fuels and certain chemicals used in the dry cleaning process, carpentry and printing. IARC has also classified red meat as ‘probably carcinogenic’ and processed meat as ‘carcinogenic.'”
Experts say more research is needed
“This means that more research needs to be done to determine if there is an association with aspartame,” said Marjorie McCullough, senior scientific director of epidemiological research at the American Cancer Society. or not”.
Toxicologist Daniele Wikoff, a principal scientist at ToxStrategies, has been involved in a number of aspartame studies conducted by the American Beverage Association, or ABA, a lobbying group representing the beverage industry. , authorization. The bottom line from Thursday’s press conference in Geneva, she said, is “basically no change.”
The aspartame studies cited by IARC “are really only a small part of the overall evidence base.” “The big picture is much bigger, proving safety,” says Wikoff. “Much of that research supports the lack of a link” between aspartame and cancer.
Kevin Keane, president and interim chief executive officer of the ABA, said it was “disappointing” that IARC had sown confusion in the minds of consumers. “The FDA and 95 food safety authorities globally have recognized aspartame as safe,” he said. “Consumers should be confident in the future.”
However, Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, describes research into aspartame’s effects on humans as “unsatisfactory”.
He points to a “very limited number” of randomized controlled trials looking at aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. “The concern is that while there’s been an explosion in their use in food, there hasn’t been an explosion in the science to make sure they’re safe.”
Consumers should still limit sugary regular sodas
Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, is also concerned about how well-studied aspartame’s possible effects have been. He says the problem is twofold.
“It’s hard to do studies of free-living populations to get an accurate estimate of people’s true intake,” he said.
Another challenge, Hu said, is that in the case of rare cancers such as liver cancer, which the WHO specifically notes, researchers need “hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions of people, to be monitored and have sufficient capacity to do so.” statistical power to obtain reliable results”. answer.”
Aspartame’s focus is mostly on low-calorie diet sodas, but what about its use in other beverages?
“If you put two packets of sweetener in your coffee or tea, I don’t think that would be a problem for the vast majority of people,” says Hu.
As for Tuft’s Mozaffarian, despite his concerns, he says that for those who can’t break the soda habit, it’s better to go for the diet version. “We know that large amounts of regular soda are actually very bad for weight gain or obesity or diabetes because of the risk of heart attacks.”
“So…yes, it’s better to go on a diet [soda]”, he says. “But it’s even better to switch from diet to sugar-free carbonated water.”
