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Artificial sweeteners could be associated with the development of cancer. A new study triggers the alarms in this regard.
There are many products that use sugar substitutes to sweeten foods. But they have always sparked controversy, because it is difficult to think that something synthetic could be so good. Therefore, various studies throughout history have tried to demonstrate the harmful effects of artificial sweeteners on health, including the risk of cancer.
For years, the consumption of carbohydrates has been associated with high calorie to metabolic disorders. Within this group of nutritional compounds is sucrose (table sugar). This association between metabolism disorders and carbohydrate consumption has led to the development of chemical substances that try to reproduce the sweetness of sugar without adding calories.
Science has been successful in developing such substances. Those that can be found on the market provide low calories with an additional advantage: They have a sweetening power hundreds of times more powerful than common sugar. This means that only a small amount is needed to achieve the sweetening effect.
Artificial sweeteners: a controversial utopia
However, despite the fact that they represent a negligible or even zero contribution of calories, There are doubts about the safety of its consumption. Especially if it occurs for a long time.
Several studies try to discover if artificial sweeteners have any detrimental effect on health and the development of cancer, or if, on the contrary, they are as safe as they are promoted.
The first alternative to sucrose appeared in 1879. It was saccharin, a whitish chemical substance with a great sweetening power. Said power depends on the degree of purity of the crystal, but it usually exceeds up to 300 times that of common sugar.
From there, various sugar substitutes have been developed. Some of them are approved for consumption by various official organizations, such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The current list of approved artificial sweeteners in Europe includes the following:
- Saccharin.
- Sucralose.
- Aspartame.
- Acesulfame potassium.
In addition, the FDA has given the approval for the use of other alternatives. Among these additives are neotame and advantame.
The background of the doubt: do synthetic sweeteners increase the risk of cancer?
In the 1970s, a study was carried out that showed that the consumption of saccharin caused bladder cancer in laboratory mice. This sparked panic, leading to warning labels being added to products and their consumption being banned in Canada, for example.
However, subsequent studies analyzed the mechanism by which this type of cancer developed in rodents, showing that it was not reproducible in humans. So the warnings were removed from the packaging and Canada lifted the ban.
In other investigations, cyclamate was linked to an increased risk of bladder cancer. This time in people. Reason for which, the FDA prohibited its consumption. However, new studies indicated that such an increase in risk did not have a solid basis.
In 2005, the turn for mistrust fell on aspartame, which was associated with an increased risk of developing lymphomas and leukemias in rodents. This would happen with high doses. Deficiencies in scientific rigor were also identified, so it was concluded that this synthetic sweetener is safe.
A French study associates the consumption of artificial sweeteners with an increased risk of cancer
Due to the eternal debate about the safety of consuming non-caloric sweeteners, a group of scientists in France used data from the cohort study NutriNet-Santé. This investigation tries to decipher the relationship between diet and the development of chronic diseases.
The analysis included a population of 102,865 volunteers over the age of 18, who regularly provided information on diet, lifestyle, health status, and any treatment or medication they were receiving. These data were collected through surveys.
Synthetic Sweeteners Linked to Increased Cancer Risk
In the study, it was possible to verify the consumption of the various sugar substitutes by 36.9% of the participants. Only 2 of these compounds were associated with an increased risk of cancer: aspartame and acesulfame potassium. This increase is up to 13% compared to the risk of a person who does not consume synthetic sweeteners.
What types of cancer are artificial sweeteners associated with?
Although previous studies have associated sugar substitutes with bladder cancer in rodents, French research proposes that moderate consumption of aspartame and acesulfame potassium carries an increased risk of breast cancer and some others related to obesity.
Cautions when talking about artificial sweeteners and cancer
There are some drawbacks that suggest caution when drawing conclusions from this French research. Such obstacles are recognized by the same scientists who carried out the study.
Among the situations to be taken into account are the following:
- This is an observational study.
- The information is collected by the same participant.
- The study population was mostly female (78.5%).
- It does not investigate other possible factors that could be involved.
Although it is known that the development of cancer has a multifactorial origin, that is, it does not attend to a single cause, there are many situations that are believed to affect the risk of suffering from it. These include tobacco use and even a sedentary lifestyle.
The young women who turn to sugar substitutes more often they tend to have one of these conditions. Similarly, being an observational study, it does not establish a direct link between cause and effect, so it is not possible to place artificial sweeteners among those that cause cancer.
Thus, many scientists suggest further study is needed, especially experimental. In this way it could be elucidated whether the consumption of synthetic sweeteners is associated with the development of some type of cancer or not.
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