“Aspartame: Sweet Friend or Bitter Enemy?”
Responding to the Public
(Week 5 Alternative Assignment)
HCS 539

What is Aspartame?

“Human beings have an attraction to sweet food. Even ancient cave paintings at Arana in Spain exhibit a Neolithic man procuring honey from a bee’s nest. (Blachford, 2002). Aspartame is the name for a non-carbohydrate, non-nutritive artificial sweetener. It is synthesized from two amino acids, aspartic acid and the essential amino acid phenylalanine. It is the most commonly used sugar substitute on the market. It was first isolated and discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter. Schlatter was a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company. It was an incidental finding while Schlatter was in the process of making an anti-ulcer drug. While turning a page in his reference materials, he licked his finger, only to find it incredibly sweet. During initial safety testing, there was some early debate as to whether aspartame was carcinogenic , or cancer causing, in laboratory rats. It was subjected to further studies before it was submitted to the FDA for approval as a food additive. Aspartame was finally approved for use, in dry foods, in 1974. Searle was initially not allowed to market it until 1981. In 1980, the FDA convened a board of inquiry into the claim that aspartame could have carcinogenic properties in rats, particularly brain cancer. The board’s findings were equivocal. They found that aspartame did not cause any documented forms of brain damage. It was, however, still concerned about initial claims of brain cancer in rats. The board actually revoked the FDA’s initial approval due to the uncertain findings. Later in 1981 the FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes overturned the boards’ ruling and declared aspartame safe for human consumption and re-approved its use in dry goods. The commissioner cited a study that took place in Japan that negated the earlier findings of aspartame being carcinogenic. In a landmark decision for aspartame in 1983, it was approved for use in carbonated beverages, baked goods and confections. Namely, “Sweets”. This is one if it’s widest ranging uses, in diet goods. One of the most widely distributed product containing aspartame has been, and still is Diet Coke. In 1985 G.D. Searle was purchased by Monsanto, which made aspartame a Monsanto property. Through Monsanto, aspartame was marketed as Nutrasweet, which was very successful and soon became a household name as well as grocery item.

The Aspartame Controversy

Once ingested, aspartame breaks down into several metabolites and residual components. Primarily, it breaks back down into its primary component aspartic acid and phenylalanine, but also methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid. There is a health hazard associated with the essential amino acid phenylalanine. For people born with the rare, inherited condition phenylketonuria, or PKU, they cannot properly metabolize phenylalanine into its usual breakdown products. For individuals with PKU, they must be careful about their ingestion of products that contain phenylalanine. That is why we see labels that sate, “Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine” on products that contain aspartame. One of the controversies stems from this aspect of aspartame. One of the claims is that significant blood levels of phenylalanine adversely affects the uptake of other amino acids into the brain and consequently the production of certain neurotransmitters, dopamine included. Also, because phenylalanine is one of several amino acids capable of crossing the blood brain barrier, it can also concentrate in the brains of in-utero fetuses. Some scientists also credit the other breakdown products, methanol and formaldehyde as being potentially hazardous. In high doses, formaldehyde can kill cells and tissue. Formaldehyde also breaks down to become formic acid, and at high concentrations this can lead to metabolic acidosis, which can alter the entire metabolic landscape of the body by its changing of the bodies’ pH balance. Approximately 40% of aspartame, by mass, is broken down into aspartic acid, which is metabolized very quickly. This causes of its break down product of aspartate. These compounds are in a class of chemicals that when found in high concentrations act as an excitotoxin, which can be damaging to brain and nerve cells. This level of neurotoxicity has been linked to several forms of brain damage such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Syndrome.

