Aspartame
Renamed and Remarketed as a Natural Sweetener
(Health
Secrets) In response to growing awareness about the dangers of artificial
sweeteners, what does the manufacturer of one of the world’s most notable
artificial sweeteners do? It renames it and begins marketing it as natural,
of course. This is precisely the strategy of Ajinomoto, maker of aspartame,
which hopes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public with its rebranded
version of aspartame, called AminoSweet.
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 tide has been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. The latest aspartame marketing scheme is a desperate effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary.
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.
Despite the myriad of evidence gained over the years showing that aspartame is a dangerous toxin, it has remained on the global market with the exception of a few countries that have banned it. In fact, it continued to gain approval for use in new types of food despite evidence showing that it causes neurological brain damage, cancerous tumors, and endocrine disruption, among other things.
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. 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.
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.
For more information:
Ajinomoto brands aspartame ‘AminoSweet’ – FoodBev.com
Aspartame History Highlights – Janet Starr Hull
FDA’s approval of aspartame under scrutiny – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener – Huffington Post
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 tide has been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. The latest aspartame marketing scheme is a desperate effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary.
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.
Despite the myriad of evidence gained over the years showing that aspartame is a dangerous toxin, it has remained on the global market with the exception of a few countries that have banned it. In fact, it continued to gain approval for use in new types of food despite evidence showing that it causes neurological brain damage, cancerous tumors, and endocrine disruption, among other things.
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. 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.
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.
For more information:
Ajinomoto brands aspartame ‘AminoSweet’ – FoodBev.com
Aspartame History Highlights – Janet Starr Hull
FDA’s approval of aspartame under scrutiny – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener – Huffington Post
Water Fluoridation
Officially Classified as a Neurotoxin
March
10, 2014 by Barbara Minton
3
(Health Secrets) The fluoridation of water supplies began more than 60 years ago, and helped usher in the beginning of the “better living through chemistry” era in which we have found ourselves. Another benchmark of this era is the meteoric rise in neuro-developmental disabilities such as autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bi-polar disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments that have afflicted millions of children worldwide with increasing frequency. Now scientists have documented the connection between these two events, in a study published this month in the journal Lancet Neurology.
The study led its authors, Dr. Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Icahn School of Medicine, to classify fluoride as a developmental neurotoxin, meaning it is toxic to brain cells. As a result, cognitive development is impaired and intelligence quotient (IQ) is reduced.
They write, “A meta-analysis of 27 cross-sectional studies of children exposed to fluoride in drinking water, mainly from China, suggests an average IQ decrement of about seven points in children exposed to raised fluoride concentrations.” The majority of these studies showed levels of fluoride at concentrations which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently allows in the US, which is less than 4 milligrams per liter.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 276 million Americans are still consuming fluoridated drinking water. The CDC along with the American Dental Association has long been a strong advocate for water fluoridation.
Fluoride joins the rouges gallery of industrial chemicals injuring developing brains
The same research team conducted a systematic review in 2006, and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxins: lead, methyl mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since then, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxins: manganese, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, the polybrominated diphenyl ethers, and now fluoride. The scientists postulate that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered.
Harm from neurotoxins is often untreatable and the damage is permanent. The pharmaceutical drugs that have become so popular and profitable for treating chemically injured brains do nothing to heal. Instead they simply mask the symptoms temporarily but ultimately cause even greater dysfunction through their side effects, one of which is brain shrinkage.
Gandjean and Landrigan note their concern that children worldwide are “being exposed to unrecognized toxic chemicals that are silently eroding intelligence, disrupting behaviors, truncating future achievement, and damaging societies.” According to them, it is crucial to control the use of all harmful chemicals to protect children’s brain development.
To control the pandemic of developmental neurotoxicity, they are proposing a global prevention strategy that would include mandatory testing of chemicals and the formation of a clearinghouse to evaluate them for potential neurotoxicity, alone and in combination. “Fluoride seems to fit in with lead, mercury, and other poisons that cause chemical brain drain,” Grandjean states. “The effect of each toxicant may seem small, but the combined damage on a population scale can be serious, especially because the brain power of the next generation is crucial to all of us.”
Commenting on the classification of fluoride as a dangerous neurotoxin, Fluoride Action Network Executive Director Paul Connett, PhD, said “adding more fluoride to American’s already excessive intake no longer has any conceivable justification. We should follow the evidence and try to reduce fluoride intake, not increase it.”
Fluoride is not easily eliminated from the body. It accumulates in bones and teeth, and even in the pineal gland. As many as 41% of teens and adults who have grown up with water fluoridation have dental fluorosis, a mottling of their tooth enamel. Other conditions linked to long term intake of fluoridated water are DNA damage, cancer, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, endocrine disruption (particularly to the thyroid), inability to focus, accelerated aging, lowered immunity, sleep disorders, and muted psychic awareness and spiritual development.
For more information:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24556010
http://fluoridealert.org/news/fluoride-newly-identified-as-dangerous-to-brains/
3 comments:
Please folks do not be deceived ..........Aspartame is dangerous and can cause all kinds of ails.
For those of you who have to have sweetener use Stevia. It comes in packets or bulk. The bulk packages are usually found on the bottom shelf at the supermarkets. It is made from the stevia plant right here in America.
I use it in cooking.....I make a mean pound cake that calls for 4 cups of sugar - I now make it with 3 cups of stevia..........can't tell the difference.
Good try Ajinomoto..... This is not new, we know that manufacturers are always trying to hide harmful ingredients in their products from consumers. But consumers are more concerned and we need to help them identifying all these products. That is our mission …..
I will not use any artificial sweetener.... we agree with you, natural options like Stevia are better, we use Better Stevia.
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