The Sweetened Life

By ACSH Staff — Sep 27, 2005
In a September 27, 2005 column largely dependent upon the alarmist Center for Science in the Public Interest for information, Lisa Ryckman does quote ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on the scare campaign against cyclamates: And what of cyclamates? That faux-sweetener saga began in 1937 with a discovery by chemistry graduate student Michael Sveda, who tasted something sweet on the cigarette he'd just stuck in his mouth while mucking about in the lab.

In a September 27, 2005 column largely dependent upon the alarmist Center for Science in the Public Interest for information, Lisa Ryckman does quote ACSH president Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on the scare campaign against cyclamates:

And what of cyclamates? That faux-sweetener saga began in 1937 with a discovery by chemistry graduate student Michael Sveda, who tasted something sweet on the cigarette he'd just stuck in his mouth while mucking about in the lab.

By the late 1960s, Americans were sucking down more than 21 million pounds of cyclamates a year. That ended after studies connected the substance with chromosome damage and those bladder tumors in rats.

"Sadly, in his lifetime he saw his contributions vilified and rejected as a result of antiscientific, technophobic witch hunts," wrote Elizabeth Whelan, co-founder of the American Council on Science and Health and author of books including Panic in the Pantry and The l00% Natural, Purely Organic, Cholesterol-Free, Megavitamin, Low-Carbohydrate Nutrition Hoax.