Questions have surfaced online regarding the safety of aspartame after the World Health Organization moved to categorize the common artificial sweetener as a possible carcinogen earlier this week.
Despite the switch, conflicting beliefs exist both within the agency and in the U.S. The artificial sweetener is commonly used in Equal and NutraSweet, drinks such as diet sodas, sugar-free gum and certain gelatin-based products.
In wake of the WHO's recommendation, you might be wondering if there is an amount you can safely consume -- without worrying about the risk of cancer.
A group within the WHO set out to determine what would be acceptable for an adult who is 154 pounds to consume each day. According to their findings, you would have to drink more than 9 to 14 cans of Diet soda daily to exceed the acceptable limit.
Dr. Tara Narula, a New York cardiologist, joined TODAY on Friday where she said the limit reaffirms the level that has been recommended since the 1980s. As for those colored packets of sweeteners, you would have to use 75 packets a day to reach the limit.
"I think this is not meant to have people throw away their diet soda and their chewing gum," Narula said. "It's really, and the WHO said this in their press conference, it's meant to raise awareness that we need research, it's meant to make people pause and be mindful of how they're consuming."
The Food and Drug Administration later released a statement saying it disagrees with conclusion issued by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and International Agency for Research on Cancer.
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"Aspartame being labeled by IARC as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” does not mean that aspartame is actually linked to cancer," the agency said in a statement, in part. "The FDA disagrees with IARC’s conclusion that these studies support classifying aspartame as a possible carcinogen to humans. FDA scientists reviewed the scientific information included in IARC’s review in 2021 when it was first made available and identified significant shortcomings in the studies on which IARC relied. We note that JECFA did not raise safety concerns for aspartame under the current levels of use and did not change the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI)."
Dr. Donald Hensrud, a Mayo Clinic physician specializing in nutrition and the editor of "The Mayo Clinic Diet," said in a news release that the new classification "is going to add some confusion."
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"...First of all, the level of risk is low, but consuming something over many years, even in a low amount, may possibly add to the risk," Hensrud stated.
The doctor said that while the new information may cause some people to cut down on foods with nonnutritive sweeteners, it wouldn't be healthy to add foods with sugar in them instead.
"If people can look at this and make healthier choices overall, such as carbonated water with a splash of flavoring or something like that, that would be a much better choice than going to back to added sugars," Hensrud stated.
