Cyclamate is a non-caloric
sugar substitute, about 30 times as sweet as
sugar. Cyclamate was first discovered in 1937 and benefits those with
diabetes and weight problems and does not cause tooth decay.
In 1959, Cyclamate was banned in the United States because the sugar substitute caused bladder tumors in some laboratory rats in an isolated study. Dubious methods were attached to this study, with hearsay of force feeding rats insane amounts of Cyclamate, many times their body weight. Twenty years of laboratory tests done by independent labs have actually determined Cyclamate to be non-carcinogenic and non-mutagenic in humans and rats.
The World Health Organization and The Agriculture Organization's Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives have concluded, over a 10-year study, that Cyclamate is safe for human consumption. Over 50 countries have accepted Cyclamate as an acceptable sweetener including most European nations.
Despite scientific evidence that cyclamate is safe, many countries still ban its use because of the bladder tumor study. That particular study has been under controversy in the past few years, even by the study director himself. Since 1970, new scientific evidence has become available with more sophisticated lab procedures and have caused several countries to reconsider the use of Cyclamate.
The
sugar industry supposedly or obviously had a lot to do with Cyclamate's banning in the
United States. On a tangent, the addition of sugar into many baby formulas produced by
Gerber makes the sugar industry as well as breast milk (which is rather sweet) highly suspect of training
Americans for a life-long yearning for
sugar and
sweetness in foods.
Yeah, blame it on the sugar industry! :)