<p>Aspartame, a known carcinogen, used as artificial sweetener has changed its name to AminoSweet, as a marketing ploy to save it from its previous image. Aspartame was actually first synthesized as an anti-ulcer drug, but worked its way thru FDA approval as a food additive.</p>
<p>If you are interested, here is a fuller article.</p>
<p>Is anyone is interested, read up on aspartame (Wikipedia will do). It has been the subject of much fear mongering and hoaxes, but is accepted as safe worldwide, including by the FDA. Then look up the Health Freedom Alliance and realize they are a bunch of quacks (they are anti-vaccines, they claim lemon juice "cleanses the blood, liver and kidneys, etc., etc. etc.) Please folks, consider the source before posting junk medicine.</p>
<p>^ Yup, change the name to get around the rumours more like it. </p>
<p>You can find anything you want on the internet, especially around ‘health’. I dare you to name anything we ingest and I will find you the article that tells us to be very afraid of it. Go ahead, i’ll show you. </p>
<p>I say show me the peer reviewed meta-analytic studies demonstrating its a carcinogen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all a defender of the FDA and the status quo. I was very involved in encouraging the ban on Bispenol-A in our country. I eat organic food when I can. </p>
<p>But for the most part, if I need to understand something, I trust independent scientists and not some particular individuals with a belief or an agenda and access to a website.</p>
<p>Aspartame has been approved by the FDA as a food additive; stevia has not. Stevia is being sold as a dietary supplement – a category of products that is less strictly regulated than food additives. </p>
<p>This is a non-story. Aspartame hasn’t been “renamed” AminoSweet. AminoSweet is just another trade name for the product, just like NutraSweet already is.</p>
<p>I would also say that to me, “AminoSweet” doesn’t sound particularly natural or appealing.</p>
<p>Many people can tolerate aspartame, but others can’t. People with phenylketonuria definitely can’t.</p>
<p>My adult son started drinking beverages with aspartame and developed chronic headaches. When he stopped drinking that kind of beverage, the headaches stopped.</p>
<p>So many people have similar experiences that it’s difficult to discount them.</p>
<p>I’d say that if you have absolutely no health issues at all, it probably would be fine to ingest aspartame. Others might reconsider.</p>
<p>Stevia comes from a South American shrub and has been used there for centuries; aspartame is an artificial concoction.</p>
<p>“In 2008, the FDA stated that the use of a refined stevia preparation called Rebiana is generally recognized as safe, and can be used as a food ingredient. Products include, Good & Sweet, PureVia, Reb A, SweetLeaf Stevia Sweetener, Sun Crystals (which combines stevia and sugar), and Truvia.”</p>
<p>This is a common misconception. People tend to equate “Natural” with “safe”. There are many natural substances that I would avoid at all costs, e.g., toxins produced by marine organisms.</p>
<p>I’m not a fan of any non-absorbable sugar substitutes, but if one does not suffer from PKU, one has to eat a bowl full of Aspatame (and metabolize it all at once!) to ingest a lethal dose of methanol.</p>
<p>Are toxins produced by marine organisms used in any kind of supplement or treatment?</p>
<p>I guess I can see how something being used for centuries would not recommend certain things (cocaine? opium?) but in general it seems to me to be a reasonable guideline when it comes to foods.</p>
<p>Not related to Stevia per se, but whenever patients tell one particular doctor I know that all the supplements they are taking are “natural,” he always replies, “well, so is rattlesnake venom.” Many patients take natural supplements which are harmful by virtue of drug interactions or other factors. Natural does not necessarily equal safe or effective.</p>
<p>"Are toxins produced by marine organisms used in any kind of supplement or treatment?</p>
<p>I guess I can see how something being used for centuries would not recommend certain things (cocaine? opium?) but in general it seems to me to be a reasonable guideline when it comes to foods."</p>
<p>In fact, some marine organism derived toxins and snake venoms are used in the pharmaceutical industry. Of course, not as GRAS excipients or orally administered drugs. </p>
<p>When it comes to foods and supplements, one does not have to go too far to find an example of a product that had been touted as safe. Look up the infamous Phen-Fen.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, that blue-green algae link seems to warn about contaminants, not toxins in the algae in its pure form.</p>
<p>I agree that using natural sugar in very, very small amounts…or just using fruit as one’s sweet, as the poster called overseas does, is probably best.</p>
<p>Something else that has been used for thousands of years is herbs. Many are quite powerful and could be dangerous. One must be very, very careful about purity, possible drug interactions, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Regarding Phen-Fen, Thalidomide, etc…it’s probably best not to take any brand new drug or artificial supplement, unless you have some horrible disease or condition where the possible benefit seems to far exceed any risk.</p>