Could Aspartame Be Linked to Increased Anxiety in Generations of Mice?

Long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from Science Alert:Could the sweetened drinks we're consuming be making us feel a little more anxious? A new study looking at the effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame on mice suggests that it's a possibility that's worth investigating further. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1981, aspartame is widely used in low-calorie foods and drinks. Today, it's found in nearly 5,000 different products, consumed by adults and children. When a sample of mice were given free access to water dosed with aspartame equivalent to 15 percent of the FDA's recommended maximum daily amount for humans, they generally displayed more anxious behavior in specially designed mood tests. What's truly surprising is the effects could be seen in the animals' offspring, for up to two generations... When the mice were given doses of diazepam - a drug once marketed as Valium, which is commonly used to treat anxiety in humans - anxiety-like behaviors stopped across all generations. The medication helps to regulate the same pathways in the brain that are altered by the effects of the aspartame.

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