Last month, the University of San Francisco made an alarming discovery, that 93% of Americans tested had traces of a chemical called glyphosate in their urine. Last year, the World Health Organization deemed glyphosate a “possible carcinogen”.

Glyphosate is the main ingredient in biotech giant Monsanto’s flagship product: Roundup, an herbicide sprayed all over almost every acre of food grown. Not only has Roundup been dumped around the world more than any other weed killer in history, but the US is its largest customer. According to the US Geological Survey, a record 280 million pounds were used in 2010 alone, nearly a pound of poison for every American.

Monsanto has already proven it cannot be trusted to care about anything but money, especially when lives are at stake. In this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin issues a scathing exposé on the corporate polluter, chronicling its rise to power, the collusion of its crimes with the US government, and the serious danger it poses today.

Monsanto, America’s Monster

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FOLLOW // @EmpireFiles & @AbbyMartin

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ABC NEWS– The growing problem of obesity in this country has led some experts to take a closer look at diet soft drinks. It turns out they may not be as helpful to weight loss as some people might think.

Ever since Tab hit the market in the swingin’ 60s, diet soda has become an American mainstay. In the era when thin-became-in thanks to mini-skirts – and the rail-thin model Twiggy – diet soda’s appeal was instant…

Save hundreds of calories a day, and stay skinny – right? The paradox is that American waistlines have been growing steadily.

Researcher Sharon Fowler, at the University of Texas Health Science Center, has been tracking soda drinkers for more than a decade. “People who were drinking diet soft drinks – two or more per day – had a 57 per cent chance of becoming overweight.”

Fowler says it may be that diet soda gives a false sense of security. “I can get the candy bar to go with the diet soft drink, and it’s just a little candy bar, I’m OK.”

However, Fowler and other experts suspect something else… That diet sodas can actually make you want to eat MORE!

Continue reading about Do Diet Sodas Make You Gain Weight?

© ABC News, 2007

Photo by flickr user keith011764 

CONSUMERIST– A new study on the effects of low daily doses of the artificial sweetener aspartame shows a statistically significant increase in leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats. Consumer advocates are calling for the FDA to take another look at the safety of aspartame in light of the study, but the FDA seems uninterested.

“Because aspartame is so widely consumed, it is urgent that the FDA evaluate whether aspartame still poses a ‘reasonable certainty of no harm,’ the standard used for gauging the safety of food additives,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “But consumers, particularly parents, shouldn’t wait for the FDA to act. People shouldn’t panic, but they should stop buying beverages and foods containing aspartame.”

The study, which can be read here, followed a group of 4,000 rats who were given low daily doses of aspartame (comparable to what a dedicated human diet soda drinker might consume, were he/she a rat) beginning during “prenatal” life. The rats were dissected after natural death and the effects of the aspartame calculated. From the study:

The results of this carcinogenicity bioassay not only confirm, but also reinforce the first experimental demonstration of APM’s multipotential carcinogenicity at a dose level close to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that when lifespan exposure to [aspartame] begins during fetal life, its carcinogenic effects are increased.

Continue reading about New Cancer Worries for Diet Soda Drinkers.

© Consumerist, 2007

Photo by flickr user stinky_harriet

NATURAL NEWS– In response to growing awareness about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, what does the manufacturer of one of the world’s most notable artificial sweeteners do? Why, rename it and begin marketing it as natural, of course. This is precisely the strategy of Ajinomoto, maker of aspartame, which hopes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public with its rebranded version of aspartame, called AminoSweet.

Over 25 years ago, aspartame was first introduced into the European food supply. Today, it is an everyday component of most diet beverages, sugar-free desserts, and chewing gums in countries worldwide. But the tides have been turning as the general public is waking up to the truth about artificial sweeteners like aspartame and the harm they cause to health. The latest aspartame marketing scheme is a desperate effort to indoctrinate the public into accepting the chemical sweetener as natural and safe, despite evidence to the contrary.

Aspartame was an accidental discovery by James Schlatter, a chemist who had been trying to produce an anti-ulcer pharmaceutical drug for G.D. Searle & Company back in 1965. Upon mixing aspartic acid and phenylalanine, two naturally-occurring amino acids, he discovered that the new compound had a sweet taste. The company merely changed its FDA approval application from drug to food additive and, voila, aspartame was born.

Continue reading about Rebranding Aspartame to ‘AminoSweet’.

© Natural News, 2010

Photo by flickr user Steve Snodgrass

NATURAL NEWS– Consumer rights advocacy group Mission Possible is leading a campaign to fill a product liability lawsuit with New York and New Jersey residents whose brain tumors may be linked to the consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet/Equal/Spoonful, etc.).

“Neither congressional hearings or repeated petitions calling for a ban have stopped aspartame manufacturers from exposing the public to this sweet poison. In fact, aspartame producers are reporting increased sales and boasting the marketplace addition of ‘neotame,’ a new aspartame product,” explained Mission Possible International Founder Betty Martini.

For 16 years, the FDA resisted pressure to approve aspartame due to safety studies linking the artificial sweetener to numerous adverse reactions, including the development of brain tumors in animal studies. In 1977, FDA investigator Jerome Bressler released a report describing how, in clinical studies submitted to the FDA, Searle removed aspartame-induced brain tumors that developed in lab rats and placed them back into the study. If the rats died, Bressler reported, Searle would resurrect them on paper.

In a personal conversation with Martini and prominent aspartame experts, Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock he admitted the studies were so bad FDA removed 20% of the most damaging data of his report.

Continue reading about FDA Studies Show Aspartame Link to Brain Tumors.

© Natural News, 2005

Photo by flickr user Muffet