Have a sweet tooth and can't say no to artificial sweeteners? Then it's probably time to manage your cravings. The World Health Organisation's (WHO) recent assessment on Aspartame, artificial sweetener in food and drinks, has classified it as “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.
The study on non-sugar sweetener aspartame was released jointly by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).
What is Aspartame
Since the 1980s, the safety of aspartame chemical was in question. Many studies had raised the flag against artificial sweetener's ill-effect on the health.
Aspartame is widely used in various food and drinks including diet drinks, chewing gum, gelatin, ice cream, dairy products such as yogurt, breakfast cereal, and toothpaste. Its traces were also found in medications such as cough drops and chewable vitamins.
As per studies, aspartame when consumed breaks down in the gut into three substances--phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol.
Researchers had pointed out that aspartame is not directly making cancerous mutations in people's DNA.
What's its safe intake
The acceptable daily intake of aspartame is 0-40 mg per body weight of the person.
According to the experts, it would require a person to consume 9-14 cans per day to exceed the acceptable intake. Now this is assuming that there is no other intake from other foods. It is also noted that a can of diet soft drink contains 200 or 300 mg of aspartame.
With cancer being one of the leading causes of deaths globally, experts have raised concerns on the diet patterns of people especially children.
IARC, WHO's cancer experts, was the first body to assess the evidence on carcinogenicity of an agent. IARC's four possible classifications:
Group 1- Carcinogenic (cancer causing) to humans
Group 2A- Probably carcinogenic to humans
Group 2B- Possibly carcinogenic to humans
Group 3- Not classifiable
More studies required
“We need better studies with longer follow-up and repeated dietary questionnaires in existing cohorts. We need randomized controlled trials, including studies of mechanistic pathways relevant to insulin regulation, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, particularly as related to carcinogenicity,” said Dr Moez Sanaa, WHO’s Head of the Standards and Scientific Advice on Food and Nutrition Unit.
In the case of children it is easy to get to the acceptable limit.
Dr Francesco Branca, director of the department of nutrition and food safety at WHO told BBC that it is "not a good practice" to have a sweet fizzy drink on the table at family dinner time. Children are at the risk for developing sweet tooth for life, he added.
He also stressed that evidence show sweeteners do not help people lose weight.
“Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Every year, 1 in 6 people die from cancer. Science is continuously expanding to assess the possible initiating or facilitating factors of cancer, in the hope of reducing these numbers and the human toll,” said Branca.
“The assessments of aspartame have indicated that, while safety is not a major concern at the doses which are commonly used, potential effects have been described that need to be investigated by more and better studies,” he added.
According to the assessment, IARC classified aspartame as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B) on the basis of limited evidence for cancer in humans (specifically, for hepatocellular carcinoma, which is a type of liver cancer).
The evaluations were based on scientific data collected from a range of sources, including peer-reviewed papers, governmental reports and studies conducted for regulatory purposes.
