By now, you’ve probably read headlines about the artificial sweetener aspartame “possibly” causing cancer. Does that mean you need to purge your pantry of diet sodas, gum, desserts, and the numerous other products that contain aspartame?
In short: don’t panic.
The news about aspartame stems from a research review done by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Twenty-five IARC experts reviewed more than 1,000 human and animal studies on aspartame and found “limited” evidence of a link between the sweetener and liver cancer in people. Meanwhile, a separate group of experts convened by the WHO and the United Nations reviewed research on aspartame and found “no convincing evidence” that people are at risk if they follow current consumption guidelines—which allow around a dozen diet sodas per day. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also issued a rebuttal of the IARC’s report on its website .
The back-and-forth recalls controversy around saccharin, another artificial sweetener. Studies from the 1970s found a link between saccharin and bladder cancer in rats, but later research concluded that the findings didn’t apply to humans. Saccharin is still used in the U.S. today.
None of this is to say that artificial sweeteners are full-stop healthy; like diets high in added natural sugar, they’re also linked to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. You’re better off choosing foods that are free of or low in sweeteners whenever you can. But current research suggests the occasional yogurt or diet soda won’t kill you.
