Why Nutrasweet was so Successful and Will Likely Never be Replaced by Splenda

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By Dr. Janet Starr Hull

I receive many e-mails asking what I think about the newest artificial sweetener, Splenda�. My first thought is the obvious answer: any artificial sweetener is harmful to the health of humans and all animals.

But it also became obvious to me the more I was asked this question, that NO new chemical sweetener will ever take the market like NutraSweet/Equal� did.

While pondering the emergence of the many 'new' sugar substitutes of late, it came clear exactly WHY NutraSweet has been such a social icon for the past 20 years.

NutraSweet has remained popular not due to its quality of product (or lack of quality, as the case may be), but because The NutraSweet Company designed one of the most brilliantly strategized corporate campaigns in history. THEY masterminded their own market and THEY structured from the beginning a social monopoly more well-thought-out than any other American corporation to date.

So will Splenda, Tagatose, maltitol or even natural Stevia ever replace NutraSweet's track record and past 20-year monopoly? Not likely.

Without the manipulation of its competitors, liaisons within government agencies and the soft drink industry, the AMA (American Medical Association) and the media, no other artificial sweetener will hold a candle to the history of aspartame.

Here's the deal �

The NutraSweet Company became a trillion dollar industry because seven shrewd corporate and government leaders got away with executing marketing strategies that enabled them to covertly pocket the 'diet' market.

The history of aspartame and the NutraSweet Company stratagem will one day be written about in business journals and marketing textbooks taught at universities. What will they say? That the NutraSweet Company carefully planned out and successfully achieved the following:

  • All their competition was carefully eliminated and taken off the market. Note: Saccharin was not totally removed from the market due to Monsanto Chemical Company owning BOTH saccharin and NutraSweet, and also due to saccharin's true 'safety' record. (See newsletter archives on Monsanto and saccharin for more information.)
  • Marketing strategies were set into motion to gain access to and influence relationships with the food and pharmaceutical industries.
  • Liaisons were established between the NutraSweet Company and government officials, specifically the FDA and U.S. Department of Transportation.
  • Relationships were bridged between the NutraSweet Company and the AMA, the American Diabetic Association, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, among other public health organizations.
  • New research centers were funded and built by the NutraSweet Company at predominant universities throughout the United States.
  • Research scientists responsible for aspartame safety testing were payrolled by the NutraSweet Company.
  • Marketing relationships were established between the NutraSweet Company and the National Soft Drink Association and the various soft drink companies.
  • Allegiances were established within American mainstream media primarily through multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to television stations and prominent newspapers. (Hull, Janet, SWEET POISON: How The World's Most Popular Artificial Sweeteners Is Killing Us, New Horizon Press, 1999.)

The seven businessmen and government officials responsible for the creation of the NutraSweet Company and its historic cornering of the market prepared and executed these brilliant business strategies.

Some day the facts will be common knowledge. My hat's off to the NutraSweet Company for such a zealously designed and brilliantly controlled marketing campaign. It succeeded longer than anyone expected, even the NutraSweet Company officials themselves.

So will Splenda or any other artificial sweetener be able to repeat the NutraSweet Company's historic control of the world sweetener market?

Not likely without manipulation of its competitors, liaisons with government agencies, the soft drink industry, the AMA and the media.

And as far as product quality goes? Oh yeah--that's what this is supposed to be all about, isn't it?

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener used in such brands as Equal and Nutrasweet. The components of aspartame may lead to a wide variety of ailments including:

  1. Birth defects
  2. Diabetes
  3. Emotional disorders
  4. Epilepsy/seizures
  5. Migraines
  6. Lowered sperm count

Dr. Hull�s book, Sweet Poison: How The World's Most Popular Artificial Sweetener Is Killing Us, does a great job of exposing even more of aspartame�s dangers.

Your body does not do well with regular sugar, let alone synthetic sugar substitutes. About 70 percent of the population suffers from an excess of insulin, which is often marked by excess weight, high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol. Nearly all of these people would benefit from avoiding ANY sweeteners, and this includes sucralose and even herbal sweeteners like stevia, until their signs of excess insulin resolve.

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