Aspartame is also linked in some studies to weight gain, GI disorders, mental health issues and more:
According to some studies, aspartame and other artificial sweeteners can lead to weight gain instead of weight loss 12. Aspartame has been linked to increased appetite, diabetes, metabolic derangement and obesity-related diseases 2.
One study showed that aspartame causes greater weight gain than a diet with the same calorie intake but no aspartame 1. Another study found that even acceptable daily intakes of aspartame might make you hungrier and lead to weight gain 3.
…some research suggests an association between aspartame intake and metabolic damage to the central nervous system (CNS), such as changes in enzyme and neurotransmitter activities 2. Aspartame acts as a chemical stressor by elevating plasma cortisol levels and causing the production of excess free radicals. High cortisol levels and excess free radicals may increase the brain’s vulnerability to oxidative stress which may have adverse effects on neurobehavioral health 3.
There is also some evidence that high-aspartame consumption may lead to weaker spatial orientation, irritability, depression, and other neurobehavioral conditions 14. However, these studies are limited in scope and further research is needed to determine the long-term effects of aspartame on human health.
Worth researching more, especially if you eat/drink anything with this stuff - and it’s in a lot of food products.
Worth point out is that it doesn’t even reach the same classification as red meat which is classified as probably causing cancer.
theres a lot of things that MIGHT cause cancer i feel like if youre drinking enough diet coke to cause cancer its not the sweetener its your impulse control
I would seriously doubt any study that claims to have somehow controlled for everything so determine that red meat causes cancer. There are just way too many variables that would be contributing factors.
Even if there was a culture that ate zero meat ever, there would also be too many lifestyle differences for it to be red meat alone accounting for a decrease in cancer rates.
In general, the American Cancer Society does not determine if something causes cancer (that is, if it is a carcinogen), but we do look to other respected organizations for help with this. Based on current research, some of these organizations have made the following determinations:
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has concluded that “the use of aspartame as a general purpose sweetener… is safe.”
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has stated, “Studies do not suggest an increased risk associated with aspartame consumption for… leukaemia, brain tumours or a variety of cancers, including brain, lymphatic and haematopoietic (blood) cancers.”
Though research into a possible link between aspartame and cancer continues, these agencies agree that studies done so far have not found such a link.
There was a study that found that Aspartame increased cancer risk, which was used as the base for all the current claims. The study was found to be flawed and it has not been reproduced since then, but due to confirmation bias and the desire to manipulate others the idea keeps communicating. That’s one weakness of science, you can make up research and the average person will use it to confirm their biases, even if it’s one study versus a hundred
That being said, there may be other risks with artificial sweeteners, I’m just talking about that specific study
Science is complicated and most people don’t know how to apply it. For example, an university graduate does not know how to read published research and how to apply it to the real world, because beyond training that needs a lot of practice and feedback. People think that hearing the news or reading the paper will let them know the truth; it won’t because they haven’t developed the capacity to do so, yet they ask for a source they can’t really understand. That’s why you are supposed to go to a professional instead of doing what you think you should do on your own
The only people I’ve found that are worth giving sources to are PhDs or experts in their fields. Everyone else just fucks up interpreting them
It’s not this straight forward. I read the reuters article about this that goes into more detail.
But basically, IARC is only looking at if the substance can be carcinogenic, regardless of the quantity it takes for it to be harmful to humans.
There is another organization, called JECFA that is specifically for advice for individuals. This is where “food regulations” would come from.
The JECFA is set to show off their findings at the same time as IARC is gonna make their announcement. I feel like some of you guys are jumping the gun here due to the title of the articles coming out.
Click bait works, unfortunately.
Don’t freak out (yet) people…
They put aspartame in the “possibly carcinogenic” category which is their least certain one. Also in this category we have… Radio waves (sigh)… Yeah right…
Radio waves are known to be harmful, that’s why the FCC maintains Maximum Permissible Exposure limits and every technician HAM has to learn about safe distance from a transmission source in relation to power and frequency. It is not a stretch that such RF exposure could potentially have carcinogenic properties, but that needs context, the likelihood of a cell phone is pretty much nil.
