Artificial sweeteners and our food.

One of my themes concerning the actions of Big Pharma drug companies is that they do not allow considerations of human health to interfere with their profits. My contention is that they manufacture drugs known to be harmful to our health, hide this information from view, market the drug, pocket the profits, and only then does the harm done by pharma drugs become an issue.

Surely Big Food companies do not do the same thing! Well, actually, they do!

Big Food play the same 'for profit' games as Big Pharma - at the expense of our health.

Sweetening our food is just one example. One way to increase food consumption is to sweeten it. And lots of foods are sweetened to make them poor palatable to us, more likely that we will buy them. Many do not need sweetening. Many sweetened foods are not sweetened by 'natural' sugars, but by artificial chemicals, such as aspartame.

There is, according to this article, a new 'artificial sweetener' disease. It has many symptoms. Recurring headaches, unbearable migraines, depression, anxiety, muscle pain, arthritis, buzzing or ringing in ears, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgfia, irritable bowel disease, Crohn's disease, inflammation, acid reflus. But as the article says, it is never called ASD - artificial sweetener disease. This article suggests that the Gulf War Syndrome can be connected to artificial sweeteners.

This article looks closer at the connection between sweeteners and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBF). It links them with brain lesions, enlarged and calcified kidneys, male infertility, increased mortality, and even spontaneous abortions in rabbits!

Violence can also be also linked to sweeteners in teenagers. As the article said, the soft drinks beloved of so many children are entirely devoid of nutrition, but are drunk is large quantities. "Diets high in refined sugar can also cause high blood sugar levels and hypoglycemic episodes, which profoundly impact our physical and psychological health. Hypoglycemic episodes often lead to angry and violent outbursts, and could be a direct cause of violence in children".

And as the article says, soft drinks also contain caffeine, which can contribute to hypoglycemic episodes and can also provoke aggression by raising adrenaline levels. Strange, then, that we so often give our children these drinks - as a treat!

Aspartame is the best known of these sweeteners, and as this article states, it is probably the most dangerous substance added to our food. Apparently, Aspartame accounts for over 75% of adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. This article explains the diseases caused by this poison, and how it is made. It is in a vast number of food and drink products, particularly if something is described as 'low sugar', or 'diet'.

Aspartame comes under many names? Perhaps they are all invented to confuse us - and no doubt they fool far too many of us! Aspartame brand names includ NutraSweet, Equal, Sweet One, and Spoonful.

Yet if you want to see dramatically what Aspartame does to living organisms, look at this remarkable article! It kills Ants. And Ants soon learn to avoid it. It is a pity humanity cannot respond to this poison in the same way!

But we don't, we even think that drinks containing artificial sweeteners are good for us! This article looks at sports drinks and sweeteners. Such drinks are regularly and intensively advertised, portraying them as 'scientifically' formulated to help athletes rehydrate their bodies after exertion. This kind of 'science' is the same 'science' that supports the Big Pharma industry - bought science, cheque-book science, science serving those who wish to make big profits at our expense.

Yet we do want to have sweeteners in our food and drink, and not all of them are bad for us. This article advises us to use only the best natural sweeteners. It contains good, sensible advice for anyone wanting to avoid the health impact of artificial, Big Food, for profit sweeteners.

We are what we eat (2)

'The Food Hospital' is a series of Channel 4 television programmes (8pm, Tuesday evenings). Last night's edition featured a young girl, a dancer, who suffered from Crohn's Disease. She was taking Steroids to control her condition, although it appears they were not doing so. In order to replace them, she was given a dietary programme, which she followed, with what appeared to be outstanding results.

The Channel 4 webpage is entitled 'Using food as medicine'. I mention it for three reasons.

First, to congratulate Channel 4 for having the audacity to transmit a programme that is mildly critical of ConMed drugs - not something that the mainstream media (and certainly not the BBC) does often.

