It's really hard to be a server at a restaurant and have all these strong feelings and hatred for aspartame and how they are affecting people. I actually think it is really sad, here are some people that want to try to take care of their bodies, they read and hear on the news about all the obese people in the world and they think, "ok, I can switch to diet coke to better my personal health." It is so sick that sodas have twisted their advertising like this. Calories are not the only important thing when maintaining good heath.
The guy who invented aspartame, Searle, knew how much money would be in a sweetener that had no calories, how genius! He wanted it so bad that he was willing to pay what ever it took. The FDA trying to do it's job, denied it 9, yes 9 times, then finally approved it... hmmmm.
I have told some people that were eating at the restaurant and sometimes they are really appreciative, I say look it up yourselves, don't take my word for it, and they say "oh my goodness, I am so glad you told me!" and sometimes they are very upset and it affects my tip, so I have learned to keep my mouth shut.
Some people are so addicted to it that they can't imagine having to give it up, and get mad when you tell them all this time that they thought they were being good to themselves, they were actually harming themselves.
In art education, what does this mean for me?
Do I silently give messages about how the FDA is not always sincere? Probably not, that would be like telling them to be anarchists I suppose. Do I just stay out of it then?
I can tell you right now, teaching at a middle school and watching a thirteen year old girl drink a diet coke she got out of the vending machine because she is watching her figure will just kill me! It's just so sad, I don't know why people don't see that we just weren't meant to eat crap, all the things we eat now are cheaper, filler-filled versions of the original, and I can tell you the original is much tastier!
