Aspartame and health risks, brief scientific review

0
144
aspartame

The harmfulness of aspartame–classified as a possible carcinogen but still widely found in foods–emerges in dozens of independent scientific studies, the subject of a valuable scientific review by U.S. Right to Know. (1)

Cancer

A cohort study of 102,865 French adults (Debras et al., 2022) associates consumption of artificial sweeteners-particularly aspartame and acesulfame-K-with an increased risk of cancer, particularly breast cancer, and obesity-related cancers. (2)

Three studies from the Ramazzini Institute of Bologna, Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center (Soffritti et al., 2006, 2007 and 2010) provide consistent evidence of carcinogenicity in rodents exposed to the substance. (3)

A scientific review from Boston College in the USA (Landrigan et al., 2021) confirms that aspartame is a chemical carcinogen in rodents and that prenatal exposure to aspartame increases the risk of cancer in their offspring. (4)

Another study from the Ramazzini Institute published in Annals of Global Health (Gnudi et al., 2023) details the diagnoses of hemolymphoreticular neoplasms (lymphomas) from the rat studies, confirming the dose-related trend of the diseases. (5)

Harvard researchers reported in theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Schernhammer et al,. 2012) a correlation between aspartame intake and an increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and multiple myeloma in men and leukemia in men and women. (6)

Brain tumors


Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology
reported as early as 1996 (Olney et al., 1996) epidemiological evidence linking the introduction of aspartame to the increased prevalence of an aggressive form of malignant brain tumors. (7)

Cardiovascular disease

The French NutriNet-Santé cohort study (Debras et al., 2022) previously reported on the GIFT website confirms the suspicion-already found in previous studies-that consumption of aspartame (E 951) increases the risk of cerebrovascular events (stroke).

A meta-analysis On artificial sweeteners published by the Canadian Medical Association Journal (Azad et al., 2017) – in addition to failing to identify the purported benefits of artificial sweeteners on weight loss – offered evidence on increased waist circumference and the higher incidence of obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular events related to their consumption. (8) Confirming previous study (Fowler et al., 2016) published in Physiology & Behavior. (9)


General Women’s Health Initiative.
, in a study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine (Vyas et al., 2015), revealed ‘a higher risk of events [cardiovascolari]’, cardiovascular disease mortality and all-cause mortality in women who consumed more than two diet drinks per day. (10)

These risks have been confirmed by WHO as of May 2023 for aspartame (E 951) and all other synthetic sweeteners: acesulfame K (E 950), advantame (E 969), cyclamates (E 952), neotame (E 961), saccharin (E 954), sucralose (E 955), and stevia and stevia derivatives (E 960). (11)

Stroke, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

Drinking soft drinks with synthetic sweeteners every day triples the likelihood of developing stroke and Alzheimer’s disease dementia, according to a study (Pase et al. 2017) published in Stroke. (12)

The methyl ester of aspartame is metabolized to methanol and can be converted to formaldehyde, exposure to which has in fact been linked to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (Yang et al., 2014). (13)

Neurotoxicity

Several studies link aspartame consumption to behavioral and cognitive problems including learning problems, headaches, seizures, migraines, irritable mood, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Research (Choudhary et al., 2017) published in Nutritional Neuroscience is cited in this regard. (14)

Headaches and migraines

Four scientific studies show a correlation between aspartame consumption and the occurrence of headaches:

  • Head and Face Pain Journal had published three studies associating migraine with both chewing gum with aspartame (Blumenthal et al., 1997) , and its dietary intake (Koehler et al., 1987; Lipton et al., 1988), (15)
  • A randomized double-blind study (Van den Eeden et al., 1994), published in Neurology, identified further correlations between aspartame intake and headaches. (16)

Gut dysbiosis, metabolic imbalance and obesity

Aspartame is also correlated with altered gut microbiota in offspring and mothers, along with obesity and diabetes risk, in a study (Jodi et al., 2020) published in Gut MBJ that also considers other sweeteners-synthetic and bulk-and finds confirmation in various research:

  • Aspartame consumption by pregnant women and new mothers affects the gut microbiota of their offspring (Weilan et al., 2022), (17)
  • aspartame elevated fasting glucose levels, and an insulin tolerance test showed that aspartame impairs insulin-stimulated glucose disposal… Fecal analysis of intestinal bacterial composition showed that aspartame increases total bacteria’ (Palmnäs et al., 2014). (18)

Other evidence

The scientific literature reports numerous health risks associated with the consumption of intensive sweeteners, aspartame in primis:

