Aspartame is about to be proclaimed by the WHO as a possible carcinogen. What makes this any different from beer and wine, which are known to be carcinogenic already?

Question

Obviously, alcoholic drinks present other dangers (driving drunk, alcoholism), but my question is specifically related to the cancer-causing nature of aspartame-sweetend soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, comparatively.

In: 1668

Answer 1

IARC isn’t WHO even though all media love to say it is. They can have different opinions. For example, WHO declared that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer, while IARC declared it’s probably carcinogenic.

Also, IARC is known to say that everything is at least possibly carcinogenic and almost everything is probably carcinogenic, so you don’t have to worry about them saying something is probably carcinogenic. Them saying so doesn’t mean that it was ever a factor in anyone’s cancer. You most likely take things that are possibly carcinogenic according to IARC every day.

If anything, IARC saying a substance is possibly carcinogenic (2B) like aspartame is more of an evidence that it doesn’t cause cancer as IARC puts almost anything there when they don’t find studies that show it causes cancer. If they find a few studies that show it causes cancer, but also many that show it doesn’t, they’ll say it’s probably carcinogenic (2A).

Alcohol is highly carcinogenic as many studies have showed it and quantified it. Aspartame isn’t highly carcinogenic at the quantity it is taken by the population.