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 ...
12 oz. cans * 20 cans = 240 ozs. of water, or about two gallons/day, every day, in addition to all other fluids. Try that in a hot climate like Florida and your potassium, sodium, etc. levels will drop through the cellar. I have medical problems and am not supposed to have more than a liter of fluids/day (I cheat)
The stuff gave me a seizure.
“And in other news, a moose bit your sister.”
....and several butcher’s aprons.
And now, for something completely different.
A test that cuts as far across species as this, is at best a lesson about what not to feed your pet rats. Did you know that onions are a potent health hazard... to cats? Let’s start the onion bans now!
Personally, I miss cyclamate.
What I meant is that Phenylalanine, one of the components of aspartame, is one of 20 amino acids used to form proteins encoded by DNA. It is found in most protein rich foods regardless of whether they are organic or not. Aspartic acid is a non-essential amino acid meaning that our bodies make it from other amino acids.
My personal opinion is that that there are a lot of myths that “health conscious” people believe concerning foods and the effects of small amounts of contaminants and preservatives. This is not to say that individuals should not try to improve the quality of their food intake only that sometimes one can be doing more harm and spending more money based on intentions rather than any real result.
Many people have been misled into taking high doses of Soy products which are very high in estrogen like chemicals which could be especially harmful to men and developing boys. Also ironically most vegetarian and health foods sold in stores are highly processed.
I just believe in a reasonable approach to living and have a distaste for the myth of some kind of pristine back to nature nutritional nirvana which has never existed. (At least not since the garden of Eden)It is amazing to me how quickly people, where nutrition and the environment are concerned, believe the most outrageous pernicious fictions and become such pain in the asses to everyone around them in the process. lol
Point well taken. As the population increases the food supply must increase. Most easily aided by chemical control of pests on the crops. There is definite value in control of mosquitoes and other disease carrying insects.
But I don’t believe insecticides are microscopic or incidental to human health.
It’s a catch 22..We have better crops and fewer vermin. We also ingest these life saving measures with the creatures we aim to chemically kill. In the form of run off to water sources, air quality, the food we eat, etc.
I drink a lot of caffeine (well not right now since I’m preggers) and I’ve never been hyperactive after drinking a lot of it. I’ve never had a problem with caffeine and sugar. With aspartame I was bouncing off the walls. In fact, if I ate pudding with aspartame, I could immediately feel the effects and crave more. It was like speed. Really weird.
Do they still make it??????????
If nobody picked and chose between risks every day, we’d all be trapped in our beds paralyzed in fear. I know that one thing that almost all of us want and prize carries a huge risk of cancer... and that thing is a long, long lifetime.
“Oh, the false sense of security by ordering an extra large Diet Coke at McDonalds along with a tub of French fries. Why bother?”
Well...I do drink my diet cherry pepsi with my favorite 100 calorie balance bar (a pria bar will do as well)
OK...I admit it.
I’m hooked.
Will this article cause me to change my ways?
oooh....I don’t know.
Well, looks like I’m doomed. :p
“When I was younger I was drinking at least a 2 liter bottle of Diet Pepsi a day and I have some major mood changes every time I consumed it. My family noticed that every time I drank the stuff I would become very hyperactive and mean, almost violent.”
It might also have had something to do with the boatload of caffeine you were drinking alongside the sweetener.
“Good thing they don’t export diet drinks from China.”
Where DOES it come from?
Many “theys” outside of the US border make cyclamate sweeteners. Canada does. The theoretical risks of cancer that were feared because of the chemical structure of cyclamate never came to pass in empirical studies. Almost certainly more people could tolerate cyclamate than can tolerate aspartame.
Fresca simply isn’t Fresca anymore without the cyclamate. Its aspartame twin is simply “off.” A saccharin version would, IMHO, be better than an aspartame version, but that carries its own socio-cultural baggage.
“Diet drinks have been a Weight Watchers freebie for decades. Their diets still slim people down.”
The Weight Watcher brand of diet soda is sweetened with Splenda - also called sucralose.
I remember last year there was a Diet Coke brand available with sucralose, but I don’t see it anywhere anymore.
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