Old Town Acupuncture Blog » agriculture local food society http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog Kent Nixon's thoughts on health, wellness, and the world Sat, 14 May 2011 13:44:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Aspartame has been renamed “Aminosweet” http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/aspartame-has-been-renamed-aminosweet/ http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/aspartame-has-been-renamed-aminosweet/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:23:05 +0000 Kent Nixon http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/aspartame-has-been-renamed-aminosweet/ NaturalNews) 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.

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]]> http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/aspartame-has-been-renamed-aminosweet/feed/ 0 Local Food – By and For the People http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/local-food-by-and-for-the-people/ http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/local-food-by-and-for-the-people/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:53:02 +0000 Kent Nixon http://www.oldtownacupuncture.com/blog/?p=37 Peak Moment 161: What if the food system benefited local producers, nourished nearby people, and built a stronger community? Krishna Khalsa of Eugene, Oregon wants to turn the food system on its head. He wants it to be run by, and for the benefit of, ordinary people – not corporate profit. He’s exploring models of local cooperative, entreprenuerial organizations where people provide the labor, share and hire resources, caretake the land, use all of nature’s abundance, support farmers and food producers, distribute food so that no one goes hungry, and build strong social bonds. Empower people, not profits!

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