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Dangers of Aspartame - Artificial Sweetener
Italian Research Study Reports Aspartame (NutraSweet) Causes Cancer In Rats At Levels Currently Approved For Humans.
A statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant tumors, lymphomas and leukemias in rats exposed to varying doses of aspartame appears to link the artificial sweetener to a high carcinogenicity rate, according to a study accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) February 2006.
The authors of the study, the first to demonstrate multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered to rats in feed, called for an "urgent reevaluation" of the current guidelines for the use and consumption of this compound.
"Our study has shown that aspartame is a multipotential carcinogenic compound whose carcinogenic effects are also evident at a daily dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg), notably less than the current acceptable daily intake for humans," the authors write. Currently, the acceptable daily intake for humans is set at 50 mg/kg in the United States and 40 mg/kg in Europe.
Aspartame is contained in candy, desserts, yogurt, chewing gum and cough lozenges. It is found in diet sodas, hot chocolate and at restaurants in those sugar-free packets for coffee and tea. At this level of saturation, it represents 62 percent of the artificial sweetener market and found globally in over 6,000 products.
More than 200 million people worldwide consume it. The sweetener has been used for more than 30 years, having first been approved by the FDA in 1974. Studies of the carcinogenicity of aspartame performed by its producers have been negative.
Researchers administered aspartame to Sprague-Dawley rats by adding it to a standard diet. They began studying the rats at 8 weeks of age and continued until the spontaneous death of each rat. Treatment groups received feed that contained concentrations of aspartame at dosages simulating human daily intakes of 5,000, 2,500, 500, 100, 20, and 4 mg/kg body weight. Groups consisted of 100 males and 100 females at each of the three highest dosages and 150 males and 150 females at all lower dosages and controls.
The experiment ended after the death of the last animal at 159 weeks. At spontaneous death, each animal underwent examination for microscopic changes in all organs and tissues, a process different from the aspartame studies conducted 30 years ago and one that was designed to allow aspartame to fully express any carcinogenic potential.
The treated animals showed extensive evidence of malignant cancers including lymphomas, leukemias, and tumors at multiple organ sites in both males and females. The authors speculate the increase in lymphomas and leukemias may be related to one of the metabolites in aspartame, namely methanol, which is metabolized in both rats and humans to formaldehyde. Both methanol and formaldehyde have shown links to lymphomas and leukemias in other long-term experiments by the same authors.
The study included more animals over a longer period than earlier studies. "In our opinion, previous studies did not comply with today's basic requirements for testing the carcinogenic potential of a physical or chemical agent, in particular concerning the number of rodents for each experimental group (40-86, compared to 100-150 in the current study) and the termination of previous studies at only 110 weeks of age of the animals," the study authors wrote.
The research was conducted by the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. Funding for the research was provided by the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy.
In May of 2006, the FDA rejected the conclusions of the Italian study, saying they weren't consistent with other studies that the FDA had evaluated that confirmed aspartame was safe as a sweet alternative to sugar.
A 2006 study from the National Cancer Institute involving 340,045 men and 226,945 women found no significant link between aspartame and cancer. However the men and women studied were all between the ages of 50 and 69 and had only begun consuming the sweetener in adulthood.
After the FDA’s rejection of their study, the Ramazzini Foundation conducted additional research. This time it put 4,000 rats on doses of aspartame equivalent in respective body weight to the amount consumed by some people.
With this second investigation, they also began exposing rats to aspartame before they were born. And they allowed them to live until they died a natural death, instead of killing them at two years as in other studies elsewhere.
Once again, they found significant increases in lymphomas and leukemia. When fetuses were exposed to the sweetener, the potential carcinogenic effects increased.
Children are considerable consumers of aspartame through Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Kool-Aid, Jell-O gelatin dessert and pudding mixes and certain Popsicles.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the acceptable daily intake of aspartame is equivalent to a child weighing 50 pounds drinking two cans of diet soda daily, or a 150 pound adult drinking just over seven.
It encourages people not to panic. Just to stop buying products containing aspartame.
The Ramazzini Foundation researchers concluded: "On the basis of the present findings, we believe that a review of the current regulations governing the use of aspartame cannot be delayed.
"This review is particularly urgent with regard to aspartame-containing beverages, heavily consumed by children."
The FDA says it has not yet reviewed the report. But it appears it still finds no reason to revise its opinion or advice to consumers. This is one more reason why many consumer groups consider the FDA to be a pawn of pharmaceutical companies and the manufacturers of both artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup.
Since the study's publication, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, on its Web site Chemical Cuisine directory, has currently demoted aspartame from the "use caution" category to "everyone should avoid". It also gives thumbs down to acesulfame.
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