The picture above — which I found on The Washington Post website — is a collection of registered dieticians who are also popular ‘influencers’, telling their viewers that the artificial sweetener know as Aspartame is perfectly safe. Or at least, presumed to be perfectly safe.
I found the information funny.
Not funny, like in a humor column in the Daily Post, but funny, like, “What a weird world we live in.”
From that article in The Washington Post by reporters Anahad O’Connor, Caitlin Gilbert, and Sasha Chavkin, September 13, 2023.
As the World Health Organization [WHO] raised questions this summer about the risks of a popular artificial sweetener, a new hashtag began spreading on the social media accounts of health professionals: #SafetyOfAspartame.
Steph Grasso, a registered dietitian from Oakton, Va., used the hashtag and told her 2.2 million followers on TikTok that the WHO warnings about artificial sweeteners were “clickbait” based on “low-quality science.”
Another dietitian, Cara Harbstreet of Kansas City, reassured her Instagram followers not to worry about “fear mongering headlines” about aspartame because “the evidence doesn’t suggest there’s a reason for concern.”
In a third video, Mary Ellen Phipps, a Houston-area dietitian who specializes in diabetes care, sipped from a glass of soda and told her Instagram viewers that artificial sweeteners “satisfy the desire for sweetness” without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels…
What these dietitians (and influencers) didn’t make clear (according to The Washington Post) was that they had been paid to post their videos by the American Beverage Association, a trade and lobbying group representing Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and other companies.
The weirdness, for me, comes from a nagging question.
Whom should I believe? Steph Grasso, Cara Harbstreet, and Mary Ellen Phipps — registered dieticians funded by Coca-Cola and Pepsi? Or Anahad O’Connor, Caitlin Gilbert, and Sasha Chavkin — registered journalists funded by The Washington Post?
Even if I believe in the sanctity of the capitalist system (which I’m not sure I do), which capitalist operation is most worthy of my trust?
The main issue the reporters had with the dieticians wasn’t that they were promoting Aspartame, but that they weren’t telling their followers that they were getting paid by Coca-Cola to promote it.
If I were getting paid by Coca-Cola to write this humor column, I would definitely let you know. (I’m not.)
Personally, I would never drink a beverage that contained Aspartame. Unless, maybe, it was beer.
I don’t think there’s Aspartame in my beer. But brewers are not required to include ingredients on their labels, so who really knows what’s in it?
On the other hand, beer has that “GOVERNMENT WARNING” on the label, which Coca-Cola doesn’t have.
So many questions. So many reasons why reporters and dieticians can’t come to a friendly agreement.
And speaking of disagreements, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — FDA — says Aspartame is safe. As far as the studies are concerned. But they’re not telling us who funded the studies.
But WHO seems to be in an argumentative mood lately. (Probably because they got so much flak over their COVID advice.)
The video image that looked most intriguing to me — in the picture shown above, that illustrated the Washington Post article — was the dietician who is telling Mom to serve dessert WITH dinner, “to prevent sweets obsession.” The picture shows her holding a plate with a lollipop sitting on the same plate with broccoli, chicken strips, and what might be noodles.
Now, that’s my kind of dietician.
If I were a child, I mean.
Now that I’m grown, I’d rather have beer with dinner.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.