2023-07-14 03:51:38
Thunderbolt in the agri-food world, or a simple symbolic step in the controversy over the supposed dangerousness of sweeteners? Aspartame, a “false sugar” present in dozens of products consumed daily in France and around the world, has just been classified this Friday as “possible carcinogen” (or “possibly carcinogenic) by the International Center for Research on Cancer (IARC), who announced it at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
The conclusions of this body of the World Health Organization (WHO) were published overnight from Thursday to Friday in the very serious scientific journal The Lancet Oncology. However, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has not recommended lowering the maximum recommended daily dose. Explanations.
What is aspartame?
Appeared in the 1980s, aspartame is a sweetener, that is to say a food additive giving a sweet taste. Generally present in the form of a white powder, it is used in several thousand low-calorie foods and drinks: yoghurts, cereals, confectionery, but also sodas, Coke Zero and other Pepsi Max, chewing gum and certain medicines such as syrups and pastilles.
Its sweetening power is “about 200 times greater than that of sugar”, says the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA). In other words, “a very small volume helps maintain a sweet taste,” describes Jean-Michel Lecerf, head of the nutrition department at the Institut Pasteur de Lille.
What justified the change of category?
The IARC decided to revisit the case of aspartame “due to the availability of new research results on cancer in humans and laboratory animals”. About 1,300 studies, conducted in multiple countries, were analyzed in detail.
Among them, a French research caused a stir. Published in March 2022, in the journal PLOS Medicine, it was conducted on more than 100,000 adults between 2009 and 2021. Result: those who consumed the most sweeteners, in particular aspartame and acesulfame-K, had an increased risk of developing cancer, all types of affected organs. In particular, that of the breast and related to obesity.
“These results do not support the use of sweeteners as safe alternatives to sugar (…) and provide important data for their ongoing reassessment by the European Food Safety Authority and other public health agencies. in the world,” concluded Dr. Mathilde Touvier, research director at Inserm and coordinator of this study at the time.
What does “possibly carcinogenic” mean?
The IARC distinguishes four categories: “unclassifiable”, “possibly carcinogenic”, “probably carcinogenic” and “carcinogenic” to humans. “It is sometimes very difficult to go from possible to probable, and a fortiori from probable to certain”, advances Jean-Michel Lecerf.
The “possibly carcinogenic” category includes products with “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans”, “sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in laboratory animals”, or “demonstrating that the agent has key characteristics of carcinogens”. .
So far, 322 compounds were concerned. We find in this list Aloe vera, titanium dioxide but also a lot of chemicals. Aspartame is therefore now part of it.
So, is it risky to consume products containing aspartame?
Watch out for the rush! The studies analyzed have shown only “limited” evidence of cancer in humans and animals, according to the WHO, which strongly calls on the scientific community to deepen the investigations: there is therefore a signal to explore. Drinking Coke Zero from time to time or eating a fake sugar cake “does not automatically have any health consequences”, assures Dr Mary Schubauer-Berigan of the IARC. But you have to “limit your consumption”. One word to remember: moderation.
Accordingly, there is no reason to lower the standards at this time. And the aspartame lobby, relieved, applauds with both hands. “The IARC is not a food safety organization and their review of aspartame is not scientifically complete and largely based on largely discredited research,” Frances Hunt-Wood, secretary general of the IARC, said in late June. International Sweeteners Association.
Set in 2013 by the European Medicines Safety Agency, “the acceptable daily dose” is 40 mg per kilogram of body weight. Concretely, this gives 3,200 mg of aspartame per day for someone weighing 80 kg. For example, the Circ evokes a can of light soda which contains between 200 and 300 mg. It will therefore be necessary – for a person weighing 80 kg – to consume between 10 and 16 per day for there to be a risk! Fortunately, the actual consumption is “far less” than this amount, estimates the EFSA.
The WHO also calls on parents not to accustom their children to consuming light sodas. But what to choose between red Coke and Coke Zero: sugar, fake sugar? To this question, Doctor Francesco Branca, director of nutrition at the WHO, answers: “There is a third alternative, which is to drink water. »
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