Diet Soda Sweetener Aspartame Under Scrutiny

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, while the US Food and Drug Administration has considered the substance—aspartame—safe since 1974, others have long questioned that finding. Now, the World Health Organization is planning to release two new reports on the safety of the ingredient—used in drinks like Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi—and its potential carcinogenic effect. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, has called aspartame the low-calorie sweetener of “most concern” because, it says, there is “compelling evidence that it causes cancer and is a potent carcinogen.”

Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener — a substance that tastes sweet but doesn’t contain natural sugars or any calories if used in small amounts. Developed in 1965, aspartame has been widely tested by both government-funded and independent laboratories. Right now, you can find it in thousands of food items around the world, even though its safety is still being questioned.

Chemically, aspartame is quite simple — made of two naturally occurring amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine. It looks like a fine white powder and is almost 200 times sweeter than sucrose — otherwise known as sugar.  While it is not actually completely free of calories, the amounts of aspartame needed to sweeten foods and drinks to the same level as table sugar are very small and do not add to the calorie count.

New guidelines from the World Health Organization released on Monday have advised against using non-sugar sweeteners (NSS). “Replacing free sugars with NSS does not help with weight control in the long term. People need to consider other ways to reduce free sugars intake, such as consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit, or unsweetened food and beverages,” says Francesco Branca, WHO Director for Nutrition and Food Safety.

WHO also noted that “potential undesirable effects from long-term use” of NSS, such as an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The results of the review also suggest that there may be other dangerous consequences such as the increased risk of premature death among adults.