Aspartame: Sweet Taste of Cancer?

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Aspartame, the artificial sweetener that turns up in countless diet food products, may not be healthy for you, especially if you consider cancer unhealthy.
A new study on aspartame conducted by the Ramazzini Foundation reveals that aspartame causes a dose-dependent increase in cancers (lymphomas, leukemias and breast cancers) when consumed at levels approaching those consumed by humans in diet soft drinks.
Now hold on here, aspartame is a product approved and staunchly defended by the FDA. Surely the FDA would never approve a product that was unsafe? In fact, the FDA initially banned the use of aspartame up until the 1980s because of uncertainties about its health risks, including evidence that it may cause brain tumors. It wasn’t until 1981 that the FDA finally approved the substance. Who was the man responsible for finally pushing through FDA approval of aspartame? None other than Donald Rumsfeld.

Donald Rumsfeld was at that time chairman of GD Searle, the company that manufactured aspartame. Rummy became a member of Ronald Reagan’s White House transition team and hand-picked crony Arthur Hayes Hull Jr. to be the new head of the FDA. By July of 1981 aspartame was legal in dry foods and by October 1982 it was made legal for carbonated beverages (over the objections of the National Soft Drink Association).

While the recent flap over the New Zealand woman who overdosed on aspartame-flavored gum made a media splash, the clinical evidence of the dangers of aspartame is extensive and goes back decades. Ostensibly the FDA is there to protect consumers from dangerous food and drugs, but in light of other recent FDA screw-ups (painkiller Vioxx was on the market for years before being pulled off the shelves last year because it causes heart attacks and strokes) it may be that the FDA can’t be trusted to look out for the nation’s health.

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