aspartame

[MORTARDUDE]

If you have any doubts about this...do some searches in www.google.com....The National Institutes of Health is a good place to start. They are still doing "tests" after all these years...



http://www.netlink.de/gen/aspartame.htm


Info on toxicity of Aspartame has been suppressed
for 20-30 years. It was developed in a program during WWII to create a neurotoxin to kill enemy soldiers. - AA

ASPARTAME CRISIS POSED TO WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE By Betty Martini, 8/17/00
http://www.sightings.com/general3/en.htm

I have spent several days lecturing at the WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE on ASPARTAME, marketed as 'NutraSweet,' 'Equal,' and 'Spoonful.'

In the EPA's keynote address, they announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant across the United States. I explained I was there to lecture on exactly that subject.

When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME coverts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants.) The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis; thus, people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is.

In the case of systemic lupus, we are finding it has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. Also, with methanol toxicity, the victims usually drink three to four 12 oz. cans of them per day, some even more. In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by ASPARTAME, the victim usually does not know
that the aspartame is the culprit. The victim continues its use aggravating the lupus to such a degree, that sometimes it becomes life-threatening.

When we get people off the aspartame, those with systemic lupus usually become asymptotic. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse this disease. On the other hand, in the case of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We have seen cases where their vision has returned and even
their hearing has returned.

This also applies to cases of tinnitus. During a lecture I said "If you are using ASPARTAME [NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.] and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting pains, numbness in your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss, you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE!" People were jumping up during the lecture
saying, "I've got this. Is it reversible?" It is rampant. Some of the
speakers at my`lecture even were suffering from these symptoms. In one lecture attended by the Ambassador of Uganda, he told us that their sugar industry is adding aspartame! He continued by saying that one of the industry leader's son could no longer walk due in part to product usage! We have a very serious problem. Even a stranger came up to Dr. Espisto, (one of my speakers) and myself and said, "Could you tell me why so many people seem to be coming down with MS?"

During a visit to a hospice, a nurse said that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke drinkers, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence. Here is the problem.

There were Congressional Hearings when Aspartame was originally included as a sweetener in 100 different products. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, but to no avail. Nothing has been done.

The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now there are over 5,000 products containing this chemical, and the PATENT HAS EXPIRED!!!!

At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the Aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic -DEADLY POISONS!!! Unfortunately, it just takes longer to quietly kill, but it is killing people and causing all kinds of neurological problems.

Aspartame changes the brain's chemistry. It is the reason for severe seizures. This drug changes the dopamine level in the brain. Imagine what this drug does to patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease. This drug also causes birth defects. There is absolutely no reason to take this product. It is NOT A DIET PRODUCT! The Congressional Record said, "It makes
you crave Carbohydrates and will make you FAT." Dr. Roberts stated that when he got patients off aspartame, their average weight loss was 19 pounds per person.

The formaldehyde stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. All physicians know what wood alcohol will do to a diabetic. We find that physicians believe that they have patients with retinopathy, when in fact, it is caused by the aspartame. The aspartame keeps the blood sugar level out of control, causing many patients to go into a coma. Unfortunately, many have died.

People were telling us at the conference of the American College of Physicians, that they had relatives who switched from saccharin to an aspartame product and how the relative had eventually gone into a coma. Their physicians could not get the blood sugar levels under control. Thus, the patients suffered acute memory loss and eventually coma and death.
Memory loss is due the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxic without the other amino acids found protein. Thus it goes past the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain. Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon, said, "The ingredients stimulate the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees." Dr. Blaylock has written a book entitled "EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT
KILLS" (Health Press 1-800-643-2665). Dr. H. J. Roberts, diabetic
specialist and world expert on aspartame poisoning, has also written a book entitled "DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE" (1-800-814-9800). Dr. Roberts tells how aspartame poisoning is escalating Alzheimer's Disease,
and indeed it is. As the hospice nurse told me, women are being admitted at 30 years of age with Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Roberts will be writing a position paper with some case histories and will post it on the Internet.

According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this deadly poison." Dr. Roberts realized what was happening when aspartame was first marketed. He said, "His diabetic patients presented memory loss, confusion,
and severe vision loss." At the Conference of the American College of Physicians, doctors admitted that they did not know.

They had wondered why seizures were rampant (the phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence). Just before the Conference, I received a fax from Norway, asking for a possible antidote
for this poison because they are experiencing so many problems in their country. This "poison" is now available in 90 PLUS countries worldwide.

