The Price of Sweetness - What a great title - I wish I thought of it! - In January of 1990 the MIT journal published an article on Nutra Sweet. It was a perfect presentation of the good, the bad and the ugly that surrounds mass market product commercialization.
Recently I was asked my opinion on sugar substitutes so I hit the web looking for this article as a starting point.
Unfortunately the article never got webified (but I can mail hard copies if I receive a request). Now, on this quest for information what I learned was very disappointing. What once was thought of as a harmless chemical with reversible side effects is now being referred to as a poison with irreversible side effects.
The short of it is, this chemical is bad news and should be removed from the market. Why?
I have personally known a number of people directly impacted by Nutra Sweet. 5 in total. Three working associates and two family relatives.
- One of my friends at work had occasional seizers, which the doctors never related to Nutra Sweet, but I suspected something was up because she consumed, in my opinion too much. Elimination of Nutra Sweet eliminated the seizers.
- Two other friends had light vision problems which, at the time, seemed to correct themselves after I gave them the MIT article and they discontinued the use of Nutra Sweet. Interestingly enough, they had recently (with the past few months) switched to diet soda for weight control.
- Now, the more serious relationship, my cousins - I tried diligently while we were all in our 20's to explain the potential impact of NutraSweet. They were both consuming a fare amount in the form of diet soda, and well, there is no easy way to put this, they are both now legal blind at the age of 45 and 42. The doctors insist this was genetic but I don't buy it as we have no other family members with such vision issues, and I have looked deeply even to include my Italian cousins still in Italy.
Now, interestingly enough and many years later, I've located a website that a) uses the MIT paper as one of their references, and b) also follows through on the effects associated to current, and indicate that the ill effects of Nutra-Sweet can be irreversible. They've even given the outcome the name NutraSweet poisoning. This is the first doc http://www.dorway.com/dontkno.html I've ever read that noted that the negative effects could be permanent and yet still the product is on the market.
It's now taken nearly 20 years for the ill effects of this substance to raise its ugly head. So, why take the risk?
My motto - keep it simple, keep it clean, and keep it natural.
Oh, and here is the mainstream media trying to report while staying out of the court room:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/24/earlyshow/health/main2721195.shtml
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