But why? That is well covered:
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.
True, Nutrasweet conspiracy theories have grown up with the Internet. And we'll grant that there's no shortage of bad science over at HuffPo. But Dr. Epstein sounds like the real deal.
At any rate, as someone who has long found that Nutrasweet gives me headaches, I'm a believer. So down with Diet Coke! (Tab is better anyway.)
An Overdue Ban on a Dangerous Sweetener [Huffington Post]
(Thanks, Shaula Evans!)
[Photo: niallkennedy]
Probably not as you seem to think you know it all! I can tell you that I do not need a stinking study to know what aspartame can do to people.. I drank the toxic crap for three years, thinking like you, it was safe... and I just recently got diagnosed with ALS! I do not believe in coincidences and the connection between my ALS and aspartame consumption is clear to me! But you go ahead and drink your diet soda or chew your sugar free gum... and you can read all those asinine studies about how safe aspartame is from YOUR own wheelchair!
]]>That is such a LAME excuse for the safety of aspartame... you are an idiot for even suggesting that! Either you are a victim of the propaganda pumped out by the makers of aspartame.. or you are just ignorant! The difference between the methanol in a banana is it is naturally occuring and is therefore bound to pectin. The human gut does NOT have the enzyme to break the methanol off from the pectin.. so bananas are safe and you get no methanol toxicity. Aspartame on the other hand has free form methanol and is very toxic! Not to mention the aspartic acid that is a excitotoxin that kills brain cells!
Look I have ruined my health because I foolishly believed that the FDA was doing it's job and protecting us from poison like aspartame. I have been diagnosed with ALS from drinking diet soda!!! So please DO NOT tell me about how harmless and tested aspartame is!!
]]>Any time you talk about science and health and say, "I don't need to know any more..." you've failed.
Seriously, get a different job. You are responsible for people's lives, and you can't bother to find out the real story behind health issues, or have even a basic understanding of chemistry and human physiology.
How the hell did you become a medical assistant?
]]>It's my understanding that sugar turns into death juice at 70 degrees, and since I understand chemistry so well, you figure out the rest.
/rant
]]>I am a victim of his crime against humanity.. after drinking aspartame diet soda for years... I have recently been diagnosed with ALS!!! I am NOT a believer in coincidences! The connection between my living hell now and my aspartame consumption is CLEAR!
Please, everyone who reads this, contact the FDA and express your support for a full ban on aspartame! For your sake, your kids sake and for GOD's SAKE!!
]]>It's my understanding that aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde at 86 degrees. Our bodies are (usually) 98.6 degrees. You figure out the rest.
As a medical assistant, I don't need to know any more than the above to know not to use aspartame for any reason.
]]>Your link didn't work for me...is this what you were trying to post?
]]>Shame on Huffington Post, and mostly shame on the Consumerist for failing to think critically about the claims presented and the person presenting them. Samuel Epstein is widely discredited, and a simple internet search would tell you this. He is just another conspiracy theorist, and his MD doesn't make him an authority by any means. I expect better from the Consumerist.
]]>If by 'nobody' you mean yourself then this would be a valid point.
Most of the mice studies cited are have results that were not re-producable by other scientists, or were given doses that were several orders of magnitude beyond even the very conservative daily intake levels. You'd have to eat an entire barrel full of nutrasweet, all at once, to get even close to the levels tested in rats.
Studies concerning headaches/cognition/memory loss and headaches have been done and shown to be mostly confirmation bias by patients.
]]>When I was a kid, about 12 or so, I somehow got a free diet Country Time lemonade. I took it and was excited. When I finished the drink I decided to read the can. Someplace on the can it stated how aspartame can cause cancer in lab animals. Since that day I have never touched a food item with artificial sweetner.
Like the other poster, Ill take a cavity over cancer any day.
]]>That is why.
]]>Acesulfame-K (in Coke Zero) just gives me a violent headache.
Aspartame does neither. I probably drink one Diet Coke every month, but I love it. I'll have to stop drinking commercially produced soda altogether if they take my Diet Coke away.
]]>We make our own soda at home. Tap water. No disposable bottles, no wasted fuel shipping plastic bottles around the country. We drink plain seltzer or mix it with juice, a drop of flavor extract or rose water, cane sugar syrups, tea, homemade mixes w/ agave nectar, etc.
I'm NOT a fan of Sodastream's soda mixes. Super chemical flavors. But for DIY, it's great.
]]>Agreed. And I LIKE aspartame, thank you very much!
]]>Cigarettes cause cancer, alcohol causes cirrhosis and cancer.
Should we ban those?