It is not a stretch that such RF exposure could potentially have carcinogenic properties, but that needs context, the likelihood of a cell phone is pretty much nil.
That’s not how non-ionizing radiation works. The MPE exposure limits are because you can be effectively cooked, not because you’ll get cancer. You need much more energy to do that, like UV light, X or gamma rays.
But now OP will realize he’s been setting 5G towers on fire for nothing…
But this line of logic ultimately also ends at “how much aspartame do you need to ingest before it’s bad for you?” A lot of these things end in “you need to consume an unreasonable amount for it to affect you negatively”.
If 100mg causes cancer in 80% of test cases in one year, then it will be very difficult to study how 1mg will affect a group of people, as at lower doses, interactions may become more important.
If you have a shit diet, don’t exercise, then a smaller dose of aspartame may be more potent- the effect may be additive. It would be too difficult to exclude confounding factors in such a study.
But luckily no one has the trio of a shit diet, drinks soda and doesn’t exercise :/
I’m an MD and don’t touch the stuff.
If 100mg causes cancer in 80% of test cases in one year, then it will be very difficult to study how 1mg will affect a group of people, as at lower doses, interactions may become more important.
If you have a shit diet, don’t exercise, then a smaller dose of aspartame may be more potent- the effect may be additive. It would be too difficult to exclude confounding factors in such a study.
But luckily no one has the trio of a shit diet, drinks soda and doesn’t exercise :/
I’m an MD and don’t touch the stuff.
Possible carcinogen is an extremely low standard for the WHO, this probably means close to nothing
Or you will need extreme quantities for it to be something. But with that said, the few times my daughter get a soda I buy her a regular even if I drink with sweetener.
Honestly nothing can be more dangerous than the OG coke. The amount of sugar in that can is incomprehensible
This is another point that no-one makes. While it is clear that the best alternative to a sweetened drink would be water, often it is the “healthier and natural” version with real sugar which is just incomparably more damaging to human bodies.
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That’s always the problem with research, or rather with insufficient consumer protection laws. It needs time to run studies and provide reliable and definitive scientific results in an academic setting, and in the meantime, millions of human beings are exposed to toxic compounds. But because research cannot really be accelerated that much without a loss in quality, we should really push for better regulation of “experimental” products.
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Yeah the EU supposedly regulates a lot more, but I cannot really feel much of that. In the end, we Europeans (I’m from Germany) have likely been exposed to as much aspartame as you have (assuming that you are American)
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So it’s like the list of carcinogens in California that everything is basically carcinogenic
Barbecue sausages are also carcinogenic. What matters is how much and in what doses. Hey WHO: Show me scientific, peer revieved, reproduced in independed labs papers with solid proofs. Not preliminary results of “one research”. Then I will weigh pros and cons and decide if I should use it. Strangely decades of use under supervision of FDA and other reputable institutions had no remarks like WHO. Don’t forget that dihydrate monoxide also promote cancer, and we all drink it like water.
/edit typo, grammar/
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/aspartame.html
lol. The cancer folks think its fine.
I love being a human lab rat for capitalist America 🙆🏻♂️
This is basically the case for every artificial sweetener lol
I sort of cringe (more of a nose wrinkle really) at OP’s “it’s known in some circles to be bad” You see beliefs and correlative evidence constantly misrepresented as proof and truth in food and medical science (reporting and discussion).
I get it. The body is a hugely complicated system, it’s hard to figure these things out. What does even figuring them out mean with the amount of complicating factors of this affects that which affects this which causes this.
I’m open to the idea that lobbying and such means Aspartame (and other industrial food products) has really been pushed through.
It’s also obviously been studied quite a bit and it’s hard to believe all the studies saying it’s safe at recommended levels are bunk or fraudulent.
This news was on another instance where the discussion included that the IARC carcinogen classifications do not take into account exposure/dosage. A whole bunch of things can be carcinogenic depending on exposure. Haven’t we all read how the rats that got cancer from saccharine had epic doses? It was just magnitudes more than a human would consume.
