In healthy subjects , appetite and short term food intake , risk of cancer , risk of diabetes , risk of dental caries , weight gain and risk of obesity are the most investigated health outcomes .
Overall there is no conclusive evidence for beneficial and harmful effects on those outcomes .
In subjects with diabetes and hypertension , the evidence regarding health outcomes of NNS use is also inconsistent .
Background Food products containing non-nutritive sweeteners ( NNSs ) instead of sugar have become increasingly popular in the last decades .
Their appeal is obviously related to their calorie-free sweet taste .
However , with the dramatic increase in their consumption , it is reasonable and timely to evaluate their potential health benefits and , more importantly , potential adverse effects .
The main aim of this scoping review was to map the evidence about health outcomes possibly associated with regular NNS consumption by examining the extent , range , and nature of research activity in this area .
Consumption of Aspartame-Containing Beverages and Incidence of Hematopoietic and Brain Malignancies
Background : In a few animal experiments , aspartame has been linked to hematopoietic and brain cancers . Most animal studies have found no increase in the risk of these or other cancers . Data on humans are sparse for either cancer . Concern lingers regarding this widely used artificial sweetener . Objective : We investigated prospect ively whether aspartame consumption is associated with the risk of hematopoietic cancers or gliomas ( malignant brain cancer ) . Methods : We examined 285,079 men and 188,905 women ages 50 to 71 years in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study cohort . Daily aspartame intake was derived from responses to a baseline self-administered food frequency question naire that queried consumption of four aspartame-containing beverages ( soda , fruit drinks , sweetened iced tea , and aspartame added to hot coffee and tea ) during the past year . Histologically confirmed incident cancers were identified from eight state cancer registries .  Multivariable-adjusted relative risks ( RR ) and 95 % confidence intervals ( CI ) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression that adjusted for age , sex , ethnicity , body mass index , and history of diabetes . Results : During over 5 years of follow-up ( 1995 - 2000 ) , 1,888 hematopoietic cancers and 315 malignant gliomas were ascertained . Higher levels of aspartame intake were not associated with the risk of overall hematopoietic cancer ( RR for ≥600 mg/d , 0.98 ; 95 % CI , 0.76 - 1.27 ) , glioma ( RR for ≥400 mg/d , 0.73 ; 95 % CI , 0.46 - 1.15 ; P for inverse linear trend = 0.05 ) , or their subtypes in men and women . Conclusions : Our findings do not support the hypothesis that aspartame  increases hematopoietic or brain cancer risk . ( Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(9):1654–9
In healthy subjects , appetite and short term food intake , risk of cancer , risk of diabetes , risk of dental caries , weight gain and risk of obesity are the most investigated health outcomes .
Overall there is no conclusive evidence for beneficial and harmful effects on those outcomes .
In subjects with diabetes and hypertension , the evidence regarding health outcomes of NNS use is also inconsistent .
Background Food products containing non-nutritive sweeteners ( NNSs ) instead of sugar have become increasingly popular in the last decades .
Their appeal is obviously related to their calorie-free sweet taste .
However , with the dramatic increase in their consumption , it is reasonable and timely to evaluate their potential health benefits and , more importantly , potential adverse effects .
The main aim of this scoping review was to map the evidence about health outcomes possibly associated with regular NNS consumption by examining the extent , range , and nature of research activity in this area .