]]>Guess what. Aspartame doesn't bother me. It tastes good. I like it more then Splenda. And there's so real evidence that aspartame is all that dangerous, except in lab rats. Which spontaneously develop cancer constantly anyway.
]]>Nobody looked at the monkey study that showed a 4-fold increase in brain tumors.
Nobody cared about the mouse study that showed severe damage to the brain and spinal tissue.
Nobody worried about the anecdotal evidence collected over the past 25 years that connected aspartame with vision problems, cognition, memory loss and headaches.
Our government just pushed the product through to market. Check out the documentary "Sweet Misery" to learn more about the process of approving aspartame.
]]>Or for those of us in Texas, we can get Dublin Dr. Pepper.
]]>Your body knows how to process HFCS perfectly well. Corn syrup is composed of glucose, which is pretty much the basic form of carbohydrate energy in human metabolism. In high-fructose corn syrup, a significant portion of the glucose has been converted to fructose, another perfectly normal sugar that you eat in any number of sources as it is the most common sugar found in the fruits you eat. Now, where the supposed unhealthiness of HFCS may come from, is that when you metabolize fructose, you bypass one of the main regulatory steps in carbohydrate metabolism which would result in consuming more sugar than would otherwise be needed to sate you (look up "glycolysis" on wikipedia or in a biochemistry textbook for more details).
]]>why CAN'T we
]]>Saccharine sucks, why can we use cyclamates like the Canadians.
]]>Searle is already gearing up for the move to stevia, since it can now be marketed as a sweetener. But for years they and the corn sweetener marketers, were campaigning against it being a sweetener so it was relagated to a dietary supplement when it's naturally sweet properties were know by few.
Try buying the concentrated stevia liquid at Whole Foods. They have it in natural and in flavors and it lasts forever. Try the orange flavored in iced tea....great stuff!
]]>The healthiest alternatives for those who can't give up soda are the "new" throwback sodas that use cane sugar or all those really expensive "natural" sodas.
]]>As for that other link, it's not a study. It's one big vague, logical fallacy. It "begs the question" at every turn.
Try again...
]]>The OPs language is clearly biased. Using phrases like, "that is well covered" when referring to a discredited study, or, "Dr. Epstein looks like the real deal", is dishonest at worst, and ignorant at best. Consumerist is not a science blog, but they should not be spreading misinformation.
Also: "as someone who has long found that Nutrasweet gives me headaches, I'm a believer." That is a great example of a non-sequitur. It gives you headaches, so it must also give you cancer. LOGICAL FALLACY.
]]>2) Pharma companies are always moving on to market the latest new thing so they can charge more for it. Nutrasweet is OLD OLD OLD.
3) Many manufacturers have taken note of the internet memes and dumped Nutrasweet in favor of Splenda and... amazingly, SUGAR.
Ergo: if the FDA doesn't ban aspartame, I'm certain that it will go off the market soon anyway. Searle doesn't care about an ancient product when they could be pushing something new and under patent.
]]>Quit banning things and just throw a warning label on it like Sweet N Low has and let the consumer make the decision.
The government is not here to protect us from our own decisions. Cigarettes are bad and they have warnings and they still sell them. Why? The govt cant afford to have those sin taxes go away.
Get out of my house and let me buy hat I want.....
]]>[url][www.cracked.com]]
]]>This is more scientific but it shows the link between phenylalanine and seizures in rats.
[www3.interscience.wiley.com]
Also, I will point out that not everything is safe. Just because its "natural" and sold in a health food or organic store, doesn't mean it won't have bad interactions with your body. Everybody reacts differently to different substances, natural or otherwise. Most good naturopaths will tell you that you should always, always watch what you're putting into your body, speak to a doctor, and do research before you start taking herbs willy-nilly.
]]>But my question is, since it was Donald Rumsfeld as the head of Monsanto that prevented stevia from being sold as a sweetener so that Aspartame would have a clear field to market it's poison once Sacharine started carrying a warning label, can they finally lift the ban on marketing stevia as a sweetener?
]]>Debunked by whom though? The same outfit "Clinical Research Center" quoted in the MIT article, from 10 years ago, released a study during the FDA approval process called "Aspartame Side Effects: Norway Study Connects Aspartame with Brain Destruction". Different researcher though.
Point is, you can get someone to support your/any position with research if you pay them enough and word the findings the right way.
According to Sourcewatch, the American Council on Science and Health accepts funding from - among others - Coca Cola, Pepsi Co, Kellogg, General Mills, the American Beverage Association, and last but not least Monsanto, which owns the Nutrasweet brand. I'm sure that funding didn't skew their results on aspartame at all.