Fortunately, we had speakers and ambassadors at the Conference from different nations who have pledged their help. We ask that you help too. Print this article out and warn everyone you know. Take anything that contains aspartame back to the store. Take the "NO ASPARTAME TEST" and send
us your case history.

I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. They fund the American Association, American Dietetic Association Congress, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians. The New York Times, November 15, 1996, ran an article on how the American Dietetic
Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products. Therefore, they cannot criticize any additives or tell about their link to MONSANTO.

How bad is this? We told a mother who had a child on NutraSweet to get off the product. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off the NutraSweet. We are still trying to convince the mother
that the Aspartame is causing the seizures. Every time we get someone off of aspartame, the seizures stop. If the baby dies, you know whose fault it is, and what we are up against.

There are 92 documented symptoms of aspartame, from coma to death. The majority of them are all neurological, because the aspartame destroys the nervous system. Aspartame Disease is partially the cause to what is behind some of the mystery of the Desert Storm health problems. The burning tongue and other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to
the consumption of Aspartame product. Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to the Desert Storm troops. (Remember heat can liberate the methanol from the aspartame at 86 degrees F.) Diet drinks sat in the 120 degree F Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets The servicemen and women drank them all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to
aspartame poisoning.

Dr. Roberts says consuming Aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects. According to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician and Professor of Genetics at Emory University, in his testimony before Congress: The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors, phenylalanine breaks down into DXP, a brain tumor agent. When Dr. Espisto was lecturing
on aspartame, one physician in the audience, a neurosurgeon, said, "When they remove brain tumors, they have found high levels of aspartame in them."

Stevia, a sweet food, NOT AN ADDITIVE, which helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics, has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA for years, the FDA has outlawed this sweet food because of their loyalty to MONSANTO. If it says "SUGAR FREE" on the label - DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote a bill that would have warned all infants, pregnant mothers and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also instituted independent studies on the problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). It was killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting public. Since the Conference of the American College of Physicians, we hope to have the help of several world leaders.

Again, please help us, too. There are a lot of people out there who must be warned, please let them know this information.

Internet websites offering further research and related links include:
http://www.dorway.com
http://www.aspartamekills.com
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

The author, Betty Martini, owned 5 medical clinics and had 200 doctors working for her. She can be reached in Atlanta at 770-242-2599.

Arthur Atkinson, Atkinson Search & Placement, Inc.
508 N. Second St. Suite 107, Fairfield, Iowa 52556
515/472-3666 voice, 515/472-7270 fax
area codes changing to:
641/472-3666 voice, 641/472-7270 fax
EMAIL: asap@aAtkinson.com
Web: http://www.aatkinson.com

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.321recipes.com/aspartame.html



Aspartame Warning

This page exists solely to try and spread the word about the numerous & serious dangers of regular aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal) consumption. Currently the 100+ articles on this page contain facts & opinions from over 50 doctors & nutritionists, many of which have each "cured" their patients of many symptoms (including weight gain) simply by removing aspartame from their diet. These 50+ doctors strongly recommend avoiding all aspartame products. Numerous articles detailing the unbelievable history of the aspartame approval are also provided, along with thousands of testimonials from former users. Some info. on the new sweetener Splenda (sucralose) found in Diet Rite soda is also provided.
The multi-billion dollar aspartame industry would like you believe that "aspartame kills" is an "urban legend" and that you'd have to drink 100 cans of diet soda a day to be harmed by aspartame. This is just simply not true. Their main claim is that the 3 components of aspartame are found in many natural foods and are therefore safe. This is kind of like saying carbon monoxide is safe because all it contains is carbon & oxygen, the same components of carbon dioxide. Methanol (wood alcohol), which makes up 10% of aspartame and is highly toxic (adult minimum lethal dose is 2 teaspoons), is also found in some fruits & vegetables like tomatoes. However, methanol is never found in natural foods without ethanol & pectin, its "antidotes" if you will (detailed facts below). Ethanol & pectin prevent methanol from being metabolized into formaldehyde (embalming fluid) & formic acid (same chemical as fire ant venom), both deadly toxins. An ethanol drip is even the standard emergency room treatment for methanol poisoning. Aspartame contains no ethanol or pectin, therefore the methanol is converted to formaldehyde and formic acid. Phenylalanine and aspartic acid, the other 2 components of aspartame, are amino acids found in natural foods but always as part of long chains of many different amino acids to form complex protein molecules that take humans 12 hours to gradually break down & assimilate. According to the doctors below, when consumed by themselves these 2 amino acids require no digestion and quickly enter the brain & central nervous system at abnormally high levels, overstimulating brain cells to death and causing many other health problems.

