Joseph Mercola - Sweet Deception: Why Splenda, NutraSweet, and the FDA May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Every commercially reasonable effort has been made to make this book as accurate as possible. The purpose of this book is to educate and represents the opinion of the author. It is a review of scientific evidence available at the time the book was written and is presented for information purposes only. No individual or physician should use the information in this book for self-diagnosis, treatment, or justification in accepting or declining or providing any medical therapy for any health problems or diseases. Any application of the advice herein is at the readers own discretion and risk. Therefore, any individual with a specific health problem or who is taking medication should first seek advice from his personal physician or health-care provider before starting a nutrition program. The author, authors companies, and Thomas Nelson Inc. shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. Each clinical story has been significantly changed as to place, person, and sex in order to protect the individuals concerned. Any similarity to any individual case is purely coincidental. The names and trade names of products and businesses discussed in this book are for editorial, reference, and informational purposes only. The author, authors companies, and Thomas Nelson, Inc. are not affiliated with or sponsored by the manufacturers of such products.

The names on all of the case studies presented in this book have been altered to preserve anonymity.

Copyright 2006 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006932886

ISBN: 0-7852-2179-4

Printed in the United States of America

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KENDRA PEARSALL:

To Joe Mercola,

You have dedicated your entire life to your mission of waking people up to the corruption in our medical, food, and drug industries and to teaching people how to be naturally healthy. You have provided me with the inspiration and opportunities to work for this important mission. Since I met you in 2003, my life has been transformed in so many incredible ways, and I am forever grateful to you for taking me under your wing and showing me the positive changes one person can make for the good of the world.

To my mom, Kana Degen,

You have always been my greatest source of unwavering love and support. Thank you for teaching me that being fearful and playing small does not serve the world and that my life is not just about me but about the difference I can make in the lives of others.

To an anonymous family member,

Ive watched you eat very large quantities of artificial sweeteners every day for the past thirteen years. You went from being in perfect health to developing a long list of health problems including a neurological disease and depression. It is your suffering that inspired me to cowrite Sweet Deception. If this book is able to save just one person from ruining his or her health from artificial sweeteners, it will be worth it.

CONTENTS

BEWARE OF STRANGERSWITH SWEETS!

As parents, we warn our children, Beware of strangers offering you candy and sweets!We tell our sons and daughters, Run the other way! if any stranger even starts to insist they accept the sweets. Most of our children heed this lesson. A few give in to temptation and may pay a very heavy price for the mistake.

As adults, we dont even think that most of the strangersin this case, giant corporationswho offer us sweetsmay also not have our best interests in mind. While the harm these corporate strangerswill do to us if we give in to their sweet temptation usually isnt as immediate as what befalls unwary children, over time it can still be serious, and isnt always reversible.

In this long-needed book, very aptly titled Sweet Deception,Drs.Mercola and Pearsall and their team document the enormous range of health problemssome temporary, some permanentcaused by both patented chemical sweeteners and highly refined sugar.

Just one of these patented chemicals has been found to cause seizures and loss of vision, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, memory loss, visual impairment, weight gain, increased cancer risk, and even deathand literally dozens of symptoms more. If we include other patented chemical sweeteners and highly refined sugars, the list of health impairments linked to them is staggering.

So why are these toxic chemicals allowed in our nations food? And why arent health authorities and government agencies warning us about them via the media? After all, in just the first few months of 2006, we were warnedbased on poorly done or even bogus studiesthat calcium and vitamin D dont help our bones, that were wasting our money on glucosamine for arthritis, that saw palmetto doesnt really help all those men whose prostate symptoms it obviously improved; the year before, we were warned that vitamin E might kill us.

So why havent we been treated to similar publicity about the very real dangers of patented chemical sweeteners as well as the highly refined natural ones?

As experienced adults, were instantly on guard when we hear the phrase: Were from the government, were here to help. But were not yet fully grown up about the ways of government and its innumerable agencies. We must learn that government is just as likely to be deceiving us when its silent on a topic as when theyre talking about it. Who hasnt read that pregnant women shouldnt eat tuna because mercury will hurt the baby, while nothing at all is said about pregnant women getting mercury-containing dental amalgams, which release much more mercury into the baby than any tuna ever could? A dental amalgam releases 10 mcg per filling per day, and a can of tuna contains 20 mcg of mercury.

As stated by Food and Drug Administration insiders themselves, documented here by Drs. Mercola and Pearsall, the giant food processing industries and patent medicine companies are FDAs clients to be protected, not you and me! The very agency thats charged by Congress with protecting your health, the FDA, does not believe their client is the American people!

But this is nothing new. In 1970, former FDA commissioner Herbert Ley was quoted in print: People think the FDA is protecting themit isnt. What the FDA is doing and what people think its doing are as different as night and day.

In testimony before Congress, FDA commissioner Charles Edwards said, [It is] not our [FDA] policy to jeopardize the financial interests of the pharmaceutical companies.Even worse, the FDA not only works to protect Big Pharma and agribusiness, it actively fights good health practices, and has done so for generations.

In 1949, FDA commissioner George Larrick said, The activities of... so called health food lecturers have increasingly engaged our attention... [we are] fighting the good fight against dried vegetables, mineral mixtures, vitamins, and similar products.

According to former U.S. senator Edward V. Long, If the FDA would spend a little less time and effort on small manufacturers of vitamins... and a little more on manufacturers of... dangerous drugs... the public would be better served. In fact, hundreds of books, including this one, document beyond any doubt that government is not to be believed when it says its protecting your health.