I’m baaack! Sorry I have been away so long. I just got busy. While I am “retired,” I do teach in the spring semester. Then I got to doing some home renovations, got sidetracked by life, etc. etc. Please bear with me and the fact that this is just a hobby. I hope you don’t mind the infrequency of my musings.
What brought me back to the keyboard was the debate that has emerged again over artificial sweeteners. As many of you may have read, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently issued the results of a hazard and risk assessment on aspartame, an artificial sweetener that has been used since the 1980’s in a lot of things, including diet drinks and foods. Citing “limited evidence” of carcinogenicity in humans, the IARC determined that aspartame should be classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” This caused the WHO’s Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) to “reaffirm” that the acceptable daily intake of aspartame is 40 mg/kg of body weight. See, https://www.who.int/news/item/14-07-2023-aspartame-hazard-and-risk-assessment-results-released.
To be honest, as a fan of Diet Coke, my first reaction to this news was DUH. I mean, did anyone ever think the stuff was good for you? I’m not sure I needed a study to tell me to keep artificial sweeteners to a minimum. I think it was the word “artificial” that tipped me off. It is true that when I was diagnosed with diabetes and needed to change my diet radically that it would have been very easy to simply substitute artificially sweetened foods for sugar sweetened foods and leave it there. I made a choice not to do that based on reading and education that everyone should undertake if they need to reduce their sugar intake or improve their nutrition. I chose to continue to drink Diet Coke but to limit my intake to no more than one per day. Plus, my aspartame intake is pretty much limited to that one Diet Coke. Otherwise, for sweeteners, I try to use natural ones like stevia, monk fruit or apples. Of course, other sweeteners like maltitol and xylitol make their way into my diet. They claim not to be “artificial” or harmful, but who knows what the next study will find. For me, this feels like a reasonable balance that allows some sweetness in my diet without overloading on substances known to be harmful. As my mother used to say: “everything in moderation.”
But what is most fascinating to me here is the debate itself. First, the way this was covered in the news frankly makes me want to scream. This was such a Nothing Burger it was hardly worth the airtime (and news flash: a Nothing Burger is definitely healthier than a Cheeseburger). It’s unclear where the blame lies, but the lack of credence this study deserves is evident from the WHO’s own press release. The quote from the IARC representative cites the “limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and animals,” that “underscore the need for more research to refine our understanding on whether consumption of aspartame poses a carcinogenic hazard.” The quote from the JECFA representative explaining their decision not to change the recommended daily intake level states that “JECFA also considered the evidence on cancer risk, in animal and human studies, and concluded that the evidence of an association between aspartame consumption and cancer in humans is not convincing.” Both of these statements can be found at the link above.
The WHO release also notes that the JECFA recommended daily intake level of 40mg/kg of body weight would translate to roughly 9-14 cans of diet soda per day in a person weighing about 150 pounds! I think it’s fair to say that is more than the average person – or really any person – drinks. This makes the impact of this study on the average consumer even more tenuous.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) immediately issued a statement disagreeing with the WHO’s classification of aspartame as a possible carcinogen based on this study, see, https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/aspartame-and-other-sweeteners-food, and to be fair, many media outlets did cover that statement at the same time. However, I don’t believe that cleared up the confusion in any significant way. I know people that I consider to be extremely intelligent and well-informed who have said to me in the last few weeks – “Did you hear? The WHO found that Diet Coke causes cancer!”
As a crusty old diabetic environmental lawyer/consumer advocate this makes my blood boil. The environmental lawyer in me knows that we are surrounded by things that can give us cancer or otherwise make us sick. As a diabetic, I need good information so I can make informed nutritional choices to manage this complicated disease. As a consumer advocate, I believe we should be able to count on government to provide us with reliable information on the safety of the products they allow on our shelves.
So where does this leave us? Are we on our own? To a certain extent, yes. But not completely. The FDA web page linked above is actually very informative, and it links to other very informative pages. If you have the time and desire to really learn about alternative sweeteners, you can probably find the information you are looking for by starting on that page. But it is up to us to do the work. There is so much misinformation out there you will never get a clear and accurate answer without spending some time and doing some reading. The FDA web page is a good place to start. Here is the link again https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/aspartame-and-other-sweeteners-food
I can’t end this blog piece though without saying a few words about misinformation and shaming. Some people just don’t like the taste of aspartame and diet sodas and so they prefer – if they drink soda at all – to drink regular soda with sugar. That is certainly their choice. However, sometimes people purport to drink regular soda over diet soda because they claim it is the healthier choice over diet soda because it does not contain aspartame or other artificial sweeteners. That is bonkers. Regular soda contains high fructose corn syrup which comes with its own health consequences. Over consumption of high fructose corn syrup can lead to obesity, fatty liver disease, increased risk of colorectal cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. Mexican Coke, if you can find it, is made with natural cane sugar. However, the regular Coke you get in the United States is not and it is not any “healthier” than Diet Coke or Coke Zero. I just roll my eyes when people get self-righteous about choosing regular Coke claiming it is a healthier choice because it does not contain aspartame.
Certainly, foregoing sweetened beverages altogether is a healthier choice. I like an unsweetened iced tea myself or a seltzer with lime. They also now make sodas sweetened with stevia, although I have not tried enough of them to make any specific recommendations (perhaps a future blog entry?). But it’s not fair to ask diabetics to drink only water all the time. Nor is it realistic to expect them to do so. People will want something sweet once in a while, so we do need alternative sweeteners. Please don’t shame them for wanting that and don’t get judgmental if they have a diet soda occasionally. Anything sweet or artificial is going to come with risks. It’s all about balance, self-restraint, and making choices. We need to inform ourselves and create diets that we can realistically stick to. “Everything in moderation” is a good place to start.
It sure would be a lot easier though if the people doing studies like this and the people reporting on those studies strove to inform us rather than get the most headlines or “clicks.” Until then, I guess we will just have to educate ourselves.