"Pro" aspartame people point to industry sponsored short term tests, ignoring independant tests. They point to "reliable" health sites, organizations, foundations etc. that are sponsored, funded & fed "facts" by companies that profit from aspartame. And of course, the FDA approved it so "it must be safe", neglecting to mention that the FDA denied aspartame approval for over 8 years until the newly appointed FDA commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes overruled the final scientic review panel, approved aspartame, and then went to work for G.D. Searle's (initial owner of aspartame) public relations firm at $1,000 a day. Hayes has refused all interviews to discuss his actions. The FDA also urged Congress to prosecute G.D. Searle for "specific false statements or concealed facts" stemming from Searle's testing of aspartame. However, the 2 government lawyers assigned to the case decided against prosecuting G.D. Searle and then joined G.D. Searle's law firm! Even the National Soft Drink Assn. filed a strong protest letter (available below) in 1983 against the approval of aspartame for use in beverages, saying "aspartame is inherently, markedly and uniquely unstable in aqueous media." Also, the FDA still allows hydrogenated oils to be used, does that make them safe?

Our suggestion: First READ ALL THE QUOTES provided below, then go back and read some of the articles. And remember, they're talking about the CUMULATIVE effects of regular aspartame consumption and that some people are more affected than others (but everyone is affected) due to a few factors including the condition of their protective blood-brain barrier. Bookmark this page and email it to everyone you know, especially pregnant women. New: Print out our Flyers.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JUMP TO: Health risk articles, Weight GAIN articles, Approval, testing, FDA ties to industry articles, Misc. articles
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Health risk articles

Symptoms List - Actual 1995 copy of aspartame related symptoms submitted to the FDA. The FDA has received well over 10,000 aspartame related complaints, more than all other complaints combined. Also keep in mind that less than 1 out of every 100 people actually file an official complaint and that of course, many people consume aspartame daily and have no clue that it may be the cause of their illnesses.

Dr. Christine Lydon, MD - Oxygen magazine article, easy to read. A good introductory overview on aspartame. "I stormed into my kitchen and fed every item of food containing aspartame to the garbage. Since that time, I have not had so much as a stick of aspartame sweetened gum...Experimentally, it has been determined that infants are four times more sensitive to excitotoxins than adults. " Dr. Lydon majored in neurobiology at Brown University and graduated the Yale School of Medicine. more biography info.

Dr. Michael Schachter, M.D. - Good introductory overview article from Healthy.net. "What kinds of symptoms may occur as a result of ingesting aspartame? They may involve almost any system of the body...The FDA & manufacturers of aspartame claim that all of the adverse symptoms reported are "anecdotal". Because it is common that a person will not experience noticeable illness from a short term usage of aspartame, this is taken as proof that there is no problem with safety. Unfortunately, this position ignores the fact that the effects of aspartame poisoning are cumulative. "

Dr. Woodrow C. Monte, Ph.D., R.D. - Excellent detailed article on aspartame and methanol, a must read. "...ethanol slows the rate of methanol's conversion to formaldehyde and formate allowing the body time to excrete methanol in the breath and urine."

The Sunday Express, May 20, 2001 page 7 - UK national press article. "Action at last over additive Aspartame as fears grow of health risk in food and drink. The Government has ordered a top-level investigation into the safety of Britain's best-selling sweetener amid fears that the low calorie chemical is a health risk...Aspartame, used in thousands of diet food and drinks has been linked to more than 90 adverse reactions including brain tumours and blindness...Professor Ralph Walton of Northwestern Ohio Universities said: 'I dispute the assertion that there are no health risks. "I believe Aspartame increases risk of cancer. Virtually all the studies attesting to its safety have been funded by the industry.'"

Dr. Arthur Forman, M.D. neurologist - Short MSNBC article. "There are mechanisms to see this is causing serious problems for some folks...I don't recommend it for anyone, frankly....Many patients find it stimulates the appetite."

Dr. Janet Starr Hull, nutritionist - "As a nutritionist, over eighty percent of my clients experience some form of health problem associated with aspartame: weight gain, hair loss, severe medical ailments, eating disorders, mental disorders, fatigue."