If an observational study won’t cut it (I see you, @xthedeerlordx, and appreciate your comment and explanation), how does one prove the causation? Don’t you need randomized controlled trials which would be extremely onerous controlling for various factors and basically making the (ideally large number of) participants live in a lab for whatever amount of time the study takes to really prove causation? I’d genuinely like to know. It seems like for a lot of things correlation after correlation after correlation is the best we’re going to get.
It’s going to be difficult to fund a large enough RCT to find a stat signif effect - it would be very expensive to follow people for 20-40 years and keep them in a study (10 000 people?). Similar to supplement studies - they may be effective, however big pharma won’t pay for RCTs for products that are already on the market and with little profit margin.
Unfortuantely, it’s not all 100% science - politics has a large hand to play here.
As I wrote elsewhere, there was one review showing potential biochemical and physiological mechanisms. It doesn’t prove anything, however due to the amount consumed, it is worth investigating further and keeping an open mind:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28938797/ https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/75/9/718/4101228
CONCLUSION
Current scientific knowledge about the safety of aspartame, as reviewed here, is based mostly on animal studies. These studies suggest that aspartame, even at recommended safe dosages, might not be safe. Several of these studies (in vitro as well as in vivo) that investigated both higher and safe dosages indicate that aspartame or its metabolites cause an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance, induce oxidative stress, and damage membrane integrity (lipid, protein, and nucleic acid), possibly affecting most cells and tissues. Aspartame is directly involved in the development of oxidative stress, which is a hallmark of systemic inflammation (Figure 3). Several animal studies have also reported a deleterious effect of aspartame exposure on body weight, adiposity, and/or glucose tolerance and insulin levels. These are summarized in a 2016 review by Fowler.125 Thus, there is a need for additional detailed human studies and comprehensive characterizations of the physiological processes affected by aspartame. This is of particular importance, as diabetic and other individuals with gut dysbiosis may already be at increased risk of systemic inflammation because of the inflammatory nature of their conditions. Data reviewed in this paper suggest that aspartame use could not only exacerbate existing systemic inflammation but also cause inflammation if healthy individuals ingest it on a regular basis.
If anyone’s seen aspartame’s wikipedia article, it’s like the most corporate compromised entry I’ve seen. In fact this very report is already being covered up there.
Full disclosure I’m going completely tangential for this one.
I find it believable at best that aspartame can cause cancer, but causing weight gain just makes no sense to me.
I used to be FAT. 250 lbs. I didn’t really make that many changes to my diet, except for cutting refined sugars way back.
I switched to Diet Coke, got off the little debbies, and I slimmed right down and now I’m hovering around 135.
It would make sense to say that I would maintain that weight or maybe gained more if aspartame was as harmful as this article says, but I’m not seeing it.
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"While aspartame is a low-calorie artificial sweetener that’s often used as a sugar substitute in diet drinks and “sugar-free” foods, there is some research suggesting that consuming artificial sweeteners might paradoxically lead to weight gain. However, the evidence is not definitive and the topic is controversial. Here are some proposed mechanisms:
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Altered Metabolic Response: Some research suggests that artificial sweeteners may interfere with the body’s mechanisms for metabolizing sugar. Essentially, because your body expects sugar (and the corresponding calories) when it tastes something sweet, the consumption of low-calorie sweeteners may lead to increased food intake and a desire for sweet foods because your body is trying to get the calories it’s expecting.
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Changes in Gut Bacteria: There’s also some evidence that artificial sweeteners, including aspartame, might alter the bacteria in the gut in a way that promotes weight gain and fat accumulation.
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Increased Appetite: Some studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may increase appetite, leading to increased calorie consumption.
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Psychological Factors: Some people may consciously or unconsciously consume more calories elsewhere in their diet because they believe they are “saving” calories by using artificial sweeteners."
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WHO is one of those organizations whose advice I wish I could take at face value, but with anything that should be science based, it only takes a few disappointing compromises to take away a lot of trust.
And how their recommendations result in our country’s maternity wards try acupuncture and breathing as pain relief first, leaving mothers in debilitating pain for hours before giving them any of the real, safe, proven painkillers.
I get the reasoning - that accepting the commonly held medical belief of e.g. China allows them to hold some authority there and be a more global force of good - but to me it just make anything they say go on the “ok interesting, I’ll fact check it later” pile.
