-->| Epstein MD
The Safe Shopper's Bible : A Consumer's Guide to Nontoxic Household Products
"Saccharin is a 100-year-old non-nutritive, non-caloric sweetening agent… its use has exploded over the last twenty years as a staple of the diet food and drink craze. Its major current consumption is in diet pop by teenagers, and not by diabetics and the obese. The public now firmly believes that foods containing saccharin are effective in weight control, and has been persuaded by the soft drink industry (through the Calorie Control Council) that these benefits outweigh any possible health risks. |  Sinatra and I applaud the sugar-watching movement, we cringe at the fact that more people are eating—and even overeating—foods filled with potentially dangerous artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, Splenda, and saccharin. (More about this later.)
As Processed Low-Carb Products Disappear, Fresh Carbs Grab the Limelight
One of the biggest lessons of the low-carb movement has to do with the demise of many of the more than 3,000 low-carb products that glutted the market at the height of the low-carb frenzy. |  The public now firmly believes that foods containing saccharin are effective in weight control, and has been persuaded by the soft drink industry (through the Calorie Control Council) that these benefits outweigh any possible health risks."
"More than a dozen animal tests over the last thirty years have demonstrated the carcinogenic effects of saccharin in the bladder and other sites, particularly female reproductive organs, and in some instances at doses as low as the equivalent of one to two bottles of diet pop daily. | | Epstein MD
The Safe Shopper's Bible : A Consumer's Guide to Nontoxic Household Products
"Saccharin is a 100-year-old non-nutritive, non-caloric sweetening agent… its use has exploded over the last twenty years as a staple of the diet food and drink craze. Its major current consumption is in diet pop by teenagers, and not by diabetics and the obese. The public now firmly believes that foods containing saccharin are effective in weight control, and has been persuaded by the soft drink industry (through the Calorie Control Council) that these benefits outweigh any possible health risks. |  Aspartame (Equal), is probably the most commonly used artificial sweetener these days, but it's also one that I cannot recommend (see previous question).
• saccharin (Sweet'n Low) has been around for about a hundred years, and at one time it had a reputation as a cancer-causing agent because of studies in which rats got bladder tumors when they were fed incredibly high amounts (equivalent to what a human would get drinking eight hundred cans of diet soda a day). Recently, saccharine was declared safe, and probably is in reasonable amounts. |  Saccharin is a noncaloric petroleum derivative estimated to be three hundred to five hundred times sweeter than sugar… It's used in diet soft drinks… Studies done in the 1970s linked saccharin ingestion to bladder cancer in laboratory animals"
"Children who drink large quantities of diet sodas containing aspartame are particularly vulnerable to its dangerous side effects."
"Aspartame contains methyl or wood alcohol, which can affect fetal brain development."
"Twenty-one percent of the sugar in the American diet comes from soft drinks! |  So take a deep breath and remove the saccharin (Sweet'N Low®—pink); aspartame (Equal®—blue); and sucralose (Splenda®—yellow) from your home and from your daily routine.
Here's one more thought on artificial sweeteners versus sugar: Since the latter has only 16 calories per teaspoon, if you want to use an occasional teaspoon of sugar in a drink or a recipe, go ahead.
Unhealthy Oils. This includes corn oil in particular and most "vegetable" oils. |  Sweetness at a Price
Aspartame, Sucralose (in Splenda ) and saccharin are the most commonly used artificial sweeteners and have gained huge popularity among people who are concerned about their weight. In the belief that they are doing something good for themselves, they are thrilled to have found the "ideal" sweetener that satisfies their sweet tooth yet doesn't make them fat. However, mounting evidence shows that artificial sweeteners are a major health risk, causing brain damage and other problems of the nervous system. |  Stevioside is classified with artificial sweeteners such as cyclamate and saccharin as an intense sweetener because the sweetness greatly exceeds that of sucrose. Bulk sweeteners like mannitol and sorbitol are sweet like sucrose but they are not metabolised in the same way. Cyclamates and saccharin have become controversial because there is some evidence that they may be teratogenic and carcinogenic. Stevia is used in Japan but has been banned as a sweetener in the USA. |  Many practitioners suggest complete avoidance of saccharin in pregnancy [49].