Dr. James Bowen, M.D. - Good article mainly on aspartame & pregnancy risks. "...it ruins female sexual response and induces male sexual dysfunction. Beyond this, aspartame disrupts fetal development by aborting it or inducing defects. And if a live child is born aspartame may have heinously damaged the DNA of the baby, cursing future generations." 2nd article: Aspartame damages the hypothalamus.

Dr. James Bowen, M.D. - Excellent, long, detailed article on aspartame & sperm/DNA damage, as well as chemical hypersensitivity. A frightening but difficult read. "The quantity and quality of human sperm is plunging like a meteor, and with it humanity's future, announced a conference of 130 scientists in Montreal on Male Mediated Developmental Toxicity...The fire ant wields what is arguably the most potent venom of any terrestrial arthropod, formic acid. Exactly the same formic acid that is formed 10% by weight from aspartame in your body."

Dr. James Bowen, M.D. - Excellent, detailed article describing the difference between methanol from aspartame and natural sources. "...Thus fruit juice is highly protective of methanol poisoning rather than serving as a source of methanol as the Aspartame pundits would maintain."

Dr. J. Barua, M.D. (ophthalmic surgeon), Dr. Arun Bal, M.D.(surgeon) - Excellent detailed article. "Methanol is a deadly poison...Methanol, thus breaks down into formic acid (a venom in ant stings) and formaldehyde (embalming fluid) in the body....It has been pointed out that some fruit juices and alcoholic beverages contain small amounts of methanol. It is important to remember, however, that methanol never appears alone. In every case, ethanol is present, usually in much higher amounts. Ethanol is an antidote for methanol toxicity in humans. In aspartame there is no ethanol...Methanol & its by-products cause swelling of the optic nerve & degeneration of ganglion cells in the retina."

Hundreds of testimonials - Tons of testimonials from people who have discovered the dangers of aspartame. An absolute must read. "After completely quitting ...most all of my symptoms immediately disappeared and I have not been having any seizure activity."..."Almost immediately upon giving up Nutrasweet, my symptoms went away. No more fatigue and fog in the morning, and a clearer head throughout the day." "...My joints no longer ache, memory is better and I feel great." "...I have been waking up feeling rested. I'm not as achy. I'm not as tired. I don't crave sweets anymore."
View Our Guestbook which is constantly being added with new testimonials, feel free to sign it with your testimonial, opinions etc. Yahoo email group - Active support group about aspartame dangers, with hundreds more testimonials and aspartame related news. Feel free to join! Print out our Flyers and give them to friends, coworkers, doctors etc.


Dr. Morgan Raiford, M.D., D.Sc.(Med) Ophth. - Fairly short letter on vision damage. "Beyond the extensive visual damage that aspartame can and does create, other organ systems are affected. Nerve damage to the arms, legs,central nerve impairment, resulting in impaired nerve function as well as neurosis and learning difficulties in school work as well as behavior....Methyl alcohol has no place in a product, whole or in part,to be allowed to be produced by any manufactor for human usage." 2nd article: Serious vision damage.

Dr. David Edelberg, M.D. - Extremely accredited doctor's opinion found on Wholehealthmd.com. "FDA approval is no guarantee that a substance is risk-free...some people who use lots of aspartame might discover that their headaches, memory loss, mood swings, or fainting spells clear up when they sweeten with a little honey instead. In my practice, which covers a lot of people who just don't feel well, I routinely take patients off aspartame if they tell me they're using it."

Dr. H.J. Roberts, M.D. - An article on aspartame addiction. "The neurologic, psychologic, eye, endocrine, metabolic and pediatric ravages in my data base of over 1,200 aspartame reactors, comprised of both patients and correspondents, are impressive. Additionally, it is my increasing conviction that aspartame products can cause, aggravate or accelerate migraine, seizures, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and its complications, Alzheimer's disease, and even brain tumors....Addiction to aspartame products is as real as abuse of tobacco, alcohol and drugs." 2nd excellent article: Brain Cancer. 3rd article: Vision damage.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., Neurosurgeon - Excellent detailed article about excitoxins including aspartame & MSG. A must read. "Over 100 million American now consume aspartame products...There is sufficient medical literature documenting serious injury by these additives in the concentrations presently in our food supply to justify warning the public of these dangers. The case against aspartame is especially strong." 2nd article: Hypothalamus damage. 3rd article: Neurotoxic Interaction of MSG, Aspartame & Other Toxins.
Dr. Blaylock is the author of the book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills.


