By: Madhu Rangesa
I had just escaped the harsh
winter in Champaign during December, and returned home to India, for the break.
While I seemed to be enjoying the 65°F weather there, it was apparently a cold
morning for the rest of my family, and cold mornings are usually welcomed with
a hot cup of coffee. As coffee was being served, my uncle and dad, who both
have type II diabetes, got into an argument. My uncle was a strong supporter of
artificial sweeteners whereas, my father preferred to skip out on any form of
sweetening agent, since he had read articles on rumored side effects caused by
artificial sweeteners. Amidst there conversation, as I enjoyed my hot cup of
coffee with real sugar, I got curious. This controversy had not cropped up just
once in my family, but I had seen similar arguments, multiple times, mostly
when guests are being asked if they like sugar in their coffee or NutraSweet to
name one kind of sweetener. So I decided to do a little bit of web surfing to
find out how much information is out there about artificial sweeteners and
their benefits/hazards. It was astonishing how many people had negative views
on artificial sweeteners, and the most intriguing tidbit that caught my
attention was the number of people and home improvement websites, that
mentioned artificial sweeteners to be good pesticides particularly ant killers.
As I glanced through these websites, I caught names of chemicals such as
‘Aspartame ‘and ‘Saccharin’. So I continued my light reading on the web, only
to come across a bunch of horrifying articles, talking about neurological
problems, weight gain, seizures and even certain forms of cancer. More than
just curiosity, this became important, because, diabetes was significantly
common in my family, and the consumption of artificial sweeteners was present
on a daily basis. If there was some scientific evidence to all these claims, I
felt like it was my responsibility to alert everyone I know, about these
developments. This thought lead to a ton of questions, what exactly was
Aspartame? How was it made, who discovered it, what was the evidence behind it
being dangerous, how did it cause these deadly side effects, what is the
chemical composition, how much do we consume on average basis, and how many
products contain these chemicals.
It became my main goal to find an
article from a reliable source, which lead me to a TIME magazine article, dated
October 2009. Titled:
“Are artificial sweeteners really that bad for you?”
As I read through the article, it
mentioned a lot of the studies that had been done on artificial sweeteners over
the years. Though the writer had arrived at a conclusion that artificial
sweeteners, found in today’s beverages, aren’t dangerous to health, the studies
did have results that seemed to have results with conflicting opinions or data
that could not be interpreted properly. I felt like I needed to see these
studies first hand and read the methods and results to help make my decision on
artificial sweeteners. FDA approval may have been granted, however, FDA
approval is granted to a lot of unhealthy products, which we consume and that
have been linked to modern diseases. Diabetes, for example is a lifestyle
diseases that can be prevented, if people are educated on eating right and
exercising. The question however is whether FDA approval on food products only
tells you that the consumption of that product will not give you any life
threatening side effects. Maybe ending up with side effects is also greatly
dependent on usage and accumulation of these chemicals in your system.
My first step was to understand
the studies that mentioned links with cancer, this study was found in the
Annals of Oncology; I searched for this information, using Google scholar, with
the keywords cancer and artificial sweeteners. The first hit from this search
resulted with me finding this paper.
“Artificial Sweeteners – do they bear a carcinogenic risk?”
As I read through the abstract, it
spoke about the studies done on two groups of artificial sweeteners, the ‘first
generation” sweeteners, which contained these major products; saccharin,
cyclamate and aspartame. The second group was called the “new generation”
sweeteners consisting of acesulfame-k, sucralose, alitame and neotame. The
abstract went on to mention the studies done on animals and the bladder cancer
inducing rates of artificial sweeteners, they seemed to have concluded, on the
lines that these risks cannot be literally translated to humans, due to the
immense differences between rats and humans. The one thing in this abstract
that stirred my curiosity again, was the mention of case controlled studies, I
did not know the meaning of this form of study and after a quick Wikipedia
search understood that these were observational studies, where in a particular
cohort of people with a disease, researchers compare and contrast to identify
the factors that could be contributing to the disease. The results of the case
controlled study on risk of cancer for those who used artificial sweetener
heavily (>1.7g/day) seemed to have shown an increased risk of cancer.
When I read the article in a lot
more detail, it gave me a really good idea, of how the artificial sweetener
industry even started, what was the very first sweetener i.e Saccharin. So, I
decided to map a little timeline of the history of artificial sweeteners for
this post.
