Q & A With Dr. Hull

Neotame In Organics

Q: If Neotame is less than 1%, or even 5%, of the total ingredient weight content in a product, is it considered OK for Organic? USDA Certified Organic?

A: If Neotame is added off-site at points of harvest, for example, added to blueberries by spraying on or soaking the produce in a Neotame-sweetened water bath before shipment, or if it is used in another manufacturing "processing technique", or maybe shipped to the US from another country and used as "Color" in a product - I do not know how the USDA can know for certain. That's a question only the USDA can answer, but I would like to know how they would even know this.

Given aspartame's history (altered lab test results, FDA investigations and reports of health and safety concerns of brain tumors, for example), I don't believe that we can trust some manufacturers to be completely open and transparent when it comes to disclosing the truth about what is in a product. Only a sworn affidavit to that effect would be acceptable, in my opinion. That way, a manufacturer could be held legally-responsible for their answers to the USDA. Remember that a company isn't responsible for a "Food Additive" once the FDA approves it, and this is their safety net.

So, accountability must fall on the USDA concerning this issue. After all, USDA approval of a product for the National List is a special privilege that thus allows the Petitioner to enter the vast organic consumer market, and all the profits that automatically come with that status.

Given the checkered documented history of aspartame and now Neotame, and based on company promotional materials for Neotame, I can only assume that unlabeled Neotame is formulated not only for sweetening, but also as a flavor enhancer - and those are made in facilities around the globe under manufacturing guidelines different from ours in the USA. As time goes on, this will make it nearly impossible to detect Neotame in a product, organic or not. The only solution is for the USDA to require that the percentage of non-organic ingredients in a product, marketed as organic, does not contain any additives, such as aspartame or Neotame sweeteners at any point in the manufacturing process. I believe it should go even farther by requiring that the manufacturers (all of them included in a product's total processing) have the approval tied in to a sworn affidavit to that effect.

Aspartame and Neotame Warnings

Q: Aren't aspartame and Neotame made from the same things? So why isn't Neotame required to have the same PKU labeling?

A: Aspartame and Neotame both fit this definition from the American Heritage Medical Dictionary:

protein hydrolysate n: A sterile solution of amino acids and peptides prepared from a protein by acid or enzymatic hydrolysis.

So yes, Neotame should be required to carry the PKU warning in any product that it is found in, and why it does not remains a mystery. Much of this is a result of a serious lack of education concerning the artificial sweeteners, and a more than gross lack of good communication.

Aspartame in Nicotine Lozenges

Q: I have been very worried about my husband - lately he has been acting odd (well, more odd than usual). I began wondering if he'd gotten into aspartame, but he does not have any sweeteners in his morning coffee. Then I checked these nicotine lozenges he's been using and found they have quite a lot of aspartame in them. He has been chewing about four a day for over four years now!! I wonder if other people get addicted to these nicotine lozenges? I now realize that they are also exposed to aspartame poisoning. What a deadly combination these lozenges are. I suspect it would be less of a risk to smoke a couple of cigarettes a day !

A: I knew it was in Nicorette gum, but, it's not labeled as "sugar free." It's against Federal Labeling Laws for aspartame to be omitted from the package entirely, so you have to think to turn every package over and read all the ingredients. Now, this isn't the case with Neotame - it can be in products and not labeled. So, heck, it might be in there, too.

People get confused about labels, and it's common for people who have been buying the same ole' products for years to NOW read every label for everything they buy. If a package is NOT labeled sugar-free, you should still look for the small print in the ingredients, especially in gum these days.

If you do get a reaction to aspartame in a product you didn't know had it in there, now the manufacturers will blame it all on you for NOT reading your labels. We're going down the wrong road in America - the blame should be on shoddy labeling laws because somebody's pulling the wool over the consumer's eyes.

Keep checking your labels, and get your hubby off that stuff. I agree with you, he substituted one addiction for another.

The best in health,

- Janet Hull

Posted January 2011 | Permanent Link

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