April 6, 2009br /br /Ajinomoto Company Inc., a leading supplier of aspartame, has applied to the FDA for approval of Advantame, a sweetener for use in foods and beverages.br /br /The company describes Advantame as having “a sweet, clean sugar-like taste, and is much sweeter than most low and non-calorie sweeteners currently available. Heightened attention to the importance of healthy body weight has significantly increased demand for ingredients that deliver a good, sweet taste without adding extra calories.”br /br /The press release says the “sugar-like taste means that it blends very well with sugar and high fructose corn syrup, providing food and drink companies with an alternative that has both nutritional and environmental advantages.” Brendan Naulty, President of Ajinomoto Food Ingredients LLC, said, “Advantame can be used very successfully by product formulators in the sweetening systems of low calorie and no calorie product.”br /br /The company press release does not speak to the chemical make-up of the new product, nor does it elaborate on its “nutritional and environmental advantages.”br /br /Public skepticism about aspartame has filtered through to food retailers. In Britain, the Wal-Mart-owned supermarket chain Asda targeted aspartame for removal from its “Good for You” range of foods. Ajinomoto is suing on the basis that Asda has suggested that aspartame is unhealthy and is something that consumers concerned for their health should avoid.br /br /An Ajinomoto spokesperson is quoted as saying: “This is a UK initiative and a relatively cynical one,” adding: “It doesn’t reflect concerns at a consumer level—it is just bandwagoning.” However, an Asda spokesperson maintains that: “We have removed some of the ingredients our customers tell us they don’t want in their food. That includes aspartame.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /Throughout the a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/aspartame.html”history of aspartame’s approval process/a and presence in the marketplace, there has been evidence that aspartame causes a range of harm from seizures to cancer. Industry-funded research invariably finds in favor of aspartame, independently-funded work almost always comes to the opposite conclusion. California is moving forward with consideration of aspartame as a carcinogen under Proposition 65, which would allow them to label it as “a chemical known by the state of California to cause cancer.”br /br /a href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0cxOT9YVI/AAAAAAAAACw/FaOxfCuhR88/s1600-h/DrBettyMartini.jpg”img style=”float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 113px; height: 128px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0cxOT9YVI/AAAAAAAAACw/FaOxfCuhR88/s200/DrBettyMartini.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322441966602772818″ //aAnti-aspartame advocate Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible World Health International, fears that Advantame is “another biochemical monstrosity of unknown constitution.”br /br /Public skepticism about food additives in general is growing. Many retailers no longer carry milk from cows given the growth hormone, a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/kid_food.html#milk”rBGH/a, for example. The Ministry of Education in British Columbia Canada recently agreed to remove all artificial sweeteners from the elementary and middle schools, as a result of parents’ demands. A Purdue University study released last year in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, suggesting that artificial sweeteners fuel the obesity epidemic.br /br /Consumer pressure has power. The more consumers avoid man-made food additives that are far removed from Nature, the more retailers will respond.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-8225524475124217712?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div