Aspartame and the American Cancer Society: not so funny

Here is what I was reading today on the website of the American Cancer Society (ACS) about aspartame:

"In the body, aspartame is broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol. Methanol can be toxic in high amounts, but the amounts that result from the breakdown of aspartame is lower than with many “natural” foods. For example, drinking a liter of diet soda would lead to consumption of 55 milligrams (mg) of methanol, as compared to as much as 680 mg of methanol from a liter of fruit juice."

At first I thought it was funny (if ignorant = funny), but then I got angry. How is it that a society of such a prestige does not advise its audience that both types of drink are not good (with or without aspartame)? But what do I expect from a society that organizes massive anti-cancer events that overflow with candy?

The additional information supplied by the website is intriguing:

"The FDA has set the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for aspartame at 50 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which regulates food additives in the European Union, recommends a slightly lower ADI for aspartame, at 40 mg/kg."

Consider this information. Compared to Europeans, Americans are somehow 25% more resistant to the effects of aspartame (and its ADI). Of course, I cannot blame ACS for this estimate, after all, FDA decided on this.

Supposedly, ADI is set to be about 100 times less than the smallest amount that might cause health concerns, based on studies done in lab animals. And here comes the discussion of the animal studies:

"Many studies have looked for health effects in lab animals fed aspartame, often in doses higher than 4,000 mg/kg per day over their lifetimes. These studies have not found any health problems that are consistently linked with aspartame.

Two studies published by a group of Italian researchers suggested that very high doses of aspartame might increase the risk of some blood-related cancers (leukemias and lymphomas) in rats. However, both the FDA and the EFSA have called these results into question, citing a lack of some important data in the published studies and other concerns."

How about the dangers of irritability, depression, deteriorated emotional condition, reduced brain function/learning capabilities, and overweight/obesity?


I had to look beyond the website of ACS for this information. Here is what I found:

1.The reason artificially sweetened beverages have been associated with depression may be because of psychological disturbances recently tied to aspartame (“Equal” or “NutraSweet”).

2. Case reports of fibromyalgia chronic pain sufferers cured by removing the artificial sweetener aspartame (Nutrasweet) from their diets.

3. Aspartame may be the reason that diet soda consumption during pregnancy has been linked to premature birth.

4. What effect do artificial sweeteners such as sucralose (Splenda), saccharin (Sweet & Low), aspartame (Nutrasweet) and acesulfame K (Sweet One) have on our gut bacteria?

5. People consuming low calorie sweeteners may overcompensate by eating more than they otherwise would.

6. The disconnect between sweetness sensations coming from our tongue and the lack of a caloric feedback loop in the gut may result in overeating. 

7. Case report of aspartame-associated brain disease.