Watch out for this creepy and mysterious food additive

Warning: An untested drug is about to sneak into your kitchen

 

It’s a case of Big Food meets Big Pharma. And in case it isn’t obvious, it’s a win-win-lose. With us on the losing end.

At least with a drug, we have some idea of what the side effects might be.

But what could be worse than having an untested drug hit the market that no one, including the FDA, knows about?

Well, what about having that drug put in the food supply?

And while the FDA always talks about “risk” versus “benefits,” it can’t make that argument here.

That’s because no one but the company that makes this ingredient knows exactly what it is — or how it’s made…

This additive, given the deceptively innocent name “Sweetmyx” (but also known as “S617”), will probably first show up in Pepsi drinks. But that’s about all the company behind it is letting out of the bag.

Now with a name like Sweetmyx, you might think this is just a sweetener, maybe stevia mixed in with sugar or some other sweet ingredient. But this is no sweetener you’ve ever tasted before.

That’s because it’s actually a chemical with no taste on its own, one called a sweetness enhancer. Food companies like it because it lets them use less sugar or HFCS and get the calorie counts in products down.

Sweetmyx is a patented “discovery” that sounds like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie. Its job is to trick your brain into thinking things tastes sweeter than they really are.

The company behind this additive, Senomyx, calls it a “flavor ingredient.” That sounds harmless enough. But wait till you hear how they invented it.

First they cloned human taste receptors. (I don’t even want to know how they did that!)

Next, they went over “millions of molecules” to find which ones could “bind” to just the right taste receptors to achieve that make-believe sweet taste. So when Sweetmyx hits your mouth, it seeks out and activates the part of the tongue that signals a sweet taste to your brain.

Talk about mind-altering drugs!

The Feingold Association — a non-profit group that studies the effects of additives and colors on kids — says this about Sweetmyx:

“…when a chemical has a profound effect on how the body works (in this case, on how the taste buds work), it is considered a drug. A drug must undergo stringent regulations and testing, including discovery of side effects and interactions with drugs, for FDA approval — far beyond anything required for approval of a ‘flavoring.'”

Wait until you hear this:

Because it’s technically called a “food additive,” the folks who make it get to decide if it’s safe all on their own. And if they don’t want to tell the FDA about it at all, well, they don’t have to!

But Senomyx is so proud of its brand new additive, it broadcast the news far and wide. It even went so far as to imply the FDA had called it “safe.” (But in this case, it was actually an industry group that made the claim.)

Now, while the FDA might not have taken any of its precious time to find out what Sweetmyx is or whether it’s safe, it also didn’t waste any in issuing a denial. It sent out an official “statement” saying that not only wasn’t the statement true, but this was the first the FDA had heard about it being referred to as safe — by anyone!

So if you don’t want to be part of the massive Sweetmyx experiment, you’ll need to watch out. Because not only did they manage to keep WHAT it is a secret, they don’t even have to tell us WHERE it is.

One thing we do know is that Pepsi drinks will likely be first — and that could happen any day now. Then who knows where it might show up next?

So to stay safe, you should avoid anything that lists “artificial flavor” or “artificial sweetener” in its ingredients, because you won’t find Sweetmyx listed there. Another tipoff will be new versions of products advertised as being lower in “sugar” and calories.

And we will have to be diligent. Because for all we know this stuff could make GMOs look like the land of milk and honey.

Sources:

“The freaky new ‘sweetness enhancer’ coming to soda aisles” Emily Main, March 13, 2014, Rodale News, rodalenews.com

“No, the FDA has not approved Sweetmyx: another reason to fix the GRAS regs” Marion Nestle, March 13, 2014, Food Politics, foodpolitics.com

“Senomyx to the rescue? Uh…no.” The Feingold eNews, August 2012, feingold.org