Aspartame is already allowed in your kids’ milk. Now they want to erase it from the labels. Action Alert!
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) are petitioning the FDA to let them remove any reference to non-nutritive sweeteners, mainly aspartame, from milk labels in school lunches. They claim—in one of the most spectacular failures of logic we’ve ever seen—that not labeling the milk “promotes honesty and fair-dealing in the interest of consumers.” Huh?
Non-nutritive sweeteners are already allowed and included in the flavored milk used in school lunch programs. Many school children already drink flavored milk, so this gives the dairy industry a bigger market share while also falling within the low-calorie guidelines of the USDA School Lunch Program.
Of course, the intent of the program guidelines is to provide healthier meals for children, so aspartame already violates the spirit of those guidelines. Aspartame is an extraordinarily dangerous and potentially carcinogenic chemical. Now they’re trying to remove FDA labeling requirements, arguing that labeling requirements makes the milk less attractive to children and might mislead children on the overall nutritive value of the milk—though they provide no data to back up this claim.
Labeling is important for children (and parents), who have a right to choose milk without aspartame or other non-nutritive sweeteners—chemicals which have no place in school lunch program in the first place. By removing this labeling requirement, consumers won’t know the difference between artificially flavored milk and regular milk—and we’d be denied the right to choose milk that doesn’t contain artificial sweeteners and flavorings.
School lunch is big business. USDA provides $1 billion each year to buy food for the program. Dairy has a vested interest in following the guidelines that qualifies them for the program, though they’ve balked at disclosing just how they are meeting those guidelines.
Here’s an example of how powerful the chemical sweetener industry is: a human aspartame study at Harvard spanning a whopping twenty-two years, funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, found a clear association between aspartame consumption and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukemia in men. But not a half hour after the study results were revealed, Harvard caved to pressure from industry and issued a press release that minimized the impact of the study, calling the findings “equivocal” and the data “weak,” when in fact the opposite was true.
As we reported in 2011, aspartame also decreases the ability of the body to absorb tryptophan and reduces serotonin levels. Ten percent of aspartame is methanol, which is converted to formaldehyde which, in turn, is converted to formic acid—which is used to strip epoxy! The other 90% is composed of phenylalanine and aspartic acid. These amino acids are normally harmless, but in isolation they are neurotoxic. Aspartame has also been implicated in the development of Gulf War syndrome. Huge amounts of diet drinks were shipped to Gulf War troops, who were drinking it in high temperatures. In 1985, Coca-Cola apparently expressed reservations about proposed FDA approval of aspartame for beverages, noting that aspartame is uniquely and inherently unstable and breaks down in the can. When stored or heated above 85 degrees F, aspartame may decompose into formaldehyde (embalming fluid), methanol (wood alcohol), formic acid (ant sting venom), diketopiperazine (an agent in brain tumors), and other toxins. This of course didn’t stop Coke from eventually deciding to use it. Aspartame was approved only because of the revolving door between industry and the FDA.
Not only are such artificial sweeteners unhealthy, but so are the artificial colors found in kids’ drinks, which can lead to hyperactivity, allergic reactions, and possibly even cancer.
The dairy industry petitioners are using school lunch program guidelines as a foot in the door. They also want to remove labeling requirements for seventeen other dairy products included in the petition, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with the school lunch program.
Action Alert! Please tell FDA to oppose this petition. Tell them how important truthful and complete labeling is—not only for school lunches but on all the foods your family eats. Tell them the dangers of aspartame and other non-nutritive sweeteners, and make them do their job of protecting the public. Send your message today!
Deceitful dairy is on the rise! I just shared it on Facebook & Twitter. Thanks for sharing this article and keeping us in the loop.
Uh, this is a sore topic for me.
I get extremely bad headaches each time I drink anything with aspartame in it. My vision soon becomes blurry and my thinking fuzzy for hours afterwards. Not a fun reaction, so I read every label without fail, and eventually stopped drinking soda altogether in favor of mineral water. Just easier this way, have poured diet soda down the drain numerous times because it is poison to me.
If my adult system rejects it, no matter what anyone attests about safety of this man-made ingredient, can only wonder how many others, including school kids, need to avoid all products with aspartame in it.
Who is running this FDA anyway?
