2006/02/12

Research indicates aspartame causes cancer

The results of a seven-year study on aspartame indicates that aspartame causes cancer. Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid. Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide.

The research found that aspartame was associated with unusually high rates of lymphomas, leukemias and other cancers in rats that had been given doses of it starting at what would be equivalent to four to five 20-ounce bottles of diet soda a day for a 150-pound person. The study, which involved 1,900 laboratory rats and cost $1 million, was conducted at the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, a nonprofit organization that studies cancer-causing substances.

No regulatory agency has yet acted on the findings, although Roger Williams, a member of Parliament, called for a ban on aspartame in Britain last December. Last month, the European Food Safety Authority, an advisory body for the European Commission, began to review the data. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has also taken note of the study, which is available online and is scheduled to be published next month in a medical journal financed by the National Institutes of Health. F.D.A. officials say that they, too, intend to conduct a thorough review.

Given the widesread consumption of aspartame these findings are alarming. Let's hope the regulatory agencies can get their asses in gear and deal with a ticking time bomb. Full details on this story can be found at the New York Times

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why isn't this story splashed all over the front pages of the Canadian media? Don't we have any investigative journalists left in this country?

Anonymous said...

This is bloody incredible. I see in the NYT article that the companies falsified the data to get FDA approval years ago. Also they only used a few hundred rats. Unlike this new study which did it right.

Anonymous said...

and guess who introduced aspartame into the worlds marketplace
none other than mr donald rumsfeld
the united states defence minister

http://www.mercola.com/2005/
jan/12/rumsfeld_aspartame.htm

yes the same man that was shaking saddams hand in the 80's when he was part of the reagan administration, selling bichemical weapons to iraq.
(after saddam gassed the kurds, which the u.s. was fully aware off)

p.s. if any of you have kids, don't for G-d sakes give them diet pepsi/coke