In summary, medical nutrition therapy remains the cornerstone of treatment for GDM and is best prescribed by a registered dietitian or a qualified individual with experience in the management of GDM. Nutrition recommendations for GDM, including gestational weight gain, calorie intake, and macronutrient composition and distribution, are based on limited scientific evidence [58]. |  The oral suspension has: Oseltamivir, saccharin sodium (E954), Sodium benzoate (E211), Sodium dihydrogen citrate (E331 (a)), Sorbitol (E420), Titanium dioxide (E171), Tutti Frutti flavour, Maltodextrins (maize), Propylene glycol, Arabic gum (E414), Xantham gum (E415).
Various U.S. and U.N. agencies and media spread the word that the Avian Influenza, if it broke out, could have been as severe as the worldwide Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. They predicted hundreds of millions of deaths worldwide.
It did not happen. | | That's certainly your decision, but bear in mind that, although manufacturers insist their artificially sweetened products are safe and extensively tested, health concerns have been raised about most nonnutritive sweeteners on the market today, including sucralose (Splenda), aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), saccharin (Sweet'n Low, Sugar Twin, Sucaryl, Weight Watchers), and acesulfame potassium (Sunette, Sweet One). | | Intravenous Cocaine and Heroin Self-Administration in Rats Selectively Bred for Differential saccharin Intake: Phenotype and Sex Differences." Psychopharmacology 161, no. 3 (2002): 304—13.
Chocolate Manufacturers Association website, http://www.chocolateusa.org/resources/statistical-infor mation.asp.
Colantuoni, Carlo, Pedro Rada, Joseph McCarthy, Caroline Patten, Nicole M. Avena, Andrew Chadeayne, and Bartley G. Hoebel. "Evidence That Intermittent, Excessive Sugar Intake Causes Endogenous Opioid Dependence." Obesity Research 10, no. 6 (2002): 478-88.
Colantuoni, Carlo, J. Schwenker, J. |  So is saccharin, hydrogenated oils and sodium nitrite in processed meat. Result: Massive malnutrition, liver damage, and the beginnings of the diabetes and obesity epidemics that would sweep the nation over the next generation.
1970's
Place mercury into the mouths of your little children by having their cavities filled with "silver" fillings (made with 40% mercury, a potent neurotoxin). Result: Widespread mercury toxicity in children, resulting in a sharp increase in neurological conditions, including behavioral disorders, infertility and autism. |  The list of such ingredients that should be banned from the food supply -- but won't be -- include MSG, processed sodium, refined white sugar, refined white flour, aspartame, saccharin, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors, chemical preservatives, color fixer chemicals and homogenized dairy fats (which cause heart disease). By screaming "China!" to the U.S. press and pointing the finger at dangerous Chinese-made products, the Food and Drug Administration diverts scrutiny from its own lousy lack of meaningful food safety enforcement with U.S. manufacturers.
The silent treatment
U.S. |  But isn't saccharin a fake sweetener? Maybe our real sweetness also comes with a little toxicity. We have toxic habits, toxic relationships, toxic foods, and toxic cosmetics. We're all toxic. We're just trying to minimize our toxicity, which I suspect is a good thing.
But what about what we can do to initiate change? How can we become catalysts instead of junking up the gears?
One of the best ways to start being less toxic is using less energy to do things, both in your personal actions and activities and around the home. | | Tests on animals have revealed that saccharin can cause cancer of the bladder. And a recent study on aspartame conducted by the Ramazzini Foundation shows that aspartame causes a dose-dependent increase in all sorts of cancers (lymphomas, leukemias and breast cancers) when consumed at levels comparable to those ingested by humans in diet soft drinks. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), the most widely-read environmental science journal in the world. | | Saccharin use and sugar intake by college students. J. Am. Diet. Assoc. 76, 560-563.
162. Colditz, G. A., Willett, W. C, Stampfer, M. J., London, S. J., Segal, M. R., and Speizer, F. E. (1990). Patterns of weight change and their relation to diet in a cohort of healthy women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 51, 1100-1105.
163. Richardson, J. F. (1972). The sugar intake of businessmen and its inverse relationship with relative weight. Br. J. Nutr. 27, 449-460.
164. Chen, L. N. A., and Parham, E. S. (1991). | | To date, five nonnutritive sweeteners have FDA approval: acesulfame potassium, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, and sucralose. Prior to approval, all of these compounds have been tested in humans including people with diabetes and women during pregnancy [12].
