Professor Tim Spector, well known for his appearances on ITV's This Morning, has said he would rather put sugar in his tea than any low or non calorie artificial sweeteners. It comes after aspartame will be listed as "possibly carcinogenic to humans" based on findings from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
The sweetener is regularly used in thousands of products, such as fizzy drinks and chewing gum. The artificially made product is virtually calorie-free and has been a popular sugar substitute since the 1980s.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Professor Spector explained: "If you have recently enjoyed a low-fat yoghurt, a diet drink, a biscuit or even a dollop of reduced sugar ketchup on your chips, there's every chance you have consumed aspartame. So ubiquitous is this man-made chemical foodstuff that it's now a staple ingredient in thousands of products found on Britain's supermarket shelves."
Its widespread use could now be a problem after research found it may be a carcinogen, according to reports. It comes just weeks after the WHO said it was concerned that long-term use of sweeteners like aspartame may increase the risk of "type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and mortality".
However, for people who consume aspartame, they may have to drink sugar free beverages by the bucket-load each day to actually have an increased cancer risk. This is because researchers are yet to discover how much is too much aspartame.
In light of the missing information, Professor Spector is erring on the side of caution, writing: "As things stand, I'd rather have a very small amount of sugar in my tea or coffee than use an artificial sweetener. At least I have a better understanding of what it's going to do to my body, and I can see how much I'm adding.
"Banning man-made sweeteners is not the short term solution — they're too deeply engrained in our food culture, and part of the bigger problem of UPFs. But whether or not they cause cancer, they're helping to make us more obese and ill, and there are steps we can take to limit our exposure."
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Aspartame will now be classified as a 2b carcinogen, meaning it is possibly carcinogenic to humans, alongside caffeic acid found in coffee, petrol, aloe vera, nickel and radiofrequency electromagnetic fields given off my mobile phones. Carcinogens classified as 2a are 'probably carcinogenic' to humans and includes the likes of red meat and air pollution.
