The World Health Organization has said three different things about aspartame this year.
First, they saidnot to use sweeteners like aspartame for weight loss.
Next, they designated aspartame, the sweetener in Diet Coke,a possible carcinogen.
Let me explain what it all really means.
Scientists should be aware of thepossibilitywe may confirm a link relevant to humans someday, and should keep researching.
The amount of aspartame currently used in food is unlikely to cause any realistic harms to health.
If youre keeping track on a scoreboard, thats two votes for aspartame bad and one for aspartame good.
But life is not a scoreboard, and science is not won by counting points from either side.
Positive and negative things can coexist and all be true.
What is the evidence that aspartame may cause cancer?
Spoiler: It is not strong evidence at all.
(Bold and italics theirs.)
Limited
evidence for cancer in humans
, based on findings for liver cancer (specifically, hepatocellular carcinoma).
There was also
limited
evidence
for cancer in experimental animals.
Also, there were unresolved questions on the interpretation of the histology of hepatocellular proliferations and bronchioloalveolar lesions.
Why did the WHO decide aspartame is safe?
The WHOs recent announcement is about what they call aspartames hazard and risk assessments.
Those are two different things.
Something is a health hazard if we know it has some kind of negative effect on health.
Aspartame was judged topossiblybe a health hazard.
Risk, on the other hand, is what matters in the real world.
What is theriskto us from consuming aspartame?
If there is one, its low.
No matter how much Diet Coke you drink, there is no aspartame in your bloodstream.
With those conclusions in mind, the committee decided not to change their previous guideline about aspartame.
The acceptable daily intake of aspartame is 0 to 40 milligrams per kilogram of a persons body weight.
How much aspartame is too much?
According to this guideline, 40 mg/kg would be the most you should consume on a daily basis.
(To be clear, its not like something terrible would happen at 41.
This is just the number they have picked to be safe.)
Next, we need to consider this in relation to our own body weight.
A kilogram is 2.2 pounds.
If you weigh 220 pounds, thats 100 kilograms.
So, lets do the math.
Me, I weigh about 70 kilograms.
I also drink my Diet Cokes in 16.9-ounce bottles.
Each of those bottles amounts to a dose of 3.7 milligrams per kilogram, for me.
(Thats more than a gallon.
Thats more than twice the amount of liquid youd consume if you had eight glasses of water a day.
I dont think anybody my size is in danger of accidentally consuming ten 16.9-ounce bottles ofanything.)
Many drinks, yogurts, protein bars, and other products use other sweeteners than aspartame.
They might use acesulfame potassium (ace-K), sucralose, or natural non-sugar sweeteners like stevia or monkfruit.
Then there are the sugar alcohols, likeerythritol.
