Guest guest Posted January 29, 2002 Report Share Posted January 29, 2002 This is an Urban Legend. See: http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/aspartam.htm Claim:  The artificial sweetener aspartame is responsible for an epidemic of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus. Status:  False. Origins:  Once again, if you can't trust an anonymous e-mail message filled with words rendered in all CAPITAL LETTERS and containing liberal doses of exclamation points, warning you about some widespread and imminent danger, what can you trust? >From whence comes this information? For one thing, it's not new -- this text was written by one Betty i back in 1995. (Follow this link to view the original text.)  And who is this Betty i? Well, she's not a doctor, biologist, chemist, or any other type of scientist -- she is the founder of Mission Possible International, an organization dedicated to " spreading the word that aspartame is a toxic poison unfit for human consumption. " Now, Ms. i may be earnest and sincere, but her screed is full of flawed logic, scientific errors, and outright misinformation. We're not going to attempt to go through it point by point, nor are we going to claim that aspartame is either a health hazard or absolutely 100% non-harmful in any amount. What we will assert is that there is simply nothing remotely approaching a consensus in the medical/scientific community that aspartame is (or even could be) responsible for an " epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus " or many of the other evils attributed to it above. We invite you to explore some of the resources listed below and make up your own mind whether or not you should be concerned about aspartame: * On the pro-aspartame side, we have a rebuttal to this document from the folks at NutraSweet (Monsanto's brand name for aspartame). * For the opposition, we have a collection of articles at the web site of Aspartame Toxicity Information Center. (Keep in mind that most of the material available through this site contains no information about its source and/or does not derive from peer-reviewed scientific journals.) * And finally, you can reference scholarly, peer-reviewed articles about aspartame through Medline. ==================== http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blasp.htm?terms=aspartame Aspartame Warning Netlore Archive  More of this Feature • Part 2: A Laundry List of Maladies • Part 3: " Scandalously Misinformative "   Related Resources • Internet Health Scares   Elsewhere on the Web • American Diabetes Association on Aspartame • " Aspartame Kills " Website • MS Foundation on Aspartame  Posted: 01/06/99  (Updated: 02/20/99) By Emery This specimen of email scarelore, in wide circulation since mid-December 1998, warns that the artificial sweetener aspartame (a.k.a. " NutraSweet " and " Equal " ) is toxic to humans in a hundred different ways. It even coins a new medical term for these effects: " aspartame disease. " ====================== http://www.stiller.com/aspart.htm Is it a hoax? The " Aspartame Warning " (like many hoaxes) contains some valid information, but it also contains some misleading information. It may even be argued that this warning serves a useful purpose since it may cause people to take a closer look at whether Aspartame is safe enough to consume. Having said that, I must say that I (personally) do regard it as a hoax. Why? Because the versions of the " Aspartame warning " that are clogging my mailbox all encourage the reader to warn (it carefully avoids using the word " forward " ) as many people as possible. The correct approach for something like this to discuss this on relevant (e.g., medical, health, biological) newsgroups. It's always a bad idea to forward information like this unless the information has been verified. As I stated, this (in my personal opinion) contains some misinformation. Aspartame does not contain methanol (wood alcohol) as stated but can produce some methanol on decomposition. I rather doubt the amounts of methanol produced could be high enough to produce any serious effects. Researching this issue on the web, I have been unable to find any substantiation that aspartame has been connected (either correctly or incorrectly) with a diagnosis of MS. ================================ Kat Seattle USA http://www.icewindow.com Kathleen Seattle USA http://www.icewindow.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 9, 2004 Report Share Posted January 9, 2004 Your not alone Steve most of my family never used any product containing artificial sweeteners as they leave a bad taste in our mouths yet M.S. is rampant due to other factors than artificial sweeteners or lack of omega oils. Reg. ____________________________________________________ IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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