The truth about aspartame

he truth about the widely used sweetener consumed by children and pregnant women is explained by the power of capital, not by science.

PARK HYUNG-SOOThe author is an international news reporter of the JoongAng Ilbo. In 1965, James Schlatter, a chemist working for pharmaceutical company Searle, licked his finger while developing an antiulcer drug. He tasted a strong sweetness and analyzed the substance in his hand. He went on to synthesize artificial sweetener aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It netted Searle a huge fortune immediately.

Aspartame is currently the most popular artificial sweetener. It is used in as many as 6,000 foods, including soda, ice cream, cereal, gum, and candy, as well as children’s vitamins. It has become an absolute powerhouse in the alternative sweetener market worth $11.8 billion per year (2023 estimate) as a “healthy sweetness that does not cause diabetes and obesity.”

At the same time, it is also considered the “most controversial food additive.” Since the product’s U.S. FDA approval in 1975, research has produced conflicting results on the safety of aspartame.

Aspartame is a synthetic chemical that combines methanol with aspartic acid and phenylalanine, both amino acids. Phenylalanine is a neurotransmitter between the brain and nerve cells, and when its concentration in the body increases, it is known to cause headaches, seizures, and memory loss. Human metabolism breaks down methanol into formaldehyde and formic acid. (Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen.)

In 2005, the Bologna Cancer Center in Italy conducted an experiment of dividing 1,800 mice into two groups, giving aspartame to only one group. The mice given aspartame had much higher occurrences of lymphoma and leukemia than the other group. Many studies claim that aspartame is the cause of brain tumors and migraines in children and adolescents.

Aspartame advocates argue that as methanol and phenylalanine can be found in natural food such as fruits, those who are worried about toxicity of aspartame should stop eating fruits first. They also say that the correlation between aspartame and cancer is as farfetched as the sun causing cancer.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) included aspartame in its “cancerous substance” group on July 14, questions about aspartame mushroomed. The New York Times points out that the results of studies on aspartame vary depending on who funded the research. Among 166 papers published in medical journals from 1980 to 1985, 74 funded by the industry emphasized “safety” only. The truth about the widely used sweetener consumed by children and pregnant women is explained by the power of capital, not by science.