Researchers from the prestigious Ramazzini Foundation who showed aspartame was linked to increased risks of blood and lymph cancers were criticised for the way they did the study, so they corrected for all complaints, did the study again and this resulted in even higher risk of lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma than the first study!
In 2005 researchers from the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences found a statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant tumours, lymphomas and leukemias in rats exposed to varying doses of aspartame. The report appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) and the authors called for an "urgent re-evaluation" of the current guidelines for the use and consumption of this compound.
"Our study has shown that aspartame is a multi-potential carcinogenic compound whose carcinogenic effects are also evident at a daily dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg), notably less than the current acceptable daily intake for humans", the authors wrote. In 2005, the acceptable daily intake for humans was set at 50 mg/kg in the United States and 40 mg/kg in Europe.
Now in a new report and one of the largest and most thorough of its kind these early results seem to be confirmed. In the new study, researchers analysed data on 77,218 women and 47,810 men from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study for a 22-year period. Every two years, participants were given a detailed dietary questionnaire and their diets were reassessed every four years.
The new study showed that just one daily 12-fl oz. can (355 ml) of diet soda containing aspartame leads to:
- A 42 percent higher leukaemia risk in men and women
- A 102 percent higher multiple myeloma risk (in men only)
- A 31 percent higher Non-Hodgkin lymphoma risk (in men only)
Of course other foods (from diet yoghurts to low calorie jams) contain aspartame but diet drinks have the lion's share and result in 80 per cent of consumption.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and founder of CANCERactive, "When the researchers did their first study, vested interests were happy to jump on the findings. This backfired. The researchers took all the comments onboard and repeated the research and got worse risk figures for aspartame. Needless to say, no action will be taken by people responsible for our health. In a meta-analysis produced in 2017, it was found that cans of fizzy soft drinks containing aspartame were associated with increased BMI and increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and strokes."