Biotech Seed Companies and Coca-Cola Fight Back

Both the soft drink industry and the GMO seed producers are laying exposed their vulnerabilities in an attempt to convince the consumer of their product benefits.

Coca-Cola is going to begin advertising their diet colas using the scientific evidence that shows that Aspartame (NutraSweet) is safe while the biotech seed companies launched a website to tout the virtues of genetically modified organisms. In both cases, the move is in response to consumers becoming more informed about the effects of messing with Mother Nature.

The Coca-Cola article just happened to occur one day before Utah researchers came out with a conclusion that what is considered a “safe” level of sugar consumption in humans, when fed to mice, had a dramatic negative affect on their health. Coca-Cola was not preparing in advance of this release, more so, was responding to the decrease in sales of sodas. Likewise, the GMO producers were responding to negative public perception and their total failure to convince the Europeans to continue to use GMO products. The seed and chemical companies are desperate to maintain their position within the US Agriculture Community.

In each case, the industry is laying exposed their greatest vulnerabilities, which are directly tied to consumer awareness. At this point in time, they have no other choice. As for the consumer, the consumer always has an alternate choice. We will see how successful these industry campaigns are in garnering customer loyalty, or not. With what many call the failure of Microsoft’s RT products recently, it is clear it takes more than multi-million-dollar ad campaigns to sell products. The products more and more need to offer real value and stand up to the scrutiny of an ever increasingly informed public.

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Why Do You Use Sugar?

There are legions of documents on how we developed into the humans we are today with the help of sugar. It does not occur a great deal in nature, yet contains an abundance of energy. (Evolution’s Sweet Tooth)

Industry picked up on this long ago, and has been riding that evolutionary train to profits, as documented in Salt Sugar Fat by Michael Moss. The result has been twofold. One has been the obvious expansion of the consumption of sugar. The other result has been the successful exploitation of a substitute to simulate the same result. (A previous article on Aspartame was titled “Why Do You Use Aspartame?” You can catch up on Aspartame’s older sister, saccharine, here.)

Now, 6 Reasons to Stay Away From Sugar (5 Reasons to Stay Away from Sugar + One)

• STRESS EATING
  
  • When tasting sugar, the brain lights up in the same regions as it would in an alcoholic with a bottle of gin. Dopamine-the so-called reward chemical-spikes and reinforces the desire to have more. (Sugar also fuels the calming hormone serotonin.)
    
• INEXPLICABLE WEIGHT GAIN
  
  • “Artificial sweeteners travel to the part of the brain associated with desire but not to the part responsible for reward,”
    
• BRAIN FOG
  
  • Research out of the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests that sugar forms free radicals in the brain’s membrane and compromises nerve cells’ ability to communicate.
    
• AGING SKIN
  
  • Sugar causes premature aging
    
• A SLUGGISH WORKOUT
  
  • Muscles need sugar for fuel…. But: fruit or prepackaged snacks touting “natural sweeteners” contain just fructose, which is metabolized in the liver, not the muscles
    
• HIGH BLOOD SUGAR LINKED TO DEMENTIA
  
  • Our results suggest that higher glucose levels may be a risk factor for dementia, even among persons without diabetes (Funded by the National Institute of Health)
    

   

Expansion of sugar consumption in America is clearly a contributor to obesity, and now the AMA is recognizing obesity as a disease. Instead of waiting for treatment for obesity, we might want to look toward the 6 Reasons to Stay Away From Sugar, listed above.

Why do you Use Aspartame?

Aspartame, an artificial sweetener marketed under the names of NutraSweet® and Equal® and now AminoSweet (marketed in Europe as a natural product) is marketed to reduce weight. A recent study published this week from a Purdue researcher, suggests the opposite. There are massive studies on this product, and to this day, the battle between health advocates and the food industry rages on. Do you use Aspartame to lose weight?

“85% of all complaints registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concerns aspartame’s adverse reactions.”

“Currently, aspartame is found in more than 6,000 products and is consumed by over 200 million people around the world.”

A 60 minutes report from December of 1996 had some highlights listed below:

1. Debate began in 1975 about its effect on causing brain cancer.
2. In 1980, the FDA had 2 separate panels (3 scientists each) evaluate the product release. Both panels said the product should not be released without further testing.
3. In 1981, Dr. Arthur Hall Hayes was appointed the Commissioner of the FDA. He over-ruled both panels and approved the release. Two years after it was approved for dry products, it was approved for soft drinks. Hayes left the FDA a few months later to take a job for the PR firm that works with Searle, the then owner of Aspartame. (Dr. Hall was selected by Donald Rumsfeld, former CEO of J.D. Searle, who in 1981 was on Ronald Reagan’s transition team. The History of Aspartame)
4. Out of 164 tests conducted on Aspartame, 74 funded by industry, 100% found it to be safe. Of the 90 independent studies, 83 identified a problem.

Bittersweet: The Truth About Aspartame

Aspartame and brain tumor links in 2005 (methanol and formaldehyde)

Data from 2012 :

Brain tumors are the:

Second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children (males and females) under age 20 (leukemia is the first).

Second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in males ages 20-39 (leukemia is the first).

Fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in females ages 20-39.

Eating a healthy diet during brain cancer treatment, and before can be found here.

“Most people think they are a victim of their genes, helpless to stave off some of the most dreaded diseases. We aren’t helpless at all; in fact, the power is largely in our hands. It’s on our forks, actually.”