How safe are artificial sweeteners? Do they increase cancer risk?
Questions about artificial sweeteners and cancer arose when early studies showed cyclamate (the ingredient in Sucryl, Sugar Twin) combined with saccharin cause bladder cancer in lab rats. Neither saccharin nor cyclamates are permitted to be added to foods or beverages sold in Canada, but they are sold as table top sweeteners. (Based on pressure from food industry, Health Canada has reviewed recent studies on saccharin and concluded that research in rats is not applicable to humans. The government intends make regulatory changes to allow saccharin to be added to foods.) Despite negative reports on the internet that aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) causes brain cancer, multiple sclerosis, seizures and Alzheimer’s disease, there is no scientific evidence to support these claims. Aspartame did come under recent scrutiny, however, when Italian researchers found more lymphomas and leukemia in rats fed very high doses of the chemical (the equivalent to drinking 8 to 2,083 cans of diet pop per da
