Sweet Poison

[taff..]

I'd agree with you on most junk emails, but the evils of Aspartame, and the underhand finagling that has kept it on the market is a complete disgrace, and deserves a good airing. Like many products from multinationals, the only people who gain from it is the company and it's shareholders.
This isn't "news", it's been common knowledge for some years, but the power of the big companies and seductive advertising has enabled it's continued sale unabated.......

Ohhh, not this $*** again

 

[Brosville]

just Google "Rumsfeld Aspartame" and follow your nose...........

 

[drstitson]

everyone is free to choose whether to fill themselves with artificial substances in exactly the same way as they are free to choose whether or not they invest in companies making those products.

No one forces anyone to drink diet pop.

 

[Brosville]

I'm essentially a libertarian, and agree with most of that, if you're potty enough to pour dangerous muck down your throat, that's your prerogative, BUT (and it's a big "but") it should be based on making an informed judgement, and I would contend that when you have the sort of finagling carried out by the odious Donald Rumsfeld to get it "approved" by the FDA (which some people are daft enough to trust as a sign of safety), and the enormous marketing and lobbying of a powerful multinational like Monsanto, it is a formula for the great majority of the gullible public to have the wool pulled over their eyes (especially when such things as Aspartame make fortunes for it's makers and the purveyors of "toxpops" worldwide)
As for the debate over whether it is moral/should be legal to hold shares in companies involved in such practices I'll leave for another day/place!.......

 

[Stiffy]

There are so many scare stories being spread around on the internet, if we believe them all we would be trying to live on fresh air and water........but then they are also contaminated.

It's when these products are used surreptitiously as fillers and to add 'flavour' but then I understand Soy Bean may be having a more dramatic effect on the male populations!

Cheers
S



It s not that I am paranoid it’s just everyone is out to get me..

 

[peteinwilts]

I'm essentially a libertarian, and agree with most of that, if you're potty enough to pour dangerous muck down your throat, that's your prerogative, BUT (and it's a big "but") it should be based on making an informed judgement, QUOTE]

smoking and other vices are publisised enough to be known as a hazaard, but countless thousands of people die every year of smoking related diseases... drinking related diseases... obesity related diseases... drugs related issues...

we also all drive to fast, stay in the sun for too long and handle carcegenic substances every day. Politicians will always be crooked, and certain proffesions will attract people with certain perversions...

we are all people, need to make our own decisions and if we get it wrong... we get it wrong. If we have the CORRECT information, we can make our own informed decisions of which most people will ignore anyway...

Governments will ban various substances, which will help prevent loss of life in this already fastly growing population on this planet.

In nature, a stupid animal will lose it's life quite quickly... in humans, stupid people are preserved to spread their genetics and teach their offspring to do stupid things...

me thinks admin should put this into 'off topic' ....

 

[drex]

I thought this forum was about keeping bees??????????
If I want to know about Aspartame etc. and its effects, I will look it up on medical sites.
Happy ranting to me and thee

 

[Rosti]

Ah what fun!

Sad possibly but I’m in another foreign hotel with time on my hands so ....

Summary
My problem with all this is that as a beekeeper I am at best aware of my lack of knowledge at worst ignorant to it (but trying to make up the deficit). So how can I tell when someone is off on their favourite hobby horse for a ride and willing to be blinkered (deliberate pun) for the ‘perceived’ cause or actually ringing a genuine alarm bell? Perhaps one of the people who posted so confidently on Aspartame, based on an original hoax email could help me with that one.

Discussion
This particular non-atributable diatribe has been around since about 1995. Despite investigation nobody seems to know who Nancy Markle is, what her professional qualifications are or justifying experience is either, there are serious consistency errors in the claims which I won’t bore you with, esp on MS, Lupis, and PKU. Someone else claims credit for this email as well by the way an anti-aspartame activist named Betty Martini in the states, her knowledge was so profound that she couldn’t spell some of the technical mumbo she claimed to know. Even says she attended the conference quoted in the email back in 1995.

‘Cause I’m a food tech/sci you might be about to think I am going to launch into some sort of food industry defence of aspartame, right? Wrong! There are risks to diet imbalance and over consumption of many things, carrot juice and water included! There is probably no difference between me and some of the posters in this thread (and yes Brossville I will single you out), well apart from the fact that I might possibly know what the hell I’m talking about and try to deal with facts rather than ‘stories that fit the cause’. I am a qualified food scientist, with sadly too many years of experience under my belt , I spend most of my time protecting the brand image of the major UK retailers. I read around a subject before commenting, I verify and validate associated facts, I’ll even speak to independent sources (that’s independent Brossville, look it up in the dictionary) and then consider a position, I might even conduct independent validation. In the case of aspartame I’ve not done the latter, but the reading round bit I have done on several occassions.

