The truth about ASPARTAME!

Should you be avoiding aspartame?
Hi I am Ann Reardon, Food scientist & dietitian, How to Cook That is my youtube channel, it is filled with hundreds of episodes made just for you. Join me for debunking, and crazy food science videos every second Friday. This week we are looking at aspartame. Is aspartame safe? Does aspartame cause cancer? Does aspartame kill ants? How much aspartame is ok? Should I avoid aspartame? Are artificial sweeteners bad for you?

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[nileredscandy]

As a chemist it’s always a pet peeve when people say something is bad because it is a chemical. Honey contains sucrose, which is a chemical, yet it is always touted as a replacement for white sugar 🙄

[Merendino]

I know I'm not the only one who thinks it's crazy that a channel that used to be dedicated to making delicious desserts and cakes is now mostly dedicated to unraveling the nonsense we deal with on a daily basis. Love you Ann. Please don't stop making videos anytime soon!

[LuccaAce]

As a librarian, I appreciate the information literacy training you're doing, Ann. Thanks for helping teach people how to better understand the information overload around us

[stormyjlb]

As a veterinary researcher, I LOVE how you describe research methodology and how not all research is reliable evidence!

[rhymebeat]

I love how the "aspertame caused cancer" results could also be interpreted as "aspertame significantly increases your life span." It's why controlling for everything is important.

[roky]

This is the kind of content that should become viral! Thorougly researched, deep dive, looking AT THE ACTUAL METHODOLOGY of a study, not just the title and abstract. Cudos Ann, keep it up!

[optima]

I was genuinely so worried for your ants, especially that bait and switch initially!! I am glad it isn’t actually toxic and your colony is okay

[AndromedaCripps]

This is heartening to hear, my mother has diabetes and navigating the world of sugar substitutes is confusing at best and terrifying at worst. It’s obviously even better for your diet to just skip sweeteners all together, but people don’t always realize the kind of mental toll that huge dietary changes can take on a person, especially at an advanced age. After going your whole life being able to have a plate of pasta, or a dinner roll, or a slice of pie for dessert, suddenly NOT being able to eat what feels like ANYTHING you enjoy can be debilitating and depressing. Anyway, my mom is a lover of Diet Coke, which uses aspartame as a sweetener, and although cutting back on coke and increasing her water intake a few years ago did positively affect her day-to-day health, it’s good to know that a coke every once in a while isn’t chronically endangering her. For her, sometimes getting a Diet Coke can satiate that craving that might’ve caused her to eat something that would spike her blood sugar. Thanks Ann for your review of the research!!!

[KanaHyoshi]

I am a type 1 diabetic. Any time I would drink diet soda or use artificial sweetener, the first thing out of anyone's mouth is "you know that's actually bad for you".
Despite the fact that normal sugar could kill me faster.

[qatherine]

One addition to Ann's excellent review of aspartame's safety profile: there ARE some people who need to avoid aspartame for medical reasons. People with the genetic condition phenylketonurea (PKU) are unable to process the amino acid phenylalanine correctly, and if they consume foods with too much phenylalanine, they will develop issues with their nervous system, especially as children. So people with PKU have to adhere to a careful diet to get enough nutrients but not too much phenylalanine. Aspartame is a source of phenylalanine, so people with PKU need to know that and avoid it. That is why a lot of products with aspartame have a warning for people with phenylketonurea. The fact that it contains phenylalanine is totally harmless to anyone without PKU; phenylalanine is a normal amino acid that our bodies need to make protein!

[harmonyispimp]

As someone who was just diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes this past week, I thank you. This was super informative.

[vanderburg.M]

As a biochemist, I took one look at aspartame and could say with confidence that there is nothing to worry about. The only people who should be concerned are those who have a condition called phenylketonuria (the inability to metabolise phenylalanine), but thankfully this has been well understood for a very long time and hence the warning labels that tell you the product contains phenylalanine.

Great content, you're brilliant.

[dndndndndn]

Anne is really out here single-handedly setting the record straight on the endless misinformation cycle of TikTok. Thank you!

[melchiorlise]

I am a biology student and part of our studies is oncology, and I am constantly amazed by this capacity people have of ignoring actual risks they take in their lives for which there is significant datas, and freaking out about overly specific, very inconclusive, very mild risks.
Some people think aspartame is Satan yet they smoke, they drink and they don't protect themselves from the sun, which basically is the holy trinity of cancer.
And for some people it doesn't matter how many time you tell them how irrational it is, if they associated something with a positive emotional response in their lives no amount of evidence will convince them it's bad for them to. Best exemple is THE SUN, in people's mind the sun means summer, it means vacation, the beach, family outings, so it can't possibly be bad right ?
But take something that is unfamiliar for them, and it'll be very easy to feel threatened by it because there's no sense of normalcy associated with it.

[laurarodrigues]

I have a sentitivity issue with artificial sweetners. I already have gastritis and sweetners make it so much worse with stabbing stomach pain. I think it is valid for people to have an option if they want to go for that, but in my country (Brazil) there was a governmental push for reducing sugar content in all foods. Instead of reducing sugar it made it so that all companies started adding sweetners to everything. I now have to read every single label very carefully, from juices to yogurt and even Tomato Sauce. It should be an informed choice. I now can't have my favorite drinks anymore without aggravating my bad stomach condition.

[Pruett]

I get headaches whenever I have aspartame so I just avoid it.
I appreciated this video because my husband drinks diet sodas, so it's good to know the actual risks

[iliatimpanaro]

I'm a scientist and I have to read papers every day for a living. Even I couldn't be bothered to read the endless stream of publications on aspartame to figure out if it is actually bad for you, so thank you for this thoroughly researched video. I love your scientific approach to things!

[Aphelia.]

You don't just read the research papers to us, you SHOW us how to research and think scientifically. This is such valuable information Ann, thank you!

[richardfeldkamp]

My main problem with aspartame is the taste and aftertaste. For me the taste is overpowering and the aftertaste can last for a couple days. This could be a genetic trait such as those associated with other compounds. The most egregious use of aspartame I found was in Belgian fruit flavoured beers. For me it destroyed the tasty flavours of the beers that I had enjoyed for years, all to save money.

[GyroCannon]

Ann consistently makes great content with all the well informed nuance (e.g. possible carcinogen doesn't mean definite carcinogen, and it's dose-based), and I worry that her work will go unappreciated in the world because people gravitate towards short clickbait extremes (e.g. aspartame gives you cancer, avoid at all costs)
Please know that those of us with critical thinking capabilities really appreciate you!