The Truth is Out There – or is it?

family, or colleagues in Hawaii to get this done…. I don’t know how many people are still tracking my eariler Hawaii conversations, but… seems to me, this is a slightly more important (read: pressing) issue to tackle. Related Content:The Truth is Out There – or is it?Aloha – Hello or Good-Bye? Macworld or Hawaii? Paying Your Bills Online Erin McGee of MyWireless.org

[IMG] Chris Pirillo Trust Nobody, Trust Everybody The Truth is Out There – or is it? Free AdSense Help The Media: Thinking so You Don?t Have to Aspartame is Poison Deciding on a Conference Keynote Live Conference Audio and Video Streaming Conference Marketing What kind of Blog Geek Reader are you?

Chris, you rock man, great post. It’s the difference between people who have to ask “why” about everything, and the people who hear something and never question it. It’s like, the red pill or the blue pill? Do you want to know what’s real, or do you want to be comfortable? And once you choose, there’s no turning back.

That was quite a wave of comments just for posting about Aspartame. I think the real issue with red vs. blue pills is that those who appear to never question anything or only on occasion will do so, will not question the issue but rather the person doing the questioning and that’s a little bizarre. And where did references to tinfoil hats came from? Questioning a highly controversial artificial sweetener puts one on the same level as “UFO’s and Elvis”?

What happens in, or to, a society where nobody questions anything and those that dare are themselves questioned for doing so?

Take the concept of trust out of government, how often do you mistrust blank statements. I have had major problems with norton, microsoft, best buy and local government. I still trust them until they lose that trust, and then i’m just a little bit leary of what they tell me. Lack of trust has led us to assume the worst, overreact to events and people, carry risk management to extremes, general paranoia.

Aspartame causes cancer, certainly. Unfortunately for the people who rail against it, you would need to eat it in raw form day-in and day-out for many years in order to consume an amount necessary for it to be harmful.

This isn’t a new substance. I don’t eat Splenda because a) it tastes like crap (much like ALL OTHER artificial sweeteners), and b) it is a newcomer. Aspartame tastes horrible, but there have been MANY studies, funded by every side and funded by none of them, the majority of which show no harmful effects when it is consumed in what one would consider a “normal” manner (essentially, not eating spoonfuls of it as a raw chemical compound).

The same common sense applies to other food additives, and even natural substances. Citric Acid is present in citrus fruit, and is used in fruit juices. You wouldn’t eat a bowl full of it. Caffeine is present in coffee, tea, and many beverages – but if you consume it as a raw compound, you’ll burn holes in your mouth and esophagus (at best).

You don’t need to trust a SINGLE study that shows a substance is bad or good, but you DO need to trust a solid body of research demonstrating the same.

I don’t generally trust the government, either. The government, as a whole, is stupid. However, I never want to hear someone talk about how they refuse to believe anything from “Government Agency X” citing that same government agency when discussing something else (Secondhand smoke, anyone?)

But be carefull, the red pill contains aspartame.

Once again, it’s ‘follow the money-trail’. It always leads to some sort of corruption. If people bother to check up on the history of how aspartame arrived on every kitchen table and kiddie, “sugar-free” drink, they need look no further than Mr. Donald Rumsfeld who was hired by G.D. Searle to exert his political influence on the FDA to get that garbage passed so that it can add to the myriad of health problems plaguing our society.

The mulitple levels of deceit and corruption involved in this one should boggle the mind, but unfortunately, the American public remains sadly passive and for the most part uninterested in the hows and whys that add to America’s obesity epidemic. They automatically assume that if it’s out there, the government sanctions it and it’s just gotta be good for us.

Here’s the history of how even though it was killing and damaging test animals, it miraculously made it through the FDA. Money and influence does more than talk, it screams.

http://www.wnho.net/history_of_aspartame.htm

Here’s a key note:
On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan takes office as U.S. President, G.D. Searle reapplied for the approval of aspartame. G.D. Searle submits several new studies along with their application. It was believed that Reagan would certainly replace Jere Goyan, the FDA Commissioner.

G.D. Searle president, Donald Rumsfeld’s connections to the Republican party were also thought to play a part in Searle’s decision to reapply for aspartame’s approval on the day after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated (Gordon 1987, page 499 of US Senate 1987).

According to a former G.D. Searle salesperson, Patty Wood- Allott, G.D. Searle president, Donald Rumsfeld told his sales force that, if necessary, “he would call in all his markers and that no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year.” (Gordon 1987, page 499 of US Senate 1987)

As a history minor in college i have found it a sad truth that ‘truth’ does not exist…even facts are subjective…Which is why i am a scientist, i don’t like fuzziness. Its scary what can be called true. As a physics major i was taught truths (barring quantum interpretations) and it makes sense.

True about truth. You MUST examine the source of the information, not just the information. A lot of these studies we hear about, saying this or that is good for you and isn’t as bad as once thought, ends up being corporate propaganda subsidized by the companies pushing their products to the unsuspecting public. Moral of the story is the “truth” can be and often is paid for. Research is your friend.

On the opposite side of the coin, people can put their trust in the wrong places. There are trades like the body toxins removal industry that I feel is complete bunk. They use your ignorance and fear to sell you something that doesn’t do much, except waste your time and make you falsely believe you’ve been helped. Here’s my miracle cure and body toxina removal program. Eat right, exercise and try to maintain a positive attitude no matter what life throws at you. That will do more for your good health and time on this Earth than all of the other snake oil miracle cures combined.

I watched that video I actually still have the cd I made. While it was in the same place in mind as a Micheal Moore documentary though not as well don e by a long shot I think that the whole Aspartame thing is just something to think about hopefully there is nothing to it because of this great recipe

1 large glass 16 – 20 oz

one cup of OJ
one packet of sweetner like Aspertame or Stevia(better) not Splenda
on half cup of milk or just pour a little in
a tiny bit of vanilla

pour it in the glass and then fill it with cold water an maybe some ice

so good…. if you are blending ice in it put in a couple mint flavored calcium anacid tablets

Chris,

You may be interested in Dr. Janet Hull’s information on aspartame: http://www.janethull.com/askdrhull/category.php?id=5 . She also has a monthly newsletter that I enjoy.

We’ve found aspartame to be a great ant poison. If you have an ant problem in your kitchen, pour open a couple of packets where they are coming in. Sprinkle with a little water and watch them go nuts. Replace with fresh aspartame daily until ants are gone (usually about 4-5 days).

Medicines is bad in someways or the other right? Even some common things and deemed safe could be bad to us right? Water for example could drown us. Plastic bags could suffocate us. Our computer monitor could damage our eyes. As we could see nothing is that pure good or pure bad.

It is good to know the truth, yes, but then, knowing the truth does not necessarily simplifies our choices or let us do what seems to be the obvious answer .

For example, we know that cars had contributed a lot to pollution. But, would you agree not to have cars anymore? Plastic bags had defaced a lot of the natural beauties in this earth but would you like to live without them?

Answers that seems obvious may not be that appealing at all.

Some even had to end in our own decisions.

If you have cancer you had to undergo chemotherapies. It would work or would not not work. Would you take it?

In the end in knowing the truth, its our own decision on what to make of it.

What do you think?