While I am by no means a fan of artificial sweeteners in theory, in practice, I am a compulsive gum-chewer and definitely reach for a can of diet soda a few times a week. The dangers of aspartame are not an alien topic to me. Some people smoke; I gnaw on carcinogens. We can’t all be perfect.
I am pretty ticked off, though, about aspartame‘s new name change. Now called Amino Sweet (because it’s sweet and made from two amino acids), it is being marketed as a natural sweetener. Seriously? A substance (created in a lab) initially intended to be a drug that happened to be sweet enough to be a food additive does not sound natural to me. Also, it makes it harder for people with allergies to avoid unless they know about the switch.
This article, the tone of which I find a bit alarmist and grating though informative, offers a history of aspartame and details about its PR makeover. After reading it on my mom’s blog, I had to repost.
And take a look at the Ajinomoto press release.