JACQUI HOGAN

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    Who put the "asp" in aspartame?

    Jul 14, 2023

    As a dietitian with a heavy caseload of obese and diabetic patients, aspartame became one of my best friends. “Go ahead and drink as much sugar-free fizz as you like”, I would gaily instruct my patients, happy to offer a carrot, rather than a stick, for a change. We dietitians were all over aspartame which, we were assured, was perfectly safe (and effective, of course).

    Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization) and Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) have updated their risk assessment for aspartame, according to a press rellease today1.

    The popular artificial sweetener, widely used in food and drink products from chewing gum to soft drinks, has now been listed as “possibly carcinogenic to humans" for the first time ever in its almost 60-year history.

    This puts aspartame in the same category as “radiofrequency electromagnetic fields” associated with the use of mobile phones (which we all know are super safe, aside from the manufacturers’ warnings!). It will also place aspartame on the same potential pathway taken by tobacco smoking, on its journey to IARC classification as “carcinogenic to humans”2.

    It took the IARC decades to arrive at their final verdict on tobacco smoking, so let’s not press for any hair-trigger evaluations to confirm or refute the carcinogenicity of aspartame either. No, there’s plenty of time for aspartame to be cleared of all suspicion (or not, as the case may be).

    In a recent Reuters article in which the new classification was anticipated3, a food and beverages industry insider stated that public health authorities should be “deeply concerned” by this “leaked opinion” as it “could mislead consumers into consuming more sugar, rather than choosing safe no- and low-sugar options”. This position is in line with mainstream, fact-checker-compliant opinion4 and the nudging applied by WHO in today's press release.

    Something tells me that public health authorities will be none-too-quick to jump to conclusions about aspartame, nor do anything to change the status quo. For myself and my family, we will be steering clear of aspartame from here on in.

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    1. https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Aspartame_PR.pdf

    2. https://monographs.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono100E-6.pdf

    3. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/whos-cancer-research-agency-say-aspartame-sweetener-possible-carcinogen-sources-2023-06-29/

    4. https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-reuters-reporting-that-they-understand-that-iarc-are-expected-to-categorise-the-sweetener-aspartame-as-possibly-carcinogenic-to-humans-in-july/#:~:text=IARC%20have%20never%20considered%20aspartame,diet%20Coke%20or%20similar%20drinks.

    Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

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