  • Premature birth. A Danish cohort study of 59,334 pregnant women (Thorhallur et al., 2010), published by American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, indicates that ‘daily intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks may increase the risk of preterm delivery,’(19)
  • premature menarche. ‘Consumption of caffeinated and artificially sweetened soft drinks was positively associated with the risk of early menarche in a U.S. group of African American and Caucasian girls‘ (Mueller et al., 2015), (20)
  • Parkinson’s disease. A recent scientific review (Kushigian et al., 2023), in Nutritional Neuroscience, considers the effects of aspartame consumption on Parkinson’s disease. ‘Multiple studies have shown decreased brain dopamine, decreased brain norepinephrine, increased oxidative stress, increased lipid peroxidation, and decreased memory function in rodents after the use of APM (aspartame, ed.),’(21)
  • anxiety. Researchers at Florida State University College of Medicine (USA), in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Jones et al., 2022), associated aspartame with anxiety-like behaviors in mice. The effects extended to the next two generations of males exposed to the sweetener, (22)
  • renal function. Clinical Journal of American Society of Nephrology (Curhan, 2011) finally indicates that consumption of more than two servings per day of artificially sweetened soft drinks ‘is associated with twice the risk of renal function decline in women.’ (23)

Advice to consumers

Consumers are advised to carefully read the ingredient list of chewing gum, energy drinks and soft drinks advertised as ‘sugar-free,’ ‘zero (sugars)’ or ‘diet. And avoid buying products that list ‘aspartame’ or ‘ E 951’ among the sweeteners.

Saccharin–historic protagonist of ‘sugar-free’ products before they were suspected of possible carcinogenicity (26) –and acesulfame K should also be avoided, in light of independent scientific studies associating various health risks with their consumption. (24,25)

Postscript

We citizens and representatives of civil society must demand that the European Commission (DG Sante) expeditiously manage serious emerging public health risks in the exercise of its responsibilities under the General Food Law .

The experience of titanium dioxide, banned in the EU six years after EFSA’s evidence on its dangerousness-and still allowed in drugs, cosmetics, toothpastes (28)-is the worst example of how public health is threatened rather than protected.

CSR (Corporate Social Reporting) and ESG(Environmental, Social, Governance) should as well consider the deliberate choices of industrial giants to continue the use of substances whose safety doubted in copious scientific literature. But greenwashing, it is known, is far more profitable. As well as unpunished‘ (Dario Dongo, Égalité, president).

Marta Strinati

Notes

(1) Stacy Malkan. Aspartame: Decades of science point to serious health risks. U.S. Right to Know. 25.7.23 https://usrtk.org/sweeteners/aspartame_health_risks/

(2) Charlotte Debras et al. Artificial sweeteners and cancer risk: Results from the NutriNet-Santé population-based cohort study. PLOS Medicine. March 2022. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950

(3) Soffritti M et al. First experimental demonstration of the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered in the feed to Sprague-Dawley rats. Environ Health Perspect. 2006 https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.8711

Soffritti M et al. Life-span exposure to low doses of aspartame beginning during prenatal life increases cancer effects in rats. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Sep. https://doi. org/10.1289/ehp.10271

Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Manservigi M, Tibaldi E, Lauriola M, Falcioni L, Bua L. Aspartame administered in feed, beginning prenatally through life span, induces cancers of the liver and lung in male Swiss mice. Am J Ind Med. 2010 Dec. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.20896

(4) Landrigan, P.J., Straif, K. Aspartame and cancer – new evidence for causation. Environ Health (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-021-00725-y

(5) Gnudi, F., Panzacchi, S., Tibaldi, E., Iuliani, M., Sgargi, D., Bua, L. and Mandrioli, D., 2023. Hemolymphoreticular Neoplasias from the Ramazzini Institute Long-term Mice and Rat Studies on Aspartame. Annals of Global Health, 89(1), p.43.DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4163

(6) Schernhammer Eva et al. Consumption of artificial sweetener- and sugar-containing soda and risk of lymphoma and leukemia in men and women. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.030833

(7) Olney JW, Farber NB, Spitznagel E, Robins LN. Increasing brain tumor rates: is there a link to aspartame? J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 1996 Nov;55(11):1115-23. doi: 10.1097/00005072-199611000-00002. PMID: 8939194.

(8) Meghan B. Azad, Ahmed M. Abou-Setta, Bhupendrasinh F. Chauhan, Rasheda Rabbani, Justin Lys, Leslie Copstein, Amrinder Mann, Maya M. Jeyaraman, Ashleigh E. Reid, Michelle Fiander, Dylan S. MacKay, Jon McGavock, Brandy Wicklow and Ryan Zarychanski. Nonnutritive sweeteners and cardiometabolic health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies. CMAJ July 17, 2017 189 (28) E929-E939; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.161390

(9) Fowler GSP. Low-calorie sweetener use and energy balance: Results from experimental studies in animals, and large-scale prospective studies in humans. Physiol Behav. 2016 Oct 1;164(Pt B):517-523. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.04.047. Epub 2016 Apr 26. PMID: 27129676; PMCID: PMC5045440.

