Aspartame and Saccharine -The Controversial Sweeteners

It could take ages and web-pages to describe the human-race's craving for sugar. A bowl of sugary breakfast cereal may be followed by a mid-morning donut, a lunchtime soda, ice cream at supper, and, in between, snacks of pudding, pie or pastry. Not to mention all those goodies that are part of Valentine's Day, Diwali, the year-end holiday season and what have you. It all adds up to one massive human sweet tooth.

The craving for sugar is so high that the average American citizen, for example, eats the equivalent of 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, according to figures from the most recent federal Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (1994-1996). Nearly 60 percent of this intake is from corn sweeteners, used heavily in sodas and other sweetened drinks. Another 40 percent is from sucrose (table sugar), and a small amount comes from other sweeteners, such as honey and molasses.

Humans naturally have an appetite for sugary things. But in excess, sugary foods can take a toll. Large quantities add up to surplus calories, which can contribute to weight gain. In order to lose weight, the total calories from foods, especially those with lots of calories from sugars as well as fats, must be decreased and physical activity increased. As a result, many consumers seeking to control their weight have turned to sugar substitutes as one way to help lower the daily calorie count without having to give up their favorite foods.

Sugar substitutes, also called artificial sweeteners, are many times sweeter than sugar, it takes much less of them to create the same sweetness. The resulting calorie count of the amount used is negligible.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved four sugar substitutes - saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame-K, and sucralose - for use in a variety of foods. Two approved sugar substitutes, saccharin and aspartame, have been the subject of ongoing controversy that, in the case of saccharin, dates back more than 20 years. Questions still linger about whether saccharin may cause cancer in humans, and though the sweetener is still widely used, it carries a label that warns of its potential risks.

Aspartame has come under fire in recent years from individuals who have used the Internet in an attempt to link the sweetener to brain tumors and other serious disorders. But FDA stands behind its original approval of aspartame, and subsequent evaluations have shown that the product is safe.

Other organizations give aspartame and the other approved sugar substitutes thumbs up. For example, the American Heart Association endorses their use by Diabetics and those on weight-loss diets. The American Diabetes Association calls sugar substitutes "free foods" because they make food taste sweet, but they have essentially no calories and do not raise blood sugar levels.

Saccharin

The granddaddy of all sugar substitutes is saccharin. Discovered in 1879, it was used during both world wars to sweeten foods, helping to compensate for sugar shortages and rationing. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar.

An early attempt to ban saccharin came in 1911 when a board of federal scientists called the artificial sweetener "an adulterant" that should not be used in foods. This same board later decided to limit saccharin just to products "intended for invalids," a restriction that was lifted after World War I began.

FDA began reviewing hundreds of GRAS substances - including saccharin - in the early 1970s to ensure that the latest scientific information continued to back up their safety. Studies in 1972 and 1973 of rats fed saccharin raised concerns about the sweetener's role in causing bladder cancer, but data analysis later suggested that impurities, not saccharin, might have caused the tumors.

Then in 1977, a Canadian study that looked specifically at the role of impurities - and of other suspected tumor causes, such as parasites in test animals, showed convincingly that saccharin itself was causing bladder cancer in rats. That same year, FDA proposed to ban saccharin for all uses except as an over-the-counter drug in the form of a tabletop sweetener. At the time, saccharin was the only available alternative to sugar.

The FDA proposal prompted a public outcry, fueled in part by media reports that the test rats were fed the equivalent of as many as 800 diet sodas a day. Congress responded by passing the Saccharin Study and Labeling Act, which placed a two-year moratorium on any ban of the sweetener while additional safety studies were conducted. The law also required that any foods containing saccharin must carry a label that reads, "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals." Congress has extended the moratorium several times, most recently renewing it until 2002.

Saccharin has remained on the market and continues to have a fairly large appeal as a tabletop sweetener, particularly in restaurants, where it is available in single-serving packets. Because it has a good shelf life, saccharin is used widely in fountain sodas, and its stability at high temperatures makes it an option for sweetening baked goods, unlike aspartame, which degrades when heated. Saccharin also is favored economically because it can be made inexpensively.

Other health groups, including the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Dietetic Association, agree that saccharin use is acceptable.

Aspartame

Approved in 1981, aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar. It is used in products such as beverages, breakfast cereals, desserts, and chewing gum, and also as a tabletop sweetener. In 1996, a study raised the issue that aspartame consumption may be related to an increase in brain tumors following FDA's approval of the sweetener in 1981. But analysis of the National Cancer Institute's database on cancer incidence showed that cases of brain cancers began increasing in 1973 - well before aspartame was approved - and continued to increase through 1985. In recent years, brain tumor frequency has actually decreased slightly. NCI currently is studying aspartame and other dietary factors as part of a larger study of adult brain cancer.

FDA calls aspartame one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved. The agency says the more than 100 toxicological and clinical studies it has reviewed confirm that aspartame is safe for the general population.

Websites with screaming headlines and well-written text attempt to link aspartame consumption to systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis, vision problems, headaches, fatigue, and even Alzheimer's disease. One report distributed nationally over e-mail systems claims that aspartame-sweetened soft drinks delivered to military personnel during the Persian Gulf War may have prompted Gulf War syndrome to which FDA , along with many other health organizations such as the American Medical Association, says that it was not so and there is no "credible evidence," to support, for example, a link between aspartame and multiple sclerosis or systemic lupus. Some Internet reports claim that patients suffering from both conditions went into remission after discontinuing aspartame use. Both of these disorders are subject to spontaneous remissions and exacerbation. So it is entirely possible that when patients stopped using aspartame, they might also coincidentally have had a remission of their symptoms. It is true that aspartame ingestion results in the production of methanol, formaldehyde and formate - substances that could be considered toxic at high doses. But the levels formed are modest, and substances such as methanol are found in higher amounts in common food products such as citrus juices and tomatoes.

Other circulating reports claim that two amino acids in aspartame - phenylalanine and aspartic acid - can cause neurotoxic effects such as brain damage. Aspartic acid also has the potential to cause brain damage at very high doses. But under normal intake levels, the brain's mechanism for controlling aspartic acid levels ensures no adverse effects. It is unlikely that any consumer would eat or drink enough aspartame to cause brain damage: FDA figures show that most aspartame users only consume about 4 to 7 percent of the acceptable daily intake the agency has set for the sweetener.

In a study conducted at MIT's CRC researchers conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population.

The American Diabetes Association follows FDA recommendations and recognizes that there is no credible scientific evidence linking aspartame to any health-related problems for people with Diabetes. The American Diabetes Association considers aspartame - as well as the other FDA-approved nonnutritive sweeteners saccharin, acesulfame K, and sucralose - acceptable sugar substitutes and a safe part of a Diabetic meal plan.

Analysis of the National Cancer Institute's public database on cancer incidence, the SEER Program, does not support an association between the use of aspartame and increased incidence of brain tumors. The question of a relationship between brain tumors and aspartame was initially raised when the FDA began considering approval of this food additive in the mid-1970s. The agency resolved the brain tumor issue before the initial approval of aspartame in 1981.

Hence, despite of all the controversies, aspartame and saccharin remain in the market and are widely used by people as effective sweeteners with a controlled intake.