Misleading title. They're about to declare it as possibly cancerous. Not fully cancerous. And if anything this is just to get even more research into it.

Aspartame is in a lot of things, mainly sodas and gum, but you'd have to consume a lot of the stuff beyond a human limit really.

I do think this may put a dent in sugar free products assuming it gets declared as such.

[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

They’re about to declare it as possibly cancerous. Not fully cancerous.

What do you mean by this? Everything that can cause cancer is declared "possibly cancerous"; it depends on dose and exposure. Nothing is "fully cancerous" for whatever that might even mean. You can be exposed to radiation and either get cancer or not; it depends on the dose. Would you call radiation "possibly cancerous", or "fully cancerous"?

Analagously, most bacteria can cause infections but they don't always in everyone. So to label a bacteria as purely benign or purely dangerous is just as silly as trying to make a distinction between "possibly cancerous" and "fully cancerous".

Aspartame is in a lot of things, mainly sodas and gum, but you’d have to consume a lot of the stuff beyond a human limit really.

And if someone wants to minimize their risk of cancer, they should be able to make informed decisions. Knowing that at particular food-additive has higher-than-baseline chances of causing cancer allows someone with a different risk-aversion profile to make decisions wisely. If you don't mind the incidence rate at the dose you consume it at, that's fine as well. But it is useful to have it be public knowledge if something is potentially cancer-causing.

[–] Wildchandelure@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

There's a scale. I wouldn't put aspartame on the same level as smoking for it's chances of causing cancer. That's what i mean. I guess "fully Cancerous" isnt really a good way of putting it into words.

It doesn't outright cause cancer like the title implies. By saying it causes cancer in the title is misleading. There's very little evidence that supports that, and I see them only doing this considering the concerns around it and more research.

I'm absolutely for people knowing this information and making informed decisions if they want to stay away from it or keep using it. That's all on them.

Should've titled it something more like "WHO is about to rule aspartame as 'possibly cancerous.' Here's what that tells you"

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