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A can of Diet Coke in a supermarket, as an artificial sweetener commonly used in thousands of products including diet soft drinks, ice cream and chewing gum, has been listed as a potential cancer risk to humans, according to reports.
Yue Mok | Pascal | Getty Images
The World Health Organization on Thursday classified the soda sweetener aspartame as a probable carcinogen, but said it was safe for people to consume within the recommended daily limit.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a body of the World Health Organization, identified a possible link between aspartame and a type of liver cancer called hepatocellular carcinoma after reviewing three large human studies conducted in the United States and Europe that examined artificially sweetened beverages.
Aspartame is used in Diet Coke, Pepsi Zero Sugar, and other diet soft drinks, as well as some chewing gum and various Snapple drinks as a sugar substitute. Historically, artificially sweetened beverages are the largest source of exposure to aspartame, according to the Lancet Oncology.
Dr. Marie Shobur-Berigan, a senior official with IARC, emphasized that the classification of aspartame as a probable carcinogen is based on limited evidence. Schaubauer-Berigan noted that all three studies could have been affected by chance, bias, or other flaws. She said more research is needed to determine whether consuming artificial sweeteners can actually lead to cancer.
“This should not be taken as a direct statement that there is a known cancer risk from ingesting aspartame,” Schopur-Brejan told reporters during a news conference Wednesday before the results were released to the public.
“From our point of view, this is a call to the research community to try to clarify and better understand the cancer risk that may or may not result from aspartame consumption,” said Shupur-Brigan.
How much is too much?
The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives said Thursday that current evidence supporting a link between aspartame and cancer in humans is not convincing. The Joint Expert Committee (JECFA) is an international group of WHO and United Nations scientists that makes recommendations on how much product people can safely consume.
The JECFA said Thursday that aspartame is safe to consume if a person’s daily intake of the sweetener does not exceed 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight during the person’s lifetime. The FDA’s recommended daily limit is slightly higher, at 50 milligrams of aspartame per kilogram of body weight.
Depending on their weight, the average adult would have to drink nine to 14 cans of aspartame-containing soda like diet cola a day to go over the limit and potentially run health risks, said Dr. Francesco Branca, who heads the World Health Organization’s nutrition and food safety. Division during the press conference Wednesday.
Branca said that someone who occasionally drinks a can of soda or chews aspartame-containing gum doesn’t need to worry about the health risks. He said the World Health Organization simply recommends that people use moderation when consuming foods or drinks containing aspartame.
Branca warned that children who consume soda sweetened with aspartame could exceed the daily limit by drinking just three cans. He said children who start taking aspartame early in life may face increased health risks later on, though more research on lifetime exposure is needed.
“You might have families who have a big can of soda with sweeteners instead of drinking water at the table. That’s not good practice,” he said.
Branca said the WHO does not require companies to recall products containing aspartame. But he said the food industry should consider changing ingredients to make products without the use of sweeteners.
The American Beverage Association claimed to justify the World Health Organization’s findings Thursday, saying aspartame is a safe option for people who want to reduce sugar and calories in their diet.
Although aspartame may reduce the number of calories in some beverages, the World Health Organization concluded in May Sugar substitutes do not help children or adults lose weight in the long term.
Consumers will have to make decisions based on personal risk assessments knowing that aspartame has no health benefits and is a possible carcinogen, said Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society.
Widely used sugar substitutes
Aspartame is widely used in the food industry An alternative to sugar Because it is 200 times sweeter than sugar, which means it can be used in low concentrations with very few calories and achieve a similar taste.
About 6,000 products worldwide contain aspartame, according to the Calorie Control Councila trading group representing manufacturers of artificial sweeteners.
Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by scientists at GD Searle & Co. It was later sold under the brand name NutraSweet. The artificial sweetener has been controversial since its initial approval.
The FDA first approved the sugar substitute as a table-top sweetener and as an additive in some foods in 1974. The agency has put that decision on hold for years because of questions about the reliability of safety studies presented by GD Searle about whether aspartame is involved in the brain. Oncology.
The FDA eventually concluded that there was reasonable certainty that aspartame did not cause brain tumors and authorized the sales in 1981. The agency subsequently approved aspartame for use in several other types of foods and beverages and finally approved it as a general-purpose sweetener in 1996.
The FDA says it continues to monitor the science for new information on aspartame.
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