I can not stress to you all the need to avoid this chemical at all costs. These artificial sweeteners destroy ones internal organs slowly, produced neurotoxic compounds in the body, wreak havoc on the brain and body chemistry. Avoid all artificial sweeteners: aspartame, nutrasweet, splenda, saccharin, sucralose, phenylalanine etc. If you want to reduce sugar intake or use a non calorie sugar then use STEVIA...otherwise just use plain sugar. In this article there are some facts that are blatantly WRONG.
Aspartame was developed originally as a PESTICIDE by Searle. The scientist that developed it created the "POISON" with a chemical that gave it a sweet taste believing that pests would be more attracted to it as opposed to a straight chemical like RAID. Some 'sick' scientist thought the product could be used as a artificial sweetener because of the SWEET taste and tried to market it as another sugar substitute product. When they reached the FDA with the product for approval, the FDA DENIED it because they found out about the dangers of the components. At the time Donald Rumsfeld was the president of Searle and contacted his "friends" in Washington who inturn overturned the FDA's decision and allowed this product to market. Since its wide scale usage there has been a corresponding increase in everything from Diabetes, cancer, asthma, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis and a long list of previously little known diseases and conditions. Ted Kennedy had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the marketing or approval of this product. I guess the writer thought it convenient that a dead man can not speak up for himself and has decided to change the facts in this story to clear Rumsfeld name while poisoning Kennedy's. Shameful. Nonetheless avoid this shit at all cost and make it a habit of looking at the ingredient labels on everything ...even food you have been using for years as the manufacturer may change ingredients and put this in the food, which can have a detrimental effect on your health.
Beware - Aspartame Has Been Renamed 'AminoSweet'And is now being marketed as a 'natural' sweetener!By Ethan Huff
Citizen Journalist
2-13-10
In response to growing awareness about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, what does the manufacturer of one of the world's most notable artificial sweeteners do? Why, rename it and begin marketing it as natural, of course. This is precisely the strategy of Ajinomoto, maker of aspartame, which hopes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public with its rebranded version of aspartame, called "AminoSweet".
Over 25 years ago, aspartame was first introduced into the European food supply. Today, it is an everyday component of most diet beverages, sugar-free desserts, and chewing gums in countries worldwide. But the tides have been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. The latest aspartame marketing scheme is a desperate effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary.
Aspartame was an accidental discovery by James Schlatter, a chemist who had been trying to produce an anti-ulcer pharmaceutical drug for G.D. Searle & Company back in 1965. Upon mixing aspartic acid and phenylalanine, two naturally-occurring amino acids, he discovered that the new compound had a sweet taste. The company merely changed its FDA approval application from drug to food additive and, voila, aspartame was born.
G.D. Searle & Company first patented aspartame in 1970. An internal memo released in the same year urged company executives to work on getting the FDA into the "habit of saying yes" and of encouraging a "subconscious spirit of participation" in getting the chemical approved.
G.D. Searle & Company submitted its first petition to the FDA in 1973 and fought for years to gain FDA approval, submitting its own safety studies that many believed were inadequate and deceptive. Despite numerous objections, including one from its own scientists, the company was able to convince the FDA to approve aspartame for commercial use in a few products in 1974, igniting a blaze of controversy.
In 1976, then FDA Commissioner Alexander Schmidt wrote a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy expressing concern over the "questionable integrity of the basic safety data submitted for aspartame safety". FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill believed that a grand jury should investigate G.D. Searle & Company for lying about the safety of aspartame in its reports and for concealing evidence proving the chemical is unsafe for consumption.
Despite the myriad of evidence gained over the years showing that aspartame is a dangerous toxin, it has remained on the global market with the exception of a few countries that have banned it. In fact, it continued to gain approval for use in new types of food despite evidence showing that it causes neurological brain damage, cancerous tumors, and endocrine disruption, among other things.
The details of aspartame's history are lengthy, but the point remains that the carcinogen was illegitimately approved as a food additive through heavy-handed prodding by a powerful corporation with its own interests in mind. Practically all drugs and food additives are approved by the FDA not because science shows they are safe but because companies essentially lobby the FDA with monetary payoffs and complete the agency's multi-million dollar approval process.
Changing aspartame's name to something that is "appealing and memorable", in Ajinomoto's own words, may hoodwink some but hopefully most will reject this clever marketing tactic as nothing more than a desperate attempt to preserve the company's multi-billion dollar cash cow. Do not be deceived.
Sources
Ajinomoto brands aspartame 'AminoSweet' -
http://www.foodbev.com/news/ajinomoto-brands-aspartame-aminosweet Aspartame History Highlights - Janet Starr Hull
http://www.sweetpoison.com/articles/0908/aspartame_history.html FDA's approval of aspartame under scrutiny - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
http://www.wnho.net/fdas_approval_of_aspartame_under_scrutiny.pdf An Overdue Ban On A Dangerous Sweetener - Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-s-epstein/an-overdue-ban-on-a-dange_b_250249.html 
