not correct there forensick, the thalidomide drug used for morning sickness was a different stereo isomer to that which had been shown to be of assistance for pregnent women, it was the drug that caused the problem of "flipper arms"...
Yep, that's right. Check the Wikipedia quote below:
"Thalidomide is
racemic – it contains both left- and right-handed
isomers in equal amounts. The (R)
enantiomer is effective against morning sickness.
The (S) is teratogenic and causes birth defects."
The defects casued by thalidomide are pretty minor in the scheme of things (obviously not for those who suffered them) but they would not lead to miscarriage - also thalidomide did not prevent miscarriage, nor was it intended to - it relieved severe morning sickness.
The doctor who invented the drug recently went public and admitted that he falsified results to get the drug on the market, so the problem wasn't so much oversight as fraud.
That said, I avoid as many artificial things as possible - anything that is labelled "fat free" usually has added emulsifiers and thickeners for texture and is often really high in sugar, anything that is labeled "sugar free" is usually really high in fat and tastes like crap.
You tend to eat bigger quantities of flavourless, bland food. I would far prefer one or two homemade biscuits made with real butter, sugar and good chocolate than a whole packet of those vile Weight Watchers overpackaged cardboard logs! And I've seen cartons of "Traditional Vanilla custard" which contain no egg, no cream and no vanilla!!!! Why not just drink water instead of "diet" soft drink anyway?
