Why is it that we seem to be constantly bombarded with some new ‘health safety’ issue within the food chain these days? We live in a world of good fats, bad fats, trans fats, ultra low fat, low fat, ‘free,’ low carb, no carb, and sugar free. If a person further reads the labels, you may find it contains fructose, glucose, sucralose, maltitol, or manitol, all of which still affect blood sugars! Or it may contain something artificial such as splenda, or aspartame. I suppose that as long as there are trends, the food debate will likely never be exempt from controversy. In retrospect, if we were perfect human beings we would do everything in moderation and follow the Canada Food Guide every day.
We may all remember the sweetener called ‘saccharin’ that was taken off the market in the seventies because it was another one of these cancer-causing agents in rats. Eventually it was not available but in the early 80’s it was soon replaced by NutraSweet, Equal, or Spoonful, which are all an Aspartame product. This was in the form of powder but could not be heated beyond certain temperatures or it would lose its sweetness. It could be added after the cooking process and was 200 times the sweetness of sugar. It soon became BIG in the soft drink industry, and then it was available in many ‘diet’ products such as gum, candy, cookies, syrups, ice cream, medicines, yogurt, and the list goes on. I believe it is presently being used in over 90 countries of the world but not without some serious health questions surfacing.
It amazes me how these products are referred to as ‘diet’! I will always recall the words of one of my son’s fine doctor, when we questioned him on the sweetener issue; “As a diabetic I would prefer to see you have ‘real’ sugar now and again as opposed to anything ‘diet’ that is artificial in any way”. This quote is what I found in my search to understand how this product was derived: “A bonding together of amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine to form dipeptide, further esterified with methanol”. In my understanding in plain English, what it really means is that they took the garbage out of real sugar to give us ‘artificial’ and in my view, anything that has ingredients in it that I cannot even pronounce should not be consumed!
On one end of the debate, the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations supports the fact that they have done all necessary research and testing before this product was put on the market. But in spite of all the scientific research declaring its safety, the media continues with negative allegations. I was astounded to first hear the words, ‘aspartame disease’, and the symptoms associated with it, as well as allegations that extended use of the product can lead to allergic reactions, headaches, rashes, seizures, poor diabetic control, cancer, blindness, lupus, and mimic of Multiple Sclerosis. Although this may sound severe, one has to wonder why then, a new movement called “Mission Possible” is out to remove aspartame completely from the food chain. Last report I found was showing over 800,000 signatures in its support. The information out there is endless, I could probably write my own book on what I have researched
In conclusion, I guess what it all boils down to is that anyone who consumes products sweetened artificially has to make that decision based on what and whom they want to believe. Our eating habits and body responses are as unique as we are, and it is our responsibility to be in tune with what those body responses are. If we suspect it makes us feel bad or we feel unsafe with the unknown, simply quit consuming it. For some of us, it may be the end to a Bittersweet Debate by allowing some sugar back into our diets.
Couldn’t get much sweeter than that!