]]>Its all about amount. Aspartame has been proven to metabolize into formaldehyde in the body. The enlightening part though, is that you'd have to drink dozens of cans of diet soda to obtain the same amount of formaldehyde in your system as if you consumed one average orange.
]]>Of course, in 20 years we'll find out Splenda is bad for us too.
]]>I might need to switch to cyclamates. Yeah, I'd use saccharin if my stupid country hadn't banned it.
]]>"......and at doses less than usual human dietary levels,"
I LOVE this trick wording. It might be less than human dietary levels but, what's the corresponding dietary level for rats? If you're giving an animal that weighs in grams a dose similar but less than the normal dietary level for a human that weighs in KILOgrams is it really a good test?
Figures do not lie but liers figure.
]]>Thanks for the info
]]>@McLaren and Torchinsky
You do know that Tab contains aspartame, don't you?
From Wegmans.com :
Ingredients:
Carbonated Water, Caramel Color, Natural Flavors, Phosphoric Acid, Calcium Saccharin, Potassium Benzoate (to Protect Taste), Caffeine, Aspartame.
@ChuckECheese: You're joking, right? I can't quite tell.
]]>However, while artificial sweeteners *are* sweeter than normal sugar, that just means that they use a lot less to get the same equivalent taste.
]]>I would venture quite a bit.
Where are all these cancers? One would think there'd be a giant epidemic of dying diet soda drinkers, but there isn't.
I'm sure Nutrasweet isn't "good" for you, but I'd be absolutely shocked if it's dangerous. We've had decades to find this out by now.
]]>@LastError: Why will it be a happy day? Just because you personally seem to react to it? I mean, aspirin gives me horrible stomach cramps, so perhaps we should ban that too. Anyway, any link with cancer is dubious at best; people have been trying to prove it for decades and I've yet to see a source any more reliable than a chain email from the '90s that says it causes cancer.
]]>Get off the stuff. You'll feel a lot better.
]]>@Tom_Servo: Yep, I'm all for banning things that I personally don't like the taste of. When can we get started on grapefruit?
]]>@FooSchnickens:
I've been drinking diet soda for so long I can't even stand the taste of regular soda. It's too dang sweet.
I'm not far from the southern border, so I've got plenty of stores around me that sell Mexican Coke. I just like Coke Zero better. But thanks for the offer.
]]>The wording of his article is more that HE expects the new FDA commissioner to ban aspartame, not that anyone else does.
]]>I guess journalism standards don't apply to the Consumerist.
]]>Also, there is plenty of evidence that Aspartame doesn't cause cancer either.
]]>Thankfully, I'm not among them (see comment below).
]]>Try it, but hurry: "...it is anticipated [by whom?] that Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the newly appointed FDA Commissioner and inspiring public health advocate, will promptly ban the continued use of aspartame."
]]>When I was 20 (about two years after I started drinking diet pop), I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis - a really painful bladder disease usually only contracted by women. The inner lining of the bladder is disrupted, letting the uric acid burn it into a little tiny ball of inflexible scar tissue.
From a quick Google just now, obviously this is now accepted wisdom for IC. Here's a sample:
"he half million people with IC may also want to avoid aspartame. Notorious for exacerbating IC bladder symptoms (and also anecdotally associated with migraines in some people), aspartame has long been on the IC patients' foods-to-avoid list. It is sold under the brand names NutraSweet and Equal, and is also found in many food products."
I took various meds for a couple years, up to and including being catheterized once a month so the urologist could fill up my bladder with medication til it bleed. None of it helped much. My bladder could only hold about 100ml by then, and even that hurt. Hurt when it was empty, too :P
Then I gave up aspartame sweetened pop, as it just tasted too nasty and I didn't feel like putting up with that anymore. At that point I'd also gone off medical treatment, as after two years it seemed a waste of time to keep going.
Six months after giving up aspartame, I no longer had pain and seemed to be able to hold more. I went to visit the urologist, and he told me yah, he'd seen that before (why hadn't he told me then, dammit??!). My bladder size was up to 150ml too. He said to stretch it back out again by holding my water as long as possible.
I've been using stevia to sweeten my own drinks now for 10yrs, and I have no more bladder disease and a capacity of 700ml.
That's been enough to convince me that even if aspartame didn't cause cancer, it definitely had other effects and I was much much better off without it. I've been eating naturally as much as possible since then, and a lot of my other issues have evaporate as well. Lots of veggies, some unrefined grain products, and a little meat. Goes a looooong way!
]]>In fact, they can help prevent it!
