BEAVERCREEK — Limiting your intake of aspartame, which the World Health Organization said this week may cause cancer, is the key to your being able to continue to safely use the artificial sweetener.
>> RELATED: WHO says aspartame, sweetener found in soda, may cause cancer
And limiting her intake is what Krissy Brooks said she intends to do after learning of the announcement.
“I said, hmmm, I should probably stop using that so much. Try to cut back at least like even if I don’t necessarily make it perfect. It’s a problem,” the Fairborn resident told News Center 7′s Kayla McDermott on Friday.
“It’s in my diet drinks. It’s in my coffee in the morning,” Brooks said. “Even when I go out it’s in all the skinny margarita mixes. It’s everywhere.”
The sweetener that has been used since the 1980s is now included among the artificial food items that are possible carcinogens, the WHO said.
Dr. Joseph Allen said, “I think the most common place that I have these conversations are with patients that are maybe newly diagnosed or, or relatively newly diagnosed diabetics, right, because they look for everything as they’re sugar free.”
The WHO study also determined that the sweetener is safe for people, within certain limits. The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives reaffirms that a daily intake of 40 mg per kilogram body weight does not pose an increased risk. For example, a person who weighs about 150 pounds would have to consumer nine to 14 cans of diet soda a day to exceed safe intake levels,
“It seems like a lot, right. But but there are people out here that do that,” Dr. Allen said.
Books is one of those who admits to doing just that.
“Everyday, tablespoons upon tablespoons,” she said, noting that she puts the sugar substitute in nearly everything she drinks.
“When I first saw the actual announcement, I was like huh, that’s going to be a problem. . . ,” Brooks said.
©2023 Cox Media Group
