It is a sad, sad state of affairs that a full two-thirds of the American population is either overweight or outright obese. Since the mid-eighties, the percentage has more than doubled, after remaining stable for the twenty-five years prior to the mid-eighties. The percentage rate for that earlier period was approximately 24-25% and never significantly changed during that period, even with the introduction of fast food in the early sixties. Logic would clearly suggest that fast food escalated obesity but that is not the case and it is backed by statistics. The onset of the rise in overweight and obesity reaching current epidemic proportions began, not coincidentally, with the introduction of aspartame as a chemical sweetener in the mid-1980’s.