Reply #3: Re: 13 Secret Toxins Lurking in Your Food, and How to Avoid Them

[jimspeer]

You wrote:
5. Skip the diet soda and artificial sweeteners. Prolonged exposure to aspartame, a neurotoxic chemical additive in these products, can lead to nerve cell damage, dizziness, and headaches. Besides, anything that gives rats brain tumors is worth avoiding in my book.

I'm afraid this is a dangerous urban myth. Frightening people about aspartame may put individuals -- dibetics and others -- who need to reduce dietary sugars at risk. Following are the actual facts about aspartame as presented by Snopes.com

Kiss My Aspartame

Claim: The artificial sweetener aspartame has been proved responsible for an epidemic of cancer, brain tumors, and multiple sclerosis.

Status: False.
...

Origins:

# Is Aspartame Safe? (FDA):
To date, FDA has not determined any consistent pattern of symptoms that can be attributed to the use of aspartame, nor is the agency aware of any recent studies that clearly show safety problems.
# Aspartame and the Internet (The Lancet):
Our research revealed over 6000 web sites that mention aspartame, with many hundreds alleging aspartame to be the cause of multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosis, Gulf War Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, brain tumours, and diabetes mellitus, among many others. Virtually all of the information offered is anecdotal, from anonymous sources and is scientifically implausible.
# ACSH Debunks Internet Health Hoax (American Council on Science and Health):
Health scare artists have found a whole new medium for terrorizing the public — the Internet. Individuals in search of accurate health information may literally become caught in the Web, where health hoaxes and urban medical myths run rampant. The health scare messages are always the same — whatever it is, it will make you sick.
# Beware The E-Mail Hoax: The Evils Of Nutrasweet (Aspartame) (Dr. Dean Edell):
A highly inaccurate "chain letter" is being circulated via e-mail warning the reader of the health dangers of aspartame (Nutrasweet) diet drinks.

There is so much scientific untruth in it, it’s scary. Be careful, because others know how to manipulate you by this. Just because something is beyond your comprehension doesn’t mean it is scientific.
# FDA Statement on Aspartame (FDA):
Analysis of the National Cancer Institute's public data base on cancer incidence in the United States — the SEER Program — does not support an association between the use of aspartame and increased incidence of brain tumors.
# Study Reaffirms Safety of Aspartame (MIT News):
Even daily large doses of the high-intensity sweetener aspartame, also known as NutraSweet, had no adverse effect on study subjects' health and well-being, a visiting scientist at MIT reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week.

"We conclude that aspartame is safe for the general population," said Paul A. Spiers, visiting scientist in the Clinical Research Center (CRC).
# A Web of Deceit (TIME magazine):
A widely disseminated e-mail by a "Nancy Markle" links aspartame to Alzheimer's, birth defects, brain cancer, diabetes, Gulf War syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis and seizures. Right away, the long list warrants skepticism. Just as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything.
Last updated: 25 September 2007

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp