PEDIATRICS Vol. 86 No. 1 July 1990, pp. 75-83
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Aspartame: Effects on Learning, Behavior, and Mood

Susan Saravis PhD1, Russell Schachar MD1, Stanley Zlotkin MD, PhD1, Lawrence A. Leiter MD1, and G. Harvey Anderson PhD1

1 From the Departments of Medicine, Nutritional Sciences, Paediatrics, and Psychiatry, University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The effect of aspartame on the learning, behavior, and mood of children was evaluated in two experiments. After an overnight fast and a standard breakfast, 20 healthy 9- to 10-year-old children were given the treatments in a double-blind crossover design at 10:30 AM. Lunch was served at 12:00 noon. In experiment 1, the treatment consisted of an ice slurry of strawberry Kool-Aid containing 1.75 g/kg of carbohydrate (polycose) plus either aspartame (34 mg/kg) or the equivalent sweetness as sodium cyclamate and amino acids as alanine. In experiment 2, the treatment consisted of a drink of cold unsweetened strawberry Kool-Aid, containing either 1.75 g/kg of sucrose or 9.7 mg/kg of aspartame. Measures of associative learning, arithmetic calculation, activity level, social interaction, and mood were unaffected by treatment in experiment 1. In experiment 2, the only significant treatment effect was that on the frequency of minor and gross motor behaviors, which were less frequent after the consumption of sucrose than after aspartame. Thus, the effect of aspartame on the short-term behavior of healthy 9- to 10-year-old children appears to be related to its absence of metabolic consequences rather than to its amino acid composition and putative neurochemical impact.

Key Words: aspartame • behavior • learning • sucrose • activity • social interaction

Submitted on January 23, 1989
Accepted on July 25, 1989