Aspartame. Poison or Hoax?

 

Ok, my first post was going to introduce William Cooper as he is pretty much the inspiration for this blog and my journey into the unknown. However, I'm going to wait until I get a chance to read his book before I jump into it as I feel that's only fair. Instead, something else that's been on my mind.

This is an issue that I discovered recently, which I suspect has been largely ignored for a long time. Aspartame is an artificial sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar and was the subject of a huge health scare before and after it's approval in 1981. It's present in a huge amount of products on sale today, so I figured it was worth researching. 

 A Google search of Aspartame quickly flags up a number of quite scary websites. The biggest of these is Dr. Mercola's page, http://aspartame.mercola.com. Mercola claims that Aspartame is responsible for headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain. A pretty extraordinarily claim considering how commonly Aspartame is found and consumed.

 If it's so harmful, then why was it approved for consumption? Before it was approved it was subject to a 7 year period of "on hold" after initial objection to the chemical, including concerns that it caused brain cancer in test rats. During this 7 year period a large number of studies confirmed the safety of Aspartame, and it was approved for consumption in dry foods. It was later approved for use in beverages and much later in 1996 all restrictions were lifted. In most of Europe Aspartame was approved in 1980 and restrictions lifted in 1993. The FDA quote Aspartame as "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved" and its safety as "clear cut".

 Something doesn't add up here. Either Mercola and others have some hidden agenda and this scare is one big hoax (as is generally accepted), or there was some serious corruption involved with the studies claiming it safe. The first thing that comes to mind is to find out who held the patent. Follow the money. Turns out there is two patents for two different manufacturing processes. A process using cloned microorganisms and a later method of chemical synthesis. NutraSweet was the company that held the patent until 1992 and is still operating today. Their company history can be found here: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/NutraSweet-Company-Company-History.html

 A few things to note. Pepsi and Coke-Cola accounted for 80% of Nutrasweet profits in the late 80's with total sales reaching $933 million. There was clearly a lot at stake should Aspartame have been banned. Nutrasweet was working on a sweetener 10 times sweeter than Aspartame (Sweetener 2000). Sweetener 2000 (or Neotame) is in production today and has little to no publicly available studies attaining to it's safety. But that's another article for another time because I fear Aspartame is more widely used and I don't want to distract from the issue.

 Now a little on Mercola and the controversy. There's a lot online about Mercola being a snake-oil salesmen, and I wouldn't take his word as law. My instinct tells me that he has jumped on the Aspartame band-wagon and exaggerated it's side-effects in order to sell cures. However, Mercola is not the only person concerned with the dangers of Aspartame and although his motives are questionable, I wouldn't write off concerns just yet. Here's something you might find interesting supposedly from a senator of New Mexico. http://www.rense.com/general74/comn.htm. It seems that too much profit and too many jobs were at stake to realistically consider an Aspartame ban, and that Coca-cola U-turned on their stance against Aspartame the moment they realised it's potential for profit. Heres a link to a later study that found cancerous effects with Aspartame. http://www.laleva.org/eng/2007/04/aspartame_fda_spins_news_on_second_cancer_study.html

 It seems the FDA were unwilling to accept this, restating their earlier findings that Aspartame was harmless to the press when challenged with the study.

 The debate still rages today, with multiple groups lobbying against Aspartame and the FDA refusing to    conduct further research. I'm not entirely convinced either way, but I'll be cutting Aspartame out of my diet until someone can conclusively prove that it is harmless. At any rate, Aspartame is not essential in foods and I would encourage you all to watch what you eat. Remember, without our health we have nothing. Thanks for staying with me, and if you found this interesting please comment!