Smart-drugs.com - Another detailed article about excitoxins. "Yet there is a key difference between food-derived glutamate/aspartate and MSG/aspartame. Food glutamate/aspartate comes in the form of proteins, which contain 20 other amino acids, and take time to digest, slowing the release of protein bound glutamate/aspartate like a "timed-release capsule." This in turn moderates the rise in blood levels of glutamate/aspartate. Also, when glutamate and aspartate are received by the liver (first stop after intestinal absorption) along with 20 other aminos, they are used to make various proteins. This also moderates the rise in blood glutamate/aspartate levels."

Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D. - Short opinion by the famous doctor. "First of all, I would stop using NutraSweet..." Drweil.com is an excellent resource for all health & diet related issues. Bookmark it!

Malcolm Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center - MEDLINE/PubMed case(June 2001) "Four patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome for two to 17 years are described. All had undergone multiple treatment modalities with limited success. All had complete, or nearly complete, resolution of their symptoms within months after eliminating monosodium glutamate (MSG) or MSG plus aspartame from their diet...All have had recurrence of symptoms whenever MSG is ingested...Excitotoxins are molecules, such as MSG and aspartate, that act as excitatory neurotransmitters, and can lead to neurotoxicity when used in excess..."

The Barcelona Report - A Univ. of Barcelona study on lab rats that proves that aspartame is converted to formaldehyde in vivo. Not an easy read. " ...the amount of formaldehyde adducts coming from aspartame in tissue proteins and nucleic acids may be cumulative. It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a hazard because of its contribution to the formation of formaldehyde adducts....Formaldehyde is a highly reactive small molecule which strongly binds to proteins and nucleic acids forming adducts which are difficult to eliminate through the normal metabolism pathways. As a result, formaldehyde induces severe functional alterations, including the development of cancer."

Dr. Julian Whitaker, M.D. - Fairly short article."..aspartame has been proven to increase appetite, especially cravings for sweets...damage is likely cumulative. Aspartame is particularly harmful to children and the developing fetus." Drwhitaker.com - The doctor's health site.

Dr. Richard J. Sabates, M.D. - A doctor's personal story on his aspartame poisoning and recovery. "Never again will I touch artificial sweeteners and I will try to educate my patients as to the very important reasons why....The FDA is intimately related to the pharmaceutical industry. It is important to let the consumers know that many retired FDA officials go to work as special counselors to the pharmaceutical industry. FDA Commissioner Dr. Charles C. Edwards has said " It is not our purpose to endanger the financial interest of the pharmaceutical companies." FDA ex-commissioner Dr. Robert Liz put it more directly. "What bothers me most is that people believe that the FDA is protecting them...""

Dr. Erik Millstone - Excellent detailed article on aspartame & brain tumors, read this one! "After aspartame was introduced, however, the opposite pattern can be found. The incidence of glioblastomas rose sharply, and starting in the late 1980s the number of astrocytomas declined even more sharply. Since those latter changes run counter to the direction which could be attributed to the introduction of better diagnostic technologies, it is hard to see how the reported changing tumour incidence could be ascribed to innovations in diagnosis. If the apparent increase in overall incidence had been due to improved diagnostics, then we should expect a marked change in post- diagnostic survival rates, but no such change was evident."

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune - "Aspartame, the popular artificial sweetener sold most often as NutraSweet, is a leading suspect in an upsurge of deadly brain tumors in the United States, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have concluded. Dr. John Olney, lead author of the paper, is a noted neuropathologist and psychiatrist who has challenged aspartame's safety since the 1970s."

Dr. Louis J. Elsas, M.D., Director, Division of Medical Genetics - Statement for the U.S. Senate. "I have considerable concern for the increased dissemination and consumption of the sweetener, aspartame... in our world food supply."

