I’ve written about three decades of aspartame history, yet today as you can see, aspartame is still on the market.
Does this mean that aspartame is safe because it has been on the market since 1981? No.
You decide for yourself, but to me, this is yet another example of a system gone wrong. Big business has abused their freedom, and money has replaced ethics and integrity.
Today’s Timeline
As more people learn the truth about aspartame’s approval history, this debate will one day be over, and the chemical sweetener “fad” will come to an end.
It must.
Let’s finish the timeline of aspartame’s approval history by bringing aspartame into the present. Everyone deserves to know the truth …
… so let the sweetener wars begin.
2000
Splenda®, made from sucralose, came on to the American market.
Monsanto Chemical Company sold their sweetener division for $440 million.
2003
Coca Cola launched a $50 million campaign for C2 Coke®.
2004
Coca Cola marketed C2 Coke despite suffering sharp loses in their third quarter earnings.
For the four weeks ending January 26, Splenda’s dollar-market share of the tabletop-sweetener had exceeded that of Equal-brand products for the first time in sweetener history.
In February, the Sugar Association sued McNeil Nutritionals, charging McNeil with false advertising and unfair competition.
Two weeks later, McNeil filed suit against The Sugar Association, each of The Sugar Association’s members and Qorvis Communications (a public relations firm representing the Sugar Association) for false advertising and deceptive trade practices.
In December, Equal’s manufacturer, Merisant, filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of Splenda for false advertising, claiming its top-selling competitor, sucralose in Splenda, isn’t really made from sugar as its packaging claimed.
2005
Dr. Morando Soffritti of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, published research results that demonstrated the multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame in the European Journal of Oncology: July 2005.
Dr. Stylianos Tsakiris, Department of Experimental Physiology, Medical School, University of Athens and his research team at the Institute of Child Health, Research Center, Aghia Sophia Children’s Hospital, Athens, Greece published a study that showed high levels and cumulative toxic concentrations of aspartame decreased the membrane AChE activity, resulting in memory loss.
2006
Splenda became the runaway leader in the sugar-substitute category with $212.3 million in US sales, while Equal brought in $48.7 million.
Dr. Soffritti published a second study on the carcinogenic effects of aspartame.
2007
The Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Public Health University of Pecs, Pecs, Hungary, published an aspartame study showing that aspartame ingested up to the maximum daily dose changed the genes in various organs in animals.
2009
Sugar-free gum accounted for 82 per cent of the US chewing gum market by value, equivalent to sales worth almost $3.38 billion.
2010
NutraSweet introduced Equal in a pink packet, in addition to the original blue packet.
2011
The EU approved Stevia in food manufacturing throughout Europe.
2012
Studies continued to prove that aspartame and the diet sweeteners cause weight gain. Two-thirds of U.S. adults were now overweight or obese (Flegal et al., 2012).
Research also showed that the heaviest Americans became even heavier over the last decade (Beydoun & Wang, 2009).
Advertisers defended the health benefits of aspartame and the diet sweeteners with mass marketing campaigns.
2013
What’s next?
Checkmate.
