WHO warning

Just recently, Reuters reported that aspartame, the most common artificial sweetener used in products like Coca-Cola diet sodas, will be listed next month as possibly carcinogenic to humans for the first time by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the World Health Organization’s (WHO) cancer research arm.

A decade ago, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration announced that aspartame is a safe food additive and has included it in the country’s list of permissible food additives after the joint expert committee on food additives of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the WHO approved the inclusion of aspartame in the Codex General Standards for Food Additives (GSFA) STAN 1992-1995.

Since 1981, the joint WHO and FAO’s Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) has been saying that aspartame is safe to consume within accepted daily limits.

Even the US FDA has been authorizing the use of aspartame as sweetener, saying that scientific evidence support’s the conclusion that aspartame is safe for the general population when made under good manufacturing practices and used under the approved conditions of use.

Regulators have authorized the use of aspartame based on the available evidence. Now, everyone has to wait and see how food and drug agencies around the world would respond to IARC’s latest assessment.

Even JECFA is reviewing aspartame use this year and is set to announce its findings on the same day that the IARC makes public its decision on July 14, Reuters reported.

IARC has four different levels of classification – carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic, and not classifiable. However, the levels are based on the strength of the evidence, rather than how dangerous a substance is, the same Reuters report noted, as a result of which IARC’s decisions have faced criticism for sparking needless alarm.

Meanwhile, the International Sweeteners Association pointed out that IARC is not a food safety body and their review of aspartame is not scientifically comprehensive and is based heavily on widely discredited research.

But this early, heavy users of aspartame, including Coca-Cola, can expect to see a negative impact on their sales while they look for safer alternatives.

Throughout the world, aspartame can be found in over 6,000 products, including food and beverages, cough drops, and even some toothpaste.

One report noted that although most food and drink products with aspartame are advertised as healthy or diet alternatives to sugar-sweetened products, the ability of these aspartame-containing products to reduce the risk of diabetes or obesity has never been confirmed. Instead, some evidence suggests that the flavor of both sugar- and artificially sweetened-beverages increases hunger sensations and, as a result, causes weight gain, the same report revealed.

Last month, the WHO advised consumers not to use non-sugar sweeteners for weight control.

Discovered in 1965 by American chemist James Schlatter, aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than their regular table sugar. It was approved by the US FDA in 1974 for use as a tabletop sweetener and as an additive for chewing gum, breakfast cereals, and dry bases for foods. But despite its intense sweetness, aspartame has an almost zero calorific value and no bitter after taste like saccharin, Reuters said in another report.

More than 90 countries have reviewed aspartame and found it to be safe for human consumption, it added.

One report meanwhile revealed that a single can of Coke Zero contains 87 milligrams of aspartame, meaning that an average person would have to consume about 30 cans of soda each day to surpass the European Food Safety Authority’s recommended limit for aspartame consumption, and 36 cans to exceed the FDA’s proposed limit. Meanwhile, the US FDA places a limit on sugar intake at 10 percent of daily calories consumed which means that one would exceed the FDA recommendation for sugar intake simply by drinking two cans of regular Coca-Cola, the same report noted.

I can’t recall the last time I drank regular Coke. Every time I have a craving, I would go for Coke Zero because it does not contain calories. After reading what the IARC has to say on the matter, maybe I will settle for two cans a week? Or maybe, I will just look for drinks that contain stevia, a sugar substitute made from the leaves of the stevia plant and is about 100 to 300 times sweeter than table sugar, but has no carbohydrates, calories or artificial ingredients.

The US FDA has not approved whole-leaf stevia or crude stevia extract for use in processed foods and beverages due to lack of safety information but generally recognizes as safe stevia glycosides, which are made from a highly refined stevia leaf extract called rebaudioside A (Reb-A).

But whether it be aspartame or stevia containing, the important thing is that everything has to be consumed in moderation.

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