Are the sweeteners safe? What that cancer headline said.

Someone sent me a headline.

It was about aspartame and cancer. It had been forwarded so many times that the original source had fallen off the end.

Fair question to end the week on.

I have spent five days telling you these drinks do nothing to my blood sugar.

That is not the same as telling you they are good for you. I want to be careful about the gap between those two things.

First, the week on the monitor.

The scoreboard

These are one person's readings and not medical advice. Everyone's body responds differently.

The question

No. Two different groups at the World Health Organization published on the same day in July 2023, and the headlines took one and ignored the other.

Here is what each one said.

The cancer agency put aspartame in a group called possibly carcinogenic to humans.

That is the third of four levels. And it is a statement about how much evidence exists, not about how risky your can is.

The evidence they were describing is limited.

A possible link with one kind of liver cancer, in studies they called not convincing.

The second group is the one that sets safe intake levels. They looked at the same evidence and left the daily limit exactly where it was.

That limit works out at something specific, and it is worth sitting with.

One of the WHO scientists put it plainly. The evidence of a link between aspartame and cancer in humans is not convincing.

Another said safety is not a major concern at the doses people normally drink, and that the effects still need investigating.

Both sentences came from the same organisation, on the same day, about the same thing.

Neither one is a headline. That is probably why neither one travelled.

So where does that leave it

Cancer is not the thing I would spend worry on here.

The open question is the quieter one I wrote about on Monday.

Across those trials, which compared sweeteners against water or a placebo, researchers found higher fasting insulin and higher long term blood sugar.

Some sweeteners also change the bacteria in your gut, and they do it differently in different people.

That is a real question and it is not settled. It is also a completely different question from the one in the headline.

My position after five days of this.

The sugar in the red can is the thing my monitor reacts to. Every time, no argument.

The sweetener in the black can is an open question. I am watching it rather than worrying about it.

And I still drink mostly sparkling water with a lime in it.

Next week: the sourdough question

Monday I find out whether the loaf I have been paying extra for is doing anything at all.

If something this week surprised you, or you want a food put on the monitor, reply to this email. I read them, and Friday is where they end up.

— Stay steady