Aspartame, the unsavoury truth surrounding this artificial sweetener.

Why are we still being force-fed aspartame in the UK while the same low calorie products have had it removed in the US? Consumer pressure in the United States caused Pepsi to replace aspartame sweetener in their diet drinks, however no such change was made for the UK market!

Once digested aspartame quickly breaks down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. What we know for sure is that people with the rare condition phenylketonuria (PKU) cannot break down phenylalanine and will accumulate it in the body, most likely in the brain. Around 68 babies born each year in the UK test positive for this condition which is checked in the 5-day old heel prick blood spot test. These individuals must avoid as far as possible the intake of phenylalanine and for this reason it's presence is required to be indicated on products. This does not mean that the rest of the population are necessarily free of any dangers as aspartame is linked to numerous medical conditions.

But is aspartame in fact safe as our institutions (NHS, EFSA, FDA) would have us believe, or have the dangers been covered up by huge companies profiting from it’s manufacture and sale? It’s no secret that approval from the FDA came in very controversial circumstances. Aspartame had already been twice banned for use, until Searle chairman Donald Rumsfeld as part of Ronald Reagan’s transition team appointed Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., to be the new FDA commissioner.

Hayes, Reagan’s new FDA commissioner, appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision. So Hayes installed a sixth member on the commission, and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartame’s favor. 

Hayes left the FDA under a cloud of impropriety and eventually took a position as a high-paid senior medical advisor with Burson-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time he has never spoken publicly about aspartame.

At the very least the approval of Aspartame would appear to be unsafe, but what about other institutions opinion of the sweetener? In Europe the EFSA's panel of experts (ANS) reviewed the risks associated with Aspartame and concluded that it was safe within the current guideline levels. However, the panel was later the subject of an investigation into conflict of interests:

The ANS panel is responsible for approving the public safety of food additives, including substances like flavour enhancers, sweeteners (aspartame) and colorants. CEO found that 11 out of the 20 experts on the panel have a conflict of interest, as defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

Who can we actually trust to give clear information regarding the risks? There are at least 164 studies into aspartame, 90 of these are non-industry sponsored and 74 are sponsored by companies with a commercial interest, the results are almost perfectly divided:

Of the 90 non-industry-sponsored studies, 83 (92%) identified one or more problems with aspartame. Of the 7 studies which did not find a problems, 6 of those studies were conducted by the FDA. Given that a number of FDA officials went to work for the aspartame industry immediately following approval (including the former FDA Commissioner), many consider these studies to be equivalent to industry-sponsored research.

Of the 74 aspartame industry-sponsored studies, all 74 (100%) claimed that no problems were found with aspartame.

To further compound the apparent subterfuge, it is the industry-sponsored and FDA studies that are most often cited in the media, leading to the widespread opinion that there are no concerns with the additive – and reports to the contrary must be conspiracy theories!

We all must draw our own conclusions, but it seems that in the UK there is very little public knowledge or outrage compared to the US, help to change this by doing your own research and sharing this post to inform others of the dangers of aspartame.

Reference List:
Martin, J. (2013) CE [online] https://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/01/19/the-shocking-story-of-how-aspartame-became-legal/ [accessed 27 Jan 2019]
Marcola.com (2011) [online] https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/31/aspartame-update.aspx [accessed 27 Jan 2019]
NHS UK (2016) [online] https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/aspartame-facts/ [accessed 27 Jan 2019]
DrMercola (2017) [online] https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/08/29/aspartame-health-risks.aspx [accessed 27 Jan 2019]
CEO (2011) [online] Exposed: conflicts of interest of EFSA's experts on food additiveshttps://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/publications/efsa_ans_panel.pdf [accessed 27 Jan 2019]
atlasfamilyhealth (2017) [online] https://atlasfamilyhealthcenter.com/artificial-sweeteners-june-2006/ [accessed 27 Jan 2019]