Tag Archive for: aspartame

Artificial Sweeteners and Cancer: The Bottom Line

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In the paper on artificial sweeteners and cancer risk that I covered on Tuesday, the researchers made it clear that although the study was done well, cause and effect cannot be determined. They also acknowledge that because 80% of the subjects were women, the results couldn’t be applied to the entire French population, let alone the population of any other country. What it could mean is that artificial sweeteners in combination with other dietary, environmental, or genetic factors could contribute to cancer development.

Here are some other issues with the data and the analysis:

  • They did not test the subjects for cancer before the study. They eliminated several thousand people for already having had cancer, but they didn’t check for present cancers that hadn’t reached the point where they could be diagnosed. That would have added to the complexity, but it was possible.
  • They didn’t seem to ask when the subjects began using artificial sweeteners. The mean age was 42 at the beginning of the study, so subjects might have been using them for decades; some may have been using them for only a few days. Most cancers take years to develop, so the possible link between artificial sweeteners and cancer is probably zero in people who’ve used them a short time. The real question is whether long-term users had a higher risk.
  • I would like to have seen scattergrams of artificial-sweetener intake along with fruit-and-vegetable intake on rates of cancer. In other words, could the increase in fruits and/or vegetables reduce the impact of artificial sweeteners? Fiber intake, exercise, and BMI could also have been plotted against artificial-sweetener consumption. They accounted for these statistically, but seeing what happens when plotted could show how behavioral changes might help neutralize the artificial sweeteners.
  • One thing they didn’t is factor in is use of animal products (except dairy) and the risk of cancer—the only factors accounted for were weight-loss, a healthy diet, and a Western diet. All the studies I’ve seen assess meat intake and cancer, especially processed meat.

The Bottom Line

Take this study for what it is: an indicator that there are numerous potential causes of cancers. Clinical trials can determine cause and effect if the studies are well designed. This study did a wonderful job of measuring the intake of artificial sweeteners; they just didn’t take it all the way in analyzing the data they collected.

So what should you do? If you use artificial sweeteners, that’s fine. If you prefer not to or want to cut down, that’s fine as well. There’s nothing from this study that indicates there’s anything to fear. Paula and I both use artificial sweeteners, we’ll continue to use them, and we won’t worry about them at all.

I still believe that obesity is a greater risk, not just for cancer but for many other health issues; if artificial sweeteners help you reduce or maintain your weight, I’d say the scale tips toward using them.

We’re taking next week off for spring break, so I’ll see you back here April 12. Then we’ll look at what science shows you can do to really limit your risk of cancer.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950

Do Artificial Sweeteners Increase Cancer Risk?

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Last week, my health news feed filled up with headlines that almost all sounded like this: “Artificial Sweeteners Linked to Higher Cancer Risk!” This isn’t the first study to suggest that relationship and it won’t be the last. This French epidemiological study of over 100,000 subjects collected data for more than seven years. One of the things I almost always criticize is data collection using food frequency questionnaires. Not this time.

The subjects completed at least two food diaries per year. Portions were assessed by comparing with pictures of portions sizes. What they did particularly well is to list all the foods that contained artificial sweeteners, including all brand names; then they tested most of the foods in the lab to verify the presence of artificial sweeteners. Researchers collected as many confounding variables as they could to account for everything that contributes to cancer.

After the statistical analysis, the overall hazard ratio demonstrated a 13% increase in the risk of cancer. Aspartame and acesulfame potassium were the artificial sweeteners with the highest hazard ratio among all those tested. Based on this information, do we need to avoid artificial sweeteners or at least lower the amounts we consume? I’ll talk about that Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003950

Artificial Sweeteners and Your Digestive System

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Before I address the concerns of the study on artificial sweeteners I talked about on Tuesday, be assured that I’m bringing you the facts as I interpret them. If you don’t use artificial sweeteners, I’m not trying to convert you, but I’m not going to let slide inflammatory headlines that only seek to raise fear where none should exist. The problem with the artificial sweeteners study is that it didn’t use a systems approach.

Bench Science

What the researchers did would be considered bench science. It’s basic in its approach: create a medium where the bacteria will grow, throw in various quantities of the artificial sweeteners, and see what happens. That’s a good first step in any type of research to see an impact on an entire organism. The same is true for examining the effect of the artificial sweeteners on the bacteria in the cancer cell medium. They established that chronic exposure to artificial sweeteners cause two probiotics to become pathogenic.

