Aspartame, a sweetener ubiquitous in a variety of sugar-free foods and beverages, has been thrust to the forefront for days now — the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) will declare it "possibly carcinogenic" this month. Many people are worried: Is aspartame safe? Can sweets and preserved fruit candies with added sugar substitutes still be eaten? Do sugar substitute drinks dare to drink with confidence?
What is aspartame
Aspartame is a synthetic sweetener that appeared in 1965, mainly composed of L-phenylalanine and L-aspartic acid (amino acids are components of proteins), which can be quickly absorbed in the body like proteins, and will not accumulate in the body, and aspartic acid can be directly used by the human body.
Aspartame is very low in calories, 1/200 of sucrose, but 200 times sweeter than the same amount of sucrose. Because of its low calorie and high sweetness, aspartame is used in many beverages and foods. For example, it is commonly found in sugar-free cola, chewing gum and many sugar-free foods. At present, the mainland national food safety standards allow aspartame to be used in dozens of foods such as beverages, dairy products, jellies, puffed foods, chewing gum, etc., and the amount of use per kilogram is allowed to be between 0.3-4.0 grams, and there are also appropriate amounts according to production needs.
Aspartame is just one of the sweeteners. Other commonly used synthetic sweeteners include sucralose, cyclamate, acesulfame potassium, etc. Among the sugar substitutes, there are also sugar alcohol sweeteners, including dozens of sugar alcohols, such as xylitol, maltitol, erythritol, etc., which are naturally occurring sweeteners and are produced in large quantities by fermentation or hydrogenation. Another category of more "natural" sweeteners is the sweetener in natural herbs such as steviol and glycyrrhizin. Therefore, aspartame is "possibly carcinogenic" and does not affect all sweeteners.
Is aspartame safe
From a safety point of view, many international health organizations and regulatory agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration, the European Food Safety Authority, WHO and the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (JECFA), have conducted extensive evaluation and research on aspartame, and it is generally believed that it is safe to use within a reasonable range (except for phenylketonuria patients who cannot eat foods containing aspartame as a sweetener) and does not cause cancer. Despite decades of controversy surrounding aspartame's health effects, the research is not convincing, so national regulatory bodies have not banned aspartame.
Taking JECFA's clear acceptable daily intake as an example, adults can consume up to 40 mg of aspartame per kilogram of body weight per day. Taking a person weighing 60 kilograms, according to the maximum allowable addition, he needs to drink 12 cans of sweet drinks a day to cause health damage. Therefore, the public does not need to worry too much.
In addition, in terms of composition, aspartame is a dipeptide catalyzed by L-phenylalanine and L-aspartic acid, and contains a methyl ester, and is rapidly hydrolyzed into aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol in the body. Because the sweetness is very high, the actual amount of it used in food is very small, so the amount of methanol produced in the body is also very small, which does not reach the level of causing poisoning. In contrast, many people use fruit sugar to make "fruit enzymes", or make their own fruit wine, which produces much higher amounts of methanol.
How to view the classification of carcinogens in IARC
Being included in the IARC's list of probable carcinogens does not necessarily mean that you must not eat, or that "if you eat it, you will get cancer". According to the IARC classification, Class 1 is "identified human carcinogen"; Class 2 includes Class 2A (likely to be carcinogenic to humans) and Class 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans); Class 3 are unlikely to cause cancer.
In fact, a variety of foods contain Class 1 carcinogens listed by IARC, and some foods are themselves listed as Class 1 or Class 2A and 2B carcinogens, but they are not banned from sale, and many people still eat them. For example, alcohol in alcoholic beverages is classified as a Class 1 carcinogen. However, most people in the world still consume alcoholic beverages regularly or occasionally.
Nitrosamines are also identified carcinogens. Processed meat products, such as meat sausage ham, bacon and salted meat, will contain nitrosamines; Dried aquatic products such as sea rice, dried scallops, shrimp skin, and dried fish naturally contain trace amounts of nitrosamines, but people often eat these foods.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzopyrene in barbecued foods and fried foods are also identified carcinogens. Charcoal grilling inevitably produces carcinogens, but people still eat charcoal grilled skewers with gusto.
Acrylamide is now included in Class 2A, the most likely carcinogen. As long as starchy foods are baked until yellow, acrylamide will be produced, but who doesn't like to eat bread with a yellow surface, baked cakes, fried buns, potstickers, fried dumplings, baked naan and other delicacies? French fries, potato chips, brown sugar, pot ba, fritters, biscuits, roasted coffee beans, etc., also contain acrylamide.
In addition, Chinese salted fish was included in the list of Class 1 carcinogens in 2012, and Asian traditional kimchi was included in the list of Class 2B. In 2018, processed meat and red meat were also included in the list of Class 1 and Class 2A carcinogens, respectively. At that time, the meat industry in various countries expressed strong dissatisfaction with this, and later found that consumers still ate it correctly, and did not stay away from processed meat products such as red meat such as beef and mutton, meat sausage and ham.
Can sweeteners still be taken with confidence?
If you have eaten aspartame-containing foods and beverages before, you can still eat them in moderation, and of course do not eat or drink too much.
More than 90 countries and regions around the world allow the use of aspartame, including the United States, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, etc., which is enough to show that it is still safe within a reasonable range and does not need to be particularly anxious and worried.
At present, about 20 kinds of sweeteners are allowed, such as erythritol, cyclamate, acesulfame potassium, etc., there are many alternatives, and you can also choose other sugar-free foods and beverages.
If you want sugar-free foods and beverages to help you lose weight, don't expect it. The key to weight loss is to control the balance of total energy, if you eat sugar-free foods, drink drinks, eat meat and do not exercise, it is unlikely to lose weight.
Therefore, if sweeteners have safety problems, it does not mean that it is safer to eat a large amount of sugar directly, rather than entangled in which sweetener is safer, it is better to eat less sweets, drink less sweet drinks, and break off the excessive obsession with sweetness.
If you really do it occasionally, or if you really do it in small quantities at once, it doesn't matter much whether you drink a sugar-substitute drink or a drink with real sugar.
FAN Zhihong Ruan Guangfeng (The first author is a professor of the Department of Nutrition and Health of China Agricultural University, and the second author is a member of the Expert Committee of China Internet Rumor Debunking Platform)
Source: Popular Science Times