The Coca Cola Company® has recently launched a new campaign to save their plummeting diet sweetener sales. The increase in illness and obesity caused by the over-consumption of diet products has created a push to convince consumers – you – that your health troubles and weight gain are NOT caused by those diet colas you are overdoing every day.
It’s a sad deception. It’s a desperate move.
Whether you choose to use the artificial sweeteners is your personal decision, but at the very least, you deserve to know the whole story behind the diet sweetener industry, starting from the beginning. Then you can decide if the advertising is a bunch of hogwash.
After thirty years of diet sweetener use, degenerative diseases, behavior disorders, MS and diabetes, autism, sexual dysfunction, and obesity have become epidemic. The latest research continues to prove the connection between disease and artificial sweetener use; everyone deserves to know the truth.
The fact that the truth is not widely known proves to me that the fox is in the henhouse. Money trumps health to those who market artificial sweeteners within this billion dollar industry.
The Sweetener Makers
In the year 2000, NutraSweet’s first big competitor entered the market with the yellow packet of Splenda®. Splenda sales were so high, McNeil Nutritionals could not keep up with the demand. NutraSweet’s sales plummeted, and now that Stevia is finally on the open market, the competition for the mega-sweetener profits is really heating up.
It’s important for you to know the history of the companies who dominate this marketplace because awareness helps everyone decide which companies to support and what products are the safest to purchase, especially for your children. Take the time to research the history of the corporations responsible for pushing diet sweeteners into the hands of your child.
Thirty Years Of Aspartame
It’s been thirty years since aspartame first came on the market as NutraSweet/Equal®, and over the years, much has changed. From the original studies in the 1960s to the most recent research findings, ALL non-corporate studies show that aspartame causes cancer, memory loss, birth defects, leukemia, and lymphoma. This on-going research has not uncovered anything new – every independent study proves the same dangers.
Researchers have battled the safety of aspartame for over three decades, and as the years pass, more people become chronically ill from aspartame while more research continues to prove its dangers.
Splenda
Splenda is the trade name for sucralose, a relatively recent man-made, artificial sweetener. In 1998, Johnson & Johnson bought the rights to sell sucralose as Splenda in the United States. Research shows that Splenda may be harmful to human health because sucralose contains chlorine, which is a known carcinogen.
More time is needed to prove that Splenda is, indeed, causing health problems, but sadly, its public use puts the consumer’s health on the frontlines of this sweetener war.
Saccharin
The politics behind “sodium saccharide” has left saccharin holding the bag.
Before aspartame was discovered in the 1960s, saccharin was considered an authentic sugar substitute because it was the only known alternative to traditional sugar. As Monsanto Chemical Company’s very first product in 1901, saccharin was first used by The Coca Cola Company in the original coca cola syrup.
In the early 1900s as it is today, saccharin never caused cancer; the FDA lifted its cancer warning in 2001. Although saccharin is not the healthiest chemical sweetener available, it is the safest choice between the “colorful” sweetener packets that dominate public tabletops.
Stevia
Stevia is not only safe, but it’s also healthy. Used for over 1,500 years in Paraguay and other South American countries to treat gum disease and diabetes, Stevia’s natural sweetness was met with brutal resistance when it was first brought into the United States in the 1980s.
I remember when the FDA confiscated and burned Stevia cookbooks in the Stevita Company warehouses. After years of being stonewalled, the resistance finally raised the white flag and surrendered their fight to keep Stevia off the market because consumer demand for Stevia was escalating. The major sweetener manufacturers now hope to net some if its mega profits.
Sugarphobia
Over the past three decades, sugar has become a villain in our modern American diet. Sugar-bashing has led to a sugarphobia, which can lead to a dependency on chemical sweetener substitutes, and this creates a craving for more sugary foods and simple carbs.
This keeps consumers stuck in a loop of weight gain. Using real sugar isn’t unhealthy, even for a diabetic, when the amount used is within reasonable limits, and unprocessed forms of sugar are used.
Just think about your grandparents – were they chronically sick or obese? Mine weren’t because they ate real and natural foods – with real sugar. They were active and they ate in moderation.
Drive-thru’s, vending machines, and pre-packaged foods have created modern-day gluttony.
Stop your bad eating habits and stop eating procssed foods, and then see how you feel. I bet that you lose weight, too.
Oh my – the sweetener companies certainly do not want that!
