Aspartame, first discovered in 1965 by the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle, is an artificial sweetener marketed by Ajinomoto Sweeteners under trademark names including Nutrasweet, Equal and Canderel. After saccharin, aspartame is the commonest sweetener, consumed by over 200 million people worldwide, and represents about 60 percent of the artificial sweetener market.
Aspartame provides food, soft drinks, candy and chewing gum manufacturers with substantial cost savings compared to sugar, which is 200 times less sweet. Aspartame is a low calorie, which helps people control their weight. It is also used in vitamins and pharmaceuticals, including syrups and antibiotics for children.
In January 1976, then Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Schmidt testified before Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) that Hazleton Laboratories, under contract to Searle, had been charged with falsifying toxicological data on the sweetener.
The FDA subsequently convened a Public Board of Inquiry to review concerns on aspartame's carcinogenic effects in experimental animals. In 1980, the Board concluded that aspartame could "contribute to the development brain tumors." The FDA then recommended that, pending confirmation of these findings, this sweetener should no longer be used.
In 2006, based on highly sensitive and life long feeding tests in groups of about 200 rats and at doses less than usual human dietary levels, the prestigious Italian Ramazzini Foundation confirmed that aspartame is unequivocally carcinogenic. A high incidence of cancers was induced in multiple organs, including lymph glands, brain and kidney.
Not surprisingly, these findings have been sharply challenged by the sweetener industry, major sweetener users, such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Monsanto, and also by the industry oriented scientific journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology. Other critics included Donald Rumsfeld, former U.S. Defense Secretary, and earlier CEO of Searle.
This evidence on the carcinogenicity of aspartame was strongly reinforced in a unique 2007 feeding test, based on maternal feeding of rats in early pregnancy, resulting in their lifelong exposure to aspartame, beginning in fetal life. This resulted in a still higher increase in the incidence of cancers at sites including those previously reported. In April 2007, the results of this study were presented by Ramazzini scientists at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
Under the explicit provisions of the 1958 Delaney Law, which requires an automatic ban on carcinogenic food additives, it is anticipated that Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner and inspiring public health advocate, will promptly ban the continued use of aspartame.
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. is Professor emeritus of Environmental & Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition; and author of over 200 scientific articles and 15 books on cancer, including the groundbreaking 1979 The Politics of Cancer, and the 2009 Toxic Beauty.
In a world with obesity and diabetes epidemics, let's not take away tools that can help people reduce calories and manage their weight and carbohydrate intake. Aspartame and other low-calorie sweeteners can be tools in the fight against overweight and obesity. As with anything, there must be many tools in the toolbox -- such as portion control, increased fruits and vegetables, exercise, etc. If someone chooses to include aspartame as part of their toolbox, they can be confident in its safety.
You can spout all the statistics and studies you want... I KNOW WHAT ASPARTAME DID TO MY HEALTH! To criticize the Ramazzini study is pure folly on your part. It is a very credible study and is only being attacked because of the financial interests of the makers and suppliers of aspartame.
If you go back far enough to when aspartame was being forced thru the FDA by Donald Rumsfeld... the FDA's chief toxicologist Dr Adrian Gross also stated that aspartame was a carcinogen! Of course you will probably dig up some study funded by the makers of aspartame to dispute that... but the fact remains... brain cancer has exploded in the USA since the introduction of aspartame into our food supply.
A coworker of mine had a diet soda addiction very bad. She drank diet soda laced with aspartame all day long, as many who get hooked on this neurotoxin do. And she was diagnosed with a life threatening brain tumor! Coincidence??? I do not believe in coincidences, and believe to this day that the brain tumor she developed was caused by her exposure to aspartame!
Of course the "experts" will say her case and mine are just anecdotal and not proof of aspartame's toxicity. But, you know what, most people believe in common sense. And if there are enough "coincidences" like these, they get it ... that aspartame is the common denominator in these "coincidences"!
I have researched the sordid history of aspartame for a year now. I will not go into the details here. But, here is a statistic that none of the "experts" cannot deny. The incidence of a most dangerous form of brain tumors has increased at almost the same rate as aspartame use! When did this spike in brain tumors start? Why, right after aspartame was introduced in 1981!
For anyone who wants more reliable information on aspartame, not some crap paid for by the makers or food industry... but someone who also has been poisoned by aspartame... look up the excellent documentary called "Sweet Misery". It was made by a young woman who after years of aspartame consumption in her diet sodas was diagnosed with MS. She was confined to a wheelchair! When she quit using aspartame ... SHE RECOVERED! She then decided to make a documentary about aspartame. Do yourself and your family a favor.. watch this movie.. and DO NOT USE ASPARTAME!
And for anyone else on here that thinks aspartame is safe .... and that the FDA has been protecting your health... I've got a bridge to nowhere to sell you! Aspartame is a neurotoxin that kills brain cells! Do not listen to the idiotic dietitian above here who is telling you how safe aspartame is and it is best to avoid the calories! She has probably been misinformed and duped as badly as the rest of mainstream medicine.
The safest option is to follow the precautionary principle and STAY AWAY FROM ASPARTAME IN ALL FORMS!! Google the movie "Sweet Misery" and watch for yourself how toxic aspartame truly is!
Unfortunately what does that leave us with....
Saccharin = Extremely cheap and bitter (esp to PTK tasters)... also known to cause issues in large amounts.
Sucralose= A chemically altered form of sucrose, which probably has issues in vast quantities
Stevia= A "natural" sweetner with a bitter aftertaste...
Acesulfame-K= has a aftertaste/tends to react with aluminum over time which is not a good thing
Sugar Alcohols (Sorbitol/Malitol/Isomalt) = Causes GI disturbances in even moderate amounts (Think olestra/Alli)
And what about Cyclamate.... No artificial sweetner is ideal, but at least give the people who really need them some options here... Oh that too was pulled off the market...
