Do You Need To Cut Out Aspartame?

 

 

Do You Need To Cut Out Aspartame

Moderation is important for lowering risks

Closeup of sugar substitute in granulated and pill form on a blue background.

Some things are well-understood to be healthy for our bodies: fruits, vegetables, exercise.

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And some things are almost universally agreed as a danger to your well-being: smoking, drug use, driving without a seatbelt.

 

But not everything is so clear-cut. Not every food we eat or activity we do can fall neatly into the category of “good for you” or “bad for you.” There are gray areas. Questions of quantity. Matters of how you personally react to one thing or another.

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That’s the case with the artificial sweetener aspartame.

 

On one hand, aspartame can be a saving grace for people with diabetes (“Sweet taste without the calories, and no impact on your blood sugar!”). On the other, there’s reason to be cautious.

 

Amid reports declaring aspartame a possible carcinogen (cancer-causing agent), we talked with oncologist Dale Shepard, MD, PhD, about aspartame — the good, the bad and what to do about it.

 

What is aspartame?

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that goes by brand names like NutraSweet®, Equal® and Sugar Twin®.

 

Like other artificial sweeteners — including saccharine (Sweet’n Low®) and sucralose (Splenda®) — it’s a common ingredient in foods labeled “sugar-free” or “no added sugar.”

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That can include products like:

 

Diet soda.

Juice.

Gum.

Candy.

Baked goods.

Ice cream.

Packaged snacks and desserts. 

Yogurt.

Aspartame and other non-nutritive sweeteners are popular among people looking for a sugarless route to satisfying their sweet tooth. That includes people with diabetes, people on sugar-restricting diets like keto and people who are trying to lose weight. 

 

A gram of aspartame contains 4 calories, which is the same as sugar. But aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar. So, you don’t have to use nearly as much to get the same sweetness factor.

 

So, if you switch from sugar to aspartame, you essentially cut the calories to zero. And aspartame doesn’t impact your blood sugar, so it’s marketed as a good choice for people with diabetes and other people who need to be monitor their blood sugar.

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Does aspartame cause cancer?

The latest scientific evidence suggests that aspartame may be associated with cancer. And the World Health Organization (WHO) lists aspartame as a possible cause of cancer. None of that means that aspartame directly causes cancer. There’s a difference.

 

 

Let’s look at the research.

 

In the largest trial to date on the effects of aspartame, researchers followed more than 100,000 people over about eight years and documented what they ate and drank. They found that people who consumed aspartame at high levels were about 15% more likely to develop cancer than people who didn’t have aspartame in their diet. That included an 

increased risk of:

 

Breast cancer.

Endometrial cancer.

Colon cancer.

Stomach cancer.

Prostate cancer.

“When we research foods and their connection to cancer, we can see when people who eat a particular type of food are more likely to develop cancer, but that’s not proving a causal relationship,” Dr. Shepard clarifies. “We don’t know necessarily whether aspartame causes cancer.”

 

It’s a complicated question to research. Do people who eat a lot of aspartame get cancer because of aspartame? Or do high-aspartame consumers have something else in common — like a chronic health condition, vitamin deficiency or lifestyle choices — that leads to their increased cancer risk? After all, aspartame use is likely to be higher among people living with diabetes and obesity. Might those conditions be the root cause of a higher cancer risk?

aspartame 

As of now, we don’t know for sure, and the WHO’s designation of aspartame reflects that uncertainty.

 

The WHO ranks carcinogens into four groups based on how likely they are to cause cancer. Aspartame is listed as a “Group 2B carcinogen.” That’s the designation reserved for things believed to possibly cause cancer but that don’t have sufficient evidence to say they do for sure.

 

“Group 1 carcinogens are things we know cause cancer, like tobacco use and sun exposure,” Dr. Shepard explains. “Then, there’s Group 2A, which are things that probably cause cancer, like red meat. Group 2B is a step below that and includes things like car exhaust, lead and aspartame.”

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Aspartame risks and side effects

In addition to its association with cancer, aspartame can come with some other unwanted effects. 

 

Some scientists and physicians say sugar and artificial sweeteners like aspartame can be addictive in a way. They light up your nervous system, sending loads of feel-good hormones, like dopamine, throughout your body. It makes your body want more and more of the sweet stuff, which can lead to overconsumption.

aspartame 

What’s more is that some people may not react well to aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. The sugar alcohols used in making some artificial sweeteners can cause stomach discomfort, like bloating, cramps and diarrhea. And one common sugar alcohol, erythritol, has been linked to increased risk for heart attack and stroke.

 

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With my best wishes