2023-07-14 08:35:06
“A working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer Iarc, made up of 25 experts, met in Lyon to make an assessment, reviewed all available data and classified aspartame as a possible human carcinogen i.e. in group 2B”. This is the announcement that comes from the World Health Organization. The IARC verdict was explained by Mary Schubauer-Berigan, interim head of the WHO agency’s monographs programme, who pointed out that the decision is based on “limited evidence in humans for one type of liver cancer, the hepatocellular carcinoma, resulting from 3 studies conducted in the United States and 10 European countries”.
In parallel another expert committee, the Joint FAO/Who Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), dealt with a risk assessment and decided to confirm “an acceptable daily intake level of up to 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight “, said Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety Department. The reason is that “in vitro and in vivo genotoxicity studies gave conflicting results” and “confounding factors cannot be excluded,” he pointed out. An aspect also touched upon by the Iarc expert, who specified how all 3 of the studies taken into consideration “examined the consumption of artificially sweetened drinks (Asb)”, considered by the working group to be a “good index of exposure to aspartame “, considering that this was the main sweetener used in drinks. A summary of these findings is published online in ‘Lancet oncology’.
But how should people behave now regarding the consumption of these products? “If you consume aspartame to avoid sugar consumption, and the effects of high sugar intake for example on body weight, WHO has already recommended in the guidelines released a couple of weeks ago to moderate both the consumption of free sugars and the consumption of sweeteners.So, if consumers are faced with the decision whether to have a drink with sweeteners or one with sugar, I think a third option should be considered, which is to drink water.And limit the consumption of sweetening products,” Branca suggested.
This, continued the WHO expert, “is particularly important for young children, who would be exposed to a taste adjustment soon enough and therefore essentially directed to continue consuming sugary products. There are alternatives that do not contain free sugars or sweeteners and should be preferred by consumers”. Branca was keen to clarify the meaning of the conclusion reached by the risk assessment: “It does not indicate that the consumption of sweeteners automatically entails an impact on health. Having the definition of an acceptable daily intake means that it is acceptable to consume a certain amount of aspartame without having appreciable health effects. This amount is quite large.”
To give an idea, Branca explained that: for an adult with an average weight of about 70 kg, this translates into “2,800 milligrams a day of aspartame. If we look, for example, at the aspartame content in common sodas, it is about 200- 300 milligrams a day, that means consuming between 9 and 14 cans of these sodas. Turns out that’s a pretty large amount. So surely WHO isn’t recommending manufacturers or authorities withdraw products from the market. But it is considering the fact that there are some concerns that have been identified by some studies, not consistently, not clearly enough. And he’s advising consumers not to stop consuming these products, just a little moderation.”
“The consumption of products containing sweeteners, argued the expert, “has increased. And the use of sweeteners, including aspartame, has increased in an effort to meet consumer demand to reduce free sugars.” ‘direct statement indicating that there is a known risk of cancer from consuming aspartame. Rather, considering the fact that there is limited evidence for a single type of cancer in humans, as well as limited evidence from animal studies and mechanistic studies, in our view this is really more of an appeal to the research community to try to clarify and better understand the carcinogenic risk that may or may not be posed by the consumption of aspartame”.
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