ASPARTAME: SWEET MISERY, A POISONED WORLD

Cori Brackett, Sound & Fury Productions
2011, 89 min 54 sec

The artificial sweetener, aspartame, is the bedrock of the diet industry. Found in everything from fizzy drinks to vitamin pills and marketed under a variety of different names, it is difficult to detect and even harder to avoid. But how safe is it? Does it really cause brain tumors, blindness and other serious illnesses? This documentary investigates how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came to approve such a potentially dangerous product.

If a product is approved by the FDA and composed of natural ingredients, would you assume it is safe to consume? If the same product is an artificial sweetener, would you assume it helps control your weight? Millions of people use aspartame, the artificial sweetener known as NutraSweet, with these assumptions in mind. Aspartame can be found in thousands of products such as: instant breakfasts, breath mints, cereals, sugar-free chewing gum, cocoa mixes, coffee beverages, frozen desserts, gelatin desserts, juice beverages, laxatives, multivitamins, milk drinks, pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medicines, shake mixes, soft drinks, tabletop sweeteners, tea beverages, instant teas, topping mixes, wine coolers, yogurt and so on.

However, aspartame’s tainted history of approval and potentially toxic ingredients casts serious doubts on the safety of this sugar substitute. Furthermore, aspartame may actually increase your appetite. While the FDA approval may signal the green light for safe consumption, 85 per cent of all complaints registered with the FDA are for adverse reactions to aspartame, including five reported deaths. A closer look at the unscientific studies, suspicious approval methods and harmful ingredients reveal the hidden dangers of this artificial sweetener. In reality, aspartame poses a public health threat.

WAR ON HEALTH: FDA’S CULT OF TYRANNY

Gary Null, USA
2012, 97 min 41 sec

Featuring many pioneering American and European attorneys, physicians, medical researchers and advocates of health freedom, War on Health lifts the veil on FDA’s militaristic operations against organic food providers and alternative physicians. The film’s conclusion is clear: the FDA is a tyrannical cult founded upon the denial of sound medical science with little intention to improve the nation’s health and prevent diseases.

SOYLENT GREEN

Richard Fleischer, USA
1973, 3 min 21 sec

Soylent Green is an American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer starring Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson. The film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including soylent green.