do you ever drink diet soda? use artificial sweetener in your tea? if you consume aspartame (sold under the trade names nutrasweet, equal, neotame, canderal, spoonful, equal-measure, etc., all manufactured by g.d. searle & company), you should be aware of the following:when broken down by the body, aspartame becomes methanol (wood alcohol), formaldehyde (which your body stores forever in your brain and other fatty tissues, where it builds up over time), phenylalinine and aspartic acid (two amino acids which can cause tumors and brain damage).
aspartame is 180 times sweeter than sugar, and is known to cause a craving for additional calories. so if you're using artificial sweeteners to lose weight, you're actually taking two steps back. aspartame accounts for 75% of all of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the fda, and may harm unborn children.
if you happen to consume aspartame in combination with msg (used in many snack foods), or ritalin (used in the treatment of attention deficit disorder), it may cause depression, mood swings, or panic attacks.
and, finally: aspartame was originally rejected by the fda as unsafe for human consumption. the president of searle at that time - donald rumsfeld (we shit you not) - lobbied hard to change fda's stance and won approval for aspartame. after, all 14 of the fda scientists that voted for approval wound up on searle's payroll.
we use honey, here at elsewhen: non-toxic, plenty sweet for earl grey, and it never spoils. plus we like bees.