September 5, 2010
Sweet Surrender
Bettmann, Corbis
In 1977, a group of diabetics arrives in Washington from Atlanta, on a train they dubbed the "saccharin special," to protest the FDA's proposed ban on the additive.
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Bettmann, Corbis
In 1977, a group of diabetics arrives in Washington from Atlanta, on a train they dubbed the "saccharin special," to protest the FDA's proposed ban on the additive.
Ever since Carolyn de la Peña began work on the history of artificial sweeteners, she has been asked one question: Are these products unhealthy? She often avoided a response, she says, and—in typical historian's fashion—said it was complicated.
In a sense Empty Pleasures: The Story of Artificial Sweeteners From Saccharin to Splenda (University of North Carolina Press) is a book-length answer. And yes, it is complicated.
De la Peña
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