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Aspartame: The Not so Sweet Debate

Chewable daily vitamins and toothpaste may seem like important products for promoting good health in children. But did you know they also contain aspartame? And that new research shows it may cause cancer?

Aspartame is used in about 6,000 consumer products, the vast majority of which are used by women and children. More than 200 million people consume aspartame through a variety of products, including snack foods, sodas and vitamins.

When aspartame first hit the market more than 20 years ago, scientists believed it did not pose any cancer risks. But new research links aspartame consumption at fairly low doses to numerous cancers in laboratory rats. The latest study is the largest to date, and links consumption of aspartame at doses far lower than the current acceptable daily intake for humans to lymphoma, leukemia, pelvic and urethral cancer in females and cancers of the peripheral nerves, kidney and olfactory epithelium in males. Some of these cancers are very rare so the aspartame link has scientists particularly concerned.

While research continues, it may be best to avoid products containing aspartame.

For more information on this research, click here.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org