| The soft drinks
industry seems to have handed its discretion regarding what it
can and can't put in its products to the manufacturers of Aspartame,
the former Monsanto subsidiary, NutraSweet. Not
only does virtually every Diet variant of drink list it
at the bottom of its ingredients but many non-Diet drinks
have taken to sneaking it in too. In the UK, the once ubiquitous
pop van which delivered effervescent sugar water in a dozen flavours
started to boast 'Any 5 bottles for £2 - All Sugar Free'.
The words 'sugar free' stand like a warning beacon to anybody who has woken up to the shady history of this anti-ulcer pharmaceutical turned image faking antipanacea. But recently it has been getting under the radar and greater vigilance is essential. |
| Once the drink Oasis was a relatively benign combination of water, fruit juices and sugar - with a few chemical additions to maintain its stability in the bottle. No artificial colours, no artificial flavours and no artificial sweeteners. It remained a semi-acceptable standby for anybody who was conscious of what they put in their body even after Coca-Cola took over manufacture in 1990. But some time within the past year or so the recipe has changed and the drink is now described as a 'Fruit Juice Drink - with Sugar and Sweeteners'. Somebody somewhere is surely missing the point! Not only that fruit has its own sweetness but why add sugar and sweeteners? |  |
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It isn't just soft drinks which have started to include Aspartame, the staple of many a street-drinker, Strongbow, now states on the side of the can - though not within obvious range of its logo - that it contains 'dry cider with sugar and sweeteners! So, technically, it isn't cider. Why exactly would anybody want to make dry cider sweeter? Why not simply make sweet cider? And what sweeteners were added? Several e-mails to Bulmers did not receive a single reply but it would be safe to assume that given its pervasive use that it is probably Aspartame. |
At the healthier end of the market is another unlikely vehicle. Marks and Spencer's Blackberry and Echinacea drink sounded like the perfect combination for any natural health wise customer - described it as, 'spring water infused with natural blackberry flavour and extract of echinacea'. Or their Strawberry and Aloe Vera drink - described equally enticingly thus, 'spring water infused with natural strawberry flavour and extract of aloe vera'. But here again, Aspartame is an unwelcome invader. Surely nobody who is concerned about buying a drink which is naturally flavoured and is enlightened to the health benefits of echinacea or aloe vera is going to want a drink which contains them to be unnaturally contaminated in this way. |
| Marks and Spencer may be trying to board the health food bandwagon but one company which is surely not is Nelson's, purveyors of homeopathic and herbal remedies since 1860 and now parent company of Bach Flower Remedies, the preparations of Edward Bach. One of their most successful products is Rescue Remedy and they recently launched a new product based on this, Rescue Pastilles. It was something of a shock to find that even here - deep in the heart of natural medicine - Aspartame was being added. Here at least the company, though reluctant to concede that there are any health issues with Aspartame, stated by e-mail that the product was being reformulated without it and though it stated that the new formulation would be on sale by Spring 2007 - though it ought to be pointed out that it has not been evident. |  |
There are clues to why it seems to be finding its way into everything. The patent expired in 1992 and global production has soared. Wikipedia quotes the Holland Sweetener Company who stated that they had stopped making the chemical in late 2006 because 'global (A)spartame markets are facing structural oversupply, which has caused worldwide strong price erosion over the last 5 years' making the business 'persistently unprofitable'. So, supply exceeds demand. The consumer must be force fed a product which has the reputation of one of the most dangerous food additives because it is being manufactured to excess. The
History of Aspartame Video:
Sweet Misery Video:
Fox News report on Aspartame |
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