Campaign report
1. Background research to the issue
To find the way linked to my group topic and target made us to meet many times and discuss about social issues among students and young people. It made my group to think a lot what topic for campaign would be interesting to us – while working for this, and similarly what would be interesting for other people especially for students in Middlesex University. First of all, everyone in my group pay attention on unhealthy food and ingredients which make daily food able to be fresh for long term and even dangerous. My group decided to start doing campaign “tricky food” and we all fell into research on dangerous ingredients in popular supermarkets’ food. As we published in our Wiki page “Unhealthy substitutes used in food production” had to be our campaign stage. (Wiki, ResearchS08G1). From long list of various chemicals and acids which are used in food our group made a decision to focus on Aspartame the most. Aspartame is artificial sweetener which is 200 times sweeter than sugar and commonly used in food industry. In the internet is not difficult to find many articles and discussions about it, some people claim that it is very dangerous to human’s health because of its force to cause cancer, nerve disorders, birth defects and other healthy imbalances. From the other side of view, probably from the business side, some people are ready to prove that aspartame is not so bad, the right amount of it in food is not dangerous and it is cheaper to use in food industry than sugar. However, this sweetener is widely used and found in drinks such as diet coke, energy drinks and even some juice. In the United States aspartame is regulated by FDA – Food and Drug Administration which has set the ADI (acceptable daily intake) for aspartame 50mg/kg and similarly in the European Union – by European Food Safety Authority ADI is 40mg/kg. (American Cancer Society, Learn About Cancer 2011). Well, when the national
References: Wiki, S08G1 “Healthy Living”, research 2012 [online], http://mcs1000campaigns.middlesex.wikispaces.net/ResearchS08G1 American Cancer Society, Learn about cancer 2011. [online], http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/OtherCarcinogens/AtHome/aspartame The New York Times, The World is Fat 2012, [online], http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/the-world-is-fat/