Debate over Nutrasweet's health risks remains potent

A computer cluster at the University is one of the few places in New Jersey still bustling with activity at three o'clock a.m. While some students can manage the feat of the all-nighter on their own, most receive a little help. The cans of diet soda filling recycling bins on a Monday morning betray their secret.

Alex Kobishyn '04 admits that this boost of energy is the reason she started drinking diet soda when she came to Princeton last year. Though she said she never drank it at home, she began using it as a means of staying awake and alert.

"I do it for a late night thing, to stay up, because it has caffeine and not a lot of calories," Kobishyn said.

While caffeine-driven energy boosts account for some students' late night soda consumption, calorie-free diet soda holds particular appeal for weight-conscious students.

Some students say they feel that there is a lot of pressure on campus for both males and females to watch their figures.

"This school in general is very body image conscious. You gotta have that Ivy League look," said Rick Clark '05.

Clark, who drinks two 20-ounce bottles of diet soda each day, says that he drinks artificially sweetened drinks to stay awake and slim.

Tal Zamir '05 agreed that the pressure to be thin affects students of both genders on the Princeton campus.

"I think a lot of guys are weight conscious on this campus, because there are so many athletes," he said. "Not more than the girls, but more than you would probably expect." Zamir said that the emphasis on fitness and body image has also motivated her to drink more products with Nutrasweet since starting college.

While Zamir emphasized the gender-neutral nature of Nutrasweet consumption on campus, others like Gretchen Anderson '04, said that female students drink excessive amounts of diet beverages.

"My roommate is obsessed with the stuff," And-erson said.

Another student claimed that her friends each drink between six and seven cans of Diet Coke in a single day.

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These students are not alone. Dining services said they typically go through 394 gallons of Diet Coke per week.

Nutrasweet is the brand name of a chemical compound called aspartame. The nation's most prevalent artificial sweetener, aspartame offers a calorie-free alternative for dieters who do not want to give up their favorite sweets.

Nutrasweet replaces sugar in diet soda, candy, drink mixes, pudding mixes and a host of other products targeting dieters and diabetics looking to lower their carbohydrate intake. More than 100 million people in more than 90 countries consume Nutrasweet on a regular basis, according to a case study on the food additive approval process.

Despite mass consumption of Nutrasweet products at the University and beyond its gates, many students voiced concern that the sweetener could have adverse effects on the body.

Rumors circulating across campus link aspartame to everything from headaches to cancer.

"Aspartame is cancer," said Zamir, whose mother is in the medical profession.

Other students said that they had heard from either their mothers or television documentaries that aspartame is a carcinogen, and that it may promote weight gain rather than weight loss.

Still others said they heard that it was highly addictive and led to migraines and nausea when users were deprived of their diet snacks and sodas containing the sweetener.

The Food and Drug Administra-tion, who approved the compound in 1974, anxiously dispelled rumors of Nutrasweet's toxicity. Citing 200 studies that prove aspartame's safety, for over 20 years the FDA has combated allegations that the substance is harmful.

Likewise, the American Diabetes Association, National Softdrink Association and Nutrasweet Co., among other organizations, support the FDA's claim that the substance does not have harmful effects for most of the population.

Dr. Ruth Kava, director of nutrition at the American Council of Science and Health, said there is no risk associated with Nutrasweet intake unless consumers suffer from phenyl-ketonuria (PKU), a genetic inability to break down the amino acid phenylalanine.

Since PKU is identified at birth, and all Nutrasweet products are labeled with warnings to phenylketonurics, she said she saw no harm in moderate aspartame consumption.

"If people just take a modicum of care, I see no problem," Kava said.

The FDA has defined "moderate" aspartame intake quite specifically. It has determined the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of the artificial sweetener to be 50 mg per kg body weight.

Roxanne Moore, RD, MS, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, explained in an e-mail the significance of these numbers.

"To reach the ADI, a 40-pound child would need to consume 900 mg of aspartame, which translates into 24 packets of sweetener or four 12-ounce cans of diet soda."

Despite reassurances of aspartame's safety, a number of volunteer organizations have sprung up worldwide in protest of the artificial sweetener.

