8-8-7
Dear Wrigley's,
I hate you! There, I said it. I hate you. You are a thief. You have stolen three important things from me: Spearmint Chewing Gum, Double Mint, and Juicy Fruit. All you left me is Big Red. What was my last choice in chewing gum is now my only choice. You just had to add aspartame to your product to “improve” it. Well, I’m one of those people who gets migraine headaches from aspartame.
I have known of my intolerance to aspartame since the early 1980’s when my girlfriend put a pitcher of Crystal Lite on the kitchen table. Crystal Lite contained NutraSweet and it was my introduction to it. It did not go well. Within a half hour I was curled in a ball of pain on her couch exhibiting all the classic symptoms of a migraine headache: hypersensitivity to light and sound and white hot pain in my skull. I had never experienced a migraine before, I only knew about the symptoms from my psychology courses at
Oh you may go on about how you’ve “improved” the flavor of the gum but I say you’re wrong. The fake sweet of aspartame may last a little longer and make the gum less sticky but it does not make a better mint flavor, it makes a similar yet inferior flavor. The real reason you’ve put aspartame in your product is because it’s cheaper than sugar. So for the hundredth of a penny per stick of gum that you are saving by selling an inferior product, you will risk poisoning people with aspartame. At least in the case of people like me it’s poisoning and I have a long held suspicion that aspartame is bad for everyone who consumes it. At least when Coca-Cola pulled its “New Coke” stunt so it could add corn syrup to cheapen its product (and make its mouth feel and taste worse in the process) it wasn’t adding a chemical ingredient that is potentially harmful to its consumers.
There have been several scientific studies that have linked aspartame to migraines. The super mega giant Monsanto/NutraSweet has sponsored other studies that failed to find this link but these studies are suspect due not only to the obvious conflict of interest but also the very sloppy designs and short durations of the studies.
A quick Google of “nutrasweet migraine” gave these results and many many more that re-enforced what I knew about NutraSweet and more.
http://www.newstarget.com/008797.html - "Aspartame consumption strongly associated with migraines and seizures"
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/abuse/migraine.html - "Scientific Abuse in Migraine/Headache Research Related to Aspartame"
http://quizbot.com/homepage/links_aspartame.htm - "Aspartame is Poison! Don't use it!"
It’s kind of hard to believe that we allow something with such questionable safety to even go on the market in the first place. Oh, wait. This is the
So in closing, Wrigley’s, I must ask, why do you hate me? You have taken away a small pleasure I have enjoyed for nearly 40 years. What have I ever done to you?
Sincerely,
Alan Evil
My StumbleUpon Page
1 comments:
I got a quick response from Wrigley's... or at least from their PR department. It was pretty much what you would expect from a PR reply in that it completely ignored the simple fact that aspartame gives me headaches. I'll print my reply to their response first.
"It still tastes like crap and gives me headaches. Thanks again. I've only been chewing your gums since I was a child."
Dear Alan,
Thank you for writing to inquire about ingredients used in Wrigley products.
The Wrigley Company utilizes the high intensity sweetener, aspartame, in a number of our products - both as the primary sweetener in some of our sugar free brands and as a flavor enhancer in some of our sugar sweetened brands. As an ingredient, aspartame is beneficial by providing an especially long lasting flavor. Because of its intense sweetening power - aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar - it is used in very low amounts in foods and beverages, and only a miniscule amount is needed to enhance the flavor of chewing gum.
Aspartame is a low-calorie sweetener composed of two amino acids - phenylalanine and aspartic acid - that occur naturally in protein-containing foods such as meat, grains and dairy products. The two amino acids are linked together by a methyl ester group that is also found naturally in fruits and vegetables.
Aspartame is quickly and completely metabolized in the body, just like any other protein. Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into three components - aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol - that are then used by the body in the same way as those found in foods that are eaten everyday. In fact, those components are found in much greater amounts in many common foods. For example, a glass of tomato juice provides 6 times as much methanol as an equal amount of beverage sweetened with aspartame.
Since 1967, aspartame's safety has been documented in more than 200 objective scientific studies. These extensive studies - often involving amounts of aspartame many times higher than individuals could possibly consume in their everyday diet - have been reviewed by the United States Food and Drug Administration, the Center for Disease Control, the American Medical Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic Association, Canada's Health Protection Branch, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Foods, and by the experts of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization. In fact, over the past two years, health authorities in the European Union, United Kingdom, France, and Canada have conducted detailed reviews of aspartame and re-confirmed its safety.
All these bodies, as well as the regulatory authorities in more than 100 countries, have found aspartame to be safe for use as a sweetener in food and beverages. Its safety has been confirmed overwhelmingly by all scientific evidence accumulated over the course of the past 37 years of testing. Of course, each and every ingredient used in Wrigley products is in full compliance with local food and health regulations.
It should be noted that a very small percentage of the population - 1 in 15,000 or approximately 0.007% - has a rare inherited disease known as Phenylketonuria (PKU) that prevents their bodies from properly handling phenylalanine. People with PKU are placed on a special diet with a severe restriction of phenylalanine from birth to adolescence or after so that they get just enough for proper growth and not too much as to cause adverse effects. Since individuals with PKU must consider aspartame as an additional source of phenylalanine, aspartame-containing foods must carry a statement on the label "Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine" in the U.S.
Because of its intense sweetening power - aspartame is about 200 times sweeter than sugar - it is used in very low amounts in foods and beverages, and only a miniscule amount is needed to enhance the flavor of chewing gum. For example, it would take approximately 40 sticks of Doublemint to equal the amount of aspartame in one can of diet soda.
However, all chewing gums, even those using aspartame, contain calories. In primarily sugar-sweetened gums, the source is obvious; but in sugarfree gums, sugar replacers - such a sorbitol and mannitol - contribute a small number of calories. Of course, with a caloric count ranging between 5 and 10 per serving, chewing gum is much lower in calories than chocolate, soft drinks and many other snacks. If you have a sweet tooth, chewing a stick of gum can help you satisfy it while watching your weight. And, of course, chewing sugarfree gum can be quite beneficial to your dental health, particularly if chewed after a meal or sweet snack.
To find out more about aspartame, visit www.sweeteners.org, www.aspartame.org, www.nutrasweet.com, and www.caloriecontrol.org; all of which have comprehensive and accurate information for consumers, the media, medical professionals and students. They also include sections addressing misinformation and unfounded allegations about aspartame safety that periodically surface in the media and on the Internet.
We hope this information has been helpful. If you have any additional questions or comments please feel free to contact us at 1-800-WRIGLEY Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST.
Sincerely,
Laura Richards
Consumer Affairs Representative