Why Aspartame Isn't Scary

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Replies

  • Ruatine
    Ruatine Posts: 3,424 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    paucity

    Thanks for the new word!

    Also, thank you for continuing to educate and share your knowledge.

  • sunfastrose
    sunfastrose Posts: 543 Member
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    Aaron_K123 wrote: »
    I'll admit it gets frustrating.

    Just know that you are one of the most respected and appreciated posters I know. And I know a lot of others that feel that way.

    Respect my kitten post!

    small-kitten-walking-towards_127900829_0.jpg

    Sorry, don't know how to appropriately deal with compliments, usually comes out as sarcasm.

    I thoroughly respect and also want to hug this post.
  • poisonesse
    poisonesse Posts: 573 Member
    Aaron, thanks so much for not only posting this in the first place, but for continuing, for over 4 years, to keep it informational not confrontational. (Wish everyone else could do the same! ROFL)
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    ccrdragon wrote: »
    “In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet. Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame’s clouded past, including the report of a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it “might induce brain tumors.” The FDA had previously banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have then-Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld vow to “call in his markers,” to get it approved. Here’s how it happened:

    Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president January 21, 1981. Rumsfeld, while still CEO at Searle, was part of Reagan’s transition team. This team hand-picked Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., to be the new FDA commissioner. Dr. Hayes, a pharmacologist, had no previous experience with food additives before being appointed director of the FDA. On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, Reagan issued an executive order eliminating the FDA commissioners’ authority to take action and Searle re-applied to the FDA for approval to use aspartame in food sweetener. Hayes, Reagan’s new FDA commissioner, appointed a 5-person Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision. So Hayes installed a sixth member on the commission, and the vote became deadlocked. He then personally broke the tie in aspartame’s favor.

    One of Hayes’ first official acts as FDA chief was to approve the use of aspartame as an artificial sweetener in dry goods on July 18, 1981. In order to accomplish this feat, Hayes had to overlook the scuttled grand jury investigation of Searle, overcome the Bressler Report, ignore the PBOI’s recommendations and pretend aspartame did not chronically sicken and kill thousands of lab animals. Hayes left his post at the FDA in November, 1983, amid accusations that he was accepting corporate gifts for political favors. Just before leaving office in scandal, Hayes approved the use of aspartame in beverages. After Hayes left the FDA under allegations of impropriety, he served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then took a position as a high-paid senior medical advisor with Burson-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle.”

    It scares me.

    Your conspiracy theories still don't trump the science...

    It’s a timeline of events - Time isn’t a conspiracy theory.
    Rumsfeld’s not going down in history as an honest and ethical man, anyway.

    Read this thread from the beginning.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member

    I just think it tastes gross.

    This is me too. TBH it was always really easy for me to believe it was bad because of the taste but I never researched it because I was never going to use it anyway. This thread is interesting.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited May 2018
    NovusDies wrote: »

    I just think it tastes gross.

    This is me too. TBH it was always really easy for me to believe it was bad because of the taste but I never researched it because I was never going to use it anyway. This thread is interesting.

    ...and that is totally fair...I certainly hope I don't give any impression that I am somehow advocating for the stuff, I just think the fearmongering present on the internet got way out of hand and I am trying to explain why there isn't any reason to think aspartame is dangerous. I certainly don't care if anyone uses it or not...it isn't bad for you, but it isn't good for you either...it just is. It is certainly not a necessary part of anyone's diet and not liking the taste is a perfectly valid reason to avoid it altogether.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I didn't get that impression. It seemed matter-of-fact to me which is how I like new information. One of these days I might research why I am one of the people that doesn't like the taste.