NPR

What you need to know about aspartame and cancer

This week, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer reclassified the sugar substitute as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."
Food products containing the artificial sweetener aspartame are displayed on Friday in New York City.

The announcement this week by a World Health Organization agency that the artificial sweetener aspartame — used in such low-calorie products as Diet Coke, Trident gum and sugar-free Jell-O — is "possibly carcinogenic to humans" has many wondering if the food additive is safe to consume.

Thursday's announcement from WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, reclassifies aspartame, which has been in wide use since the 1980s and is sold under such brand names as NutraSweet and Equal.

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