Though I seemed to have learnt a
lot more from this article it didn’t really have enough statistical evidence to
back up the claims on the case studies or the study done on rats for incidences
of bladder cancer. So, I set out to do another search, this was when it struck
that there must have been a lot of studies done, while the new sweeteners were
awaiting their FDA approval. So it seemed more plausible that I would find good
material, if I did my search on the toxicology and safety evaluation of
artificial sweeteners. However, at this point, I felt that narrowing it down to
one particular sweetener would make more sense. I realized that if I did a
random Google search then I would be hit with too many options such as
Saccharin, cyclamate and Aspartame to name just a few, so I decided to walk
into my kitchen and see which ones we had at home. And that was how I ended up
with Equal, which is mainly composed of Aspartame. And to be honest compared to
the other options this one had intrigued me the most. Aspartame is composed of
two amino acids, and when in the body it breaks down into the amino acids
aspartic acid and phenylalanine, as well as a really small amount of methanol.
This time I utilized the
university’s vast library resources, and made advanced searches for Aspartame
and its safety evaluations, and finally, after about 2 to 3 different tries, I
finally got a 100 page research paper, that covered all the studies done on the
side effects and problems that Aspartame was linked with. The paper was titled:
“Aspartame: A Safety Evaluation Based on Current Use Levels, Regulations
and Toxicological and Epidemiological Studies”.
It almost felt like the
researchers, knew I would one day be going through this extensive compilation
of papers, to write this post, which I hope will help people make decisions on
what they are consuming. As much as I would like to, I don’t think I will be
able to summarize all the information provided to me, but I selected the ones
that I was really interested in.
Carcinogenesis Studies
Fig 2.
Fig 2.
The data in Fig 2. represents the
results of a study that was done by the European Ramazzini Foundation of
Oncology and Environmental sciences. Aspartame was added to the diet of a group
of rats between 0 to 100,000ppm the levels presented above. This corresponded
to normal doses between 0 – 5000 mg/kg bw/day. These animals were allowed to
live until spontaneous death. They results showed that there was a dramatic
weight loss and greater incidence of lymphomas and leukemia in the treatment
group of rats. They had statistically significant increased incidence, of
transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis and ureter. Unfortunately, due
to a high incidence of bronchopneumonia a lung infection that many of the rats
acquired, the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) decided that it is more
likely to have been the casual factor for the lymphoma and leukemia.
Effect on Body Weight
Aspartame like mono sodium
glutamate is a neuroexcitatory compound, and when newborn mice were injected
with mono sodium glutamate they had shown a marked increase in obesity in their
later life. This started the research involved with aspartame’s effects on
weight gain. In popular media, artificial sweeteners are promoted on the basis
of being low calorie, which is why aspartame is used in Diet coke. Rockhold et
al, used NDMA (N-methyl – D aspartic acid ) to induce lesions in the
hypothalamic region of the mice. The body weight, food and water consumption
along with urine output were monitored for 26 days, and surprisingly, unlike
monosodium glutamate, the rates injected with NDMA, showed a significant
reduction in food intake and body weight gain.
After several studies were done
on this issue, it was recognized that the intake of aspartame actually did aid
in weight reduction. Double blinded clinical studies done on humans, also led
to the same conclusions, and showed that aspartame actually has the potential
to aid in long term weight control.
Basically, after reading and
interpreting these studies and the results, I was tempted to side with the FDA,
that aspartame and artificial sweeteners may not pose a threat to us. However,
the more I thought about it, these studies were based a stipulated consumption.
People have different likings when it comes to how sweet they would like their
coffee or tea to be, and also, how much coffee or tea they drink on a daily basis.
Aspartame is found in almost 6000 other products, some major products, like
Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke, which are part of multi-billion dollar industries.
These things could certainly affect the political interferences with FDA
approvals. Aspartame in moderation, potentially would not be very harmful, but
the more we think about the usage of aspartame, I come to realize, that it’s
part of almost every product, that you would want to avoid, if you wish to lead
a healthy lifestyle.
Now as I go back to what my
father and my uncle were arguing about, I think I know that side I would like
to select, if I have an option to avoid consuming products with artificial
sweeteners, I think I would most likely do it.
Since my father, leads a very healthy lifestyle, occasionally having an
artificial sweetening reagent in his drink, will not do him as much harm as he
seems to think. Hopefully my post will educate my family on artificial
sweeteners enough so that next time, we can all enjoy our tea or coffee, in
some peace and quiet.
Sources
1) Magnuson, B. A., G. A. Burdock, J. Doull,
R. M. Kroes, G. M. Marsh, M. W. Pariza, P. S. Spencer, W. J. Waddell, R.
Walker, and G. M. Williams. "Aspartame: A Safety Evaluation Based on
Current Use Levels, Regulations, and Toxicological and Epidemiological Studies." Critical Reviews in Toxicology 37.8 (2007): 629-727.
2) Weihrauch, M. R. "Artificial
Sweeteners--do They Bear a Carcinogenic Risk?" Annals of Oncology 15.10
(2004): 1460-465.
3) Blundell, J. "Paradoxical Effects Of
An Intense Sweetener (Aspartame) On Appetite." The Lancet 327.8489
(1986): 1092-093.
4) "Timelines." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Mar. 2012. Web. 04 May
2012. .
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