this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024

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The WHO declared aspartame "possibly" causes cancer. Here’s what that means. | Vox (www.vox.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

I feel like this is a difficult subject, since there's two sides that are willing to pour money into research that's biased one way or the other (Big sugar vs the artificial sweeteners).

The article is perhaps advocating for an overly cautious position. Traditionally, I've been pro-artificial sweeteners, and considered aspartame quite safe, but specifically, this part in the article:

the IARC is more selective in its use of unpublished, confidential commercial data, and it takes greater care to exclude people with conflicts of interest from contributing to its evaluations.

A few years ago, Millstone and a co-author looked closely at how the European Food Safety Authority had weighed the 154 studies on aspartame safety when it looked to assess the product in 2013. About half of the studies favored aspartame’s safety and about half indicated it might do harm.

The agency had judged all of the harm-suggesting studies — but only a quarter of the safety-affirming studies — to be “unreliable,” wrote the authors. And the agency had applied looser quality standards to the studies suggesting safety than it had to the studies suggesting harm. Agency reviewers pushed back against Millstone’s assessment. And in any case, aspartame has remained on the European market.

Was a little concerning.

The conflict of interest even more so:

The FDA has rules about who can serve on its advisory committees that are aimed at preventing conflicts of interest. However, a recent investigation by ProPublica found that consultants employed by McKinsey worked for the FDA on drug safety monitoring projects while simultaneously working for pharmaceutical companies directly affected by those projects.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

As much as you may try to use a straw man to shift the discussion to governing or regulatory agencies, there is still no actual evidence linking aspartame to harmful effects in humans when used as a food additive.

Different agencies and studies can irresponsibly throw around words like “maybe” and “possibly” and “might”, but until there’s any real evidence linking aspartame’s use as a sweetener to an illness in a human, then it’s nothing but fear-mongering.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I don't believe I'm straw manning, and I think your characterization of that is a little unwarranted.

There is no study that conclusively points to it being harmful, that is true. But when there's a lot of money on the line and conflicts of interest start getting involved, I don't think it's entirely out of the question to be at least slightly wary of the 'official' recommendation from a verifiably financially biased institution. Regular folk aren't going to research all 154 studies on a single sweetener, making them inherently reliant on institutions (who can do meta studies) for advice. It's the quintessential laymen's quandary.

The EU seems to be, at least nowadays, a more trustworthy source regarding food safety, and are certainly more willing to reverse previously incorrect assumptions, such as when they reversed the ban on Cyclamate sweetener when it was found to be safe (yet it remains banned in the US). They, so far, also deem aspartame safe, and it's difficult to see how exactly it could be dangerous.

Is it safer than sugar, where there are known dangers? I think so, I'd pick a diet soda over a sugar-based one any day. But I think it's healthy to at least attempt to ensure the answer recommended to us is as unbiased as possible.

By the way, the article itself doesn't even suggest that aspertame is that dangerous:

“My big concern is that I don’t want people saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to stop diet sodas, I’m gonna get sugared sodas,’ and then they start drinking those and gain weight, which we know is one of the major cancer risks,” said Bevers. “And that has solid data.” A better outcome of the recommendation would be if people who drink a ton of diet soda replaced some of it with water.

I think the takeaway from this article should be "Aspartame is probably pretty safe, but holy shit one of the main institutions we have in charge of determining that, along with a bunch of other substances, is basically corporate captured, so get your advice elsewhere."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Aspartame has been tested by far more than just the FDA and WHO, and nobody has ever found any link to any illness in humans, not ever.

And if you have any, you’d be the first.

It’s a straw man to argue your “uncomfortableness” with regulatory agencies as a reason not to trust aspartame. In fact, quite the opposite, as it’s the WHO who is doing the fearmongering.

And comparing it to any other approval processes is just a false equivalence.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago

Found the aspartame spokesperson.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And there are many daily consumed food items (processed food, alcohol, ...) that are known to cause cancer but nobody tries to regulate those.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You need to pay more attention

Edit: downvoted for pointing out the commentor needs to pay more attention because those things, in fact, are regulated

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Big sugar vs the artificial sweeteners?

They’re the same companies.

Coke vs Diet Coke.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Coke is downstream of Sugar and Artificial sweetener manufacturers. Coke doesn't care what sweetener you prefer in their products as long as they make a profit.

Aspertame was owned by Nutrasweet, where as big sugar, is, well, sugar cane and sugar beet plantation owners and processors.

Both of them were competing with each other for adoption in products and when sold direct to consumer (I.e, equal). They both had a vested interest in slandering the other.

See this as an example.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Thank you for correcting me.

I apologise for being so flippant about it.