Aspartame (artificial sweetener) is a Cancer Risk
When over half our food supply doubles as poison, you need to stay vigilant to the hazards contained in any ready made (i.e. ultra processed) foods you pull off the grocery store shelves. The corporations that manufacture these products and the corporate stooges at the FDA do not give a damn about your health or the impact their products have on it. Aspartame is the most ubiquitous artificial sweetener that gets passed off as a “healthy”, no calorie “diet” alternative to sugar. It is actually worse than the real thing in smaller doses.
A computational integrative analysis using network toxicology and molecular docking identified 201 overlapping genes implicated in both aspartame exposure and ischemic stroke. During molecular docking they simulated binding between aspartame and the five key molecular targets to validate potential interactions. The interactions suggest that aspartame may exacerbate ischemic brain injury by modulating inflammatory responses, vascular tone, and coagulation balance particularly through activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) via upregulation of AGT, leading to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction—potentially contributing to increased stroke risk.
A comprehensive study that included network toxicology, Mendelian randomization, molecular docking, and single cell RNA sequencing study predicted that aspartame has significant neurotoxic, nephrotoxic, hepatotoxic effects. In particular, their computational models found that aspartame can promote liver cancer by modulating key proteins (especially CASP1 where endothelial cells of the liver have the highest amount) involved in necroptosis, NF-κB, and TNF signaling pathways.
A third computational study using the same using network toxicology and molecular docking methodologies identified 373 genes potentially linking aspartame exposure with gastric cancer risk.
A prospective cohort study conducted among French adults in the NutriNet-Santé cohort (n=102,865) between 2009 and 2021 assessed dietary intake of aspartame through a repeated web-based 24-hour dietary records every 6 months, including brand names to identify artificial sweetener consumption, and cancer cases through the national health insurance and mortality databases. They found that higher consumption of artificial sweeteners was associated with a 13% higher relative risk of cancer (Hazard Ratio = 1.13, 95% CI 1.03–1.25, P-trend = 0.002; 3,358 cancer cases). Higher consumption of aspartame in particular was associated with a 15% higher relative risk of cancer in general (HR = 1.15 (95% CI 1.03–1.28, P = 0.002) and a 22% higher relative risk of breast cancer in particular (HR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.01–1.48, P = 0.036; 979 cases). The Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for age, sex, education, physical activity, smoking, BMI, weight gain, diabetes, family history, dietary records, and nutritional factors.
Another prospective cohort study conducted with the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) cohorts with a follow up time of 22 years assessed dietary intake of aspartame through food frequency questionnaires. They found that men who consumed one or more diet sodas daily had a 66% higher relative risk of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and a 2x higher risk of multiple myeloma.
A rodent experiment conducted over the entire natural lifespan of the subjects fed different doses of aspartame in their daily feed found a dose-related increase in cancer incidence attributed to aspartame, including a significant increase in malignant tumor–bearing animals in both males and females, a dose-related increase in lymphomas/leukemias in female subjects at multiple doses (as low as 400ppm) and positive trends in both sexes, a significant increase in dysplastic lesions and carcinomas of the renal pelvis and ureter at several dose levels among female subjects and an increased incidence of malignant schwannomas of peripheral nerves in male subjects.
Another rodent experiment that exposed some subjects to aspartame, in their feed, prenatally from the 12th day of gestation until their natural death found a significant dose-related increase in the number of malignant tumor-bearing animals in males subjects, notably in the 2,000ppm group, and a significant dose-related increase in mammary cancer incidence in females subjects, especially among those receiving the highest dose.They also found a significant increase in the incidence of lymphomas/leukemias in male subjects treated with 2,000ppm, and dose-related increases in females, especially in the higher dose group. Compared to the first rodent experiment, prenatal exposure to aspartame accelerated the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame.
An immunohistochemical and modern morphological review of these two experiments, conducted in response to critics, confirmed that 92.3% of the originally identified malignancies were true cancers, effectively rebutting the critic’s infection hypothesis (i.e. that the lesions were the result of infections not chronic aspartame consumption).
While this is not conclusive evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic, but enough to stop consuming it daily, it has been found to metabolize as formaldehyde in rodents as well leading to the formation and accumulation of formaldehyde adducts in the liver. An early rodent study in which male subjects were given an oral dose of 10 mg/kg of aspartame labeled with radioactive carbon-14 isotope in the methanol carbon of aspartame, with a separate chronic treatment group receiving 200 mg/kg of non-labelled aspartame for 10 days before receiving the radioactive dose, found that aspartame metabolism produces formaldehyde that binds to tissue proteins and nucleic acids in vivo, potentially accumulating with chronic exposure. Over 75% of the radioactive label in the liver was bound to protein concentrated in amino acids other than methionine and matched that formed by formaldehyde exposure. In DNA, the formaldehyde formed unique adduct bases different from the normal DNA bases, indicating direct covalent binding rather than metabolic incorporation. These formaldehyde adducts were present uniformly in protein, RNA, and DNA, suggesting widespread binding across tissue components including sensitive targets like brain and retina. While aspartame is probably not carcinogenic in itself formaldehyde is definitely carcinogenic and consuming something that can be metabolized as formaldehyde and form adducts should be avoided.