Aspartame Worries Resurface but Fail to Sway Most

June 26, 2007 — -- Diet experts voiced skepticism over new claims that aspartame poses a risk to the millions of people who consume it daily.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition and food safety advocacy group, called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to review the claims, which stem from research conducted by the European Ramazzini Foundation in Italy.

The foundation reported that rats who consumed aspartame in exceedingly large quantities were more likely to develop cancer. CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson considers this an important finding that should not be overlooked.

"I don't think consumers should panic, but the FDA should take the results of the new study very seriously. ...The new study won't be easily dismissed."

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said that to date, the agency has not received any data from the new study, and therefore cannot comment on the findings.

However, he noted in a statement, "[T]he conclusions from this second European Ramazzini Foundation are not consistent with those from the large number of studies on aspartame that have been evaluated by FDA, including five previously conducted negative chronic carcinogenicity studies.

"Therefore, at this time, the FDA finds no reason to alter its previous conclusion that aspartame is safe as a general purpose sweetener in food."

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at the Yale University School of Medicine, said he believes the new research will not change this conclusion, noting, "I do not have the impression this study changes the lay of the land."

He suggests that if aspartame were causing cancer in humans, agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have seen a dramatic rise in cancer rates since the artificial sweetener hit the market in 1981.

"Millions of people are exposed to high doses of aspartame daily, which means we have an enormous amount of observational data in humans," he said. "If aspartame were going to cause a meaningful uptick in human cancers, we've had a natural experiment -- namely, the continuous tracking of cancer trends by CDC -- to show us that movement of the needle. To date, it has not been seen."

Others also have doubts.

"This institute has issued very flawed studies in the past," said Keith-Thomas Ayoob, an associate professor and nutritionist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

"The European Food Safety Authority, and many others, have discredited past studies by this institute, due to serious flaws," he said. "They presented this data months ago in New York but wouldn't let the study be reviewed before they made their announcement, or even after. It makes you wonder why."