Harvard affiliate apologizes for promoting “weak” study linking aspartame to cancer

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a Harvard affiliate, is now backing away from its decision earlier this week to promote a paper linking aspartame and cancer, saying the evidence was “weak.”

The study, titled “Consumption of Artificial Sweetener and Sugar Containing Soda and the Risk of Lymphoma and Leukemia in Men and Women,”  was in direct contrast to a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study which found no link between aspartame consumption and cancer and the authors themselves noted several limitations of the study: 1) study subjects could have incorrectly reported what they ate, 2) study subjects do not necessarily represent everyone in the U.S., and 3) factors other than the ones for which researchers controlled could have affected the reported relationship.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Scientific Committee Food (SCF) of the European Union and regulatory agencies of more than 100 countries have reviewed aspartame and found that its use is safe.

Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied food ingredients in the food supply.  In fact, aspartame has been tested for over three decades in over 200 studies, with the same result: aspartame is safe.  Long- and short-term studies have been conducted in laboratory animals and humans, including infants, children, healthy adults, lactating women, diabetics, obese people and people with the rare genetic condition phenylketonuria (PKU).

Read more coverage of the study at the following links:

Reuters- Oops: Harvard affiliate apologizes for promotion of “weak” study

NPR- Data Linking Aspartame To Cancer Risk Are Too Weak To Defend, Hospital Says

NBC News- Harvard hospital admits it promoted weak science on aspartame

American Council on Science and Health- Bad ‘science’ from Harvard