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Aspartame
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Aspartame is the technical name for the brand names, NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure. Aspartame was discovered by accident in 1965, when James Schlatter, a chemist of G.D. Searle Company was testing an anti-ulcer drug. Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1974, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr John W. Olney and Consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 as well as investigations of G.D. Searle's research practices caused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold (December 5, 1974).
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Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied ingredients in the food supply. It was tested in more than 100 scientific studies prior to its approval by the FDA in 1981. These tests were conducted in animals and humans, including normal adults and children, lactating women and persons with diabetes, obesity and special genetic conditions. Aspartame was tested in amounts many times higher than individuals could consume in the diet. Today scientists continue to conduct new studies on this sweetener as they do many other ingredients used in the food supply. The FDA ... monitors and evaluates all research on this and other food ingredients.
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Aspartame has a sweet taste with minimal bitterness for most tasters. Its onset of sweetness may be slightly slower than sucrose, and the sweetness may linger. The sweetness potency relative to sucrose is about 180, but depends upon the concentration of sucrose which is being matched. The concentration vs. response relationship in water (results in food systems will vary) is shown below. This graph is based on data from DuBois, Walters, Schiffman, Warwick, Booth, Pecore, Gibes, Carr & Brands in "Sweeteners: Discovery, Molecular Design, and Chemoreception," D.E. Walters et al., Eds., American Chemical Society, 1991.
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Aspartame has a long list of critics, including government scientists. After investigating the industry-funded studies, FDA toxicologist Dr. M. Adrian Gross found that at least one of them "established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals." According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon, the first safety study of aspartame produced a rate of brain tumors in the aspartame-fed rats that was 25 times higher than would be expected to occur naturally.
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Aspartame is still under investigation and still very controversial. Most recently, scientists at the independent European Ramazzini Foundation for Cancer Research presented new results from their three-year study of the effects of aspartame on nearly 2,000 rats. Their research concluded that aspartame is a “multipotential carcinogen,” causing dose-related cancer of the kidney and tumors in the peripheral nerves, mainly the cranial nerves of the head. Earlier data from the same study linked aspartame to an increased risk of leukemia and lymphoma in female rats at doses that were “very close” to the acceptable daily intake for humans.
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Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It has a caloric value similar to sugar (4 kcal/g), but the amounts used are small enough to consider aspartame essentially free of calories. Brand names include NutraSweet and Equal. Aspartame was first approved by the FDA in 1981 as a tabletop sweetener, and for use in gum, breakfast cereal, and other dry products. The use of aspartame was expanded to sodas in 1983, and then to use as a general-purpose sweetener in all foods and drinks in 1996.
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Aspartame