Aspartame has been Renamed and is Now Being Marketed as a Natural Sweetener.
Artificial sweeteners especially aspartame has gotten a bad wrap over the years, and rightfully so due to studies showing that it causes cancer as well as neurological brain damage and endocrine disruption, among other things. Aspartame toxicity causes symptoms that are identical to Multiple Sclerosis. Sadly these patients are not informed to eliminate the aspartame from their diets and they continue with neurological damage and dysfunction. Tragically, that need not be because in many cases when aspartame is eliminated the symptom can be reversed.
The public concern that cannot be addressed by the government is the cumulative effect causing diseases. What I mean by cumulative effect is this: The FDA testing of one packet in your coffee daily won't cause cancer in a few weeks, BUT, when you eat many 'diet foods and drinks' containing it you exceed the FDA testing standard and thus intake higher levels AND THAT is how aspartame intake is increased to the higher levels causing many health problems.
Unfortunately Ajinomoto the company that makes Aspartame has changed the name to AminoSweet. It has the same toxic ingredients but a nice new sounding name - so BE CAREFUL when reading product labels. Some people are allergic to Aspartame, and yet there's no FDA requirement to make notation on their labels to that fact, unlike the disclosure now required for 'potential exposure to peanut products'. Sadly, instead of being a company based in integrity they are solely profit driven at the health expense of the consumer.
Despite the evidence gained over the years showing that aspartame is a dangerous toxin, it has remained on the global market. Here in the USA this is due to the inability of the US Government to regulate how many different 'diet processed foods and drinks' we consume daily - the consumer has FREE CHOICE. Aspartame continues to gain approval for use in new types of food despite independent research that has been submitted to the Federal Government.
Most consumers are oblivious to the fact that Aspartame was invented as a drug but upon discovery of its' sweet taste was magically transformed from a drug to a food additive.Over 25 years ago, aspartame was first introduced into the European food supply. Today, it is an everyday component of most diet beverages, sugar-free desserts, and chewing gums in countries worldwide. But the tides have been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. It is hard to believe, yet the latest aspartame marketing scheme is an effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary. This is big business - more that $200 million in the US market. I have nothing against successful business. I am against intentionally leaving it to the consumer to understand chemistry and be able to do their own research to figure out if a product can be harmful to their health. That is a job we bestowed upon the government to care for the 'Common Good'.
Aspartame was an accidental discovery by James Schlatter, a chemist who had been trying to produce an anti-ulcer pharmaceutical drug for G.D. Searle & Company back in 1965. Upon mixing aspartic acid and phenylalanine, two naturally-occurring amino acids, he discovered that the new compound had a sweet taste. The company merely changed its FDA approval application from drug to food additive and, voila, aspartame was born.
G.D. Searle & Company first patented aspartame in 1970. An internal memo released in the same year urged company executives to work on getting the FDA into the "habit of saying yes" and of encouraging a "subconscious spirit of participation" in getting the chemical approved.
G.D. Searle & Company submitted its first petition to the FDA in 1973 and fought for years to gain FDA approval, submitting its own safety studies that many believed were inadequate and deceptive. Despite numerous objections, including one from its own scientists, the company was able to convince the FDA to approve aspartame for commercial use in a few products in 1974, igniting a blaze of controversy. In 1976, then FDA Commissioner Alexander Schmidt wrote a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy expressing concern over the "questionable integrity of the basic safety data submitted for aspartame safety". FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill believed that a grand jury should investigate G.D. Searle & Company for lying about the safety of aspartame in its reports and for concealing evidence proving the chemical is unsafe for consumption.
The details of aspartame's history are lengthy, but the point remains that the carcinogen was illegitimately approved as a food additive through heavy-handed prodding by a powerful corporation with its own interests in mind and leaving it to the consumer to research the cumulative effect on their own - hence leave it to the buyer to "be aware" and "beware".
Practically all drugs and food additives are approved by the FDA not because science shows they are safe but because companies essentially lobby the FDA with monetary payoffs and complete the agency's multi-million dollar approval process. That may sound unthinkable but the fact is that congress changed the laws 30 years ago to allow congressional members to own stock in privately held companies. That my dear set-up for conflict of interest and thus far, the lobbyist are having greater influence on government that the voters. Not were reassuring for the 'Common Good".
Changing aspartame's name to something that is "appealing and memorable", in Ajinomoto's own words, may hoodwink some but hopefully most will reject this clever marketing tactic as nothing more than a desperate attempt to preserve the company's multi-billion dollar cash cow. Do not be deceived.
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