Does Diet Coke cause cancer?
World Health Organization's fear mongering about aspartame is denounced by the FDA, and diet soda drinkers will not change their habits
Diet soda is the product most discriminated against in the marketplace. It has been falsely accused of making people fat. Now it’s charged with giving people cancer. The allegation is so far-fetched that even the FDA says to drink your favorite diet soda without fear.
WHO knew?
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday announced that it had classified the artificial sweetener aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans.”
Aspartame is used in Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Pepsi Zero (my favorite cola), Diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale (the best of all, full list below), gum and other sugar-free products.
The WHO's head of nutrition, Francesco Branca, said:
If consumers are faced with the decision of whether to take cola with sweeteners or one with sugar, I think there should be a third option considered— which is to drink water instead.
Branca said children are at higher risk because their approved limit could be as low as three cans of soda. He said, according to Reuters, that “children who start consuming aspartame early in life may face a heightened health risk later, though more research is needed on lifelong exposure.”
(I started drinking Diet Coke around 14 years old and have never heard of anyone having health issues related to sodas, but I’m not a scientist!)
However, the WHO said the report is “based on “limited evidence” and allows for an “acceptable daily intake” of 40 mg/kg body weight. That is the equivalent of nine to 14 cans of Diet Coke a day for an adult weighing 154 lbs.
FDA gets a backbone
The WHO’s lastest method of fearmongering post-pandemic got pushback on several fronts.
The FDA put out a statement that it disagreed that there was any evidence that “aspartame is actually linked to cancer.” The agency wrote
Aspartame is one of the most studied food additives in the human food supply. FDA scientists do not have safety concerns when aspartame is used under the approved conditions.
That means limiting aspartame to 50mg per day. They have this chart if you want to measure out the limits by packets. The blue at the top is aspartame.
The FDA even conceded for once:
We recognize that navigating different information from health organizations is challenging.
Ya think? It would have been nice if the FDA had this strong backbone when the WHO ordered global lockdowns for COVID, insisted masks stopped the spread and refused to investigate the source of the virus in China. But I digress.
Diet soda discrimination
Even though there is no actual evidence that aspartame is bad for you, many consumers believe it because of decades of name-calling.
Whole Foods doesn’t carry any products with aspartame (which is why their beverages and natural gum taste so bad.)
One year ago, I tweeted with enthusiasm this story in The Washington Post: “Diet soda is fine, and 3 other food truths it’s time you believed” which said:
There is zero evidence that diet soda is bad for us.
Oh wait, except for those big observational studies. In those, diet soda correlates with everything bad. Cancer, obesity, diabetes, just for starters! But a funny thing happens when you actually feed people artificial sweeteners: nothing. Unless you count losing a little weight.
Remember all the years of stories about how people gained weight from drinking diet sodas? The theory was people would drink diet soda and think they had extra calories to eat a Big Mac. It was never true.
Strong-willed diet soda drinkers
Industry experts don’t expect the WHO’s cancer declaration will make people stop drinking their favorite sodas.
Keith Niedermeier, a professor of marketing at Indiana University told AdAge:
People are so loyal to products and the type of sweetener they prefer. I don’t think [the reports] will impact hardcore loyalists. But this could be an opportunity for these companies to speak to customers who are concerned by focusing on natural or no sweetener alternatives.”
He added, “If I were, say, La Croix, maybe this is a chance to be more aggressive in marketing.”
(La Croix is the Emporer Wears No Clothes of beverages. It tastes awful. Every flavor. Prove I’m wrong in the comments.)
I’m a diet soda expert
I drank gallons of diet sodas my whole life until the pandemic. I didn’t stop for health reasons. I stopped because of…