“Who is running this FDA anyway? ”
Would you believe the Rockefeller clan who is in charge of HHS. Until we the people realize this FACT our health will continue to deteriorate. IMO EXPECT such ILLEGAL actions as a matter of course from our “health protectors” because in fact they are complicit in the UN Agenda 21 Depopulation mandate.
I know this is all very hard to accept but until we accept the truth we are at EXTREME risk. They are clearly getting bolder and bolder. Next on the agenda FORCED “vaccinations” which as we should know also contain aspartame. So we are to be forced to go from eating aspartame to main lining it. With “protectors” like this who need enemies?
http://healthyprotocols.com/aspartame.htm
FDA, I guess it’s too much to ask you to do your job or care however with the hope of many voters me included we want you to not allow the diary industry to put aspartame and other crap
and what not all dairy products like kids milk in the school lunch programs and their desire now
not to have a mandatory labeling requirement whats in their mik that will be then so darn good for us and our children right, like hell it will.
Please stop adding poisons to our food supply. You are making the United States citizens unhealthy. Milk was once a healthy choice for our children. Now everything, right down to our water is filled with known poisons.
We have the most Obese people in our country, even with some making good food choices and staying active. Extensive studies have confirmed fluoride to affect the function of the thyroid gland. Before fluoride was added to our water supply, our dentists knew it was toxic if swallowed; certainly the FDA should know that. Yet, in the USA, we can’t drink our tap water because of the hazardous chemicals added.
Last, but not least..
Please inform us of the ingredients in our food! Allow us to make our own choice what we eat and drink. Thank you
Attn: FDA
Im sure you understand the risk of aspartame and
Protecting our children is so important. Please ban
This sweetener ! I don’t know how something so harmful
Can be approved as sweetener????????
This is an outrage. Studies have proved these sweeteners are a detriment to health and well being.
Aspartame is possibly deadly and all politicians can do is think of their pockets, what scum.
The issue of aspartame becoming formaldehyde ought to be broadcast far and wide. I’ll bet you can find sponsors for such a message, at least for relatively inexpensive radio ads. Jon
Aspartame is rat poison……stop poisoning our children. The FDA and Dept. Of Ag are reprehensible. Disgusting…..
Aspertame is a neurotoxin. No one should be ingesting it, but especially not our children. Many people have severe adverse reactions to it ( like my daughter and myself). Please don’t sneak it into anyone’s food or drink. Thank you.
Can’t the profiteers leave anything natural alone?
This is an outrage! Many individuals are sensitive to aspartame, such as my husband. He suffered “ice pick” headaches for years, until I finally suggested he stop drinking Diet Coke and using the “pink stuff” to sweeten his tea. Almost immediately the headaches went away. Kids have a hard enough time without being unknowingly poisoned!
Call the FDA ASAP and have this situation stopped immediately!!! Isn’t this a “false claim”???? FDA?
We really must wonder what is happening in the tiny minds of the FDA. Aspartame is icky and I want nothing to do with it. That goes double for my children.
Okay, so what is the point of having ingredients labeled, if we are NOT going to label the ingredients? This makes no sense at all. Plus, those that have been found to be CARCINOGENIC ? Get real.
Who is lining your pockets FDA? If a company with a big fat bank account approached you and asked to have no labeling requirements for cocaine, would you say, oh yeah, sure? Recall that is one of the ingredients that Coke added to its formula, but had to remove, once labeling was required.
Recall that is the whole point of labeling. So the consumer can CHOOSE what is ingested by their own bodies, and those of their children.
FDA, get to work and stop getting stuffed into the pockets of big business. You work for We, The People, not corporations.
Wow, this country is really going downhill. Our government is legally corrupt. Are you getting this?!?
What excuse (tainted milk?) can be used to justify adding a poisonous substance to our kids’ ‘recommended’ beverage? A good reason for finding another source of milk before I’d allow any child of mine to consume this junk!
Looks like you guys need to wake the FRACK up!!!
Aspartame is NOT SAFE. Coconut Sugar is SAFER but, it’s not an American Product.
The solution for many American problems might be solved when “Conflict of Interest” legislation is put in force then enforced. Pretty simple legal standing that’s understood by most folks. No Grandfathering of past acts, rules and legislation – might clean up our systems.
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Spread the word and stop this FDA nonsense.