Research casts doubt on aspartame sensitivity

ConclusionThis study shows that an aspartame-laced cereal bar caused no more adverse symptoms than a bar without aspartame in a group or people who said they were sensitive to aspartame. It also had no more adverse symptoms in a control group of people who did not think they were sensitive to aspartame. The effects were monitored up to four hours after eating. This provides compelling evidence that aspartame doesn’t cause any short-term symptoms, even in people who think they are particularly susceptible to it, and report avoiding it as a result.Limitations with the study include some missing symptom data, because not everyone was able to complete the ratings scale after eating the bars. However, you might expect someone with symptoms to fill it in, so not filling it in might signal a lack of symptoms. The sample size of around 90 participants was also relatively small. A larger sample size would have increased the conviction of the results.The study authors reported problems recruiting participants, which brings us to the biggest limitation to consider. They anticipated 48 aspartame-sensitive people would be recruited within a year, but it took 2.5 years, despite high-level media coverage. A lot more non-aspartame-sensitive people (147 individuals) initially volunteered for the study before just one aspartame-sensitive individual participated. The researchers say this may reflect their genuine fear of aspartame consumption. Consequently, the 48 who participated may not b...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news