III. MACRONUTRIENT INTAKE A. Protein
Historically, the protein content, both type and amount, of the diet in patients with type 2 diabetes has played a secondary role to carbohydrate and fat. General concerns for dietary protein adequacy are to maintain lean body mass and nitrogen balance whether people have diabetes or not. | | Separating the actions of sweetness and calories—Effects of saccharin and carbohydrates on hunger and food-intake in human subjects. Physiol. Behav. 45, 1093-1099.
158. Lavin, P. T., Sanders, P. G., Mackey, M. A., and Kotsonis, F. N. (1994). Intense sweeteners use and weight change among women—A critique of the Stellman and Garfinkel study. /. Am. Coll. Nutr. 13, 102-105.
159. Renwick, A. G. (1994). Intense sweeteners, food-intake, and the weight of a body of evidence. Physiol. Behav. 55, 139-143.
160. McCann, M. B., Trulson, M. F., and Stulb, S. C. (1956). | | Rogers and Blundell [157] extended their finding by demonstrating that following the ingestion of saccharin, not only are subjects hungrier, but they increased their food intake. Thus, rather than being an aid to weight reduction, these studies were suggesting that artificial sweeteners may actually cause a gain in body weight.
Conflicts in science usually resolve themselves with replication and increased scrutiny. |  I was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Expert Panel on saccharin and Food Safety Policy (1978-79), which was charged with evaluating the potential danger of saccharin at a time when the public was up in arms after the FDA proposed banning the artificial sweetener. I was one of the first scientists to isolate dioxin; I have firsthand knowledge of the MIT lab that did the key work on nitrites, and I spent many years researching and publishing on anatoxin, one of the most carcinogenic chemicals ever discovered—at least for rats. |  Prominent health organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, and the American Dietetics Association also support saccharin's safety. Among the voices against lifting the saccharin warning on labels has been the nonprofit food watchdog agency Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CSPI charged that the favorable evaluation of saccharin was "unscientific" because about half of the twenty-six-member review committee was tied to industry. |  This same drug company also created saccharin, the artificial chemical sweetener.
4. Drug giant Merck pioneered the commercial manufacture of morphine from opium and was a heavy pusher and marketer of cocaine. Merck also patented MDMA (Ecstasy, the rave drug). After World War II, Merck also began producing pesticides and food preservatives.
5. Ritalin is "speed" for children. |  Examples of other suspected dietary promoters are saccharin, excess dietary fat, and excessive use of coffee or caffeine. It is estimated by cancer researchers that the instance of gastric carcinoma in the United States has decreased by
The Top Ten Cancers
The following are the ten most common types of cancer for men and women, ranked in order from one to ten.
For Men
For Women
1. Prostate
2. Lung
3. Colon & Rectum
4. Bladder
5. Lymphoma
6. Skin
7. Oral
8. Kidney
9. Leukemia
10. Stomach
1. Breast
2. Lung
3. Colon & Rectum
4. Uterus
5. Ovary
6. Lymphoma
7. | | Prominent health organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, and the American Dietetics Association also support saccharin's safety. Among the voices against lifting the saccharin warning on labels has been the nonprofit food watchdog agency Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CSPI charged that the favorable evaluation of saccharin was "unscientific" because about half of the twenty-six-member review committee was tied to industry. | | They added that the committee inappropriately ignored or dismissed all the evidence that saccharin caused cancer in humans or animals, except for the well-accepted link to bladder cancer in male rats. CSPI's position is that the evidence on saccharin is mixed, and it should continue to be considered a potential carcinogen until further evidence suggests otherwise. Likewise, a panel representing the NIH recommended against removing saccharin from the list of chemicals that may possibly cause cancer in humans. | | These results would suggest that sweeteners are not effective in reducing body weight. However, it might be argued that those subjects with the largest body weight had the greatest need for sweeteners to reduce their caloric intake, but apparently, this is not the case. Richardson [163] found no difference in sweetener use between people who restrict their sugar intake compared to those who do not. Consequently, the "need" to use sweeteners for weight reduction cannot explain these results. |  While earlier versions of artificial sweeteners—like saccharin and cyclamates—were embroiled in controversy over their health effects, some of the newer products appear to be considerably safer.
Certain natural sweeteners are even better choices. In fact, our top choice is Sweet Fiber, a proprietary mixture of tagatose, xylitol, inulin, and natural flavor that's available from Dr. Murray Natural Living. Let's look at this and other alternatives in turn.
Stevia
The most popular natural sweetener is stevia, which is extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana plant. | |
Email this page to a friend
