Aspartame Linked to Leukemia

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Aspartame Linked to Leukemia

http://www.mercola.com/2005/aug/4/aspartame_leukemia.htm Doubts flare up once again regarding the safety of the artificial sweetener aspartame. The additive, also known as NutraSweet, is 200 times sweeter than sugar and is used throughout the world in 6,000 diet foods and pharmaceutical products including Diet Coke, Pepsi Max, strawberry yogurt, Wrigley's Extra Spearmint chewing gum, vitamins and sugar-free cough drops.

According to a team of Italian scientists, using aspartame has been linked to cancer--specifically, leukemias in rodents.

Bitter Results

For the study, researchers fed 8-week-old rats varying concentrations of aspartame. Results showed that, compared with control rats given no sweetener:

 

 

Many of the female rats fed aspartame--at levels very near those to which humans can be exposed to--developed lymphomas or leukemias; the risk increased with the dose of aspartame.

 

Sparse malignant brain tumors were also observed in treated male and female rats and none in the controls.

Researchers explain the findings raise concerns about the levels of aspartame to which humans can be exposed and, therefore, "urgent re-examination" of aspartame's safety is needed, "especially to protect children."

Setting "Safe" Boundaries

The existing European Food Safety Authority safety review for aspartame led to the setting of an Acceptable Daily Intake, or ADI, of the sweetener at 40 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight. ADI is the projected amount of an additive that could be routinely consumed every day over a lifetime with no significant health risk.

However, the aspartame-cancer study has prompted the European Food Safety Authority to order an expert assessment of the data "as a matter of high priority." In fact, the safety authority recently stated that aspartame had been considered safe ... until now.

European Journal of Oncology 2005

BBC News July 14, 2005

 

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

The evidence is quite compelling that artificial sweeteners are not good for you, and now you can add the risk of leukemia to the list of 90 different related symptoms that have been documented in humans.

If you are like me and just don't have time to read the enormous amount of compelling evidence that makes the case for why you or anyone you love should never consume aspartame, then I would strongly recommend ordering the video Sweet Misery. Without question, it is the single best summary of the issues of aspartame toxicity and some of the leading crusaders for bringing the truth to the public are in the film.

While aspartame is claimed to be natural because it contains two amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine), nothing could be further from the truth. I wrote a letter to the British Medical Journal, which was published last year, that reviewed this topic in depth. Unfortunately, the British Medical Journal used to have all their content free, but they recently changed their policy and now charge for articles.

The phenylalanine in aspartame dissociates from the ester bond and increases dopamine levels in your brain and can lead to symptoms of depression because it distorts the serotonin/dopamine balance. It can also lead to migraine headaches and brain tumors through a similar mechanism.

The aspartic acid is a well-documented excitoxin. Excitotoxins are usually amino acids, such as glutamate and aspartate. These special amino acids cause particular brain cells to become excessively excited, to the point they will quickly die. Excitotoxins can also cause a loss of brain synapses and connecting fibers.

Then the ester bond in aspartame is broken down to formaldehyde and methanol, which have their own toxicities. So it is absolutely no surprise that leukemia is associated with using it.

If you are having trouble kicking the, in this case, "diet" soda habit, then please read our recent article on how to easily get rid of your soda addiction.

Related Articles:

 

Aspartame Disease: An FDA-Approved Epidemic

What You Don't Know About Aspartame Can Destroy Your Health

Can Rumsfeld "Defend" Himself Against Aspartame Lawsuit?