LOS ANGELES—Soda drinks, cereal bars, fruit juices, yogurts, breakfast cereals and sugar free chewing gum. All of these are relatively normal foods that we consume on a regular basis, right? What about pharmaceutical drugs, instant coffee, digestive supplements or muscle-building protein shakes? You would be forgiven for thinking what most of us have been led to believe. According to the healthy food marketing gurus, sugar free, artificially-sweetened produce is better for you. However, fresh light is increasingly being shed on alarming evidence that is enough to make the most hardcore healthy eater stop in their tracks. Results from research that goes back as far as the 1960s has shown the deadly dangers that lurk behind aspartame consumption.

Soft Drinks. Photo By Jocelyn Holt

A poison. A carcinogen. A deadly chemical manufactured from genetically modified bacteria that can cause disease, illness or even death. Sound extreme? Apparently not. Aspartame is one of the most controversial food additives ever to hit the market and ever to be passed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It has been linked to leukemia, brain cancer, lymphomas, neurological disorders, intestinal illnesses, diabetes, heart problems, depression, vision impairment and more. Yet, despite all of this, aspartame remains in over 6,000 food products across the world.

Aspartame is a man-made synthetic methyl made from two amino acids. Once consumed in the body, it is broken down into phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol. At over 85 degrees Celsius, it is further broken down to produce formaldehyde (a recognized class A carcinogen), Diketopiperazine (DKP) and formic acid. DKP alone has been linked to causing the onset of brain tumors, changes in blood cholesterol and an increased risk of uterine and ovarian cancer. Let us also not forget that when sweetener is added to hot drinks the temperature from the water added is close to 100 degrees Celsius, so the aspartame will have broken down into formaldehyde before consumption has even taken place.

Despite the deadly links to cancer and the dramatic objection by three research scientists on the FDA board to ban aspartame, the product eventually passed the FDA approval. In 1981, it was permitted to be added to dry foods and in 1983 to liquids. This was widely believed to be due to the pressure from the major soft drink brands to give its safety seal of approval.

The UK Ministry of Agriculture also approved aspartame despite protests from the Department of Defense, who highlighted it as a “neurotoxin” and “dangerous to human health”.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, an expert in the field of aspartame research, explains, “In 1991, the National Institutes of Health listed 167 symptoms and reasons to avoid the use of aspartame, but today it is a multi-million dollar business that contributes to the degeneration of the human population, as well as the deliberate suppression of overall intelligence, short-term memory and the added contribution as a carcinogenic environmental co-factor. The FDA and Centers for Disease Control continue to receive a stream of complaints from the population about aspartame. It is the only chemical warfare weapon available in mass quantities on the grocery shelf and promoted in the media.”

The truth behind aspartame has long been kept a secret from the public, perhaps largely due to the vast amount of money that the sweetener industry brings to large corporations across the globe. The artificial sweetener industry is worth over a billion dollars in the United States alone. The American Diabetic Association claims that over 90 percent of Americans consume artificial sweeteners on a regular basis. As a result of these figures, many believe aspartame was not approved by the FDA on scientific support grounds, but due to increasing political and financial pressures.

Studies appear to have been biased too. The major sweetener brands have shown aspartame to be harmless, while independent research has proven it to be quite the opposite. One of the studies was released by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) by a highly respected, independent, non-profit organization, the Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences.

Dr. Morando Soffritti, cancer researcher and head of the foundation, discovered the dangerous products from digestion of aspartame in diet soda. Results indicated "that APM [aspartame] is a multi-potential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg body weight, much less than the current acceptable daily intake. On the basis of these results, a re-evaluation of the present guidelines on the use and consumption of APM is urgent and cannot be delayed." However the FDA said the findings were "dismissed" after "flaws" were found in the research methods used that apparently undermined the validity of its findings.

The EFSA reconfirmed that aspartame was safe after reviewing the new study and concluded: "There was no need to further review the safety of aspartame nor to revise the previously established acceptable daily intake for aspartame."

Despite this response, the Ramazzini Foundation, along with many others, continue to fight for the ban of aspartame and further research is being carried out.

With so much conflicting information, it is hard to know what to believe. We will inevitably continue to be advised that aspartame and many other financially viable chemicals added to foods are “safe.” No doubt to carry on with our dedicated support to the multibillion-dollar artificial sweetener industry and beyond.

Yet we do have a choice and freedom of speech, and we reserve the right to make our choices. The harmful dangers of aspartame have become scientifically apparent, and, thankfully, this evidence is slowly coming to fruition. Perhaps sooner rather than later a formal investigation will be carried out to expose the truths once and for all behind aspartame.

So do we simply carry on as normal and wait for the FDA to respond and eventually ban aspartame? With such huge political and economic implications hanging in the balance, I think we may be waiting awhile. I certainly have decided to opt for natural sugar every time. Ultimately we must decide what to consume on our own accord, despite being blinkered into believing what the giant money-making corporations want us to think.