Aspartame and incidence of brain malignancies.

To the Editors: Lim et al. (1) found no relationship between the ''Consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and incidence of hematopoietic and brain malignancies'' by surveying retired individuals about their consumption of diet sodas and determining whether they had an increase in brain tumors 5 years later. In fact, this study design was not able to test the hypothesized relationship because it did not assess all exposures to aspartame and because it only evaluated short-term exposures in older adults. Lim et al. estimated average daily aspartame consumption values based solely on the consumption of beverages containing aspartame. Lim et al. states that 70% of consumed aspartame is obtained through diet beverages, citing the American Dietetic Association as the source of this information. The American Dietetic Association, in turn, cites Equal.com, a large supplier of aspartame-containing products, as the authority for their statement; when contacted for corroborating information , Equal.com could not provide this corrobora-tion. According to the Aspartame Information Center, more dry products contain aspartame than do drink products. The Lim et al. study assumed that the average daily intake of aspartame was equivalent to approximately one 12-oz. can of diet soda and did not include products, such as table sugars, candies, yogurt, nutrition bars, and even chewing gum (2). Table 1, from the European Ramazzini Foundation, estimates the average daily amount of aspartame consumed from some of the most commonly used products out of the more than 6,000 in which it is present (3). If a woman ate these foods and weighed 60 kg (f132 lb), she would consume an aspartame daily dose of 15.1 mg/kg of body weight; a child weighing 30 kg (f66 lb) with a similar daily intake would have an aspartame daily dose twice as high—30.3 mg/kg of body weight (4). This estimated average daily level is well above the dose that was examined in Lim et al.'s study. For those who are dieting, daily consumption of aspartame can be considerably higher. For instance, the South Beach Diet attempts to eliminate sugar intake by endorsing the extensive use of sugar substitutes, such as aspartame (5). Despite its popularity in various diet programs, research does not indicate that aspartame promotes weight loss, and some report that it functions as an appetite stimulant (6). The Lim et al. study included members of the AARP of ages 50 to 71 years. Aspartame was not approved by the Food and …