One of the world's most common artificial sweeteners is set to be declared a possible carcinogen next month by a leading global health body, according to two sources with knowledge of the process, pitting it against the food industry and regulators.
The IARC ruling […] is intended to assess whether something is a potential hazard or not [… and] does not take into account how much of a product a person can safely consume.
From the article. ^^^
This is something people frequently overlook. A substance may be a “possible carcinogen” and also completely benign at levels any sane person would consume.
Bananas also contain carcinogenic material, but eating bananas is still very much a healthy thing to do. There’s a reason banana equivalent dose is a concept, and “the dose makes the poison” is a common refrain in toxicology.
Gary Taubes talks about this in his slew of books about sugar, the historical studies that caused the craze about artificial sweeteners being linked to cancer in the 80’s all were done with massive doses in rats so large that a human being physically could not consume an equivalent dose. I still think it’s worth considering that there is some mechanism at play between these things and cancer, but like you say, the volume is a very important variable.
From the article. ^^^
This is something people frequently overlook. A substance may be a “possible carcinogen” and also completely benign at levels any sane person would consume.
Bananas also contain carcinogenic material, but eating bananas is still very much a healthy thing to do. There’s a reason banana equivalent dose is a concept, and “the dose makes the poison” is a common refrain in toxicology.
Yes this is the type of “research” my mother would show me when I was younger to get me to stop drinking soft drinks like coke or energy drinks.
Gary Taubes talks about this in his slew of books about sugar, the historical studies that caused the craze about artificial sweeteners being linked to cancer in the 80’s all were done with massive doses in rats so large that a human being physically could not consume an equivalent dose. I still think it’s worth considering that there is some mechanism at play between these things and cancer, but like you say, the volume is a very important variable.