I first wrote about this story a few months back, and as I promised then, things are starting to get ugly –

Aspartame, one of the main ingredients in popular artificial sweeteners like NutraSweet (and in over 6,000 food products,) has once again been linked to multiple forms of cancer in lab animals. According to a report over at NewsInferno.com, results from a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Oncology have found that rats fed aspartame at levels equal to, or even less than the acceptable daily intake for humans, were prone to develop a number of different forms of cancer, including lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple organ cancers.

While no link has been found in humans as of yet, these studies are truly frightening when you consider that by some estimates over 200 million people consume aspartame worldwide – the ubiquitous sweetener is found in everything from soft drinks, candy, and chewing gum, to over-the-counter medical products like chewable vitamin supplements and sugar-free cough drops.

In the current study, which was apparently run much differently than those done 30 years ago (when aspartame’s safety was originally being evaluated,) rats were fed different concentrations of the sweetener and then examined upon death. This approach, which was meant to allow any carcinogenic potential of aspartame to be fully expressed, found widespread evidence of malignant cancers in both female and male rats – at surprisingly low intake levels. Rats in the control group remained cancer-free.

What scares me the most about these studies is the fact that at least here in the United States, a large portion of the population is attempting to lose weight in part by consuming more low-calorie foods products (a number of which contain aspartame,) which begs the questions: are we trading our large waistbands for malignant cancer?

God I hope not.

SOURCE: Newsinferno.com – Animal Study Links Aspartame to Malignant Tumors, Leukemias, and Lymphomas Even at Low Consumption Levels

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