Personally think both Saccarin and Nutrasweet should be like buying any slightly questionable substance, offer them behind the counter at a pharmacy like psuedopherine products for people who actually have a need for it.
http://www.vitacost.com/Kal-Pure-Stevia-Extract-Powder?csrc=GPF-021245104124
No bitter aftertaste.
Sharon E Jacob-Soo, Sarah A Stechschulte, UCSD, Dermatitis
2008 May: Rich Murray 2008.07.18
rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.htm
Friday, July 18, 2008
groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1553
Dermatitis. 2008 May-Jun; 19(3): E10-1.
Formaldehyde, aspartame, and migraines: a possible connection.
Jacob SE, Stechschulte S.
Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery,
University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA.
Aspartame is a widely used artificial sweetener that has been
linked to pediatric and adolescent migraines.
Upon ingestion, aspartame is broken, converted, and oxidized into
formaldehyde in various tissues.
We present the first case series of aspartame-associated migraines
related to clinically relevant positive reactions to formaldehyde on
patch testing. PMID: 18627677
rmforall.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.htm
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1508
The FEMA trailers give about the same amount of formaldehyde
daily as from a quart of dark wine or liquor, or two quarts
(6 12-oz cans) of aspartame diet soda, from their over 1 tenth
gram methanol impurity (one part in 10,000),
which the body quickly makes into formaldehyde -- enough
to be the major cause of "morning after" alcohol hangovers.
Methanol and formaldehyde also result from many fruits and
vegetables, tobacco and wood smoke, heater and vehicle exhaust,
household chemicals and cleaners, cosmetics, and new cars,
drapes, carpets, furniture, particleboard, mobile homes, buildings,
leather ... so all these sources add up and interact with many other
toxic chemicals.
This issue is kept alive by all the people getting sick from aspartame. How many more people need to get hurt before this stuff is removed?
At the very least 1 in 10,000 people are some amount of Hyperphenylalaninemia
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/945180-overview
both the FDA and the Nutrasweet people warn against those people using aspartame, because it will cause brain damage including blindness.
That's 30,000 Americans, 600,000 people world wide for whom Aspartame is danger.
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp
Anecdote: I do not have a strong sensitivity to aspartame. But I had a bad soda habit for most of my adult life and eventually I switched to diet because all that sugar was slowly killing me. (You know, there are people who say sugar is safe too, and they are also full of it.) Eventually I settled on Diet Mountain Dew as my drink of preference. You know, it's the only major diet soda I've run across so far that uses both aspartame and sucralose as sweeteners. I liked its taste far better than aspartame-only diet sodas. Still, I occasionally drank other brands. Come to realize I would get headaches from them and I began to wonder if it was the aspartame. I am not sure how to test for that on my own, and don't want to be a guinea pig in the first place, and I've mostly given up diet soda now anyway. If you must have caffeine, y'all, drink coffee. It even has minerals in it.
I know someone who gets headaches from any sweetener more laboratory-manipulated than table sugar or corn syrup. Even sugar alcohols.
That excess of phenylalanine can't be good for people even if they don't have PKU. Most toxins are proteins, our DNA is made up of protein and our neurotransmitters are as well. Proteins are not inert substances--they literally tell our cells how to behave.
The sequel, ‘Sweet Remedy: The World Reacts’ probes deeper into our compromised food system and FDA, and investigates the safety of other additives such as MSG.
Googling 'Sweet Remedy' will take you to the filmmakers' site which has many updates on this issue.
Safe natural plant herb used by millions for centuries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia
But there's no patent on it, so no outrageous profits to secure.
http://www.naturalnews.com/024892.html
Who needs it when nature provides the ultimate in sweetness: organic raw whole ripe fruit. Some of you may have heard of it.
"However, the extremely high percentage of fructose (higher than that of high-fructose corn syrup) can be deleterious and can trigger fructose malabsorption, metabolic syndrome[7], hypertriglyceridemia, decreased glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia, and accelerated uric acid formation.[8][9][10] Low-carb diet advocate Dr. Michael Eades M.D. advises to "avoid it [Agave syrup] like death".[11]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_syrup
Before believing this, I recommend checking out the link below. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) looked at the studies mentioned and reach a much different conclusion. They say it is safe.
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1211902454309.htm
Like aspartame, sucralose is also gathering a reputation as a carcinogen. Some refer to it as DDT-Lite, because, as a chlorocarbon, it is in the same family as DDT and PCBs. Here is a link to more info:
http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/
Some may dismiss the sucralose adverse reaction data as mere correlation and anecdotal. Others will review this data and take positive action now, rather than waiting another 10 years for the FDA to ban it in favor of the next Frankensweetener.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
And they need to ban high fructose corn syrup as well.
I had a friend who was a breast cancer survivor. It recurred. I told her some of what I had learned about the relationship between insulin, glucose, and cancer and she blew me off and went on a macrobiotic diet. She's dead now.
We get more cancer from the natural stuff we eat than the artificial. I am no defender of frankenfoods that truly are dangerous, but I'm afraid the jury's still out on sucralose. We haven't established the long-term safety of vegetarian diets either (OK, we have, but nobody much will listen to the actual evidence), yet health experts routinely recommend them for health reasons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitotoxicity
"War on" is always dubious and suggests the public is about to be taken for a ride.
We need to remove the carcinogens from our food, workplaces, and streets.
I probably drank my share of diet soda but will never touch the stuff again. Please people, don't let your children drink it.
Oh and note that Donald Rumsfeld as mentioned in this post as well as in the film, was prominently involved in finagling this stuff past the FDA.