Food Chemicals
Artificial sweetener linked to leukemia
By Ben Wasserman
Jul 19, 2005 - 1:28:00 PM

Use of the artificial sweetener aspartame was linked to development of leukemia in rodents, according to a new Italian study published recently in the European Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Researchers of the study, Dr. Morando Soffritti and colleagues at the Cancer research Centre in Bologna, fed eight-week old rats with different doses of aspartame.

It was found that rats fed with aspartame developed lymphomas or leukemia. The cancer risk increases with the dose of aspartame.

The study prompted European regulators to re-consider the safety of aspartame. But UK regulators downplayed the study' results saying that a 2002 review of 500 papers showed aspartame posed no risk to consumers.

Aspartame consists of two amino acids, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, and a methyl ester group, which may become free methyl alcohol - methanol, a toxic compound. Methanol is also naturally present in some foods such as banana and other fruits.

Aspartame is widely used as a sweetener to replace calories-loaded natural sugars. In the UK, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of aspartame is set at 40 milligrams per kg of body weight, while in the US, aspartame ADI is set at 50 milligrams per kg of body weight.