On July 14, 2023, the cancer research arm of the World Health Organisation announced that aspartame, a substance used as a substitute for sugar in sweetening many processed foods was ‘possibly carcinogenic’, and the reason for the new classification was that current evidence in support of aspartame’s implicitness in causing cancer was insufficient. The report simply acknowledges the cancer-causing potential of aspartame but refuses to commit itself to a definitive verdict.
Aspartame was discovered in 1965, but by 1983, it had become vital in the $25 billion soft drink industry, becoming an effective replacement for saccharin after the latter became unpopular due to safety concerns. Aspartame’s prominence was fueled by two main factors; the increasing need for products that do not contain sugar and its economic imperatives for companies. Sugar was being implicated as a risk factor for major health conditions but this assertion was based on half-truths.
This misconception was also the premise for the economic preference for aspartame. On one hand, there was a significant population that would only drink carbonated drinks if they were ‘healthy’; that is, if they contained less sugar. On the other hand, aspartame was accepted as a safer alternative to saccharin and it revived hopes for a ‘diet’ industry that would have fizzled out of existence.