The Aspartame and Nutrasweet Toxicity Information Center, Dorway.com and Mission Possible, for example, have launched international information and letter-writing campaigns warning the public that aspartame is a highly lethal substance.

Mark Gold, director of the Aspartam and Nutrasweet Toxicity Information Center, advised against even moderate aspartame intake.

"It's toxic," he said.

Gold explained that Nutrasweet breaks down into four substances, all of which are harmful in the quantities in which aspartame introduces them into the body after consumption. One of these compounds is formaldehyde, which accumulates in the brain, liver, kidneys and other organs.

Once formaldehyde has reached these locations, it gradually poisons the body, causing seizures, severe headaches, depression, psychological problems and other maladies, he said.

Aspartic acid, another byproduct of aspartame breakdown, is an excitotoxin which, "is usually safe, but at certain levels it excites cells to death," Gold said.

Gold and other anti-aspartame activists object most strongly to the final byproduct of nutrasweet breakdown, DKP. A chemical not typically found in food, DKP's effects on the body were only proven safe to the FDA in a single one-day study.

Gold and other independent scientists expressed suspicion that DKP has carcinogenic properties.

"I really don't know. I just know the stuff really hasn't been tested," he said.

Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible, alleges that Nutrasweet causes far more than cancer, including Parkinson's disease, attention deficit disorder, Lou Gherig's disease, infertility, seizures and even death.

"It's the most dangerous thing on the market today," Martini said.

She also said that the FDA is aware that Nutrasweet is harmful. Martini points out the 16-year delay in approving the chemical, as well as the Bressler report — an official FDA audit pointing out the flaws in the research that Searle Laborato-ries submitted to the FDA to prove aspartame's safety.

According to the Bressler report, the "major discrepancies" of the data include problems with design and conduct of study and stability and homogeneity of DKP in diet mixtures, among others.

Anti-aspartame organizations also emphasize that the former director of the FDA who approved Nutrasweet, Arthur Hayes Jr., later resigned from the FDA to work for the Nutrasweet (Searle) public relations firm.

Martini's and Gold's organizations list several independent studies confirming their accusations that aspartame causes brain damage and other severe illnesses. Both claim that initial FDA approval is the only thing keeping Nutrasweet products on the market.

"No government official is going to turn around and say 'We were wrong for 20 years. We approved a poison,' " Gold said.

Gold, Martini and their respective networks of activists do not appear to have political or economic ulterior motives for their struggle.

Their organizations are strictly volunteer-run and promote alternative artificial sweeteners such as Stevia, which has been used in Japan for hundreds of years.

While the anti-aspartame crusaders abound in enthusiasm about spreading the anti-Nutrasweet word, many doctors, FDA and ADA spokesmen dismiss their claims as un-founded and unfair.

Arguing that the so-called "toxins" aspartame introduces into the body are present in most meats and vegetables, they object to protesters.

"I really don't understand what they're doing or why," Kava said. "It's out-and-out scaremongering."

Kava hypothesized that these organizations play off of disease victims' confusion and desire to identify the causes of their pain. "Perhaps it explains things that people otherwise don't have an explanation for," she said.

Some scientists also warn consumers to be wary of the "laundry list" of symptoms associated with aspartame. Kava mentioned that multiple symptoms associated with a single product usually serve as a chief indicator of junk science.

In a "Time" magazine article last year, Christine Gorman, a science columnist, expressed skepticism that Nutrasweet causes a host of ills.

"Just as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything," she wrote.

While some students certainly will need more convincing evidence before bidding farewell to their diet beverages, others feel that the possibility of health hazards is reason enough to avoid aspartame.

Many also said they doubted whether Nutrasweet even significantly aided weight loss.

"I don't think it's useful. Like one diet soda is going to make up for all the calories you eat," said one student.

Tania Rojas Espanda '05 concurred that students should try to modify unhealthy eating and exercising practices rather than resorting to diet products.

"People use it to lose weight, but it doesn't help," she said. "They're not changing their habits."

With the student body as divided as authorities on the aspartame question, and with mountains of information available from both sides, students clearly must decide for themselves whether to consume the product.

In the meantime, Kava offers sound advice that applies to far more than the realm of artificial sweeteners.

"I think people should be moderate about eating anything," she said.