By Joan Ullyett • November 17th, 2008

Many of us over the age of 30 will remember the Sweet n Low craze that seemed to reach its height in the 1970s. Messages were all around us about the evils of sugar: it caused cavities, made us gain weight, wreaked havoc on blood glucose levels and was simply unhealthy. To the innocent, media-bombarded bystander this seemed a logical enough argument and prompted millions of North Americans to jump on the artificial sweetener bandwagon.

Sweet'n Low was the sugar substitute of the day and could be seen on restaurant tabletops everywhere; it tasted virtually the same as sugar with no known unhealthy downside. Thanks to modern science we thought we could finally have our cake and eat it too. Between 1903 and 2002, a handful of artificial sweeteners were introduced to the North American public, each with its own promise of low-calorie, guilt-free goodness.

Saccharin, also known as acid saccharin, sodium saccharin and calcium saccharin, led the way in the brave new world of artificial sweeteners and later became the primary ingredient in Sweet n Low. It was discovered in 1879 by Constantine Fahlberg, a chemistry research assistant at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and was used in indus-trial applications until 1903, when entrepreneur John F. Queeny and his newly-formed corporation Monsanto, began selling saccharin to food and beverage compa-nies, including Coca-Cola.

Promoted as a cheap, no-calorie sweetener, saccharin was unique in that it could not be metabolized by the human body and was excreted in the urine. It was quickly embraced in the World War I and II era by a public faced with sugar rationing and was vehemently endorsed by US President Theodore Roosevelt who, in 1911, stated "Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot."

Saccharin's heyday lasted until 1977 when Canadian research demonstrated that high doses of saccharin caused can-cer in rats. It was immediately banned in Canada, but then reintroduced later. The US Food and Drug Administration (PDA) deemed that more research was necessary and allowed it to stay on the market albeit with the frightening new warning label "Use of this product may be hazard"-the passing of new legislation....

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Location:  Vancouver, CA

The Health Nerd is Joan Ullyett BA, RHN, a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and natural health consultant. Joan received her honours degree in Anthropology from the University of Windsor in 1993 and her RHN certification from the Canadian School...