Thoraiya DyerDoes Aspartame Give You Alzheimer’s?
July 1st 2008 22:39
Aspartame, like many artificial sweeteners, had an evil reputation when I was growing up. Just like many other well-meaning children, I would hide any cans I found with the Nutra-Sweet brand, and tell my poor mother, who was struggling to lose weight, that she was going to get instant dementia if she kept drinking the stuff.
Was I lying? Or was there a kernel of truth?
A brief blurb on Aspartame from Environmental Health Perspectives reads like this:
“Aspartame (APM) is one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners in the world.
First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for limited use in solid food in 1981, its authorization was extended to soft drinks in 1983 and then approved as a general sweetener in 1996 (FDA 1981, 1983, 1996).
Likewise, the sweetener was approved for general use in the European Union in 1994 (EC Directive 1994).
APM is now present in > 6,000 consumer packaged goods and in nearly 500 pharmaceutical products, including children’s medicines (Aspartame Information Center 2005).
In the United States, > 70% of aspartame sales are attributed to soft drinks (American Dietetic Association 2004). The acceptable daily intake (ADI) of aspartame is currently 50 mg/kg body weight (bw) in the United States and 40 mg/kg bw in the European Union for both children and adults.”
Thinking about artificial sweeteners makes my teeth hurt (YUCK), but it does seem to help people lose weight. It this at the expense of their mental health?
For every article that condemns aspartame, it seems there is one to refute it. Despite decades of research, it is still exceedingly difficult to draw any definite conclusions.
From the EC’s Scientific Committee on Food 2002 findings ( Really Long Link ) we can pluck out an interesting aspartame timeline:
1972 – Young monkeys fed aspartame for 52 weeks suffered from seizures, even after the aspartame was stopped.
1980 – Young monkeys fed aspartame did not suffer from seizures.
1980s, 1990’s – Giving aspartame to rats altered levels of various neurotrasmitters (chemicals in their brains). In light of the affect on rat’s brains, it was hypothesised that aspartame could affect human behaviour, cognition and physiology.
1989, 1991, 1996, 2000 – scientists unable to establish links between seizures and aspartame in humans.
1990 – Saravis et al - one aspartame drink a day for two weeks does not affect adults with depression, ADD, Parkinson’s or epilepsy. In 1994, Shaywitz et al found aspartame also had no effects in children with those disorders.
1992 – Camfield et al demonstrated that aspartame could increase the duration of some types of seizures in epileptic children.
1993 – Walton et al conducted an experiment with 13 depression sufferers and found that aspartame increased the frequency and severity of adverse experiences – they concluded that aspartame should be avoided in those with mood disorders.
1996 – Aspartame accused of being responsible for increasing incidence of brain tumours in the USA. No way of proving whether there was cause and effect or whether the correlation was pure coincidence.
1981, 2002 – Aspartame does not cause cancer in rats.
AFFSA (2002) – NOT enough evidence to prove a link between aspartame and epilepsy.
Yikes. No mention of Alzheimer’s Disease at all. All those years of hiding mum’s Diet Coke, berating her for drinking it, making jokes about her memory…I feel, if not ashamed, then at least very slightly abashed.
But is there more recent evidence we could be looking at?
Oh, yes.
John Briffa, general practitioner, had the following concerns in a 2005 article:
“Lean and Hankey's editorial on the effects of aspartame and health gives this artificial sweetener a clean bill of health.1 However, it seems they have ignored or dismissed a wealth of evidence, which shows that aspartame can provoke a wide range of symptoms including depression2 and headaches.3,4 Other studies (a total of 91) that attest to aspartame's potential for harm can be found in an online review of peer reviewed literature.5
This review is particularly worrying as it shows that, although 100% of industry funded (either whole or in part) studies conclude that aspartame is safe, 92% of independently funded studies have found that aspartame has the potential for adverse effects.”
In the 2007 Environmental Health Perspectives article “Life-Span Exposure to Low Doses of Aspartame Beginning during Prenatal Life Increases Cancer Effects in Rats”, Soffriti et al followed up on an initial experiment that “demonstrated for the first time that aspartame (APM) is a multipotent carcinogenic agent when various doses are administered with feed to Sprague-Dawley rats from 8 weeks of age throughout the life span.”
In other words, that aspartame DOES cause cancer in rats, especially when they are exposed to it prior to birth.
Soffriti and his colleagues criticised earlier studies for using only small numbers of rats, and for only watching the rats up until 110 weeks of age, instead of until they died.
In contrast, “we designed and performed a mega-experiment using seven groups of Sprague-Dawley rats (100–150 per sex per group) treated with APM in feed at various dose levels (including one very close to the ADI [Acceptable Daily Intake - TD] for humans), from 8 weeks of age until natural death.”
“APM is a multipotential carcinogenic agent, capable of inducing, in our experimental conditions a) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of malignant tumor–bearing animals in males and in females …b) a significant dose-related increase in lymphomas/leukemias in both males and females … c) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis and ureter and their precursors (dysplasias) in females … d ) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of malignant schwannomas of peripheral nerves in males.”
Wow, just look at that goodie bag of tumours!
The article was slammed by another scientist, who accused them of using test rats that were sick anyway, but I wasn’t really interested in what Mr Abegaz had to say after I noticed this little tidbit:
“The author is employed by Ajinomoto USA, which sells aspartame.”
Looks like Dr Briffa was right. The people that sell it have no qualms with it. The people that don’t sell it are worried about it, particularly in regards to epilepsy and cancer.
So, Mum, I was wrong when I hid your Diet Coke to stop you from getting Alzheimer’s Disease.
But I might have stopped you from getting leukaemia!
So…we’re OK now??
