| What do advertising and nerve cell damage have in common? | 1 comment |
 16 Jan 2006 @ 18:22, by Raymond PowersPut two and two together..... ------------------------------------------------- School districts across the U.S. are responding to government funding cutbacks by beginning the sale of ad space on school buses. For participating districts, banners on the outsides and insides of buses carry ads for everything from soda to pizza to banks. The debate over the issue has become quite contentious among parents and school administrators. "I'm sending my child to school to learn, not to be sold junk food," says Denver parent Melissa Hart. Although only a handful of school districts have begun the practice, they're each reporting an average of half a million dollars per year in ad revenues. JUNK FOOD ADDITIVES STOP NERVE CELL GROWTH Mixing common additives, such as aspartame an artificial sweetener, Brilliant Blue, Quinoline Yellow or monosodium glutamate (MSG) causes nerve cell damage, say researchers at the University of Liverpool. The results from a two-year study were recently published in the journal Toxicological Sciences. The researchers found the additives were much more potent in combination with each other than on their own. Mice were exposed to concentrations of additive combinations relative to what a child would receive in an average snack and drink. Researchers were surprised to see the additives interfered with nerve signaling systems and actually stopped the nerve cells from growing. Aspartame is commonly found in diet drinks, candies and flavored medicines, while MSG is frequently found in chips, processed cheese and many processed foods. |