Originally published February 26 2006
Italian study of aspartame has gone unheeded in the U.S.
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Gainsville.com revisits the Italian study led by Dr. Morando Soffritti, which found that aspartame contributes to cancer.
When Dr. Morando Soffritti, a cancer researcher in Bologna, Italy, saw the results of his team's seven-year study on aspartame, he knew he was about to be injected into a bitter controversy over this sweetener, one of the most contentiously debated substances ever added to foods and beverages.
Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid.
Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide.
And Dr. Soffritti's study concluded that aspartame may cause the dreaded "c" word: cancer.
The research found that the sweetener was associated with unusually high rates of lymphomas, leukemias and other cancers in rats that had been given doses of it starting at what would be equivalent to four to five 20-ounce bottles of diet soda a day for a 150-pound person.
"Aspartame has been safely consumed for more than a quarter of a century and is one of the most thoroughly studied food additives," read one news release from the council.
Dr. Soffritti said he was inspired to look at aspartame because of what he calls "inadequacies" in the cancer studies done by Searle in the 1970's.
Dr. Soffritti said he thought that more research and open debate were needed on whether aspartame was a carcinogen.
"It is very important to have scientists who are independent and not funded by industry looking at this," he said.
Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group, said he did not think that Dr. Soffritti's study could be considered definitive, but that it should prompt an "urgent re-examination.
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