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Food hazards

Aspartame (NutraSweet®)

The most widely used non-nutritive sweetener is aspartame, scientifically known as 1-aspartyl 1-phenylalanine methyl ester. (Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien Nabors Ed.).  It was discovered by accident in 1965 by Mr. James Schlatter, a scientist who was working on new drugs to treat ulcers, when he licked his fingers to pick up a piece [...]

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Red Meat and the Risk of Colon Cancer

Many studies suggest that people who eat the most meat get the most cancer. Now a huge, 20-year study from the American Cancer Society confirms these findings. The bottom line: Those who eat the most red meat — beef and/or pork and/or processed meat products — get colon cancer 30% to 40% more often than [...]

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Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)

MSG is the common abbreviation for monosodium glutamate.  It is a man-made derivative of glutamic acid (or glutamate), which is an amino acid found in all complete proteins.  Glutamate occurs naturally in many plant and animal tissues, from mushrooms to milk.
Because the “free” glutamates of MSG enter the blood stream 8-10 times faster than normal [...]

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Stevia

Stevia, is a natural sweetener derived from a plant.  It is becoming a well-known option in many U.S. health food stores. A native of Paraguay and a member of the sunflower family, the stevia plant is botanically known as Stevia rebaudiana. The plant is also referred to as Bertoni, after the Italian botanist, Moises S. [...]

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Cancer Risk from Dioxin in Meat, Fish, and Dairy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported in June 2000 that it has confirmed that the highly toxic chemical compound dioxin causes cancer in humans. Dioxin comes from both natural and industrial sources, such as medical and municipal waste incinerators and paper plants.
Dioxin enters the food chain when animals eat contaminated plants. When humans consume [...]

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Sucralose (Splenda®)

The fourth FDA-approved non-nutritive sweetener is sucralose, chemically known as 1,6-dichloro-1,6-dideoxy-BETA-D-fructofuranosyl-4-chloro-4-deoxy-alpha-D-galactopyranoside (www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm).  Sucralose may have the strangest “accidental discovery” story of all. In 1976, a British sugar company by the name of Tate & Lyle was conducting experiments in collaboration with Queen Elizabeth College at the University of London, searching for ways to use sucrose [...]

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Saccharin (Sweet n’ Low®)

Saccharin is the oldest artificial sweetener.  It was discovered by Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg of John Hopkins University while working on coal tar derivatives and is about 300 times as sweet as sucrose. Saccharin is not digested by the body and goes directly through the human digestive system.  Therefore, it does not affect blood [...]

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