by Avril Defleurey

Created on: May 28, 2010

Every day hundreds of thousands of health conscious people pour artificial sweeteners over cereal, into cake mixes, and into beverages all over the world. The idea is to eat and drink healthier, to become slimmer and generally to live a healthier lifestyle.

Every day Media reminds people that fat is not nice, that sugar is bad for them and that to be a better, nicer more acceptable person they must make crucial changes to the way they eat, the way they drink and the way they think.

After reading, seeing or hearing that to live a certain way is bad for them hundreds of thousands of people search for an alternative to the way they enjoy their food, drink and recreation.

Since the fifties weight conscious woman and men have been plopping bitter tasting saccharin into their daily cuppa in a bid for a trimmer waistline. Since the fifties these saccharin popping men and woman have believed that what they were doing was safe. But was and is it?

In 1977 in a report by the Centre for the Science in Public interest, suggested that saccharin is a carcinogen that could be responsible for bladder cancer in humans. It also suggested that it was responsible for cancer in ‘multiple sites’ in rats and mice.

The report was in response to the National Toxicology Program removing saccharin from the list of potential human carcinogens. Saccharin is a compound that is of the family of Sulfonamides.

Sulfonamides are frequently used in the production of medications and sulfonamides have been known to cause side effects in people who are intolerant to them. Some of the side effects include headache or dizziness, skin eruptions, diarrhea, and even possible difficulties breathing.

Prescription drugs come with a small guide listing possible side effects, at the onset of these side effects the medication can be stopped, or at least their tolerance can be weighed up against the symptoms and possible cure of the illness for which they were prescribed.

Most people do not expect artificial sweeteners to have side effects so are not surprised to find they do not come with such a guide.

However, because they are not aware of the connection between Saccharin and prescription drugs they do not report the side effects for what they are.

Instead they presume there has to be another reason for them, and carry on ingesting the cause. In the case of infants who can not relay to parents a list of side effects, Sulfonamides have been known to cause muscle dysfunction. Saccharin is used in

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