However, that’s where it ends. Trying to explain an increase in the obesity and diabetic epidemics because of how artificial sweeteners may impact a couple of gut bacteria doesn’t make any sense. It’s stretching things way too far with no evidence that what they’re describing happens at all. In effect, they’re trying to explain a health issue by looking at potential causes. Fine, good start—but now there’s a whole lot of animal and human clinical research that has to take place in order to prove whether it’s true, because what happens in a lab is often not what happens in a human.

Bench science has its place for sure, but it has serious limitations. In our headline-a-minute world, everyone is too eager to claim credit for something that hasn’t been proved.

The Digestive System

The human body is made up of various systems; the digestive system is one of them, but it doesn’t begin and end with the epithelial cells of the intestine. Food (including artificial sweetener) starts in the mouth with its salivary glands, goes down the esophagus, enters the stomach with its specialized fluids, travels the 20 to 30 feet of small intestine where more unique fluids do their jobs, and then the 10 to 15 feet of large intestine before it exits the body. The digestive system doesn’t act alone; it requires input from other organs and systems along the way: the pancreas, the liver, and so on. Every one of those could have an impact on the metabolism and elimination of artificial sweeteners and could impact how bacteria behave in the digestive system.

I could write a book on this subject, but let me just point out one thing that should be obvious: they tested two probiotic lines. Two. As of the last count, there are at least 6,500 different microbes that coexist within our digestive system. There are also trillions of them, each with a role to play, and we still don’t know what each and every one does. As I said, it’s complicated.

The Bottom Line

This study illustrates where good research begins: in bench science. There’s a lot more science that has to happen before we become alarmed about whether or not artificial sweeteners directly impact our microbiome, but their approach does raise a question that I’ll talk about next week: a systems approach to Aging with a Vengeance. We look at pain or other conditions as something that stands alone, but in reality, we may need a systems approach to deal with it.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 5228. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijms22105228

Are Artificial Sweeteners Toxic to the Microbiome?

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If you use artificial sweeteners and you saw the words “danger,” “artificial sweeteners,” and “serious health issues” all in the same headline, you’d probably be concerned. The headline recently appeared in my newsfeed, and because many of us use artificial sweeteners, I had to check it out. Here’s what researchers found in a study published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.

The researchers examined the impact of three artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin) on two strains of probiotics and one form of tissue from the digestive system. First, they tested whether the artificial sweeteners at various concentrations impacted the growth of the bacteria in a typical medium. They didn’t (with the exception of saccharin at the highest concentration.)

Then they tested whether the sweeteners affected the ability of the bacteria to produce a biofilm, something that’s important to our intestinal health. They didn’t.

Finally, they examined whether exposure to artificial sweeteners would cause changes in the bacteria to make them pathogenic; that can happen, for example, with E. coli. Using cell lines drawn from an established line of colon cancer in this experiment, they demonstrated that the bacteria could potentially become pathogenic and enter the cell walls of the epithelium. That means they could theoretically enter the bloodstream and impact our health.

That sounds pretty bad, right? It certainly seems to merit the use of the words “artificial sweeteners,” “dangers,” and “serious health issues” in a headline. But is it of any real concern to you and me? I’ll let you know in Saturday’s memo as we talk about an important topic related to Aging with a Vengeance.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 5228. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijms22105228

Artificial Sweeteners, Obesity, and Diabetes

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Last week, you may have seen headlines that said something like “Artificial Sweeteners May Cause Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes!” Just about every news organization picked up a press release from the Experimental Biology meeting. In the press release, researchers gave some of the results of a paper that was presented at a scientific session, including comments by the lead author, Dr. Brian R. Hoffman.

The purpose for doing the study, he said, was because of the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the U.S. While there’s little question that excessive sugar intake, combined with excess calories over years, does contribute to obesity and type 2 diabetes, no one has really examined the role artificial sweeteners may play.

In these studies, he and his research team examined the effect of high levels of sugars, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium on epithelial cells taken from rodents in a test-tube study. Then using another group of rodents, they overfed them sugars and the same artificial sweeteners for three weeks. The objective was to see what changes occurred in proteins and metabolites that were produced in cardiovascular epithelial cells in the test-tube study and the blood of the rodents.

They found that there were modifications in proteins under both conditions, which may have led to changes in the products they produced. But is this meaningful research or not? I’ll tell you what I liked about the study in Thursday’s memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: EB 2018. The Influence of Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners on Vascular Health during the Onset and Progression of Diabetes Board # / Pub #: A322 603.20.