Artificial Sweeteners and Potential Cancer Risks: What You Need to Know

The safety of artificial sweeteners has long been debated, so researchers decided to investigate the potential causes of cancer.

They analyzed 102,865 French adults who participated in the NutriNet-Santé study.

This study is an ongoing web-based cohort initiated by the Nutrition Epidemiology Research Team in 2009.

Participation is voluntary and people self-report their medical history, sociodemographics, diet, lifestyle, and health data.

Information on the consumption of artificial sweeteners was collected from participants’ 24-hour dietary records.

During the follow-up, the team gathered information about the diagnosis of cancer and analyzed it to see if there was any link between the intake of artificial sweeteners and the risk of cancer.

They adjusted family history data for age, gender, education, physical activity, smoking, obesity index, height, weight gain, diabetes, and cancer. They also tailored to the baseline intake of energy, alcohol, sodium, saturated fats, fiber, sugar, whole grains and dairy products.

In a joint email from Debras, Touvier, and Healthline, the authors say their study suggests that regular intake of artificial sweeteners may be associated with an increased risk of cancer. I did.

They pointed out that previous observational studies found a link between these two variables. In addition, animal studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may be carcinogenic.

However, their study is the first to investigate the association between artificial sweetener intake and cancer risk and to take into account different types of artificial sweeteners.

Debras and Touvier said they found that the sweeteners aspartame and acesulfame K, in particular, were associated with an increased risk of cancer.

In addition, they saw an increased risk of breast cancer and a group of obesity-related cancers, including breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer.

So what does this study mean for consumers? Should I throw away all artificially sweetened foods? It may be premature to tell.

Dr. Mary John RudyChairman of the Department of Public Health, Bowling Green State University, and an associate professor of food and nutrition, who was not part of the study, warned that correlations are not equal to causality.

“Observational study designs cannot determine whether high levels of artificial sweeteners cause cancer, or whether people with cancer consume excessively high levels of artificial sweeteners,” Ludy said. Mr. says. “Experimental research is needed to identify the cause and effect.”

Dr. Andrew OdegardAn associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Public Health, which was also not part of the study, had similar concerns.

He said that because certain types of bias are specific to this type of study, it is not possible to distinguish whether these results are due to bias or data artifacts.

Overall, he also noted that the relative risk appears to be “moderate,” as only about 3.3% of participants were diagnosed with cancer during follow-up.

“I wouldn’t be too excited either way,” Odegor said.

Rudy said there is currently no consensus on which artificial sweeteners are the safest to use, but people are encouraged to use them moderately and focus on overall dietary quality.

To maintain healthy sugar consumption, she recommends prioritizing foods such as vegetables, fruits and dairy products.

These foods contain natural sugars in addition to vitamins, minerals and fiber.

In addition, she recommends limiting the amount of sugar added in food preparation and processing.

Rudy said dietary guidelines recommend consuming less than 10 percent of total calories from the added sugar.

For a person eating a 2,000 calorie diet, this is equivalent to 200 calories or less than 50g of sugar.

Rudy suggests drinking water or plain milk instead of sweet drinks and using them moderately for sweet snacks and desserts.

Finally, she suggests comparing labels when shopping for groceries.

“Check the nutrition facts label for“ added sugar ”,” says Ludy. “Choosing a smaller amount of product is a great way to make a healthier choice.”