Drink water instead.
http://www.nataliedee.com/
Was I lying? Or was there a kernel of truth?
A brief blurb on Aspartame from Environmental Health Perspectives reads like this:
“Aspartame (APM) is one of the most widely used artificial sweeteners in the world.
First approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for limited use in solid food in 1981, its authorization was extended to soft drinks in 1983 and then approved as a general sweetener in 1996 (FDA 1981, 1983, 1996).
Likewise, the sweetener was approved for general use in the European Union in 1994 (EC Directive 1994).
APM is now present in > 6,000 consumer packaged goods and in nearly 500 pharmaceutical products, including children’s medicines (Aspartame Information Center 2005).
In the United States, > 70% of aspartame sales are attributed to soft drinks (American Dietetic Association 2004). The acceptable daily intake (ADI) of aspartame is currently 50 mg/kg body weight (bw) in the United States and 40 mg/kg bw in the European Union for both children and adults.”
Thinking about artificial sweeteners makes my teeth hurt (YUCK), but it does seem to help people lose weight. It this at the expense of their mental health?
For every article that condemns aspartame, it seems there is one to refute it. Despite decades of research, it is still exceedingly difficult to draw any definite conclusions.
From the EC’s Scientific Committee on Food 2002 findings ( Really Long Link ) we can pluck out an interesting aspartame timeline:
1972 – Young monkeys fed aspartame for 52 weeks suffered from seizures, even after the aspartame was stopped.
1980 – Young monkeys fed aspartame did not suffer from seizures.
1980s, 1990’s – Giving aspartame to rats altered levels of various neurotrasmitters (chemicals in their brains). In light of the affect on rat’s brains, it was hypothesised that aspartame could affect human behaviour, cognition and physiology.
1989, 1991, 1996, 2000 – scientists unable to establish links between seizures and aspartame in humans.
1990 – Saravis et al - one aspartame drink a day for two weeks does not affect adults with depression, ADD, Parkinson’s or epilepsy. In 1994, Shaywitz et al found aspartame also had no effects in children with those disorders.
1992 – Camfield et al demonstrated that aspartame could increase the duration of some types of seizures in epileptic children.
1993 – Walton et al conducted an experiment with 13 depression sufferers and found that aspartame increased the frequency and severity of adverse experiences – they concluded that aspartame should be avoided in those with mood disorders.
1996 – Aspartame accused of being responsible for increasing incidence of brain tumours in the USA. No way of proving whether there was cause and effect or whether the correlation was pure coincidence.
1981, 2002 – Aspartame does not cause cancer in rats.
AFFSA (2002) – NOT enough evidence to prove a link between aspartame and epilepsy.
Yikes. No mention of Alzheimer’s Disease at all. All those years of hiding mum’s Diet Coke, berating her for drinking it, making jokes about her memory…I feel, if not ashamed, then at least very slightly abashed.
But is there more recent evidence we could be looking at?
Oh, yes.
John Briffa, general practitioner, had the following concerns in a 2005 article:
“Lean and Hankey's editorial on the effects of aspartame and health gives this artificial sweetener a clean bill of health.1 However, it seems they have ignored or dismissed a wealth of evidence, which shows that aspartame can provoke a wide range of symptoms including depression2 and headaches.3,4 Other studies (a total of 91) that attest to aspartame's potential for harm can be found in an online review of peer reviewed literature.5
This review is particularly worrying as it shows that, although 100% of industry funded (either whole or in part) studies conclude that aspartame is safe, 92% of independently funded studies have found that aspartame has the potential for adverse effects.”
In the 2007 Environmental Health Perspectives article “Life-Span Exposure to Low Doses of Aspartame Beginning during Prenatal Life Increases Cancer Effects in Rats”, Soffriti et al followed up on an initial experiment that “demonstrated for the first time that aspartame (APM) is a multipotent carcinogenic agent when various doses are administered with feed to Sprague-Dawley rats from 8 weeks of age throughout the life span.”
In other words, that aspartame DOES cause cancer in rats, especially when they are exposed to it prior to birth.
Soffriti and his colleagues criticised earlier studies for using only small numbers of rats, and for only watching the rats up until 110 weeks of age, instead of until they died.
In contrast, “we designed and performed a mega-experiment using seven groups of Sprague-Dawley rats (100–150 per sex per group) treated with APM in feed at various dose levels (including one very close to the ADI [Acceptable Daily Intake - TD] for humans), from 8 weeks of age until natural death.”
“APM is a multipotential carcinogenic agent, capable of inducing, in our experimental conditions a) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of malignant tumor–bearing animals in males and in females …b) a significant dose-related increase in lymphomas/leukemias in both males and females … c) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of transitional cell carcinomas of the renal pelvis and ureter and their precursors (dysplasias) in females … d ) a significant, dose-related increased incidence of malignant schwannomas of peripheral nerves in males.”
Wow, just look at that goodie bag of tumours!
The article was slammed by another scientist, who accused them of using test rats that were sick anyway, but I wasn’t really interested in what Mr Abegaz had to say after I noticed this little tidbit:
“The author is employed by Ajinomoto USA, which sells aspartame.”
Looks like Dr Briffa was right. The people that sell it have no qualms with it. The people that don’t sell it are worried about it, particularly in regards to epilepsy and cancer.
So, Mum, I was wrong when I hid your Diet Coke to stop you from getting Alzheimer’s Disease.
But I might have stopped you from getting leukaemia!
So…we’re OK now??
Drink water instead.
Taken from NatalieDee.com
http://www.nataliedee.com/
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Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
The trouble with some of these researchers is........................... .........?????????????????
Good post.
Comment by Thoraiya Dyer
Demented World