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The Fascinating Truth About Aspartame, Cancer, & Neurotoxicity

Plus: 7 healthy habits from Japan

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The 10almonds Team
March 16, 2024

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

Today is the Ides of March! The perfect day for healthy Caesar salad.

(Just be sure to practice good knife-safety in the kitchen)

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

  • Aspartame is a popular sweetener, with a reputation for being carcinogenic and neurotoxic. Today’s main feature looks at how…

    • The carcinogenic allegations come from a rat study with flawed methodology; very many very large studies in humans have shown it to not increase our cancer risk

    • The neurotoxicity allegations come from a fascinating hoax chain letter from the late 90s; again, very many very large studies in humans have shown no signs of neurotoxicity

  • Today’s sponsor Hims is offering their “hard mints”, a refreshing generic of a drug we can’t mention here, to get things up and going with healthy vigor.

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE

Ethylene Oxide & Cancer

The toxic gas used to sterilize medical equipment has prompted a safety rule update:

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

7 Healthy Habits in Japan (9:47)

Aki was asked by his foreign friends, "why are Japanese people so healthy and have long lifespans?"

He's quick to note that Japan has its own health problems too, such as natural disasters, death by fatigue from overworking, and suicide. But, there are also good traits and habits of Japanese culture that he'd like to share:

Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

❓️ THIS OR THAT?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between egg whites and whole eggs—we picked the whole eggs (click here to read about why), as did 86% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

🥤 MAIN FEATURE

Is Aspartame’s Reputation Well-Deserved?

In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your health-related opinions on aspartame, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

  • About 47% said “It is an evil carcinogenic neurotoxin”

  • 20% said “It is safe-ish, but has health risks that are worse than sugar”

  • About 19% said “It is not healthy, but better than sugar”

  • About 15% said “It’s a perfectly healthy replacement for sugar”

But what does the science say?

Aspartame is carcinogenic: True or False?

False, assuming consuming it in moderation. In excess, almost anything can cause cancer (oxygen is a fine example). But for all meaningful purposes, aspartame does not appear to be carcinogenic. For example,

❝The results of these studies showed no evidence that these sweeteners cause cancer or other harms in people.❞

Plenty of studies and reviews have also confirmed this; here are some examples:

Why then do so many people believe it causes cancer, despite all the evidence against it?

Well, there was a small study involving giving megadoses to rats, which did increase their cancer risk. So of course, the popular press took that and ran with it.

But those results have not been achieved outside of rats, and human studies great and small have all been overwhelmingly conclusive that moderate consumption of aspartame has no effect on cancer risk.

Aspartame is a neurotoxin: True or False?

False, again assuming moderate consumption. If you’re a rat being injected with a megadose, your experience may vary. But a human enjoying a diet soda, the aspartame isn’t the part that’s doing you harm, so far as we know.

For example, the European Food Safety Agency’s scientific review panel concluded:

❝there is still no substantive evidence that aspartame can induce such effects❞

~ Dr. Atkin et al (it was a pan-European team of 21 experts in the field)

See also,

❝The data from the extensive investigations into the possibility of neurotoxic effects of aspartame, in general, do not support the hypothesis that aspartame in the human diet will affect nervous system function, learning or behavior.

The weight of existing evidence is that aspartame is safe at current levels of consumption as a nonnutritive sweetener.❞

and

❝The safety testing of aspartame has gone well beyond that required to evaluate the safety of a food additive.

When all the research on aspartame, including evaluations in both the premarketing and postmarketing periods, is examined as a whole, it is clear that aspartame is safe, and there are no unresolved questions regarding its safety under conditions of intended use.❞

Why then do many people believe it is a neurotoxin? This one can be traced back to a chain letter hoax from about 26 years ago; you can read it here, but please be aware it is an entirely debunked hoax:

Take care!

YOU MAY HAVE MISSED…

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📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Little Treatments, Big Effects: How to Build Meaningful Moments that Can Transform Your Mental Health – by Dr. Jessica Schleider

The author, a clinical psychologist, discusses how mental healthcare has come a very long way, yet still has a long way to go. While advocating for top-down reforms, she does have a stopgap solution:

Find ways to significantly improve people’s mental health in a single-session intervention.

This seems like a tall order, but her method is based on good science, and also, most people will agree from experience that big changes can happen to someone in the space of moments, at pivotal turning points in life—they just have to be the right moments.

Dr. Schleider recommends that therapists train in (and then offer) this method, but she does also give comprehensive advice for self-therapy of this kind too.

These self-therapy directions, ways to induce those life-pivoting moments for the better, are perhaps the greatest value that the book gives us.

Bottom line: if you’d like a lot of the benefits of therapy without getting therapy, this book can definitely point you in the right direction, in a manner that won’t be a drain on your time or your wallet.

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Wishing you a delightfully healthy day that sees you well-prepared for the coming weekend,

The 10almonds Team