The Huffington Post decided not to sugarcoat the issue of artificial sweeteners when they ran Dr. Joseph Mercola s heated post on the marketing tactics of Ajinomotos AminoSweet, a rebranded version of aspartame. Dr. Mercola goes on to allege that aspartame is a toxic substance that wreaks havoc on your health.
ACSH staffers this morning wondered if he and the Huffington Post overlooked the trusted watchdog webpage Snopes.com s recently updated aspartame entry, which features an ACSH blog among many other sources that discredits the alleged aspartame health scares. There continues to be a group of anti-aspartame activists who are convinced that aspartame is hazardous to health when it has been intensively studied and found to be safe for human consumption, says ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. I don t think any data on aspartame's safety would convince these activists who are now complaining that aspartame is appearing under different brand names.
The Huffington Post has moved so far beyond the mainstream that they are now publishing articles like Dr. Mercola s, laments ACSH s Jeff Stier. This article is particularly troubling because this is a widely read webpage. Their readers should hold them to higher standards.