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Every time I come across artificial food ingredients, I wonder what's wrong with our natural food. Why do sugar substitutes and artificially created ingredients receive such an enormous attention? Why can the industry freely and without prove advertise artificial sweeteners as being healthy? Can the label 'zero calories' automatically indicate that the product is good for your health?

Consumers are mislead, although nowadays it is easy to obtain information on the internet and one has got no excuse. The reason why I'm writing this article is the misinformation I come across almost daily in newspapers, magazines and other media. A big variety of snacks, diet products and soft drinks containing artificial sweeteners are advertised as being beneficial for health. I regard this as a deception per se. It means the industry does not shy away from targeting your health concerns for their business. Let me give you an example. There is a long list of promoted diet products with this name on their ingredients label. What is Aspartame? Does our body know how to handle it? Our digestive system is programmed to deal with natural molecule structures and does not know how to process artificial ones.

Aspartame contains Methanol. Studies show that this is a dangerous neurotoxin, is carcinogenic, interferes with the DNA and causes several other severe health problems. Methanol is needed to fuse together two amino acids to create the sugar substitute Aspartame. In our body Methanol breaks down into Formic Acid and Formaldehyde.

Long term studies on rats by an Italian Cancer Institute, the Ramazzini Foundation, found increases in Lymphomas, Leukemias and Breast Cancer. The rats were given 20 mg of Aspartame per kilogram of body weight. This is comparable to a 50 pound child consuming 21/2 cans of diet soda. This doesn't sound alarming as currently the acceptable daily intake is set at 50 mg/kg of body weight. But there are hundreds of other products which contain Aspartame and are likely to be consumed by kids and adults alike. It all adds up. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) downgraded the rating of Aspartame to 'everyone should avoid'. Experts are calling on the FDA to review the Aspartame Cancer risk. Remember, this is a multi billion dollar industry and the pressure on the authorities to turn a blind eye to this issue is high. Ultimately you are responsible for your health, so just stop consuming products containing artificial sweeteners as a precaution.

If you have got a sweet tooth like I do, use brown sugar or honey in a moderate amount as a sweetener. It is a natural substance, tastes lovely and does not do you any harm. And do you know that pure water as a replacement of diet sodas is most beneficial to your health by hydrating your body and flushing out toxins? I'm sure you do! Then I need to say no more.