BTW... I've cut my use of Equal in half, and have substituted sugar.
My MS cleared up immediately, but I have put on three pounds.
I may sweeten my coffee with tofu instead.

My problem is not one of generality but of degree. I am not a fan of chemical changes to foods, nor of Chinese painting toys with lead, or people pawning off sawdust as oatmeal. My problem is with blanket statements designed to alarm with generalities, unprovable accusations, and outright falsehoods. These are not limited to insane people. Many very intelligent people get extremely agitated about their personal betes noir, often to the point of irrationality and exclusion of less drastic possibilities than they see. Such is often the case with regard to health, medicine and science. Even experts can be like the five blind men and the elephant, right but absolutely wrong.

One such generality is, for example, "Smoking causes lung cancer." No, it doesn't, otherwise everyone who smokes or has ever smoked would die of lung cancer. Since they don't, the statement is untrue. Is it good for you? Not hardly. Is it bad for you? Very probably, and can lead-- in some people-- to lung problems, coronary problems, and the desperate need to find an open 7-Eleven at 12:30 at night. But the blanket statement is untrue. Likewise, "Smoking damages unborn children." Again, something about it makes sense, since the drug would be passed through the placenta. But I'm 55 and perfectly healthy, as are my 2 sisters and brother. My mother smoked during the pregnancy; so did my dad. Zip. And we aren't the only 4.

It's just sexier to make an alarming generality, because it's easily digestable. "Liberals are commies." That's one that a lot of people swallow. Or "All Republicans are Nazis." Any number of people eat that up with a spoon. Neither are true.

It could well be that aspartame is the insideous genetic destroyer of our biological future, a widespread plague across the world which will make the effects of Thalidomide look like a Nicacin overdose. But pertinently, the world is not filled with 700 million cases of MS or people who drop dead from being sprinkled like a powdered Swedish waffle. That indicates to me that perhaps the dangers are ever so slightly overstated.

Last Edited By: Ted Newsom Jan 4 08 2:18 AM. Edited 1 times.