Aspartame
Definition Low-calorie artificial sweetener
For those seeking to avoid sugar, aspartame provided a safe
alternative to cyclamates, which were banned in the United
States in 1969, and saccharin, which had been determined
to cause cancer in animals.
Aspartame, marketed under various names in-
cluding NutraSweet and Equal, is a nontoxic, non-
carbohydrate, low-calorie, easily digestible, general-
purpose sweetener approved for use in food and
beverages by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). It has a taste similar to sucrose but is 180 to
200 times sweeter. It is used in thousands of products
worldwide. Aspartame is considered a low-calorie
sweetener rather than a no-calorie sweetener, since
it contains four calories per gram. Unlike sucrose,
aspartame does not promote tooth decay.
Aspartame was discovered by James M. Schlatter
in 1965 while he was working at G. D. Searle, a phar-
maceutical company. Schlatter was synthesizing a
tetrapeptide (a type of protein consisting of four
amino acids) normally manufactured by the stom-
ach. A dipeptide (consisting of two amino acids) that
was created during an intermediate step in the syn-
thetic process contained aspartic acid and the methyl
ester of phenylalanine. When Schlatter licked his
finger while reaching for a piece of paper, he sensed
sweetness. He was able to trace the sweet taste to the
dipeptide. Eventually, G. D. Searle was convinced
of the potential value of the chemical, which they
called aspartame; the company decided to research
its use as a sweetener.
After some initial concerns that aspartame could
be linked to brain cancer, the substance was ap-
proved for use in dry goods by the FDA in 1981 and
for use in carbonated beverages in 1983. By 1996,
the FDA had removed all restrictions on the use of
aspartame in food products, and it was classified as a
general-purpose sweetener for use in food and bev-
erages. Although some still claim that aspartame is
not safe for human consumption, many studies since
the early 1980’s have reaffirmed the safety of aspar-
tame. Since persons with phenylketonuria (PKU)
have difficulty metabolizing phenylalanine, they
must restrict their intake of that substance. As a re-
sult, all U.S. products containing aspartame are la-
beled “Phenylketonurics: Contains phenylalanine.”
Impact The approval of the use of aspartame pro-
vided a safe alternative artificial sweetener to the
banned cylcamates and to saccharin, whose safety
was in question. Companies manufacturing prod-
ucts that contained aspartame in the early and mid-
1980’s touted the superiority of the substance, usu-
ally under one of its trade names. They invested
considerable sums marketing NutraSweet, Equal,
and diet foods that used them as ingredients, there-
by driving both sales and the belief that purchasing
diet foods was important to weight loss and obesity
control.
Further Reading
Stegink, Lewis D., and L. J. Flier, eds.Aspartame: Phys-
iology and Biochemistr y. New York: Marcel Dekker,
1984.
Tschanz, Christian, Frank N. Kotsonis, and W. Wayne
Stargel, eds.Clinical Evaluation of a Food Additive.
Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1996.
Charles L. VigueSee also Caffeine; Cancer research; Consumer-
ism; Diets; Food Security Act of 1985; Medicine; Sci-
ence and technology.Astronomy
Definition Study of extraterrestrial objects and
phenomena
Innovative theories and unforeseen discoveries changed as-
tronomers’ conceptions about the structure and develop-
ment of the universe in the 1980’s, while space probes dis-
covered many new bodies in the solar system.
The universe came to seem a bit stranger during the
1980’s, as astronomers discovered large-scale phe-
nomena that challenged prevalent theories and cos-
mologists developed a startlingly novel explanation
for the structure of the universe. Meanwhile, infor-
mation gathered by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
space probes revealed that the solar system’s small
corner of the universe was a busier place than had
theretofore been recognized.
The Inflationary Universe Several important theo-
retical advances occurred in the 1980’s. In 1981,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate stu-
dent Alan Guth proposed a novel idea to account for
puzzling observations about the size and structure76 Aspartame The Eighties in America