30 mins, 2007
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Is the artificial sweetener aspartame a danger to our heath? This US film argues the case that the process by which this widely used food additive became approved by food safety bodies was dangerously flawed.
Aspartame, better known under its brand name Nutrasweet, and found in many well-known snack foods and soft drinks, first came onto the US market in large quantities in 1983. Six months later doctors began to detect a major increase in brain cancers and disorders.
By 1988 over 80% of complaints volunteered to the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) were connected to aspartame.
People speak of loss of memory, balance and hearing, of double vision. One man discovered he had a brain tumour. The cause, they believe, is the aspartame in their food.
But what's the scientific evidence for the dangers of aspartame to our health? The film explains the chemical composition of aspartame and investigates its possible impact on the brain.
To get on the market all new foods have to go through an extensive safety testing process. How did the makers of aspartame first get approval from the US authorities?
The film tells a controversial and provocative story of laboratory "shenanigans". In the case of one test, an official report suggested that either it was fixed or that it was "the world's worst research."
Many of the officials involved in the decision making process ended up working for the soft drinks industry or other bodies with a vested interested in getting aspartame approved.
And the final phase of the approval process involved controversial US political figure Donald Rumsfeld who was the boss of the chemical company behind aspartame in the 1970s.
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