Common Things That Aren't Actually Carcinogens

Artificial Sweeteners

Replacements for sugar in food and drinks such as artificial sweeteners are not much more healthy than sugar itself. Some have even made claims that artificial sweetener consumption can increase an individual's risk of developing cancer. However, no credible research currently supports allegations that implicate artificial sweeteners in the pathogenesis of cancer. This misconception was popularized when a study over three decades ago implicated a substance called cyclamate in the pathogenesis of bladder cancer in laboratory rats. Some artificial sweeteners contained cyclamate, but these were banned in 1969 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a precaution, even though the results were never replicated in humans. Laboratory studies in rats also implicated another substance called saccharin in the pathogenesis of bladder cancer over two decades ago, but these results were also never replicated in human studies. Misconceptions surrounding an artificial sweetener called aspartame started when claims were made that a spike in brain tumor diagnosis between the years of 1975 and 1992 could be related to the new establishment of the substance in 1981. While the statistics themselves are accurate, the reasoning behind the increase in cancer is not. This claim was debunked when statistical data proved the rates of brain tumors started to spike in 1973 and started to decline in 1986, despite continued consumption of aspartame as an artificial sweetener.

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