A large study claims that artificial sweeteners, commonly used in diet and soft drinks, may increase the risk of cancer. Experts from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and the Sorbonne Paris Nord University monitored the diet and health of 100,000 people for eight years. They found a 13 percent increase in cancer risk in people who regularly consumed artificial sweeteners. No such finding was found in previous studies.
CANCER DIAGNOSED!
French researchers looked at the nutrition and health records of 102,865 French adults with an average age of 42 years. Three-quarters were women.
Data were collected from an ongoing one-day nutritional study in which participants submitted 24-hour dietary records every six months.
Researchers compared artificial sweetener intake with cancer diagnoses reported by participants up to January 2021.
About 37 percent of the participants consumed artificial sweeteners at least once a day. At the end of the study, 3,358 had been diagnosed with cancer, and their average age at the time of their diagnosis was 59.5 years.
Of these, 982 were breast cancer, 403 were prostate cancer, and 2,032 were obesity-related cancers.