In The Lowdown on Sweet?, an article describing an Italian researcher's findings that aspartame (aka Nutrasweet) can cause cancer in rats we read: In an analysis of 166 articles published in medical journals from 1980 to 1985, Dr. Ralph G. Walton, a professor of psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine found that all 74 studies that were financed by the industry attested to sweetener's safety. Of the 92 independently funded articles, 84 identified adverse health effects.

The food industry is claiming that the study is flawed because the research team allowed the rats used in the study to live longer (to their natural lifespams) rather than a two year standard used in the U.S. to study toxic effects.

In other unrelated news, it has been a year since I ceased drinking diet soda. Also, unrelated I'm sure, the psoriasis which I've had in my hands for the last several years abated dramatically over the course of the past year. With the winter weather it has returned but not as severely as it had in past years.