Aspartame Consumption Found Safe in New Studies Reprinted from Food Insight January/February 1990 Two new studies on aspartame provide reassurance that people are consuming safe levels of this low-calorie sweetener and that there are no adverse effects related to its long-term use. In the summer 1989 issue of the Journal of the Canadian Dietetic Association, Drs. John Heyback and Carolyn Ross reported that aspartame consumption by Canadians is far below the currently recommended acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 40 mg/kg of body weight established by the Health Protection Branch of Health and Welfare Canada. This is the first published study of aspartame consumption from a representative sample of Canadians since the sweetener's approval in Canada in 1981. The ADI represents a consumption level that, if maintained each day throughout a person's lifetime, would be considered safe by a wide margin. It includes a 100-fold safety factor so that in the unlikely event that a person did reach the ADI, it would not prove harmful. In the United States, the ADI for aspartame has been set at 50 mg/kg of body weight per day. The survey results also are in agreement with data from both commercial and government surveys conducted in the United States, where aspartame is approved in many similar product categories. The study involved samples of 5,544 and 4,872 Canadians surveyed during two separate periods in 1987. Participants recorded all foods and beverages consumed in designated categories for seven days. The categories, such as carbonated soft drinks, frozen novelties and yogurt, represented all 145 products containing aspartame marketed in Canada at the time of the survey. Diaries of volunteers who consumed any product containing aspartame on at least one of the seven days were analyzed apart from the remaining participants. This "eaters-only&q uot; group have a mean intake of 1.3 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight per day. The 90th percentile of intake for all eaters-only was 5.9 mg/kg or less per day; for weight reducers, 7.3 mg/kg of body weight per day; and diabetics, 11.4 mg/kg of body weight per day. Ninety out of 100 eaters-only aged 2 to 5 years had an aspartame intake of 8.9 mg/kg of body weight per day or less; children aged 6-12 years consumed 5.1 mg/kg of body weight per day or less. the researchers noted that children consume proportionately larger amounts of all food ingredients than adults in relation to their body weight. Consumption levels for all sub-groups of Canadians were well below the acceptable daily intake of 40 mg/kg of body weight established by the Health Protection Branch. Study Shows Adverse Effects In a second new study, researchers Dr. Arthur S. Leon and colleagues at the University of Minnesota gave volunteers approximately 30 times the average consumption level of aspartame for six months and found no adverse effects. The study, as reported in the October 1989 Archives of Internal Medicine, involved 108 healthy adults aged 18 to 62 years of age. The participants received 75 mg/kg of body weight of aspartame or placebo divided into three capsules daily for 24-weeks. This is 1.5 times the acceptable daily intake set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Neither the volunteers nor the researchers were aware who had been randomly assigned to the aspartame or placebo groups. Comprehensive laboratory studies were conducted on all participants at baseline and repeated six times throughout the study. No statistically significant differences were found between the aspartame and placebo groups in terms of blood cell counts or plasma lipid levels such as cholesterol. Analyses of more than 20 different amino acids, including aspartame's constituents aspartic acid and phenylalanine, also showed no statistically significant differences between the groups. Differences between the groups in formate levels in the blood or urine, ratios of large neutral amino acids, and other metabolic parameters also were absent. At various times during the six-month study, 83 percent of all volunteers complained of mild or moderate symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain and upper respiratory tract problems. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in the number of persons experiencing such symptoms. While some previous studies have suggested that sweeteners might have a paradoxical effect on appetite and weight gain, this study did not support such a hypothesis. Mean body weight of the aspartame group did not differ significantly from baseline after six months. The results of this study, in which volunteers consumed one and one-half times the U.S. ADI for aspartame over six months, provide further reassurance of the sweetener's safety and new useful clinical data on this most-thoroughly studied food additive in history. Reprinted from the International Food Information Council Foundation, 1990

Home	The Library Catalogue
Books	Health Links

LinkExchange Member

Free Home Pages at GeoCities