The Real Killer Sweetener?

In an almost text-book case of how scaremongering can have unintended, dangerous consequences, it seems that the scare around aspartame has driven coca-cola addicts back to “the real thing” in all its sugary glory.

“Anxieties about the health effects of aspartame appear to have turned many consumers against the artificial sweetener, sparking new public health worries this could boost obesity.

“Supermarket sales of low- or no-calorie diet soft drinks such as Coke Zero have slumped this year while their sugar-charged alternatives have experienced a boom, according to figures from research agency Nielsen. This reverses an earlier trend.

“”

Unfortunately, there is plenty of disinformation floating round the internet on the dangers of aspartame and the media doesn’t help by distorting the risks. Aspartame is probably the most widely researched food additive ever. Very small animal trials have shown aspartame to produce multiple symptoms, including cancers, but these have not been demonstrated in humans. There have been some high profile cases of people becoming very symptomatic (mostly with headache and dermatitis) as a consequence of a combination of excessive consumption and sensitivity to formaldehyde.

Yes, that is formaldehyde – the stuff they use for embalming medical specimens. Aspartame breaks down in the body into phenylalanine (hence the warning to phenylketonurics, who cannot metabolize this), methanol, formaldehyde and finally, formic acid. All of that sounds fairly toxic and the various scare sites on the web capitalize on this. But the amounts are small and the body is eminently capable of detoxifying them, at least, most people’s bodies are.

A small number of people are very sensitive to formaldehyde. A good example would be Abby Cormack who was the subject of a petition to Parliament’s health select committee calling for restrictions on the chemical.  She chewed large amounts of diet chewing gum and developed symptoms, which resolved when she stopped consuming aspartame. We are not certain how many people are this sensitive to aspartame, but, judging from FDA complaint numbers, it is probably of the order of 1 in 1000.

Contrast this to problem of cane sugar. The article in the Herald talks only about a possible rise in obesity, but consuming large amounts of sugar also predisposes you to diabetes and severe tooth decay (the combination of phosphoric acid and sugar in cola is particularly good at causing decay). And you don’t have to be sensitive to sugar to come to harm, you just have to consume too much. Far more people will be at risk of serious, life threatening illness from sugar-laden drinks than would ever become ill from aspartame. 

A classic case of scaremongering causing harm.

For those interested in the actual science, there is a short article here, but you may want to get hold of the actual journal article referenced at the bottom. This is considered the definitive article on aspartame. Unfortunately, it is not available online but only as a reprint. Sometimes, medical journals are unbearably primitive.

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