Early-life exposures to diet soda and aspartame are associated with autism in males

Since its introduction, aspartame—the leading sweetener in U.S. diet sodas (DS)—has been reported to cause neurological problems in some users. In prospective studies, the offspring of mothers who consumed diet sodas/beverages (DSB) daily during pregnancy experienced increased health problems. We hypothesized that gestational/early-life exposure to ≥1 DS/day (DS early ) or equivalent aspartame (ASP early : ≥177 mg/day) increases autism risk. The case-control Autism Tooth Fairy Study obtained retrospective dietary recalls for DSB and aspartame consumption during pregnancy/breastfeeding from the mothers of 235 offspring with autism spectrum disorder (ASD: cases) and 121 neurotypically developing offspring (controls). The exposure odds ratios (ORs) for DS early and ASP early were computed for autism, ASD, and the non-regressive conditions of each. Among males, DS early odds were tripled among autism (OR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.02, 9.7) and non-regressive autism (OR = 3.5; 95% CI: 1.1, 11.1) cases; ASP early odds were even higher: OR = 3.4 (95% CI: 1.1, 10.4) and 3.7 (95% CI: 1.2, 11.8), respectively, among autism and non-regressive autism cases (p < 0.05 for each). ORs for non-regressive ASD in males were almost tripled but were not statistically significant: DS early OR = 2.7 (95% CI: 0.9, 8.4); ASP early OR = 2.9 (95% CI: 0.9, 8.8). No statistically significant associations were found in females. Our findings contribute to the growing literature raising concerns about potential offspring harm from maternal DSB/aspartame intake in pregnancy. ; Please note that the second spreadsheet contain a data dictionary, which defines the meanings of numeric values assigned to categorical variables, and provides further explanatory notes, including the meanings of dichotomous variables. Funding provided by: Autism Speaks Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000073 Award Number: Suzanne and Bob Wright Trailblazer Award Funding provided by: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Crossref Funder ...