Aspartame, The Saccharine Truth
G.D. Searle Company’s artificial sweetener aspartame has been the subject of several rabble rousing debates, since its initial approval (Snopes). The popular food additive’s decriers insist research done to substantiate its safety was unsatisfactory. According to Legend indolence and cozenage have allowed aspartame to be legalized for distribution as a common food additive, despite being the cause for a growing list of maladies such as multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus, seizures, tumors, cancer, reproductive/birth defects and neurotoxic reactions. (Mercola)
Little research on the subject is needed to procure the identity of the major beneficiary and solicitor of the claims against aspartame; Joseph M. Mercola, Osteopathic physician, avid supporter of alternative medicine and internet entrepreneur. His massive internet footprint broadcasts so called ‘evidence’ of the harmful effects of an assortment of common products including aspartame, dairy and most traditional medicine. Like a snake oil salesman, Mercola peddles pseudoscience based on fallacy, conspiracy theories, cherry picking, and misrepresentation of primarily obsolete scientific records and in the same breath sells his alternative solution. In using well assembled presentations to persuade the masses of the perils hidden in their trusted everyday items and redirecting that confidence onto his unconventional holistic products, millionaire Mercola effectively spins tall tales into gold.
The urban legends surrounding Aspartame have all been proven false. The still quite common sugar substitute aspartame, also marketed as “’NutraSweet', 'Equal', and 'Spoonful’” is a methyl ester of the dipeptide of the natural amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanin which are claimed in myth to produce negative neurotoxic effects. (Zeratsky) This is untrue because the only confirmed occurrences of neurological complications as a result of Phenylalanine intake are amongst those who have inherited the rare genetic disorder Phenylketonuria or Folling Disease. (Hattan) Otherwise, “If you don't have PKU, you probably don't need to worry about harmful health effects of phenylalanine .”(Zeratsky)
Though the argument that the ingestion of aspartame produces Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, in the intestines is factual, the danger