Aspartame is in the news - WHO says it's a carcinogen, FDA says it's okay
TLDR: Diet Coke and other diet drinks are probably okay as long as you aren't going far above normal consumption.
At a news conference in Geneva, Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the WHO, said that concern was only for "high consumers" of diet soda and other foods containing aspartame and said that IARC had simply "raised a flag" for more research to be done.
Dr. Mary Schubauer-Berigan, a senior official at IARC, emphasized that "it shouldn't really be taken as a direct statement that indicates that there is a known cancer hazard from consuming aspartame."
As an article in Science notes, "Other substances classed as 'possibly carcinogenic' include extracts of aloe vera, traditional Asian pickled vegetables, some vehicle fuels and some chemicals used in dry cleaning, carpentry and printing. The IARC has also classified red meat as 'probably carcinogenic' and processed meat as 'carcinogenic.'"
Dr. Frank Hu, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, also has concerns about how well the possible effects of aspartame have been studied. He says the problem is twofold.
"It's difficult to do studies in free living populations to get a great estimate of how much people actually consume," he says.
Another challenge, Hu says, is that in the case of rare cancers such as liver cancer, which the WHO specifically noted, researchers need "hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions of people to be followed and to obtain sufficient statistical power to get reliable answers."
The aspartame focus has been largely on low-calorie diet sodas, but what about its use in other beverages?
"If you put two packets of sweeteners into your coffee or tea, I don't think that's going to be a problem for the vast majority of people," Hu says.
For Tuft's Mozaffarian, despite his concerns, he says that for someone who can't break a soda habit, it's still better to drink the diet variety. "We know that high amounts of regular soda is really, really bad for weight gain or obesity or diabetes for risk of heart attack events."
"So ... yes, better to switch to diet [soda]," he says. "But it's even better then to switch from diet to unsweetened sparkling water."
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"FDA relaxes blood donation guidelines for gay and bisexual men"
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday it had officially eliminated restrictions that had previously prohibited many blood donations by gay and bisexual men — a longstanding policy that critics say is discriminatory.
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FDA proposes easing limitations for blood donation from gay and bisexual men
The proposed guidance would not be gender-specific and would allow some men who have sex with men to donate based on risk assessment questions. People who have had only one sexual partner in the past three months would be allowed to donate blood. If someone has had a new sexual partner or more than one sexual partner—and had anal sex—in the past three months, they would need to wait another three months before donating.
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FDA makes hearing aids available over-the-counter
I got tested for hearing aids a few years ago. I have some hearing loss but it isn't yet big enough that they recommended hearing aids for me. Them moving over-the-counter will bring the price down eventually and make it an easier thing for me and others to make use of.
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"Food expiration dates don't have much science behind them – a food safety researcher explains another way to know what's too old to eat"
It’s logical to believe that date labels are there for safety reasons, since the federal government enforces rules for including nutrition and ingredient information on food labels. Passed in 1938 and continuously modified since, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act requires food labels to inform consumers of nutrition and ingredients in packaged foods, including the amount of salt, sugar and fat it contains.
The dates on those food packages, however, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Rather, they come from food producers. And they may not be based on food safety science.
For example, a food producer may survey consumers in a focus group to pick a “use by” date that is six months after the product was produced because 60% of the focus group no longer liked the taste. Smaller manufacturers of a similar food might play copycat and put the same date on their product.
The article also links to FoodSafety.gov as a website to get actual information on the storage guidelines for some foods.
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