FDA Should Reconsider Aspartame Cancer Risk, Say Experts

New Rat Study Links Artificial Sweetener with Lymphomas, Breast Cancer



The new study, conducted by the respected Ramazzini Foundation and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found statistically significant increases in lymphomas and leukemias in rats that were fed 100 milligrams of the sweetener per kilogram of body weight—an amount several times higher than what some people consume. A lower amount, 20 milligrams per kilogram, also caused an increase, but it was not statistically significant.


The Acceptable Daily Intake of aspartame in the United States is 50 mg per kg of body weight. The new study looked at doses less than that (20 mg per kg) and greater (100 mg per kg). Though few people would consume aspartame at the higher dose, the lower does is equivalent to a 50-pound child drinking 2½ cans of diet soda per day, or a 150-pound adult drinking about 7½ cans of diet soda per day. But aspartame also enters the diet through sugar-free or reduced-sugar gums, candies, yogurts, and hundreds of other products. Many aspartame-containing products are likely to be consumed by kids, including sugar-free Kool-Aid, Jell-O gelatin dessert and pudding mixes, and some Popsicles.

A 2006 National Cancer Institute study seemed to ease cancer fears related to aspartame, but that study had major limitations, including its reliance on imprecise food-frequency questionnaires, and it included only subjects between the ages of 50 and 69 who first consumed aspartame as adults. The effects of consuming aspartame from infancy or childhood might be very different, says CSPI, as suggested by the new animal study.


As a result of the new study, for the first time CSPI downgraded aspartame on its onlineChemical Cuisine directory from a “use caution” rating to “everyone should avoid.” CSPI also urges everyone to avoid the artificial sweeteners acesulfame potassium and saccharin. It rates sucralose, also known by the brand name Splenda, as safe.

CSPI also called on the food industry to voluntarily switch to other sugar substitutes.

“Switching to safer ingredients now could be a wise precautionary action,” Jacobson wrote to Cal Dooley, president of the Food Products Association/Grocery Manufactures Association.


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