Aspartame, one of the most common artificial sweeteners, is sold as the sugar substitute Equal and the food additive NutraSweet. Aspartame has received a great deal of press and controversy for supposedly causing many diseases and cancers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved aspartame in 1981, and since that time, the sweetener been the subject of more than 200 studies, none of which have found definitive evidence linking aspartame to disease, explains University of Alabama Medicine.
Brain Damage
The only side effect recognized by the Food and Drug Administration occurs in a small percentage of the population that has a particular hereditary disease called phenylketonuria, abbreviated PKU. People with PKU cannot metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine, which is found in aspartame. If high levels of phenylalanine accumulate in the body, brain damage can occur, warns the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Brain Tumors
Rumors that aspartame causes brain tumors began to circulate in 1996 after a report suggesting that increasing numbers of brain tumors in the U.S. between 1975 and 1992 may be linked to the introduction of aspartame in 1981. However, the U.S. National Cancer Institute evaluated these claims and found that reports of brain tumors began rising as early as 1973, eight years before aspartame was approved for sale in the U.S. As of 2010, there is no clear evidence linking aspartame to brain cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Lymphoma and Leukemia
Additional cancer scares related to aspartame surfaced in 2005 with the release of a laboratory study showing that rats fed very high doses of aspartame developed lymphomas and leukemias at an increased rate. However, a review of the study data European Food Safety Authority found that the data did not support a link between aspartame and cancer.
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