Diet soda sweetener not cancer risk
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A huge federal study in people — not rats — takes the fizz out of arguments that the diet soda sweetener aspartame might raise the risk of cancer.
No increased risk was seen even among people who gulped down many artificially sweetened drinks a day, said researchers who studied the diets of more than half a million older Americans.
A consumer group praised the study, done by reputable researchers independent of any funding or ties to industry groups.
“It goes a fair way toward allaying concerns about aspartame,” said Michael Jacobson, head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which had urged the government to review the sweetener’s safety after a troubling study involving rats last year.
This is the same organization that said "trans-fatty acids and hydrogenated oils seem relatively innocent" in the late 80's/early 90's when they had their all-out attack on the fast-food industry.
The new findings were reported Tuesday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Aspartame came on the market 25 years ago and is found in thousands of products — soft drinks, chewing gum, dairy products, and even many medicines. NutraSweet and Equal are popular brands.
Research in the 1970s linked a different sweetener, saccharin, to bladder cancer in lab rats. Although the mechanism by which this occurred does not apply to people, and no human risk was ever documented, worries about sugar substitutes in general have persisted.
They worsened after Italian researchers last year reported results of the largest animal study ever done on aspartame, involving 1,800 lab rats. Females developed more lymphomas and leukemias on aspartame than those not fed the sweetener.
The new study, by scientists at the National Cancer Institute, involved 340,045 men and 226,945 women, ages 50 to 69, participating in a research project by the National Institutes of Health and AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.
The primary goal of this 'non-profit organization' is to make money. They have over 800,000 paid subscribers to their 'health journal' that is constantly in flux over health issues, nutrition, and the like. How better to keep subscribers and get people hooked in the magazine than by promoting advice that ambivalently scares you while comforting you about specific foods and products that you are uncertain of.
From surveys they filled out in 1995 and 1996 detailing food and beverage consumption, researchers calculated how much aspartame they consumed, especially from sodas or from adding the sweetener to coffee or tea.
Over the next five years, 2,106 developed blood-related cancers such as lymphoma or leukemia, and 376 developed brain tumors. No link was found to aspartame consumption for these cancers in general or for specific types, said Unhee Lim, who reported the study’s findings.
The dietary information was collected before the cancers developed, removing the possibility of “memory bias” — faulty recollection influenced by knowing you have a disease.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest still warns about one potential hazard of aspartame use: thinking that calories “saved” from using a sugar substitute justify “spending” more on unhealthy foods.
“Drinking a diet soda at lunch does not mean it’s OK to have a larger dessert at dinner,” the group’s Web site warns.
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