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quote:

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The Urban Legend Combat Kit: Is NutraSweet Safe?


The Urban Legend Combat Kit is a
free collection of canned responses
to help you combat Internet myths
and urban legends. When someone
sends you an urban legend, just cut
and paste the appropriate response
from this site.





Thank you for forwarding me the "aspartame/NutraSweet" warning.

Fortunately, the warning you sent me is exaggerated. I have

attached an excerpt from an article on the warning I recently

read in the Internet TOURBUS.


By the way, if you do not yet subscribe to TOURBUS, I strongly

recommend that you do. TOURBUS is a free, semi-weekly Internet

newsletter that tells you about the latest Internet sites and helps

you debunk the latest Internet urban legends. I have included

TOURBUS subscription information at the bottom of this message.


--------------------------------------

IS NUTRASWEET SAFE? -- 14 January 1999

--------------------------------------


Anyone who has taken high school physics knows that to every action

there is always opposed an equal reaction. This Newtonian truism is

not just limited to the world of mechanics. For every Web page that

says that Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cower is the greatest

thing to happen since the invention of Iron City Beer, there is also a

Web page that says that Cower is the antichrist.


By now, everyone had heard of the artificial sweetener aspartame (also

known as NutraSweet). Over the past thirty-five years, several

hundred studies have concluded that aspartame is not associated with

ANY serious adverse health effects. However, for every action there

is an equal (no pun intended) and opposite reaction, and there is now

a letter circulating around the Internet warning that aspartame has

been proven to either cause or contribute to global outbreaks of


- Multiple Sclerosis

- Lupus

- Paralysis

- Blindness

- Birth defects

- Brain damage, including tumors

- Desert Storm disease

- And a host of other diseases and ailments.


The question that everyone seems to be asking now is "is aspartame

REALLY safe?" Honestly, it is a matter of opinion. Many major and

well-respected medical organizations and health professionals have

publicly stated that aspartame is completely safe. In fact, you can

find a list of testimonials in support of aspartame's safety at


http://caloriecontrol.org/opinasp.html.


Included in this list of testimonials are quotes from, among others,

the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, the

American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association, the

American Cancer Society, The Epilepsy Institute, the US Food and Drug

Administration, and the US Centers for Disease Control. Monsanto, the

manufacturer of aspartame, has even created a Web site titled "Fact

and Fiction Correcting Internet Myths About NutraSweet" at


http://www.nutrasweet.com/html/lib_rumors.html.


However, according to the anti-aspartame email circulating around the

Net right now,


MONSANTO ... knows how deadly [aspartame] is. They fund the

American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association,

Congress, and the Conference of the American College of

Physicians.


The letter argues that since Monsanto funded the organizations that

conducted investigations into aspartame's safety, the results of those

studies simply cannot be trusted.


One of the leaders of the anti-aspartame camp is Mark Gold, who has

created an "Aspartame (NutraSweet) Toxicity Info Center" homepage at


http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/.


His page includes information about aspartame including toxicity

reactions, health damage cases, and scientific and historic

information about aspartame.


Of course, our dear friend David 'alakazam' Emery at the Mining

Company has created a wonderful article on the whole aspartame story

at


http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blasp.htm.


David's article includes a very important point that I shall now

steal


[A]spartame is acknowledged to produce minor side effects

in some people most notably headaches (see Aspartame Ingestion

and Headaches, Neurology, 1994). Also, the American Heart

Association warns that because of its high phenylalanine content,

use of aspartame may be risky for persons with phenylketonuria, a

metabolic disorder.


However, David's conclusion (with which I concur) is that "all that

the information presented in the [anti-aspartame] email is

disorganized, hysterical, and poorly substantiated." Still, this

whole aspartame safety issue is a matter of opinion. A very large

number of well-known and well-respected medical organizations and

health professionals have publicly stated that aspartame is safe.

Others disagree. The final decision on which side to believe,

however, is completely up to you.


=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================

---

We all know that you add NutraSweet to your tofu!




--------------------
Si Allen #562
La Mirada, CA. USA

(714) 521-4810

si.allen on Skype

siallen@dslextreme.com

"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"

Never mess with your profile while in a drunken stupor!!!

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Posts: 8831 | From: La Mirada, CA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998  |  IP: Logged |