Second, it highlights the growing realisation that there are better, safer, and more effective responses to disease that resorting to Big Pharma drugs, and that tiny pockets within the NHS are now prepared to recognise this (another example is the greater use of 'talking therapies' in the treatment of depression).

And third, the central importance of good diet to our health and well-being. We are, indeed, what we eat!

Although this series of blogs does not give dietary advice, it is going to focus on many issues concerned with what is wrong with the food and drink that we consume, or perhaps more accurately, the food and drink we are encouraged (by big food corporations) to consume. Indeed, the concept of the 'Big Food' industry is going to be central to many of the arguments used here.

Big Food 'adds value' to food by processing it.

But the 'value' added to our food is a monetary rather than dietary concept. Food, taken from the ground, and consumed in its (almost) natural form, is usually inexpensive, and good for our health, our well-being, and our energy levels. The more that food is processed the more expensive it becomes - and the less value it is to us, and the way we function.

Take, for example, this article about the chicken we eat - especially from 'fast food' outlets, such as McDonalds. This is not fresh chicken, taken from the field, and cooked. As the article states, the 'chicken' is only 50% of what you are eating. You are also eating foaming agents, and preservatives - not there to assist your health, but to enhance profit. As the author states, not many people realise what they are eating. It is called chicken - so we believe it to be chicken.

Or this article about Pringles Potato chips. Made from potatoes. Well, no - actually they are made from a slurry of rice, wheat, corn and potato flakes that are then pressed into shape, cooked. An enjoyable, harmless snack? Well, no - as the author explains, rather than eating something we consider good and wholesome, the production process actually creates Acrylamide, a substances known to be carcinogenic.


Over the coming weeks and months, we will examine more about food, how Big Food produces it, processes it, and profit from it, often at the expense of our health.

We Are What We Eat (1)

The idea behind the phrase 'you are what you eat' is that in order to be healthy you need to eat a 'good' diet. The origins of that phrase itself was to reinforce what is self-evident - that the quality of the food we eat has an enormous bearing on our state of mind, and on our health.

Hitherto, I have not ventured into this arena. I am not a nutritionist. But like all of us, we should be aware of the quality of food and drink that we consume. And for most of us, we are not as fully aware, and certainly not as fully informed, as we should be. Much of what we eat and drink is not good for us, or our state of mind, or our health. Some is positively dangerous. And the situation is not improving, ideed, it is probably getting worse.

And the reasons are similar to the situation regarding dangerous Big Pharma drugs. Big Food, the massive food processing industries, are providing food which, for a variety of reasons, are not good for us. They are usually cheap; they usually come alongside considerable advertising. But the foods are processed in a way that boosts Big Food's profits, but is bad for our health.

And there is the same uncanny silence from the mainstream media towards 'Big Food' as there is to 'Big Pharma' - there would appear to be a cosy relationship between the Corporate Giants in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Media industries.

Aspartame and artificial sweeteners
Intensive farming and soil quality
Herbicides and pesticides
GM Food
The fluoridation of water supply

These all have an impact on our health, especially if they are eaten regularly, and in quantity.

And then there are foods that can actually assist us maintain our health - usually simple foods, and often readily available - so they do not generate profit - and therefore the attention they deserve.

YAWYE will become another regular feature of this blog; and if you would like to follow some of the stories, please make sure you are joined up, and receive notifications of new blogs.

Sweetening the Medicine?

Although my blog focuses on Big Pharma, it is a toss-up whether they, or Big Food does more to damage our health. But now, it would appear, they are beginning to co-operate!

Nestlé today announced the creation of Nestlé Health Science S.A. and the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences to pioneer a new industry between food and pharma. These two separate organisations will allow Nestlé to develop the innovative area of personalised health science nutrition to prevent and treat health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease, which are placing an unsustainable burden on the world’s healthcare systems.

It can be argued very strongly that Big Food is implicated in the epidemic levels of diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. So now they going to put ConMed drugs in our Kit Kat bars!

I wonder if they will bother to tell us? Or are we just to take the medicine, sweetened as it will be.

They obviously have no shame.