Does Aspartame really cause Cancer? It is the age old question that concerns people on a daily basis.
Wikipedia describes Aspartame as “an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in many foods and beverages.” It is used to make Nutrasweet / Equal and sometimes labeled as phenylalanine in products. Aspartame has been the subject of heated controversy—both because of safety issues and the shady circumstances surrounding its approval. Considering possible connections between aspartame and diseases such as brain tumors, brain lesions and lymphoma, and taking into account alleged conflicts of interest during the approval process, David Oliver Reitz from Doorway to Discovery thinks, “you owe it to yourself to learn the facts—not just what the lobbyists and manufacturer want you to know.”
It was first synthesized in 1965. Its use in food products was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1980. Because its breakdown products include phenylalanine, aspartame is among the many substances that must be avoided by people with phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare genetic condition.
With so many in question about it’s safety, the National Cancer Society did a study of about half a million people, comparing people who drank aspartame-containing beverages with those who did not. Results of the study showed that increasing levels of consumption were not associated with any risk of lymphomas, leukemias, or brain cancers in men or women.
But William Campbell Douglass II, M.D. from the DouglassReport.com says, “No matter how you look at it, aspartame is bad news in my book. The massive introduction of this neurotoxin into the food supply is nothing less than biological warfare against every single one of us, and the only acceptable solution is to ban it from the food chain. Aside from these risks, now there’s even more proof that these toxins are helping you pack on the pounds. Some recent research conducted at Purdue University shows that a group of test subjects fed artificial sweeteners subsequently consumed THREE TIMES THE CALORIES of those given ordinary sugar (not a good thing to eat, either, by the way). That means some of the very things most mainstream doctors recommend for weight loss (diet soda, Sweet-N-low, etc.) are causing us to crave calories and binge on unhealthy carbohydrates. No wonder we’re all getting fatter!
Although William Campbell Douglass II, some political activists, conspiracy theorists, and a few medical researchers have questioned the safety of aspartame, the most recent medical review on the subject concluded that “the weight of existing scientific evidence indicates that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a non-nutritive sweetener.”
So there you have it. Or do you? I think this controversial topic will continue to be debated for years to come. We just seem to keep going in circles. Will Aspartame ever face a ban? Does it really make you fat? Does it really cause cancer? What do you think?
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