The Killer Sweetness: A Brave New World

The Killer Sweetness

Just like “Big Brother” from A Brave New World, the government is allowing manufactures to pump people full of a dastardly artificial sweetener. What is this killer sweetness, and why is it still allowed to be distributed throughout the United States? The devilish sweetener is hidden in everyday foods that most people would not even think to be worried about. The culprit can be found in foods like diet soft drinks, milk, sugar-free candies, and even sneaked its way into children’s vitamins. This toxic sweetener has been linked to multiple symptoms. The biggest risk caused from continuous usage is death but due to the high grossing income that big businesses make from the synthetic death sugar, it is allowed to still be

manufactured in the food we eat.
It all started in 1965, when a chemist for the G.D. Searle Company, James Schlatter stumbled across an artificial sweetener while he was trying to create a drug to prevent ulcers. He was practicing unsafe laboratory procedures when he licked his finger while turning a page and found the chemicals on his hand tasted sweet (Ajinomoto). After that his new discovery would be called Aspartame (Mercola.com). Aspartame is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar, has zero carbohydrates and no calories; it has two amino acids, aspartic and phenylalanine and an alcohol known as methanol make up the compound (Michael).
To get their new product on the market G.D. Searle would try to push the approval to the Food and Drug Administration (Mercola.com). The discrepancies from various reports in the research of the sweetener, would shut down the proposal (Mercola.com). A related video on Mercola.com says that “The research showed the number of side effects including a high risk of brain tumors. It also revealed fraud and mutilation of data done on Aspartame studies.” A few years later in 1981 with a new United States president in office, G.D. Searle again asked permission from the FDA to sell their product (Mercola.com). This time G.D. Searle’s new CEO, Donald Rumsfeld, helped select the new FDA commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hall Hayes Jr. Hayes Jr. directed a council of five people to grant approval; three said no and two said yes (Mercola.com). Not pleased with the result Hayes Jr. appointed another person to the council and they said yes (Mercola.com). With a draw they needed a tie-breaker, so Hayes Jr. stepped in and voted yes. With the approval aspartame was soon rushed to the market without any regards from the past test failures (Mercola.com). This shows the efforts of a big company ability to manipulate the system and establishes the how aspartame was introduced to the public. This is a typical and common practice, and shows the motives of power hungry politicians controlled by the deep pockets of big corporations. As a result it leads to the removal of safeguards for the public.
As for today, there are more and more test are being performed throughout multiple countries not just the United States.

The test are showing astonishing results that the makers of aspartame do not want to get out to the masses. A test was conducted by a well-established Italian cancer institute, Ramazzini Foundation (CSPI). It was comprised of a long term study linking the effects of aspartame on lab rats. The rats develop an increase rate in lymphomas, leukemia, and breast cancers (CSPI). The Center for Science in the Public Interest has given this new study to the FDA. After review of the information, should the FDA discover the claim to have truth to it, according to the United States’ laws the FDA has to revoke aspartame’s approval on the market (CSPI). This in turns means a lot of money will be lost both from the corporation and the politicians. So will the study just get over looked again like in the past?

The executive director from CSPI informs people “Because aspartame is so widely consumed, it is urgent that the FDA evaluate whether aspartame still poses a ‘reasonable certainty of no harm,’ the standard used for gauging the safety of food additives,” He also gives helpful advice by saying “Consumers, particularly parents, shouldn’t wait for the FDA to act. People shouldn’t panic, but they should stop buying beverages and foods containing aspartame.”

There are other problems correlated with aspartame other than the included increase rate of cancers, patients also suffer from other side effects of aspartame. This is a list of several of

them:

• Severe Headaches
• Panic Attacks
• Isolated Blindness
• Epileptic Seizures
• Dizziness
• Memory Impairment
• Weight Gain
• Depression

Most of these are curable but can lead permanent damage (Dr. Hull). Aspartame has also been linked to insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and even high blood pressure (PLOS One). The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition says “phenylalanine may cross the blood-brain barrier and cause severe changes in the production of very important neurotransmitters. Methanol breaks down into formate [formaldehyde], which in turn is very cytotoxic and can even cause blindness.” Someone suffering from one or more of these symptoms simple wean themselves off aspartame and eventually eradicate it from their diet completely.
The makers, of course have their objections to the claims against their product. Big corporations force feed people false information to make them think it’s just a conspiracy cooked up. They pay for their own doctors, scientist and various experts to even say that their product is healthy. Many of the experts say in order for it to have a dangerous effect on a 165 pound man, he would have to consume nearly the equivalent of nineteen cans of diet soft drinks a day. (American Cancer Society). Which seems like a lot but when that same person eats yogurt sweetened by aspartame, puts table packets in their coffee, chews gum or just a simple enjoys sugar-free candy the milligrams add up quickly. The European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also mentions that the supporters of aspartame have the view of “if no adverse side effects are visible after a single large administered dose of aspartame, it is believed that aspartame has no effect.” The supporters look towards the short term studies for the results they want and have no interest in the long term effects.
Another flaw in these case studies are, they are done with the subjects being adults in the later years of their life; they have not tested the effects on a toddler or a child (CSPI). Children have different reactions to things they consume; that is why the makers of children’s medicine make medicine that differs from medicine given to adults.
These companies even asked for permission to exclude aspartame from the required ingredients list, but they still want to keep it in the food (Mercola.com). Now if there is nothing to worry about with aspartame why would they go through all the trouble to have it removed from the ingredients list?
Most of the makers test are outdated and lack the modern technology used today. James Huff, the Associate Director of Chemical Carcinogenesis at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has made contact with the FDA to have them review and perform new test on the matter. David Rall, the former director of NIEHS and it National Toxicology Program inquires that “Any compound that is that widely used needs to be retested with modern methods every once in a while.” The new individual party studies have even made some health organizations change their status of aspartame from mildly harmless to dangerous (CSPI).
There are many questions yet to be answered and many conflicting results behind the truth of aspartame. It is up to the people who consume the product to do further research and find what benefits them. People should not go into a complete frenzy over aspartame, instead they should be able to think freely for themselves. They should know that through continuous use of this killer sweetness, will eventually lead to more dangerous consequences.