The claim

Is there a link between Aspartame and cancer? Most of us have heard the rumor that Aspartame (sold under the brand names NutraSweet^® and Equal^®) could be linked to cancer, among many other health problems. I’ve heard about this cancer link rumor for years. I’ve nearly eliminated aspartame from my diet but not completely – yet. Whenever I add NutraSweet to my coffee, have a diet soda, or chew gum containing aspartame there’s this voice in the back of my head wondering if I’m doing something harmful to my body. I decided it was time to do some research and find out.

The Research

American Cancer Society

I started with an article from the American Cancer Society. (I figured that would be a good place to start.) According to the article, they found no significant link between aspartame and cancer. The article stated that people have complained of health issues they “believed were caused by aspartame”, but there were no clear links established. According to this article, aspartame is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but don’t let that necessarily put your mind at ease (I’ll go into more on the FDA later). Apparently, they’ve set a standard as to how much is “safe” to be consumed each day over the course of a person’s lifetime. They set this amount to be “100 times less than the smallest amount that might cause health problems” based on animal lab studies.

New York Times

The NY Times article I read was also inconclusive. Based on this article, the animal lab results conducted by aspartame’s creator, G.D. Searle (results used to persuade the FDA to approve it for human consumption) were “seriously flawed”. In fact, an FDA report found his studies to be “poorly conceived, carelessly executed, or inaccurately analyzed or reported.” (They explain how the results were most likely flawed in this article.) Geroge H. Pauli, associate director for science policy in the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, as well as the European Commission, stated there’s no reason for people to stop using aspartame based on their studies. 

Dr. Morando Soffritti, on the other hand, who has done extensive research on aspartame and oversees 180 scientists and researchers in 30 countries, said he was concerned about the masses using aspartame, in particular children and pregnant women. He believes there’s evidence that points to aspartame being a carcinogen and that further independent studies were needed.

Based on Dr. Soffritti’s results, Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group, believes the research around whether or not aspartame is a carcinogen needs an “urgent re-examination”.

Snopes

Then I turned to Snopes – Isn’t this where everyone does their fact-checking? According to this article, one of the claims around aspartame is that when you heat Aspartame to 86 degrees or higher, the wood alcohol methanol (which makes up one-third of the aspartame molecule and is considered a “severe metabolic poison and narcotic”) converts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid causing metabolic acidosis. Huh?

David Hattan, Director of the Division of Health Effects Evaluation in the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, confirmed this claim is accurate but said that the levels of ingestion are “very modest” and that we eat other foods that contain as much if not more methanol. Hattan went on to explain that two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid do have neurotoxic effects in higher doses in certain individuals but the USFDA has not been able to make a correlation of adverse health reactions from aspartame ingestion and continues to confirm it’s safe to ingest. (Yeah, I’m still not convinced.)

Huffington Post

Then I read an interesting article from the Huffington Post regarding Donald Rumsfeld and his link to Aspartame. (Weird, I know) I won’t go into that connection in this blog, but I encourage you to read it. According to this article, back in 1996, Attorney, James Turner, and Dr. John Olney (who founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity) tried to stop the approval of aspartame. The FDA’s own toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, participated by addressing Congress with the news that aspartame absolutely can cause brain tumors and brain cancer and that it violated the Delaney Amendment, forbidding anything in food known to cause cancer.

According to top doctors and researchers, ingesting aspartame can lead to “headache, memory loss, seizures, vision loss, coma, and cancer”. It can make symptoms worse or mimic the symptoms of certain diseases and conditions such as fibromyalgia, MS, lupus, ADD, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue, and depression.

In the peer-reviewed journal, ‘Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Health’, Dr. Woodrow Monte wrote: “When diet sodas and soft drinks, sweetened with aspartame, are used to replace fluid loss during exercise and physical exertion in hot climates, the intake of methanol can exceed 250 mg/day or 32 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limit of consumption for this cumulative poison.” According to Dr. Betty Martini, the founder of Mission Possible International who tried to remove aspartame from food, drinks, and medicine said, “aspartame has brought more complaints to the FDA than any other additive and is responsible for 75% of such complaints to that agency.”  (And the FDA continues to confirm its safety? Really?)

In 1995, the FDA was forced to release a list of aspartame-related symptoms under the Freedom of Information Act. Out of over 10,000 consumer complaints, the FDA listed 92 symptoms. One of those being death. (Sounds like a correlation to me, Mr. Hattan.)

Environmental Protective Agency (EPA)

More recently, the EPA has found Aspartame to be a “potentially dangerous chemical along with BPA”. It also has been known to interact with medications such as antidepressants, hormones, insulin, L-dopa, Coumadin, all cardiac medications and many others.

It’s even more concerning to learn that Monsanto began the production of Aspartame (1985 – 2000). This is a corporation that, in my opinion, cares more about its bottom line than doing what’s right.

My conclusion

Although I haven’t found, with 100% certainty, a definitive link between aspartame and cancer, there is absolute evidence it can cause adverse side effects. Even though most of us might not experience the health effects now, what might be the result after years of ingestion?

I also believe on some level, we intuitively know what’s good or bad for us. The negative side effects we experience are our bodies’ way of saying, “no thank you”. While some people may have zero side effects from aspartame, I know people who get minor sore throats and/or headaches when they ingest it. As the comedian, Jeff Foxworthy says, “Here’s your sign”.

My intention for these articles is to help people make informed and conscious decisions about what we put into our bodies. I hope the information I’ve provided helps you in some way. As always, if you have additional information and/or would like to provide feedback, please feel free to contact me.

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