Posted on 07/06/2007 9:11:02 PM PDT by Coleus
A U.S. consumer group called for an urgent Food and Drug Administration review of the safety of aspartame on Monday, but the FDA said there was no immediate need to do so despite a new study showing the sweetener may cause cancer. Italian researchers published a new study last week that showed aspartame -- widely used in soft drinks -- might cause leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats. "This is the second study by the same lab showing that aspartame causes cancer in rats," Center for Science in the Public Interest executive director Michael Jacobson said in a telephone interview. Aspartame is used mostly in soft drinks but is also sold in packets to use in coffee, tea or on food. "People can easily avoid products using Nutrasweet or Equal and keep these products away from kids," Jacobson added.
Morando Soffritti of the Ramazzini Foundation in Bologna, Italy, and colleagues tested aspartame in rats, which they allowed to live until they died naturally. Their study of more than 4,000 rats showed a lifetime of eating high doses of the sweetener raised the likelihood of several types of cancer. "On the basis of the present findings, we believe that a review of the current regulations governing the use of aspartame cannot be delayed," Soffritti's team wrote in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, which is published by the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. "This review is particularly urgent with regard to aspartame-containing beverages, heavily consumed by children." FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said the agency had not reviewed the study.
"However, the conclusions from this second European Ramazzini Foundation are not consistent with those from the large number of studies on aspartame that have been evaluated by FDA, including 5 previously conducted negative chronic carcinogenicity studies
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Diet drinks have been a Weight Watchers freebie for decades. Their diets still slim people down.
This is why you should drink purified water only...
Phenylalanine has been shown to cause mood changes though I would imagine the caffeine would be the more likely culprit for hyperactivity. I have drank the stuff forever and don’t notice any mood changes except if I don’t get my caffeine. I do prefer the new sweeteners which taste better to me. I think you did the right thing though by eliminating it since you noticed it was causing a problem for you.
This once again proves the FDA is actually not looking out for the public...it's there to protect the profits of companies.
Pesticides are often made out as an unalloyed evil. It is more honest to note that the better nutrition made possible by fighting destructive pests has aided public health more than microscopic residues of these substances has harmed it. If it weren’t for pesticides many of us wouldn’t even have the luxury of complaining about pesticides. We’d be too busy scrabbling after that last bit of food.
Shame yourself all you want.
And in other news, a moose bit your sister.
Ever consider all the caffeine?
Anecdotal evidence is worthless in science, there are no statistically relevant studies demonstrating your claims.
Millions of people are sensitive, some even deathly allergic to very common foodstuffs. This used to be a place where there was room for some personal responsibility. If a food or beverage gave you problems, you would avoid it in the future. Now you try to project your personal preferences in food and beverage onto the entire nation. No thank you.
Quite so. People think that because something has nutrasweet or splenda, they somehow become immune to the caffeine in a daily quantity of cola beverage that they would never think of imbibing in its original sugary form.
I have been drinking Diet MD for 22 years. The vision out of my third eye has never been better.
Can’t feed it to my husband or daughter either. Aspartame gives them violent headaches. It’s scary.
Spare the preacher the preaching? This is richer than full sugar Coke.
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