Shakespeare famously observed in a line from his play, Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
It’s a very poetic way of saying that what something is matters more than what someone calls it.
But the reverse is also true. If someone handed you a plate full of rotten, stinking eggs, and told you they were health food, you’d laugh in their face. We all trust the evidence of our senses when it comes to something this obvious. But sometimes the choice isn’t as obvious as smelly old eggs.
A similar event is happening right now in the world of health. It involves a well known artificial sweetener that’s getting a name change so it can be marketed as health food.
The sweetener? Aspartame, which is commonly marketed as Nutrisweet®.
Before we talk about how evil this bait and switch tactic is, here’s a bit of trivia for you – before the FDA stopped counting complaints against it in 1992, Aspartame accounted for between 78% and 85% of all complaints the FDA received.
In other words, more that 3 complaints out of 4 the FDA received were for this substance. Sounds like health food, doesn’t it?
We’ll leave the question of why the FDA didn’t immediately yank this poison from the marketplace for another day. For now, let’s focus on the most recent outrage.
Apparently Ajinomoto, the makers of Aspartame, are losing market share to the competition. Their response? Rename Aspartame to “AminoSweet” and call it a “healthy” sweetener.
Yeah, that should do it.
To set this clearly in your mind, here is a partial list of the known health problems associated with this “healthy” sweetener:
| Tachycardia Brain Cancer Breast Cancer Leukemia Lymphomas Lupus (SLE) Diabetes Mellitus Fatigue Grave’s Disease Joint Pain Anxiety Convulsions Deafness Depression Headaches Insomnia |
Irritability Memory impairment Migraine Multiple Sclerosis Nausea Neuralgia Neuritis Neuropathy Numbness Blindness (due to Methanol) Speech Impairment Loss of the Sense of Taste Tinnitus Vertigo |
The bottom line is that this “healthy sweetener” is actually poison. Based on that, here’s my recommended marketing slogan for AminoSweet: “How sweet, it isn’t.”
All the best,
Dr. Bruce
P.S. – Getting and staying healthy is always a mix of doing the right things and avoiding those things that damage your health. It can be complex to sort everything out and make progress. If you want help and support in getting yourself back on top of your game, call my office at 775-827-6901 or email me by clicking here.
References:
Hyperhealth Pro Database, In-Tele-Health, Hansville, WA, 2008.
What do you think? Please comment below to tell me. (click on 'comments' below)
Loading ...
