By now many of you are probably familiar with the Aspartame scare. There are so many sites and books out there about the dangers of the additive (which experts claim is actually an addictive drug), but for all that fuss, it makes you wonder why it’s still in your drink.

Well, I’m not here to talk about the actual side-effects, or preach about why it should be avoided. In case you want to learn more on what they say Aspartame can do to you, you can check out the 92 Side-effects, which surprisingly includes “death”.

So what’s this really about? It’s about the miserable cycle that keeps us in fear of such a sweet taste.

When companies come up with products, with such chemicals (fluoride being among them btw), we buy and get used to using them. Like when I first heard about the supposed dangers of fluoride, I instantly thought — it can’t be that bad. After all everyone I know brushes his or her teeth at least twice a day.  But what about the statistics? That point-something-something percent that in fact, did experience these side-effects? What if I wake up one morning and realize that I fit nicely into those statistics?

So we don’t do anything until it’s too late. And the media doesn’t do anything till it’s too late. Correction, the media is involved, but only to a certain extent. And the companies, despite naggings, will not do anything — perhaps until something major happens. While this isn’t a revolt, I just think it’s pretty strange.

I could sum it up in this make-believe statement from Diet Cola Drinker X, “Yeah, I heard there was something up with this. But it can’t be that bad, can it? If it were, the government would tell me, and anyways I’ll worry about that if something happens.”

To which the government replies, “We’ll worry about that if something happens.”

I think governments should settle it once and for all. We shouldn’t have to pick whatever we want to believe on something like this.

Technorati tags: health, aspartame, side effects, diet cola, toxins, poison

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 at 9:47 am and is filed under Science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.