Action at last over additive Aspartame as fears grow of health risk in food and drink.

 

The Government has ordered a top-level investigation into the safety of Britain's best-selling sweetener amid fears that the low calorie chemical is a health risk.

 

Aspartame, used in thousands of diet food and drinks has been linked to more than 90 adverse reactions including brain tumors and blindness.

 

The Sunday Express has seen a leaked letter which reveals the Government's food watchdog - the Food Standards Agency - has sent more than 500 research papers on the chemical to the Brussels-based Scientific Committee on Food.

 

If it finds it is a health risk, the sweetener widely used in fizzy drinks, squashes, yogurts, spring water, chewing gum and pharmaceutical products, and often sold under the names NutraSweet and Canderel, could be banned. Last night, Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker, who is campaigning for NutraSweet to be taken off the shelves added: "This is a very positive step.

 

Doubts have been raised about this product and they need to be cleared."

 

Last September, the Sunday Express led calls for an inquiry after our investigations discovered large numbers of people were claiming their health had been damaged by the sweetener.

Action at last over additive Aspartame as fears grow of health risk in food and drink.

 

The Government has ordered a top-level investigation into the safety of Britain's best-selling sweetener amid fears that the low calorie chemical is a health risk.

 

Aspartame, used in thousands of diet food and drinks has been linked to more than 90 adverse reactions including brain tumours and blindness.

Doubts have been raised about this product and they need to be cleared.

 

Last September, the Sunday Express led calls for an inquiry after our investigations discovered large numbers of people were claiming their health had been damaged by the sweetener.

The leaked letter from food scientist Dr Sandy Lawrie expresses concern that Aspartame has not been reviewed by the Scientific Committee on Food for 13 years.

 

It states: "We have discovered more than 500 papers on Aspartame published between 1988 and 2000. There is clearly sufficient new data on Aspartame to justify a review."

 

Professor Ralph Walton of Northwestern Ohio Universities said: "I dispute the assertion that there are no health risks.

 

"I believe Aspartame increases risk of cancer. Virtually all the studies attesting to its safety have been funded by the industry." One independent study on animals shows how digestion breaks Aspartame down into formaldehyde, which accumulates in the animals' cells, damaging DNA and poisoning the liver, kidneys, eye and brain.

The herb stevia is natural, sweeter than sugar -- and has no calories.

A perennial shrub of the aster family, Stevia contains natural compounds-specifically, stevioside and rebaudioside A-that are estimated to be 150 to 400 times sweeter than sugar. Advocates claim that the herb also offers a host of health benefits, and is even a tonic for the skin.

Stevia sweetens without calories. While it tastes sweeter than honey, it's about as fattening as water.

Used for centuries in parts of South America, Stevia has been discovered in recent years by much of the calorie-conscious modern world. It is now widely-and legally-consumed by millions of people, from the plant's native Paraguay and Brazil to South Korea, Israel, and the People's Republic of China. But no country has done more to demonstrate Stevia's dietary and economic potential than Japan, where the herb and its extracts have been used since the 1970s.

. The Japanese, having subjected Stevia extract to extensive safety testing and found it without health risk, now incorporate it in numerous food products, including candies, ice cream, pickles, and soft drinks (including some reportedly manufactured by Coca-Cola)-products that might otherwise have been sweetened with refined sugar or chemical substitutes. In 1988, in fact, refined Stevia extract commanded a 41 percent share of Japan's multimillion-dollar market for high-intensity sweeteners

A number of studies have been conducted using Stevia in a variety of therapeutic applications. Several preliminary studies in Paraguay and Brazil have examined the herb's hypoglycemic action Researchers found that hypoglycemic diabetics showed approximately 35 per cent drop in normal blood sugar levels six to eight hours after consuming Stevia extract. Other studies have concluded with similar results. These studies, coupled with a substantial amount of empirical evidence, have led physicians in Paraguay and Brazil to prescribe Stevia in the treatment of diabetes.

Surprisingly, Stevia does not seem to have the same blood sugar-lowering effect on normal, non-diabetics. This adaptogenic attribute is just one of the safety features. Research also reveals that Stevia inhibits reproduction and development of bacteria and other infectious organisms. Lanb studies show that in the presence of Stevia extracts, Streptococcus mutans, Psuedomonas aeruginos, Proteus vulgaris, and other detrimental microbes are unable to thrive. Stevia extract has even demonstrated an ability to inhibit the development of tooth decay. Today in China the herb is used as an appetite stimulant, digestive aid, and to assist weight management. Preliminary studies show that long term use of Stevia may have a cardiotonic effect.  

