Have you ever wondered why the FDA exists? From the FDA website regarding food, "The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) works to assure that the food supply is safe, sanitary, wholesome, and honestly labeled."
Honestly labeled...Here is where I am want to call them to task. Where is it honest for them to allow a new artificial sweetener which contains the same chemical structure as aspartame to be approved for human consumption and yet not require that it carry a PKU (phenylketonuria - a disorder which prevents a person from properly metabolizing phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is a component in aspartame as well as a new artificial sweetener that has just been approved called adventame.
For just a moment let's step back and look at PKU, first PKU is a genetic disorder that occurs at a rate of 1 in 10,000 to 15,000. While the FDA would like to call this rare I would beg to differ. This disorder is of such great concern that all babies born in U.S. hospitals are given a heal prick test in order to check them for the marker. Untreated this disorder leads to brain damage, seizures and delayed development. As this is fairly easily managed with diet control it makes sense that products such as aspartame would contain a warning about the presence of phenylalanine in their makeup.
So, why is it that the FDA has approved advantame to be allowed on the market without having to be labeled as containing phenylalanine? Oh, well they feel that it doesn't have enough of the protein in the sweetener to cause any concern. How did they come up with this determination? Oh well you know after a mere 37 test groups some animal and some human they feel that it isn't needed. This is disturbing! While I don't suffer from PKU I do have very severe physical reactions when I ingest any form of artificial sweeteners, even chewing gum with aspartame will give me the worst migraines you can imagine. For an agency that claims to want to assure that our food supply is safe, sanitary, wholesome and honestly labeled I have little to no faith in their decisions regarding what is or is not safe for my family.
Later this week the FDA proposes to have a webinar in which they tell the world how to best put together a smart an nutritional lunch for our kids. I have to wonder, how many processed foods, chemical additives, and artificial sweeteners will they recommend we feed our children?
