Posted on 07/28/2005 9:07:32 PM PDT by gusopol3
Edited on 07/28/2005 9:20:18 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
A study of rats links low doses of aspartame -- the sweetener in NutraSweet, Equal, and thousands of consumer products -- to leukemia and lymphoma.
But food industry officials point out that many other studies have found no link between aspartame and cancer. The rats in the study were fed various doses of aspartame throughout their lives. In female but not male rats, lymphoma and leukemia were significantly associated with daily aspartame doses as low as 20 milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg) of body weight. And there was a trend toward these cancers at doses as low as 4 mg/kg of body weight.
To reach a dose of 20 mg/kg, a 140-pound woman would need to drink three cans of diet soda a day. A 180-pound man would need to drink four cans of diet soda a day.
And diet soda isn't the only source of aspartame. The sweetener is in thousands of products, ranging from yogurt to over-the-counter medicines.
The average person consumes about 2 or 3 mg/kg aspartame each day. However, that figure goes way up for children and young women.
The study comes from an independent research team led by Morando Soffritti, MD, scientific director of the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences in Bologna, Italy.
"What I am recommending is for healthy children and women -- if they do not have diabetes -- to avoid consumer use of aspartame," Soffritti tells WebMD. "We cannot continue to use aspartame in 6,000 types of products, soft drinks, yogurt, and whatever."
Consumer Group Reacts
A consumer watchdog group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has called for FDA action. At a minimum, the FDA should start its own studies and warn consumers of the potential danger, says CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson, PhD.
"The U.S. government really should analyze this study very carefully. If it is accepted as top quality, it could lead to a ban on aspartame," Jacobson tells WebMD. "I think a lot of companies are going to see the writing on the wall from this study and switch to newer artificial sweeteners. Meanwhile, I think consumers should switch to Splenda, the sweetener known as sucralose."
But Jacobson urges consumers not to panic.
"The risk to an individual is quite small," he says. "So people shouldn't fear that if they have one diet soda a day they are going to develop cancer. And I must say, the one qualm I have about the study is they found an increased risk of cancer at such a low level of exposure. If aspartame were that potent a carcinogen, I wonder if we wouldn't be seeing a real epidemic of cancer."
Soffritti has presented his findings to the European Food Safety Authority. In its 2002 review of aspartame safety, the EFSA found no cause for alarm. It promises that the new data will get a "high priority" evaluation.
"EFSA does not consider it appropriate to suggest any change in consumers' diets relative to aspartame on the basis of the information it currently has," the EFSA announced on July 14.
Low-Calorie Industry: No Cause for Alarm
The new findings fly in the face of all previous studies of aspartame safety, says the Calorie Control Council, an international association representing the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry.
The Soffritti study findings "are not consistent with the extensive scientific research and regulatory reviews done on aspartame," the CCC says in a statement. "Aspartame has been used by hundreds of millions of consumers around the world for over 20 years. With billions of man-years of safe use, there is no indication of an association between aspartame and cancer in humans."
The CCC points to four long-term studies on aspartame that failed to find any relationship between aspartame and any form of cancer.
It's true that reports linking brain and breast cancer to aspartame had little merit, says blood-cancer specialist Martin R. Weihrauch, MD, of the University of Cologne, Germany. Last year, Weihrauch reported on his analysis of all published studies on artificial sweeteners in the Annals of Oncology.
"The entire stuff about brain tumors and breast cancer was really nonsense, Weihrauch tells WebMD.
So what does he think of the new study linking aspartame to leukemia and lymphoma?
"I think it is shocking news," he says. "However, the data have to be carefully reviewed and the study redone. Not because of their methods, probably they are fine. But for a study like this, which brings out data that would make a big change in what consumers do every day, it certainly has to be confirmed. It is worrisome."
What Happened to the Rats
Soffritti's study findings may be a first report, but the study was quite thorough. It looked at 1,800 rats fed various doses of aspartame -- or no aspartame at all -- from age 8 weeks until death. When the animals died, the researchers did a thorough autopsy.
They found that:
A daily dose of 20 milligrams of aspartame per kilogram of body weight was linked to lymphomas and leukemias in female -- but not male -- rats.
Rats that got daily doses of as little as 4 mg/kg aspartame got lymphomas and leukemias 62% more often than those that got no aspartame, but this finding could have been due to chance.
A few brain tumors were seen in rats fed aspartame, while those who did not get the sweetener did not get brain tumors. But this finding, too, could have been due to chance.
The findings are scheduled to appear in the European Journal of Oncology.
Sources: Soffritti, M. European Journal of Oncology, 2005; vol 10. Weihrauch, M.R. and Diehl, V. Annals of Oncology, 2004; vol 15: pp 1460-1465. News release, Center for Science in the Public Interest. News release, European Food Safety Authority. News release, European Ramazzini Foundation for Oncology and Environmental Sciences. News release, Calorie Control Council. FDA. The National Toxicology Program. NutraSweet web site. Morando Soffritti, MD, scientific director, European Ramazzini Foundation for Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, executive director, Center for Science in the Public Interest. Martin R. Weihrauch, MD, research fellow, University of Cologne, Germany.
Well, I prefer to follow my doctor's direction as she heads up the entire department at the University of Kansas Medical School, rather than an unknown (to me at least) from Cologne but thank you very much for the information.
"Yes."
dangit!
I'll quit drinking pop.
I don't want to die someday.
Glad a lot of companies are either switching to Splenda or adding another line like Coke and Pepsi have.
The Diet Coke with Splenda is pretty good, not as sweet as reg. Coke but still a lot better than Diet Coke.
Now they need to expand the line to include all the other Coke products, especially Cherry, Vanilla and Lime.
Diet Rite uses Splenda - the best flavor is the Tangerine.
uhhh... RUT-ROH SHAGGY!
Rummy's old company. He was CEO when this product came out.
SEARLE products. MMMN. I've seen this twice this month. Don't know what to make of it.
I do drink a fair amount of Diet Mountain Dew . . . hmmmm
----
Me too. 3-4/day
Is that okay for me?
Must be an upper-Midwest thing.
If it tastes like poison, it is poison.
Yes, I've heard Rush talk about him and he gets pretty fired up. It's just annoying when people get in your business like that. How appropriate that the study he references comes from a place called Balogna. At a certain point you have to decide that certain things are an acceptable risk and ENJOY YOUR LIFE!
No I'm not,..."all I am saying is give peace a chance",...no, just kidding. I don't know or care if it's flawed. I've got more important things than diet soda to worry about (I put de lime in de Coka)......LIKE THE ISLAMOFASCISTS NUKING US!!!
AND ALL THE LEFT WING SCUM TRAITORS IN OUR MIDST.
Then I'll worry about Equal and diet Sprite. Sorry.
My dad always likes to say "life is sweetened by risk" -- in this case, literally!
Oh sorry, then it's just newer BS.
Three lefties with a fax machine.
I was young but the first product I remember them actually pulling was Gatorade because of cyclomates(sp?).
Or was I hallucinating that year?
"maybe someone with an interest in high sugar prices"
or the insane, nutball, health food nannies fascists.
Is Splenda safe???
So if I'm reading this correctly--since no previous study showed any link to cancer at all--not one study has ever linked aspartame to cancer in males.
Splenda is sugar, more or less. It can't cause cancer unless it's discovered that sugar does.
I've read their Nutrition Action Newsletter. It reads like DNC talking points. Just replace "George W. Bush" with "T-bone steak" and "Hillary Rodham Clinton" with "leafy, green vegetable." They even have a section called "Food Porn" where they lambast their high-calorie victim-of-the-week.
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