In brief summary, Aspartame is made of 2 amino acids: aspartic acid and phenylalanine (now that’s a PKU risk). It breaks down into the two amino acids themselves and as a result can be used by the body to build future proteins. There is also methanol to worry about I think its about 10% of Aspartame (what winno’s kill their liver withwhen drinking meths), and further breakdown products including formaldehyde and formic acid. All products can be expelled by the excretory system of normal healthy adults.

There are some people that react badly to some of the breakdown and intermediate compounds, phynelalinine for PKU sensitive people. They should not use aspartame, they should also not drink tonic water by the way!
So putting aside the fact that without phynelalinine most of us would die (thats why its an essential amino acid) a quick look in Data & Ottoway Modern Biochemistry tells us that on the plus side (within nutritional/treatment requirement limits):
It helps with chronic pain by stimulating neural pathways
Relieves depression (enhances prodn of dopamines etc)
Can assist in re-pigmentation of vitiligo
Treat ADD, Parkinsons and PMT

On the negative side:
There’s PKU but thats due to a metabolic disorder causing inability to metabolise phenylketonuria because they patient is missing an enzyme req for PLA metab, that kills if not treated within a few weeks of birth and affects up to about 6 months and not caused by the PLA.

At above 5000mg (source: Biochem 3rd Edn Mathews et al I think) it actually acts as a neuro-toxin. Adults need circa 35mg for a healthy body, birth to 4 months as high as 125mg, there’s a table for everyone else!
Why have I wasted 20 mins writing this out? Simples, as someone who has no axe to grind on the subject of aspartame (I steer clear by the way, cause diet drinks can cause wider diet imbalances), but knows about it, then I can distinguish between fact and a nutters rant. Any diet requires balance, for aspartame to cause health problems it is generally regarded that a prolonged and significant imbalance is needed, pop 3000mg a day for a couple of months should do it nicely (no it’s a joke, don’t)

You can find a similar list of pro's and cons on aspartic but I'm bored now, tell me you haven't really read this far :-(

 

[Brosville]

I read it all - with interest - it's a pleasant change to get a reply that's an informed (and polite) one - even if it may appear to differ from my view.
I'm well aware of the histrionics of many people who have made their feelings known on the subject, and am frankly horrified at how difficult it is for people to find out truths about such products - one one hand you have the producer's "it's totally safe" propaganda - at the other extreme you have (as you've carefully pointed out), the loony fringe - as to quite where the truth lies, I fear that we won't know until perhaps 50 or more years have elapsed, and all the effects (especially about it's effects in combination with other substances commonly consumed) have come to light - by which time it may be too late for those who may suffer from using it.

What we need are rigorous and totally independent bodies who can be relied upon to give us the pure unvarnished truth about a great many substances, sadly, they don't exist, and the public has to try to find a sane way through the bewildering array of "information" available, and try to take informed decisions, often using tainted or biased (in various directions) data.

Do I trust Rumsfeld, Monsanto and the FDA to be impartial and altruistic? - no I don't - Would I knowingly put any artificial sweetener into my system, or give it to kids in the family? - not on your nelly!

 

[roche]

But Bros, what were you doing in one of those satanic supermarkets anyway? lol...
I agree totally with the need for independent bodies - that is what government should be doing, but the fashion is to "outsource". The loss of first class independent minds in the civil service is lamentable, and has led to major mis-spends....
But even the independent bodies are a bit stymied when it comes to long term effects; some things take generations to surface.

 

[BKF Admin]

everyone is free to choose whether to fill themselves with artificial substances in exactly the same way as they are free to choose whether or not they invest in companies making those products.

No one forces anyone to drink diet pop.

But how long will it be before the NHS start to refuse to treat patients with certain diets ?

I can even see NHS dentist's refusing to treat tooth decay in children if the diet is wrong.

 

[BlidworthBees]

Oh dear. Will have to find the magnifying glass again so I can read the ingredients on labels.
Last scare was for a sweetener which was killing dogs or making them ill if they snaffled anything containing it. Sadly that one was true.

 

[Stiffy]

I read it all - with interest - it's a pleasant change to get a reply that's an informed (and polite) one - even if it may appear to differ from my view.

From Mr Politeness and 'well informed' !!!!