This may be hard for a lot of diet soda lovers to swallow.
The World Health Organization is set to declare aspartame, a common artificial sweetener, as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” Reuters reported. In other words, the WHO may be poised to say that consuming aspartame has the potential to cause cancer.
Considering that aspartame is used to sweeten many popular products like Diet Coke, Snapple and Extra chewing gum, Google
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searches such as “what products have aspartame” and “what is a carcinogen” spiked more than 5,000% after the news was reported on Thursday morning.
While several studies have attempted to uncover if aspartame has any major health effects — with one concluding that it may cause headaches, seizures and depression — the Food and Drug Administration and the American Cancer Society have both labeled aspartame as safe for human consumption, while noting that research into the sugar substitute remains ongoing.
“I’ve never seen a body this authoritative, this high-level, and this scientifically distinguished rule on aspartame in this way,” Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, told MarketWatch in response to the anticipated WHO announcement.
So here is what you need to know about aspartame:
What is aspartame?
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is used in some foods like desserts, gum and sugar-free cough drops, but is most commonly added to beverages.
As an artificial sweetener, aspartame is often used as a sugar substitute for “diet” versions of products. Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar, according to the Calorie Control Council, so a smaller amount can be used to sweeten products, allowing for a lower overall calorie count in a product.
Which foods and drinks contain aspartame?
Aspartame is used in many popular products that millions of people use every day, including Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Mars’ Extra chewing gum and some Snapple drinks, among many others.
Other popular products that may contain aspartame include some table sweeteners common in restaurants, such as Equal and NutraSweet, some sugar-free gum sold by Trident, as well as some low-sugar juices and condiments.
Representatives for Coca-Cola
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and Pepsi
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did not respond to MarketWatch’s request for comment on this story.
What is a carcinogen?
A carcinogen is a substance, organism or agent that is capable of causing cancer. The American Cancer Society notes, however, that a carcinogen doesn’t always cause cancer in people, or every time there is any kind of exposure. Some substances may only be carcinogenic if a person is exposed in a certain way (for example, swallowing it as opposed to touching it). And some carcinogens may only cause cancer in people who have a certain genetic makeup.
What is the WHO saying about aspartame?
The World Health Organization has not made an official announcement yet, but Reuters reports that the WHO’s cancer research arm (the International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC) is poised to declare aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” as early as July. It should be noted that while the IARC may consider whether a product is potentially hazardous or not, it doesn’t consider how much of the product can be safely consumed, which is done by another agency.
This isn’t the first time that sweeteners have caught the WHO’s attention. Last May, the WHO urged people not to use nonsugar sweeteners, including aspartame, for weight control, citing the potential risks of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality in adults.
“There has been this underlying message for a long time now that aspartame is not healthy,” said Nestle.
The WHO has labeled some food items as carcinogens in the past if they’re abused, such as red meat — and particularly processed red meat like cold cuts and bacon. But unlike aspartame, meat eaten in moderation also has nutritional value, such as protein, iron and vitamin B12.
There’s no nutritional value to an artificial sweetener like aspartame, Nestle noted. “You’re dealing with something here that is not an essential nutrient. It’s discretionary. It’s not a vitamin or a mineral.” Nestle said. “Nobody is going to be harmed by eating less aspartame. Nobody except the companies that make it. There’s no requirement for it in the diet.”
Is aspartame banned? Is it safe?
Aspartame is not banned. And the FDA has ruled that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners are safe to consume, when used properly. As recently as May 30, 2023, the FDA said “based on the available scientific evidence, sweeteners authorized by the FDA are safe for the general population under certain conditions of use.”
Those sweeteners labeled as safe include aspartame, acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), sucralose neotame, advantame and saccharin. And the FDA has set the acceptable daily intake (or ADI) for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram (aka 2.2. pounds) of body weight — which the American Cancer Society amounts to drinking 36 cans or more of diet soda a day, since just a little aspartame goes a long way. In fact, the aspartame found in soft drinks can be three to six times less than the FDA’s maximum permitted levels. So it’s unlikely that most people are consuming more than the daily recommended amount.
An FDA official told MarketWatch that it would be “inappropriate” to speculate on other organizations’ assessments of aspartame, adding that “scientific evidence has continued to support its conclusion that aspartame is safe for the general population when made under good manufacturing practices.”
In addition to the WHO’s warning earlier this year that artificial sweeteners could lead to heart disease and diabetes, several studies have also linked heavy drinkers of diet soda to an increased risk of stroke and brain disease.
So why haven’t we come up with clear guidelines yet on how much aspartame, if any, is safe to consume?
That process is conducted by a separate panel. The IARC identifies potential hazards for consumers, and then an independent group called the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) will determine the probability of harm and dangerous exposure levels, a WHO spokesperson told MarketWatch. Updates on aspartame from those groups will be announced on July 14, 2023.
Part of the reason new information on aspartame from the WHO would be welcomed is that research into the sweetener is generally difficult to execute.
“The research is almost impossible to do because people don’t consume aspartame in very large amounts. They consume it in very small amounts, and in a soft drink it doesn’t take much to sweeten,” Nestle said. “The research is difficult to do, and the research that has been done is contradictory — and some of it has been done by the companies that stand to benefit from aspartame.”
Industry groups have argued that aspartame poses no harm. “There is a broad consensus in the scientific and regulatory community that aspartame is safe. It’s a conclusion reached time and time again by food safety agencies around the world,” the American Beverage Association, which describes itself as the voice for the non-alcoholic beverage industry in the U.S., told MarketWatch in an email.
For consumers, it’s worth noting that a food being labeled as “safe” is not equivalent to it being healthy.
Is sucralose better than aspartame?
When comparing different artificial sweeteners to one other, like sucralose and aspartame, it isn’t clear based on publicly available research if one has certain health benefits or risks vs the other.
“We don’t have any idea,” Nestle said, citing the aforementioned contradictory research for artificial sweeteners.
One piece of advice that Nestle did give was a possible move to sugar over artificial sweeteners.
Let’s be clear: she’s not telling people to eat more sugar. But she said that, “small amounts of sugar is not a problem for most people. It’s the large amounts of sugar that are a problem.” After all, the American Heart Association notes that American adults consume an average of 17 teaspoons of added sugar every day, which is more than two to three times the recommended amount.
“You can metabolize sugar. You need sugar for your brain,” she said.
She says that, depending on the person, getting about 10% of your daily calories from sugar is not something to worry about. But you should check with your doctor or healthcare provider to determine how much sugar would be best for your daily diet.
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