]]>His reasoning is that since aspartame and the other artificial sweeteners are actually sweeter than sugar, drinking that junk all the time will make a diabetic crave sweet things more often, hence the risk that you might be eating more sugar than you realize. He wanted my mother to develop a sort of sensitivity to hidden sugars in foods.
It's the same with salt.
My family went on a low-salt diet when I was a kid and my dad found out he had high blood pressure. All the food tasted bland and boring at first, but now things made with too much salt taste way too strong to me. My mother says its the same thing with the sugar. Now that she's cut it out and doesn't use the fake stuff, she doesn't need the sweet because it tastes too strong.
]]>I personally use Splenda and Xylatol. Both are quite good.
]]>In your health food store, they probably even sell phenylalanine as a supplement. Even though taking extra won't really do anything. But hey, that hasn't stopped the supplement industry from packaging up every other thing under the sun.
]]>Haven't tried the new stevia (Truvia, etc.) sweeteners yet. I've heard not everyone likes those, either.
I guess ya can't please everyone. :)
]]>MIT News: [web.mit.edu]
American Council on Science and Health (ACSH): [www.acsh.org]
The previous FDA position: [vm.cfsan.fda.gov]
More sources at snopes: [www.snopes.com]
]]>I know that's just a personal thing -- my husband can't stand aspartame, which I like the taste of -- but if we were stuck with splenda for low-cal stuff, I'd have to avoid them all completely. Blergh.
]]>@Coles_Law: Truvia is awesome.
]]>@NeverLetMeDown: Aha-thanks for the links. Should be interesting to see any more studies come to light.
]]>@bohemian: To be fair they plug a chlorine ion into the sugar molecule (Thanks Alton Brown!)-"chlorine derivative" sounds like a pool byproduct.
It gives me a headache too though.
]]>How exactly? Sugar is a natural product that is grown in dirt rather than a petrie dish...so...how is that exactly supposed to kill you?
Wait, so natural products that are grown in dirt can't kill you? Really?
]]>@Marshfield: Splenda and Truvia come to mind-they'll figure something out.
]]>Except cancer.
That causes death.
]]>@NeverLetMeDown: But they have also been wrong before no doubt. Science isn't science if it is concrete. Science changes and those that don't change with it are wasting our time.
Then again...I've had cancer...and no, I don't use Equal (aspartame) unless there is no other option. The biggest problem with sweeteners in general is people use just too dang much of them.
]]>Here are a few bits knocking down this poorly conducted study from the Italian Ramazzini Foundation (the 2006 one referenced in the article):
I'm disappointed, Consumerist. You're supposed to be protecting consumers, not parroting these fear-mongering rants.
]]>@Marshfield: Splenda works great and doesn't causes headaches...so far that is...
Then of course, there is always sugar in moderation...
]]>@NeverLetMeDown: How exactly? Sugar is a natural product that is grown in dirt rather than a petrie dish...so...how is that exactly supposed to kill you? I would be willing to bet that a lot of the diabetes in the US is caused by corn syrup, which the body doesn't really know how to process. Want to die less quickly, use sugar instead of "artificial sweeteners" or corn syrup. Sugar based coke tastes hellishly better anyway!
]]>@bohemian: But why leave it up to individuals to take care of their own health and well being when we can just have the government ban it for everyone?
]]>Oh, here we go again! See an article in Reason from Oct. 1993:
"In 1970 the Food and Drug Administration banned the artificial sweetener cyclamate. For more than a decade, until the arrival of aspartame (Nutra-Sweet), dieters with sweet tooths had to put up with the wrenching aftertaste of saccharin.
The FDA's cyclamate decision was based on a 1969 study in which rats who were fed high doses of the sweetener developed cancer. The World Health Organization, the U.N. Joint Committee on Food Additives, and the National Academy of Sciences have since rejected that study as a fluke because its results could not be reproduced. Yet cyclamate remains illegal."
]]>But the sugar will kill you faster.
]]>Epstein is far far far from the mainstream in cancer research, and NIH, the ACS, and the European Food Safety Authority do not agree with his conclusions regarding the safety of aspartame:
The better option is probably to just consume less sugar.
]]>@tbax929:
Dangit; it does. Of course.
@FooSchnickens:
I don't know if it contains Aspartane, but I have a major Coke Zero addiction. I think you inform consumers of the risk and then let them make the choice.
It gave me a terrible headache, helped in no small part by the idea that one could eat a lot of it and not worry about sugar so much. Or so we thought.
It will be a happy day when this stuff is banned. Now if they'd only tackle HFCS next.
]]>I gave up Diet Dr. Pepper due to its use of Aspartame.
Dagnabbit.
]]>