“However, aspartame also is the subject of a small but vigorous public debate due to perceived health risks. It is considered by some scientists and special interest groups to be detrimental to the nervous system, but that allegation remains controversial.” ( Chamberlin and Narins, 2005). Aspartame and/or Nutrasweet was the subject of a viral email campaign several years ago, and one that is still occasionally found to be in circulation today. In this email, one can find a score of deleterious health effects that are associated with aspartame. Of the ones most highlighted are the neurological effects, linking intake of aspartame containing products with near immediate brain damage, with children and infants being most sensitive and highly affected. Most recently, the controversy has been stirred up once again regarding its effectiveness as a non-nutritive sweetener and one that can decrease the caloric content of a product, as well as making the product safer for diabetics to ingest. When a diabetic eats a sugary food, their blood sugar level spikes, causing their body to secrete insulin into the bloodstream to sequester the glucose into the cells where it can be used for energy and other metabolic functions. Typically, diabetics are either insulin deficient or depleted, which means the insulin response will be ineffectual and leave the diabetic hyperglycemic. Other times, when the diabetic can still secrete insulin, when the body realizes a spike in blood sugar, it will attempt to counteract it with its secretion of insulin. If the sugar levels are high, and not offset by something like a protein, the insulin level may be too high for the amount of blood sugar, therefore leaving the person in a state of hypoglycemia. This will cause the diabetic person to seek more sugary snacks to raise their blood sugar levels back to baseline. What has been claimed, that although aspartame does not have this glycemic effect, it does trick the body into craving the sugary sweets one is trying to avoid by eating ones sweetened with aspartame versus regular sugar. It has been reported that the more aspartame one takes in, the more they will crave true sugar, and subsequently put on weight as a result of this feedback loop.

All of this negative press has forced the manufacturers of both Nutrasweet, J.W. Childs Associates, to launch a campaign to deny these claims and to cite an equal or greater amount of studies to refute the negative findings cited by aspartames critics. Nutrasweet has also created its own website that not only touts its health benefits, but also openly refutes the, “myths” that are on the internet and have been found in the popular press. It has icons on the website titled: Myths, Health/Internet Rumors. It refutes the negative claims one by one, and cites its own studies and findings that show it as benign and beneficial to health. It also had quotes from several key sources highly placed to refute the claims. Namely, a senior medical advisor for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and a statement from the American Diabetes Association. It also had quotes from sources on the internet such as About.com and an article from the University of California Berkeley Newsletter. “While some minor effects on health may occur at very high doses, no effects are expected at or below the ADI(Accepted Daily Intake).” ( The virtual Times.com) It had become necessary for the manufacturers of aspartame to come out and refute all of these negative claims. They were becoming pervasive throughout the general public and throughout the health care world. With the obesity epidemic at all-time highs, Americans are always in search of low calorie and low carbohydrate food options. Aspartame makes these claims possible. It was critical that they counter the arguments in the public arena, as public sentiment and emotion had reached fever pitches at certain points. Upon doing a web search regarding the aspartame controversy, I came across thousands of websites that outlined the ills and dangers of this product. Some even go so far as purporting high level conspiracy theories as to why aspartame is still allowed to be on the market. The site shows their scientific evidence demonstrating the safety of the product. So far, the outcome has been mixed. People still quote the negative effects of aspartame as bible fact, and do not seem to have knowledge that most of these claims have been refuted. The positive rumors and news have not yet outstripped the negative. The manufacturers and marketers of Nutrasweet and aspartame still have work to do to counteract the negative publicity that has been in the public’s mind since the release of the product on the market place.

If I were in the place of the marketers of aspartame and Nutrasweet, I would take out ads in health and cooking magazines attesting to the health benefits of the product and most importantly, address the negative claims one by one. I would encourage the marketers to find some kind of catchy slogan that attests to the safety of the additive, and market it on the product labels of products containing aspartame. Something like: “Aspartame. As safe as it is sweet.” I would make sure it was visible near or around the ingredient list on the product. I would also launch an aggressive web campaign including banner ads and mass emails to people who sign up at health related websites. Although manufacturers cannot launch a viral email campaign like the one that did the damage initially, they have to strive to reach as many readers as the negative information had. As we all know, bad news travels fast. Too bad good news cannot make this same claim.

References

www. The virtualtimes.com, “ The Aspartame (Nutrasweet) Controversy”
Blachford, S.L., (Ed.) 2002, “Aspartame” Thomas Gale. In eNotes.com, 2006
Chamberlin, S.L., and B. Narins, 2005, “The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders.” Detroit: Thomson Gale. ISBN 078769150X