Cancer and premature birth fears linked to fizzy drink sweetener

Cancer and premature birth fears linked to fizzy drink sweetener




Controversial: The authority's view will be
welcomed by manufacturers who use aspartame and similar sweeteners in
fizzy drinks such as Diet Coke
A
leading British expert has called for an investigation into serious
health concerns over the artificial sweetener aspartame – after the EU
food watchdog insisted it was safe.
The
European Food Safety Authority has published a draft scientific opinion
effectively rubbishing more than 20 studies which have identified
potential problems with the sweetener, ranging from premature births to
cancer.
The authority’s
view will be welcomed by manufacturers who use aspartame and similar
sweeteners in fizzy drinks such as Diet Coke, and diet foods consumed by
millions of people every day.
But
Erik Millstone, professor of science policy at the University of
Sussex, has challenged the ‘biased’ and ‘deeply flawed’ EFSA opinion.

Professor Millstone has been a
leading expert on food policy in the UK for many years and his lobbying
was instrumental in the setting up of Britain’s Food Standards Agency.

The way the EFSA assessed the evidence on aspartame was ‘perverse and biased’, he claimed.
He
added: ‘The panel could only have reached its conclusion that aspartame
is safe by implicitly assuming that almost all studies indicating no
adverse effects are entirely reliable – even though they have numerous
weaknesses and were almost all commercially funded, while all the
studies indicating that aspartame may be unsafe are deemed unreliable –
even though they sometimes have particular methodological strengths and
even though they have all been funded independently of vested commercial
interests.’





He also suggested that the EFSA panel
that carried out the assessment was dominated by experts linked to
manufacturers or regulators that have previously supported aspartame.
Professor
Millstone said: ‘Of the 17 members of the EFSA panel, seven have direct
commercial conflicts of interest, and another five have institutional
conflicts of interest, for example, because their employers have already
announced that aspartame is safe.’
He
pointed to several convincing studies that raise real questions about
the safety of aspartame and justify the need for further research.
An
EU-funded project published in 2010 found that pregnant women who drank
fizzy drinks containing artificial sweeteners appear to be at greater
risk of having a premature baby.
He also highlighted work by the independent Ramazzini Foundation in Italy.
Its
scientists have published research suggesting aspartame caused several
types of cancer in rats at doses very close to the current acceptable
daily intake for humans.
Professor
Millstone said the EFSA should discount the draft report and convene a
new panel composed only of experts who are free of any conflicts of
interest.


Source:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290544/Aspartame-Cancer-premature-birth-fears-linked-fizzy-drink-sweetener.html?ito=feeds-newsxml