Artificial sweeteners:

http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm

  ASPARTAME ....Artificial sweetener: "Diet" foods, including soft drinks, drink mixes, gelatin desserts, low-calorie frozen desserts, packets Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), made up primarily of two amino acids, was thought to be the perfect artificial sweetener, but questions have arisen about the quality of the cancer tests, which should be repeated. Some persons have reported adverse behavioral effects (dizziness, hallucinations, headache) after drinking diet soda, but such reports have not been confirmed in controlled studies. If you think you’ve experienced adverse effects due to aspartame, avoid it. Also, people with the rare disease PKU (phenylketonuria) need to avoid it. There is little evidence that this or other artificial sweeteners have helped people lose weight, though those additives might help some strong-willed dieters. Indeed, since 1980, consumption of artificial sweeteners and rates of obesity have both soared.

ACESULFAME-K... Artificial sweetener: Baked goods, chewing gum, gelatin desserts, soft drinks. This artificial sweetener, manufactured by Hoechst, a giant German chemical company, is widely used around the world. It is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. In the United States, for several years acesulfame-K (the K is the chemical symbol for potassium) was permitted only in such foods as sugar-free baked goods, chewing gum, and gelatin desserts. In July 1998, the FDA allowed this chemical to be used in soft drinks, thereby greatly increasing consumer exposure. The safety tests of acesulfame-K were conducted in the 1970s and were of mediocre quality. Key rat tests were afflicted by disease in the animal colonies; a mouse study was several months too brief and did not expose animals during gestation. Two rat studies suggest that the additive might cause cancer. It was for those reasons that in 1996 the Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the FDA to require better testing before permitting acesulfame-K in soft drinks. In addition, large doses of acetoacetamide, a breakdown product, have been shown to affect the thyroid in rats, rabbits, and dogs. Hopefully, the small amounts in food are not harmful.

CYCLAMATE ... Artificial sweetener: Diet foods. This controversial high-potency sweetener was used in the United States in diet foods until 1970, at which time it was banned. Animal studies indicated that it causes cancer. Now, based on animal studies, it (or a byproduct) is believed not to cause cancer directly, but to increase the potency of other carcinogens and to harm the testes. 

SACCHARIN ... Artificial sweetener: "Diet" products, soft drinks (especially fountain drinks at restaurants), packets. Saccharin (Sweet ’N Low) is 350 times sweeter than sugar and is used in dietetic foods or as a tabletop sugar substitute. Many studies on animals have shown that saccharin can cause cancer of the urinary bladder. In other rodent studies, saccharin has caused cancer of the uterus, ovaries, skin, blood vessels, and other organs. Other studies have shown that saccharin increases the potency of other cancer-causing chemicals. And the best epidemiology study (done by the National Cancer Institute) found that the use of artificial sweeteners (saccharin and cyclamate) was associated with a higher incidence of bladder cancer.

In 1977, the FDA proposed that saccharin be banned, because of studies that it causes cancer in animals. However, Congress intervened and has permitted it to be used, provided that foods bear a warning notice. It has been replaced in many products by aspartame (NutraSweet). In 1997, the diet-food industry began pressuring the U.S. and Canadian governments and the World Health Organization to take saccharin off their lists of cancer-causing chemicals. The industry acknowledges that saccharin causes bladder cancer in male rats, but argues that those tumors are caused by a mechanism that would not occur in humans. Many public health experts respond by stating that, even if that still-unproved mechanism were correct in male rats, saccharin could cause cancer by additional mechanisms and that, in some studies, saccharin has caused bladder cancer in mice and in female rats and other cancers in both rats and mice.

In May 2000, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services removed saccharin from its list of cancer-causing chemicals. 

NutraSweet (aspartame/Equal/Spoonful, etc.) is an adjuvant; it turns the body against itself, and destroys the immune system. As the Trocho Study proved, the formaldehyde from aspartame accumulates in the cells and damages DNA.

Aspartame is a toxic poison.

Renowned physician, H. J. Roberts, M.D., has declared Aspartame Disease, and has written a 900 page medical text on the world plague which is about to be published. You can be sure that chronic fatigue syndrome will be discussed at length.

"Aspartame, which as a formaldehyde poisoning is probably 500 times as potent as straight formaldehyde, causing aggravated formaldehyde poisoning in its victims. And yet the amount you would get from a can of pop greatly exceeds what you would get from inhaled air, even by the old, more lenient standard."

www.dorway.com  web site with the real facts, the Board of Inquiry report of the FDA admitting that aspartame has never been proven safe and should not be approved.