After the wide controversy.. Does aspartame cause cancer?

Last week, news emerged that aspartame, a common artificial sweetener found in soft drinks, would be classified as “possibly” carcinogenic, raising questions about its risks and should we stop consuming it altogether?

What is aspartame?
Aspartame is a non-sugar artificial sweetener, which you can find in diet drinks, many low-calorie desserts and some yogurts.

In this context, Professor Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry at RMIT University, explained that “aspartame has been used in food since the 1980s, and it is one of the most common sweeteners and is used in about 6,000 products around the world.”

He explained that it is usually added to food and drink to replace table sugar (sucrose), because it is about 200 times sweeter than sucrose, according to the “mamamia” website.

Should we stop drinking diet cola?
To answer the popular question of whether we should stop drinking our favorite sugar-free soft drinks, chemistry professor Jones thinks we shouldn’t.
He continued, “We haven’t seen the actual IARC report yet, but assuming the press reports are correct and that they classify aspartame as ‘possibly carcinogenic’, this does not mean that you will get cancer if you drink a soft drink that contains aspartame.”

He added, “The agency classifies things according to four main categories to classify the danger of things, things that may cause cancer, such as mobile phone use and aloe vera products, which are things that most of us use regularly.”

Should we worry?
In addition, he indicated that there is no reason to worry about what is being published, pointing out that “The International Agency for Research on Cancer is not a regulatory agency for food… All it does is consider the possibility of a risk (such as cancer); it does not consider the risk, which is a possibility.” The occurrence of risk, in which case they are not completely sure there is a risk because they used the second lowest risk category.”

He gave an example, “Like driving a car, the risk is that you might get into an accident and get hurt or die, but the risk is low enough that most of us don’t think it’s going to be a problem.”
It is noteworthy that sources told Reuters that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, is scheduled to list aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” for the first time in July.

This comes as a separate WHO committee, the Joint WHO/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), is reviewing the artificial sweetener.