Did you see the new release from the W.H.O. regarding aspartame that’s been making the rounds in the media lately?
As per mainstream media, a controversial headline = more clicks = more money. I’ve had a number of questions on it lately so wanted to put things in perspective for you. The W.H.O. classified aspartame as a Group 2B carcinogen. Group 2B means “possibly carcinogenic to humans”. The acceptable intake of aspartame is up 40mg/kg of bodyweight per day. That means if you weigh 150lbs, you’d need to drink about a dozen cans of diet pop per day to hit the threshold. That’s over 4L a day—9lbs of pop. That’s crazy. Let’s be honest, there is an association factor in this as well. If you are consuming that much diet pop, you’re probably also eating a fair amount of foods that are terrible for you, aren’t exercising regularly, aren’t getting enough vitamins and minerals, and who knows what else. It’s extremely difficult to discern correlation from causation. For ages, I’ve recommended if you are a soda drinker you’re better off switching to a diet to save yourself the calories and sugar. (To be clear, I’m not suggesting aspartame is healthy. No pop at all is the healthiest choice. I’m suggesting it’s the lesser of 2 evils for the vast majority of people.) We also don’t need to be told that eating whole, unprocessed foods is always a better call than a can of chemicals. But I wanted to give a bit of perspective as when it comes to health and fitness, it’s incredibly easy to major in the minors. Do you know what is a Group 1 carcinogen, which means there is sufficient evidence it causes cancer in humans, right up there with plutonium, UV rays, and tobacco? Alcohol. Our favorite summertime cottage drink, and the 3rd most consumed drink on the planet (beer), has sufficient evidence to show it causes cancer. All the Molson Canadian ads I saw growing up with an ice-cold beer on a red Muskoka chair overlooking a beautiful lake deceived me! There is no judgment from me on this front – half the reason I exercise is to increase my buffer for junk food. If you’re been concerned a few diet pops might be an issue, but you’re consuming more than 1-2 drinks a week, I wanted to put things in perspective for you. It’s easy to major in the minors. And I want to encourage you to save your stress and mental capacity for things that matter. Need a hand with health changes that don’t major in the minors so you can get meaningful results that last? Click here to connect and see how we can help (and save 50% on your first 4 weeks). For the fellow health nerds out there, check out the W.H.O. site HERE for further reading.
