RICHMOND, Va. -- Could occasional consumption of aspartame often found in diet sodas cause cancer?
Dr. David Turner with VCU’s Massey Cancer Center said the current studies and their results are “inconclusive.”
The World Health Organization has declared aspartame, a common artificial sweetener used in thousands of products, to be "possibly carcinogenic to humans" — while also noting that "safety is not a major concern" in the quantities people would normally consume, CBS News reported.
"Cancer is one of the leading causes of death globally. Every year, 1 in 6 people die from cancer. Science is continuously expanding to assess the possible initiating or facilitating factors of cancer, in the hope of reducing these numbers and the human toll," Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at WHO, said in a statement Thursday. "The assessments of aspartame have indicated that, while safety is not a major concern at the doses which are commonly used, potential effects have been described that need to be investigated by more and better studies."
Dr. Turner is a member of Massey’s Cancer Prevention and Control research program as well as vice chair of Research and Innovation in the Department of Surgery.
He echoed that more studies need to be completed to determine whether aspartame is safe for occasional consumption.
“Basically, 14 milligrams per kilogram of body weight is the recommended daily amount [of aspartame] you should be exposed to,” Dr. Turner explained. “That would be at least nine cans of diet soda [per day].”
The current research used by the WHO concluded that humans are not being exposed to enough levels of aspartame for it to be a problem, he said.
CBS News reported Aspartame is an artificial sweetener 200 times as potent as regular granulated sugar that is used in thousands of products on grocery store shelves, from sodas and drink mixes to low-cal condiments and desserts. It's commonly used in diet drinks and sodas because aspartame has few carbohydrates.
Aspartame entered the market as a low-calorie sweetener in 1981 and has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in food products, with the agency concluding the additive is "safe for the general population."
Dr. Turner recommended consuming diet sodas and other foods with aspartame in moderation. He added whether or not you exercise and eat healthy foods should also factor into that decision.
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