Menu
The Dairy Industry has a petition in to the FDA to change the labeling guidelines regarding milk products that include Aspartame. In specific, instead of needing to label such milk products such as “Sugar Free Chocolate Milk” it would simply state on the label “Chocolate Milk”. This is deceptive marketing at it’s worst as it creates a barrier for the consumer to easily identify products that contain alternative sweeteners. The FDA has over 90 documented symptoms of Aspartame toxicity that include such things as headaches, migraines, weight gain(!), abdominal pain and depression.
Please help protect those that do not wish to consume these additives. It should be easy to tell what we are consuming and what is being added to our food supply. While it is true that the fine print ingredient list will continue to list Aspartame as an ingredient, many do not look at these, and some can’t read them because they are printed so small. Including appropriate language in the product label helps guide the consumer towards products that meet their needs.
Granting this petition could also open a slippery slope for other foods where artificial sweeteners are used and we could see other products that begin to follow this practice. Please help in supporting truth in labeling!
Directly from the Petition: “IDFA and NMPF argue that nutrient content claims such as “reduced calorie” are not attractive to children, and maintain that consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims. Further, the petitioners assert that consumers do not recognize milk—including flavored milk—as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.””
and…
“IDFA and NMPF state that the proposed amendments would promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products. They state that lower-calorie flavored milk would particularly benefit school children who, according to IDFA and NMPF, are more inclined to drink flavored milk than unflavored milk at school.”
Basically, I read these two petitions comments as stating that we want to encourage children to consume sweetened products while hiding what they are actually consuming. So they are learning that it’s okay to consume sweets, instead of learning to consume healthy products. And the IDFA seems to think the majority of people that buy flavored milk don’t realize it contains sugar.
This petition also wants to change this for other dairy products such as whipped cream, sour cream, yogurt, etc.
Okay, this really infuriates me! I can’t have Aspartame and I’m visually impaired. If I don’t have someone with me at the grocery store I can’t read the content labels on my food. They’re a very tiny print.
I also believe that children should be taught from a young age what is healthy to consume in order to learn proper eating habits for their lifetime. Schools shouldn’t be serving anything that is not 100% natural, no artificial anything!
The open comment period ends May 21 2013.
Follow this link for instructions on how to comment on this proposal.
Dairy industry Petitions FDA to Approve Aspartame – Weston A Price Foundation
