If you were buying chocolate milk, would you think to check the ingredients for artificial sweeteners like aspartame?
I wouldn’t have, until I found out that the dairy industry wants to change the legal definition of milk (along with 17 other dairy products) to allow it to include aspartame and other artificial sweeteners. Can you take action to make sure that milk can only be called milk if it doesn’t include aspartame?
The dairy industry claim that they’re being good samaritans by adding aspartame in milk to fight childhood obesity, but they’re afraid that consumers, especially kids, won’t buy chocolate milk (or other flavors) if it’s labeled differently than regular chocolate milk.
They’re right to be concerned: a lot of people go out of their way to avoid aspartame for various reasons… but that seems like a good reason to keep our labels clear, not a reason to trick people into buying a product they don’t want! Tell the FDA that changing the definition of milk is just plain misleading.
Right now, if a company puts artificial sweeteners into chocolate milk, they have to label it as “reduced-calorie chocolate milk,” making it clear that there’s a difference between it and sugar-sweetened chocolate milk. The industry would rather just call their product “chocolate milk,” and force whoever is choosing it to read the fine print to figure out what’s in it.
Can you imagine a kid in the school lunch line reading the ingredients on the back of her milk box to figure out if it has aspartame? Urge the FDA to keep the definition of milk as-is, so people won’t be misled about their dairy products.
Don’t let misleading “diet milk” end up in school lunches, or anywhere else:
https://secure3.convio.net/
Comments are being taken until next week only!
See Also: Why Aspartame is FAR Worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup
