Brandon Turbeville
Activist Post
September 3, 2012
PepsiCo has decided that
aspartame, a neuro-toxin used in their diet cola products as a sweetener, is not
“sweet enough” and are “testing a new mix of artificial sweeteners” that will
retain its potency longer than high fructose corn syrup.
The new mixture
of sweeteners being tested includes acesulfame-potassium,
or ace-K. The problem PepsiCo has with aspartame is that it is affected
negatively in warm conditions that occur during shipping before their soda
products arrive in retail stores.
In 1998, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved the use of ace-K despite its known safety dangers.
This chemical is most popularly used in baked goods, chewing gum and gelatin
desserts according to the food safety advocacy group, the Center for Science in
the Public Interest.
Ace-K, or acesulfame
potassium, is a lab-created chemical that is 200 times sweeter than sucrose.
Ace-K is suspected through
research to have carcinogenic properties, yet this studied fact was dismissed
and further studies were not conducted prior to the FDA approval.
In
testing preformed on rats, ace-K was shown to stimulate dose-dependent insulin
secretion. In further
studies, ace-K provided more of a danger to male rats, than female rats with
regard to their signal toward being cancer producing.
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