AMA Rates Aspartame Safe for Most Persons

Aspartame, the artificial sweetener rapidly replacing saccharin as a low-calorie sugar substitute, is safe for use by most persons, the American Medical Assn. said Thursday.

Only those who are sensitive to the amino acid phenylalanine, one of aspartame’s components, need regulate their intake of the popular sweetener, the AMA’s Council on Scientific Affairs said in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Marketed in the United States as NutraSweet by G. D. Searle & Co. of Skokie, Ill., the product was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for commercial use in 1981.

Despite FDA approval, questions have arisen about its safety and it has been blamed for everything from severe headaches to brain tumors.