(10) Vyas, A., Rubenstein, L., Robinson, J. et al. Diet Drink Consumption and the Risk of Cardiovascular Events: A Report from the Women’s Health Initiative. J GEN INTERN MED 30, 462-468 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-014-3098-0

(11) Marta Strinati. ‘Sugar-free’? Synthetic sweeteners are unnecessary and harmful, warns WHO. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 15.5.23

(12) Matthew P. Pase et al. Sugar- and Artificially Sweetened Beverages and the Risks of Incident Stroke and Dementia. A Prospective Cohort Study. Stroke. 2017 https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.016027

(13) Yang M, Lu J, Miao J, Rizak J, Yang J, Zhai R, Zhou J, Qu J, Wang J, Yang S, Ma Y, Hu X, He R. Alzheimer’s disease and methanol toxicity (part 1): chronic methanol feeding led to memory impairments and tau hyperphosphorylation in mice. J Alzheimers Dis. 2014;41(4):1117-29. doi: 10.3233/JAD-131529. PMID: 24787915.

(14) Choudhary AK, Lee YY. Neurophysiological symptoms and aspartame: What is the connection? Nutr Neurosci. 2018 Jun;21(5):306-316. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2017.1288340. Epub 2017 Feb 15. PMID: 28198207

 

(15) Blumenthal, H.J. and Vance, D.A. (1997), Chewing Gum Headaches. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 37: 665-666. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1526-4610.1997.3710665.x

Richard B. Lipton et al. Aspartame as a Dietary Trigger of Headache. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain. February, 1989 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1526-4610.1989.hed2902090.x

Shirley M. Koehler, Alan Glaros. The Effect of Aspartame on Migraine Headache. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain. February 1988 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2524.1988.hed2801010.x

(16) Van den Eeden SK, Koepsell TD, Longstreth WT Jr, van Belle G, Daling JR, McKnight B. Aspartame ingestion and headaches: a randomized crossover trial. Neurology. 1994 Oct;44(10):1787-93. doi: 10.1212/wnl.44.10.1787. PMID: 7936222.

(17) Wang Weilan, Nettleton Jodi E., Gänzle Michael G., Reimer Raylene A. A Metagenomics Investigation of Intergenerational Effects of Non-nutritive Sweeteners on Gut Microbiome . Frontiers in Nutrition. 2022. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.795848 DOI=10.3389/fnut.2021.795848

(18) Palmnäs MSA, Cowan TE, Bomhof MR, Su J, Reimer RA, Vogel HJ, et al. (2014) Low-Dose Aspartame Consumption Differentially Affects Gut Microbiota-Host Metabolic Interactions in the Diet-Induced Obese Rat. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109841. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109841

(19) Halldorsson Thorhallur et al. Intake of artificially sweetened soft drinks and risk of preterm delivery: a prospective cohort study in 59,334 Danish pregnant women. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. September 2010. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.28968

(20) Mueller NT, Jacobs DR Jr, MacLehose RF, Demerath EW, Kelly SP, Dreyfus JG, Pereira MA. Consumption of caffeinated and artificially sweetened soft drinks is associated with risk of early menarche. Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Sep;102(3):648-54. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.114.100958. Epub 2015 Jul 15. PMID: 26178725; PMCID: PMC4548172

(21) Daniel J. Kushigian & Okeanis E. Vaou (2023) Aspartame use and Parkinson’s disease: review of associated effects on neurotransmitters, oxidative stress, and cognition, Nutritional Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1080/1028415X.2023.2228561

(22) Sara K. Jones et al. Transgenerational transmission of aspartame-induced anxiety and changes in glutamate-GABA signaling and gene expression in the amygdala. PNAS. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213120119

(23) Lin J, Curhan GC. Associations of sugar and artificially sweetened soda with albuminuria and kidney function decline in women. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2011 Jan;6(1):160-6. doi: 10.2215/CJN.03260410. Epub 2010 Sep 30. PMID: 20884773; PMCID: PMC3022238

(24) CSPI(Center for Science in the Public Interest). Saccharin. https://tinyurl.com/mr9d7akf Updated Feb. 3, 2022

(25) Marta Strinati. Acesulfame K and diet, memory impairment. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.3.18

Marta Strinati
+ posts

Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".