Long before 鈥渨ellness influencers鈥� honed the art of spreading misinformation on the internet, the public was at the mercy of being befuddled by hoaxes through chain emails. Way back in the 1990s, I was the recipient of one of these from 鈥淒r.鈥� Betty Martini in which she described a speech given by one Nancy Markle at the 鈥淲orld Environmental Conference鈥� in which she claimed that the artificial sweetener aspartame was the cause of multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, seizures, brain tumours, lupus and 础濒锄丑别颈尘别谤鈥檚 disease. Like the spreaders of false information today, the email was grammatically poor and filled with the inappropriate use of capital letters. Furthermore, no trace of Nancy Markle or the World Environmental Conference was ever found.
Aspartame was accidentally discovered in 1965 by chemist James Schlatter at the G.D. Searle company while researching anti-ulcer medications. One day he licked his finger while turning pages and was surprised by a sweet taste that he traced to a chemical with which he had been working. By 1996, aspartame as 鈥淣utraSweet,鈥� was used in many foods and beverages and had become the target of activists with their inflammatory theories of government and industry conspiracies to sell a dangerous substance. Betty Martini spearheaded the attack through 鈥淢ission Possible World Health International,鈥� an advocacy group she founded. Her motivation wasn鈥檛 clear to me, but her scientific illiteracy was.
I was familiar with the chemistry of aspartame, a molecule that on digestion breaks down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. There is a legitimate issue with phenylalanine for people who suffer from phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare condition that results in a decreased ability to metabolize phenylalanine which then builds up in the brain and can lead to seizures and mental disorders. Foods high in phenylalanine including those that contain aspartame have to be avoided by PKU sufferers.
Methanol, another breakdown product of aspartame, has been vilified with the argument that it is converted in the body to formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. The fact is that microbes in the gut continuously produce methanol that is converted into formaldehyde that is almost instantly converted into formic acid that is safely broken down into carbon dioxide and water. The same happens with ingested methanol. The 18 mgs of methanol in an aspartame-sweetened drink is a tiny fraction of the methanol produced by the body. To achieve a toxic dose of methanol from a diet drink would require drinking more than 600 servings within a short time!
I pointed this out in a column I wrote for the Montreal Gazette which somehow found its way to Betty Martini who sent me an email saying that I was too soft on aspartame and I should open my eyes and see the misery that this devil of a chemical is inflicting on the public. She continued to flood me with misinformation on aspartame, particularly dozens of anecdotal reports from people who claimed that their life, or that of a loved one, was ruined by aspartame. There were also accounts of miraculous turnarounds when the dastardly substance was given up. I wrote back, pointing out the unlikelihood of a single substance causing such a diversity of ailments and I drew attention to flaws in her chemical arguments. I also extended an invitation to Betty to be a guest on my radio show and guaranteed that although we may not see eye-to-eye, we would have an amiable discussion. Surprisingly, she accepted.
Obviously, she was not a neophyte in radio interviews and was ready to spew out verbal diarrhea about methanol causing blindness, the FDA being bought off by aspartame producers, and how the chemical was causing an epidemic of cancer. I countered with studies from the peer-reviewed literature which according to 鈥淒r.鈥� Martini, whose doctorate turned out to be an honorary degree from an unaccredited school, made me an 鈥渋ndustry shill.鈥� We agreed to disagree.
I received a number of emails after our radio chat including a memorable one from Alex Constantine, a writer of sorts who in a 1995 book,聽Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A., dedicated a significant section to "NutraSweet and its role in dumbing America."聽He trotted out the old trope about phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and methanol altering聽brain chemistry, degrading聽cognitive function, and contributing聽to neurological disorders.聽Constantine offered up this bit of wisdom in response to my 鈥渄ebate鈥� with Martini. 鈥淛oe Blow (i.e. me) works at 91黑料网, once the most active hive of mind control experimentation in the world and still very involved with the CIA. He writes for Reader鈥檚 Digest, a CIA publication. A professional prostitute on the CIA payroll. A fascist collaborator who smears anti-fascists for fun and profit.鈥� Alex must be a nice guy. Smart too.
So here we are, some 30 years later. Nutritional science is an ever-involving discipline, so what have we learned about aspartame since? The pot was stirred in 2023 when the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) listed aspartame as 鈥減ossibly carcinogenic to humans.鈥� That elicited a lot of 鈥測ou see, we told you so鈥� remarks from activist groups. Not so fast! First, IARC bases its classification on 鈥渉azard鈥� not 鈥渞isk.鈥� It looks at whether a substance under some condition can theoretically cause cancer, not whether this can happen under 鈥渞eal world鈥� conditions. Second, the human population studies that suggested that people who consume large amounts of artificially sweetened beverages have an increased risk of liver cancer have numerous confounders. These people also differ in what foods they eat and in their activity levels. Third, the animal studies that showed increased rates of cancer have been widely criticized for improper statistical analysis. Regulatory agencies around the world, including Health Canada and FDA still deem the use of aspartame to be safe.
I think the cancer connection is a non-issue. But another concern has recently arisen. Researchers have that aspartame, along with other artificial sweeteners, can alter the diversity of bacteria in the gut. This has not been shown to have any negative effect so far, but we do know that gut bacteria produce various chemicals that can affect our biochemistry, and a greater diversity in these bacteria is believed to be conducive to good health. Then there is another issue. While artificial sweeteners may cut down on calorie consumption over the short term, they do not have an effect on obesity over the long term. The incidence of obesity has certainly not decreased since these sweeteners were introduced. In fact, there is an argument that they increase the appetite for sweets.
While I would still argue fiercely with Betty Martini, who passed away in 2023, about aspartame being the devil incarnate, I favour avoiding artificial sweeteners. They do not do the job they are supposed to do and are usually found in foods and beverages that belong in the ultra-processed category. A good cup of coffee does not need to be sweetened, and soft drinks can be replaced with water. And rhetoric by self-styled 鈥渨ellness influencers鈥� can and should be replaced by evidence-based arguments.
