Moderate consumption apparently harmless: According to the WHO, the sweetener aspartame could cause cancer

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A sweetener commonly used in soda, yogurt and chewing gum may cause cancer, according to a new expert review, but shouldn’t pose a problem in usual amounts.

It concerns aspartame, one of the eleven sweeteners approved in the EU. Despite the new classification, the World Health Organization (WHO) is not changing its guidelines. She sees no indications in the underlying studies that consumption within the recommended maximum values ​​could be dangerous. According to the current state of knowledge, those who adhere to this do not expose themselves to a higher risk of cancer, reports the WHO.

“An occasional soft drink or chewing gum: you shouldn’t worry about that at the moment,” said Francesco Branca, director of the WHO’s nutrition and food safety department. “We don’t recommend that consumers avoid sweeteners completely, but we recommend caution.” If you’re thinking about buying soda with sugar or sweeteners at the grocery store, it’s best to consider a third option, Branca said: “Drink water” — or other drinks without sweeteners.

Certain liver cancer

The new classification as “possibly carcinogenic” for aspartame comes from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon. It belongs to WHO. The IARC published its findings Friday in the journal The Lancet Oncology. She saw limited evidence linking it to a specific form of liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma) in three human studies.

Important to know: The IARC experts only assess whether a substance can in principle cause cancer. They don’t take into account how much a person would have to consume to be at risk of disease, Mary Schubauer-Berigan explains. She leads the IARC Monographs program responsible for classification.

Risk assessments for humans are carried out by other institutions, such as the WHO Committee on Food Additives and the UN Agricultural Organization FAO (JECFA) – or food safety authorities such as the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR).

Recommended maximum amount

The recommended maximum amount of aspartame is 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. A 70-kilogram person would only reach the limit if they drank nine to 14 cans of conventional diet drinks high in aspartame in one day, the WHO reported.

The IARC experts found three of hundreds of human cancer studies examining the effects of artificial sweeteners. They also reviewed studies in mice and rats. However, all the studies showed certain shortcomings for assessing aspartame, they admitted. That is why IARC emphasizes that the evidence is limited.

According to Schubauer-Berigan and Branca, the new division is an appeal to science. More studies are urgently needed. (SDA)

Source: Blick