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Recently, I came across an advertisement for the artificial sweetener Equal® / aspartame, which states: “… aspartame is the world's most tested food ingredient, having undergone no less than 200 scientific studies and tests. All studies have proven that it's safe for adults, children, pregnant and nursing women, even individuals with diabetes.”
This runs contrary to my own research, which tells me that the studies that “proved” aspartame to be safe were mainly conducted or commissioned by G D Searle, the company that developed it. Among independent scientific studies, nearly all found problems with it.
Scientists have identified more than 90 medical conditions associated with aspartame, including epileptic seizures, memory loss, migraine, blurred vision and so on.
Aspartame is commonly recommended for people with diabetes. However, a leading US authority on diabetes, Dr H J Roberts, MD, has written several books – including Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic – giving details of how aspartame leads to:
- precipitation of clinical diabetes;
- poorer diabetic control;
- aggravation of diabetic complications such as retinopathy, cataracts, neuropathy and gastroparesis.
- convulsions.
Another major group of people who take aspartame are the overweight and obese. They should take note that aspartame has been found to make people eat more!
Research also suggests that when aspartame is taken with MSG, another common food additive, its negative effects tend to be enhanced.
The Equal® / aspartame advertisement further states that the safety of aspartame has been affirmed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and various other health authorities.
While this is true, the fuller story paints a different picture.
Aspartame was first approved by the FDA in 1974. But that approval was quickly retracted, following complaints by scientists who found it “worrisome” that it had caused laboratory mice to develop brain tumours. Moreover, Searle was at that time being investigated for its research practices.
In 1981, aspartame was approved for use in dry foods by a new FDA Commissioner, Dr Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr. In granting approval, Hayes had ignored the objections of three (out of five) scientists in an FDA Public Board of Inquiry.
In 1983, Hayes' deputy approved it for soft drinks. Later, another FDA official approved it for all other purposes, including baking and cooking – despite evidence that high temperature causes aspartame to form toxic substances.
Between 1982 and 1995, the FDA received more than 7,000 public complaints about adverse reactions to aspartame. These made up about 80 percent of all food complaints filed with the FDA.
Today, many concerned doctors and scientists continue to warn against aspartame. It is, at best, a controversial substance.
Will the relevant health and advertising authorities please look into the advertising claim by Equal® that “all studies have proven that it's safe”?
Meanwhile, those who wish to learn more about aspartame need only to do an internet search such as “effects of aspartame”. You will find plenty of well-researched, well-referenced, and possibly shocking, information.