Diet Coke Addicts: BEWARE

I don't know about you guys, but I'm frightened to death of everything I eat. Were pesticides used while it was growing? Did it come in federally regulated plastic packaging? Is it a bio-chemical reactive agent?

The warning signs are everywhere. Everything will kill you. Cancer is currently the leading cause of death of people in North America (at least), and all the naysayers and conspiracy theorists have most of us believing that we can “catch” it like the common cold from everyday items.

I'm not saying that some of these theories aren't true, or at least aren't founded. Cancer causing agents have been proven to exist in our atmosphere – from drinking water contaminated by ground pollution to skin-damaging free radicals to those harmful BPAs in plastic water bottles or containers.

Among that number of afflicted items – Aspartame. Fair warning. There's more information out there to digest on the topic of aspartame and it's suitability for ingestion than there is aspartame on the whole earth.

The little sugar substitute that could, Aspartame has been hanging around since James Schlatter (a chemist at G D Searle Company) accidentally discovered it while working on an anti-ulcer drug in the mid 1960s. It's reportedly 200 times sweeter than sugar, which means you need less of it for the same result (although it does have an aftertaste). Because of that property alone, it was like a miracle for all those people looking to achieve the same sweet taste with half to less than half the caloric intake.  

Since it's discovery, the safety of aspartame has come under intense scrutiny by various governmental regulating bodies. In the late 70s, and throughout the 80's, aspartame was dogged by allegations that it was linked to brain tumours, amongst other things. According to the website aspartame.mercola.com:

“Aspartame was approved for dry goods in 1981 and for carbonated beverages in 1983. It was originally approved for dry goods on July 26, 1975, but objections filed by neuroscience researcher Dr John W. Olney and Consumer attorney James Turner in August 1974 as well as investigations of GD Searle's research practices caused the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put approval of aspartame on hold. In 1985, Monsanto purchased GD Searle and made Searle Pharmaceuticals and The NutraSweet Company separate subsidiaries.

Aspartame accounts for over 75 per cent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious, including seizures and death. A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being as being caused by aspartame include: headaches/migranes, dizziness, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, insomnia, vision problems...”

And then in the mid 1990s, some prankster decided it would be a lot of fun to send out an email chain letter claiming the FDA approval process for aspartame was tainted, alleging it was responsible for multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus and methanol toxicity. Thus, an urban legend is born.

So... should you nix aspartame?

What you really need to know, even though in 2007 aspartame once again faced extinction (the Indonesian government considered banning it, and New Mexico introduced a bill for the same), it is considered one of the most rigorously tested food ingredients to date, and research reviews and recommendations of governments from more than ninety countries in the world have found it safe for human consumption.

All that being said, there are people who experience sensitivities to the chemically-created super sweet powder. In 2010, the British Food Standards Agency undertook investigations of claims that some people experience side-effects after eating products with aspartame (I could have told them that – stuff makes me nauseous).

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of controversy and conspiracy surrounding the production of aspartame, with many theorists faulting Capital Hill fat cats (like Donald Rumsfeld) putting the lining of their pockets with pharmaceutical money over the safety of a nation.

But the overwhelming consensus – aspartame won't kill you if you take it in small doses (and aren't one of the rare few who suffer from phenylketonuria – a rare, inherited disease that prevents phenylalanine (a naturally occurring, essential amino-acid and residual component of aspartame) from being properly metabolized).

Everything in moderation, right?

Image from MorgueFile

Hilary Lauren Fox
		About the author:
		Sometimes she's a redhead, sometimes she's a blonde. Some days it's H&M, and on other days, it's Chanel. What ever the mood, she is a woman who is passionate about the arts, fashion and social media. Born in Toronto, Hilary Lauren Fox is an only child to artist parents - mom was an illustrator and pattern maker, dad was a painter.  Rather then studying the arts as her parents hoped for, Hilary opted for a degree in psychology with dreams of working in a clinical setting. But after graduating she realized that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that the arts was in her blood, applying her education within the art and fashion world.
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