US health officials have rejected claims that a popular artificial sweetener used in sodas, chewing gums and low-calorie foods causes cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it ‘disagrees’ with the World Health Organization (WHO) that aspartame may be carcinogenic to humans.
The FDA said the studies cited in the WHO ruling had ‘significant shortcomings’ and pointed out that its own review in 2021 came to the opposite conclusion.
US regulators also urged customers not to swap out artificially-sweetened snacks for sugary ones based on the latest development. Sugar is known to cause a slew of health consequences, from diabetes to heart disease.
The above graphics show which of America’s favorite snacks contain the sweetener aspartame
One of the most famous products that uses the sweetener is Diet Coke. Today aspartame was labeled a ‘possible carcinogen’, but it is only likely to put people at risk when consumed excessively — or above 14 cans of Diet Coke per day
In a statement released today, the FDA said: ‘The FDA disagrees with the conclusion that these studies support classifying aspartame as a possible carcinogen to humans.
‘FDA scientists reviewed the scientific information included in the review in 2021 when it was first made available and identified significant shortcomings in the studies on which [the conclusion] relied.
‘We note that the Joint WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives did not raise safety concerns for aspartame under current levels of use and did not change the acceptable daily intake.’
Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the world and is approved for use in many countries, including Canada, the UK and across the European Union.
It has been available since 1981 and has seen a renaissance in use in recent years, as brands have turned to artificial sweeteners amid a crackdown on sugar.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) published an updated ruling on aspartame today, concluding that it is ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’.
But only people who consume excessive quantities face a heightened risk of the disease, they said.
Current safe limits are set at 40mg per kilogram of body weight per day.
That means a 154lb (70kg) adult would need to consume 14 cans of a diet soft drink that contains 200mg of aspartame per can — such as Diet Coke — to exceed this limit.
And a 44lb (20kg) child could, theoretically, consume two to three per day without aspartame posing a risk, the WHO said. The UN health agency noted, however, that this was not ‘good practice’.
The ruling means that aspartame is now considered to be as dangerous as substances like Aloe vera extracl, the metal lead, and several coloring agents for the risk of cancer.
For comparison, red meat has been declared a ‘probable carcinogen’ — one stage above aspartame’s status.
The WHO confirmed at a press conference yesterday that it was ‘definitely’ not calling for producers or authorities to remove products that contain aspartame from shelves.
But the agency did urge manufacturers to consider reformulating products because sweeteners ‘are not the way forward’.
Today advice was also published from the Joint WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization’s Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), a different agency in the WHO.
It said that despite the reclassification it was not changing guidance on how much was safe to consume.
The IARC graded the risk as 2B – meaning there is limited by not convincing evidence – putting it in the same category as gasoline engine exhaust fumes, lead and the occupational risk of being a hairdresser – with workers regularly exposed to chemicals
As a briefing yesterday, Dr Francesco Branca, the WHO’s director of Nutrition and Food Safety, said the WHO’s ‘pretty large’ daily acceptable limit means there is no problem consuming that amount of aspartame ‘without having appreciable health effects’
Many of the most loved brands have mixed aspartame — which is 200 times sweeter than sugar — into everything from yogurts to fizzy drinks and low-calorie meals.
Some — such as PepsiCo — have previously removed the sweetener amid reports of cancer risks. But they were later forced to re-add it amid plummeting sales.
Concerns over whether or not aspartame causes cancer stem from studies in lab rats published by a group of Italian researchers in the late 2000s, which found a higher rate of blood cancers among those exposed to the sweetener.
But studies carried out in humans have been less conclusive, with only some detecting a link to cancers such as cancers of the liver.
Animal research also has serious limitations, including that the rodents were exposed to far higher concentrations of aspartame than humans.
Scientists warn that aspartame may cause cancer because when it is broken down in the body it can form formaldehyde, a known carcinogen.
This can interfere with DNA in cells and lead some to turn cancerous and start dividing uncontrollably.
But the amounts of formaldehyde produced are normally very small, scientists say, while natural processes in the body are also known to produce this.
Many experts say that sugar — which aspartame was made to replace — is still a much bigger risk for people.
Dr Deidre Tobias, a nutritionist at Harvard University in Massachusetts, told DailyMail.com last month: ‘All of a sudden, something that’s natural, like sugar, feels healthier. But the evidence for that is misleading.’
She continued: ‘There isn’t a mass amount of evidence to suggest that artificial sweeteners or anyone, in particular, would be a major cause for concern for health risks.
‘If anything, it seems that for those people who do regularly drink a lot of sugary beverages, for example, and would like to quit, having an alternative to switch to like artificially sweetened beverages, temporarily… may even be in those cases of a benefit.’
Highlighting the risks of sugar, she warned: ‘I think the evidence to support added sugars in our diet as something we should reduce is fairly strong.
‘We do see that in short-term, tightly controlled trials, as well as the long-term studies that can look at health events and outcomes, added sugar is consistently related to worse metabolic health.’
David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard and longevity expert, added: ‘Sugar is worse’.
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