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Soon after the Food and Drug Administration barred the use of the artificial sweetener cyclamate last fall, it modified its proscription. Although the chemical had been found to cause bladder cancer in mice and rats, the FDA decided that a limited amount could still be added to food and drugs for persons suffering from diabetes, hypertension or obesity. Last week, however, the federal agency closed even this narrow loophole. Acting on the recommendations of its medical advisory group on cyclamates, the FDA issued a total ban on the additive, forbidding its use in all foods, soft drinks and drugs-even...
After exhaustive tests on animals, the advisory group determined the maximum allowable human intake of cyclamates to be 168 mg. a day, or about 1/180 of an ounce. But the researchers, in their report to the FDA, noted that the level of use of cyclamates by young diabetics, for example, would be "difficult to control." Even if the intake of the additive were limited to the safe daily amount, they added, there was the danger that it might have a cumulative effect on some consumers. For those on diets, the risk of using cyclamates would thus outweigh the benefits...
...FDA's decision came as a blow to the 46 firms that have applied for permission to use cyclamates in their products under the modified restrictions laid down last year. None of the applications have been approved, and now all will be rejected. But the additive news was not uniformly gloomy. Even before its announcement on cyclamates, the FDA had given a completely clean bill of health to saccharin, a widely used artificial sweetener that came under suspicion last year. The agency also virtually cleared monosodium glutamate (MSG), a popular flavor enhancer that, when used in excessive quantities, causes...
Ironically, the Food and Drug Administration has proposed limiting the amounts of minerals and vitamins in cereals, on the grounds that too much of these good things can be harmful to some people. The FDA is backed by the American Dietetic Association, but opposed by the American Medical Association. While the great breakfast-food debate goes on, many parents can echo the tag line of a cartoon in the Arkansas Gazette: "Isn't anything sacred any more...
Mayer, who served as chairman of the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health last December. disagreed the next day and called for restrictions on cereal advertising by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Communications Commission...