Consumption of diet drinks during pregnancy is linked to autism

A group of researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (USA) has found a relationship between the diagnosis of autism in male children with the daily consumption of diet drinks, or a comparable amount of the artificial sweetener aspartame, by their mothers during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

In the study, recently published in the journal Nutrients, written estimates of diet drink and aspartame consumption during pregnancy or breastfeeding were collected from 235 mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder, and 121 children without autism (the control).

The results revealed that children diagnosed with autism were more than three times as likely to have been exposed to diet drinks daily during pregnancy or breastfeeding, compared to children without autism. Furthermore, these probabilities of exposure were higher among minors with non-regressive, that is, early-onset, autism.

Sharon Parten Fowler, one of the lead authors of the article, said that the findings of this research “contribute to the growing concern about the possible harm to offspring derived from maternal consumption of diet drinks and aspartame during pregnancy,” including the increase of prematurity and cardiometabolic effects in children.

The researchers believe that larger studies, including children of both sexes, are needed to further explore the relationship between aspartame and the development of autism.

The results of this study come after the World Health Organization classified aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic” but kept its acceptable intake level at 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, arguing that the existing evidence was not enough to prohibit its consumption. With RT

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