Dr. Pardridge, M.D., endocrinologist - Congressional testimony, mainly about phenylalanine in aspartame. "One study shows that when blood phenylalanine in pregnant mothers is increased five-fold, there is a 10-point drop in the I.Q. of the baby born of that mother...And a more recent study by Dr. Elsas has shown that there are quantitative changes in the human electroencephalogram when the blood phenylalanine is raised three-fold." 2nd article: Aspartame & Pregnancy dangers

Dr. Wurtman, M.D., MIT Neuroscientist, & Dr. Maher - Detailed article, mainly about phenylalanine in aspartame. "Anecdotal reports suggest that some people suffer neurologic or behavioral reactions in association with aspartame consumption." 2nd article: Aspartame & Seizures

Dr. Madelon Price, Professor of Neurobiology - "Aspartic acid (aspartate) has been known to be a neurotoxin for 30 years. Rodent studies demonstrated that when ingested at doses of 0.5 g/kg or greater, the circumventricular organs that surround the ventricles of the brain become necrotic." 2nd short article: Aspartame causes infertility

Dr. James B. Hays, M.D. - "For the past five years, numerous side-effects have been observed due to Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal)..."

Dr. Bill Misner, Ph.D., nutritionist - "Before eating or drinking anything with Aspartame on the run or just for "fun", give serious thought to its proven toxic accumulative-use side effects shown in a wide assortment of related reliable research as stated below. Possibly due to its methyl alcohol content according to Dr. Ralph Golan, M.D., constant use amounting to large intake over time may result in headaches, fainting, seizures, memory loss, mood swings, depression, nausea, and gastrointestinal stress." e-caps.com: Ask Dr. Bill - The doctor's website, he specializes in endurance training.

Dr. George R. Schwartz, M.D., toxicologist - Rebuttal letter to Monsanto. "you have presented a one-sided self-serving polemic defending your potentially dangerous product...There is overwhelming scientific evidence that Nutrasweet can pose a serious health danger."

Dr. Paula Rhodes - News4jax.com article. "The results can be dramatic...We've got people who sought care from neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists. They're on a whole grocery list of medications for complaints that end up being traced to aspartame."

David E. Polen, D.C. - "I have noted in my practice that removing Nutra-Sweet from the diet can have a positive effect on many patients from these other aspartame-related neuro-psychiatric complaints: seizures, headaches, dizziness, disorientation, confusion, severe anxiety, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, insomnia, numbness, paresthesias, atypical facial pain, severe depression, slurred speech and migrating joint pain. "

Dr. Milt Hammerly, MD - "I think it is prudent to avoid consuming aspartame. For those who have chronic health problems that have not responded to other interventions a trial of avoiding aspartame for several months may produce noticeable benefits."

Dr. Joseph Mercola, osteopathic medical doctor - Over 20 articles written by Dr. Mercola about the dangers of aspartame. "The recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. A one-liter (approx. 1 quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing products consume as much as 250 mg of methanol daily or 32 times the EPA limit."

Dr. Siegfried Schmidt, M.D. - Short 12/18/2001 article. "'These people are back to normal life, which is, when you come from chronic pain, to be normal, this is a miracle.' Doctor Schmidt thinks the chemicals in the food could affect the brain and cause the pain."

Dr. Joe Esposito - Short opinion. "There is also strong evidence that it can cause brain tumors, depression, and even mimic multiple sclerosis symptoms, which can lead to misdiagnosis and improper treatment. I can go on and on about the dangers of aspartame, but the bottom line is avoid it at all costs."

Dr. Karl Smith - Short, not very detailed article. "Unfortunately, formaldehyde is stored in fat cells and Aspartame causes increased cravings for carbohydrates. So drink diet soda and eat diet foods with Aspartame, get fat now; and later develop seizures, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, alzheimers disease, and eventually death."

Dr. Jay Mazzella, D.C - Short article. "Doctors are finding relief of symptoms when patients are removed from aspartame, yet it is still on the market. Senator Howard Hetzenbaum recently wrote a bill that would have instituted independent studies, but it was killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies. This is just another example of how important it is for consumers to not blindly trust the government or any other organization to always look after the health interest of the consumer."

Dr. Tom Lee, N.M.D. - General aspartame overview article. "Considering what is now known about brain chemistry, as well as, the now numerous documented reports of adverse reactions to aspartame, it would be prudent to eliminate aspartame from the diet."

Dr. Bryan T. McConnell, ND - Short, general opinion. "It is best advised to stay away from aspartame containing products. Finally, avoid getting nutrition information from junk food industry PR organizations such as IFIC or organizations that accept large sums of money from the junk and chemical food industry such as the American Dietetic Association."

Dr. G. M. Wolverton, M.D. - Short article. "Very frequently, when you put a designer drug into the human body for the purpose of "fooling" an organ system, the consequences are far reaching and sometimes quite disastrous."

Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D., addictive nutrition specialist. - Very short article. "I encourage my clients to stay away from products with aspartame both for their addictive potential and their reinforcement of the dependence upon sweet taste."

Dr. Lendon Smith, M.D. - "These ingredients may not actually cause mental problems but can certainly trigger them by interfering with the ratio of the various brain neurotransmitters. A person may be susceptible to brain chemical alterations, but the reaction only occurs when there is stress plus the ingestion of ASP."

Dr. Laura Thompson, metabolic nutritionist - An article on ADD & nutrition that briefly mentions aspartame. "By all means don?t give your kids artificial-anything, especially artificial sweeteners such as aspartame or Nutrasweet TM. These products can negatively affect brain function, behavior, and their health."

MEDLINE/PubMed case(Oct 2001) - Tiny report: "Aspartame, an artificial sweetener added to many foods and beverages, may trigger headaches in susceptible individuals."

Karinya.com - Good article. "In neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock's book "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills," he writes that aspartame causes major neurological changes, and in heavy users, may even precipitate lupus and methanol toxicity, which at first appears to be multiple sclerosis. The ingredients in NutraSweet literally stimulate the neurons of the brain to death causing brain damage of varying degrees."

Femail.co.uk: Daily Mail article - Short article on artificial sweetner dangers. "Concerns were first raised about aspartame in 1978 when researchers in Barcelona found a link between high intakes of the substance and brain tumours when fed to rats."

Bitter Truth of aspartame - Another article. "Unfortunately, many patients in my practice, and others seen in consultation, developed serious metabolic, neurologic and other complications that could be specifically attributed to using aspartame products."

Radio Interview Transcript - A transcript of a 1997 Dallas, Texas radio interview with Mary Nosh Stoddard, Founder of ACSN. "..It was first approved in 1974, but the approval was rescinded because of the brain tumor issue....We compare this to the cigarette issue because it's a very close parallel. How many cigarettes does it take to cause lung cancer or a stroke, or a heart attack? How many diet drinks do you have to consume to get a brain tumor? How many spoonfuls of Equal do you have to take to have a pancreatic tumor or liver damage? The answer is: We don't know exactly what amount because it does not show up in short term testing. It's the long term effect. "

Weight Gain articles
Note: Many of the articles above deal with the weight gain effects of aspartame as well. Ironically, overweight & obesity rates in the U.S. remained virtually unchanged from 1960 to 1980, only to skyrocket from 1980 - 2000, the same period "diet" products with aspartame were introduced.


Dr. Sandra Cabot, M.D. Liver specialist - "Aspartame makes you fatter... After having been consulted by thousands of overweight people suffering with problems concerning the liver and/or metabolism I can assure you that aspartame will not help you in any way, indeed it will help you to gain unwanted weight." Liverdoctor.com - Dr. Cabot's website. Dr. Cabot's books on the liver and diet.

Ann Louise Gittleman, nutritionist - "Within a month of quitting the NutraSweet and all the products it was found in, Jan's symptoms (and the extra weight) disappeared...I suggest you completely avoid any foods with added NutraSweet or any other artificial sweetener." Ann Louise Gittleman is a well known and respected nutritionist, author of dozens of popular nutrition books.

Rebecca Ephraim, RD, CCN - "Aspartame = Diet-astrous Results. "...the amino acid phenylalanine, blocks production of serotonin, a nerve chemical that, among other activities, controls food cravings... Nutritionist Susan Allen...believes that when they consume them, the sweet taste of no-calorie sweeteners triggers their bodies to release insulin, even though there is no food to feed the cells. The problem Allen sees is that an "insulin-sensitive" person who uses artificial sweeteners teases his or her body into thinking food is on its way, so insulin is released. But when the body discovers it was cheated out of food, it revolts by throwing a food-craving tantrum that can only be quelled by eating blood sugar food that will more than likely be high-calorie sugary snacks.


Hundreds of testimonials - "Getting of Nutrasweet has taken away my excessive appetite. I eat a big lunch, but have little desire for supper and now that I'm off diet drinks, I've lost 10 pounds in the first month...."

History of Aspartame: approval, lack of testing, FDA ties to industry

Arthur M. Evangelista, former FDA investigator - Excellent easy to read letter. "Prior to the approval of aspartame, the FDA sent two specialized teams to G.D. Searle, and found an ghastly 95% level of mis-directed testing, concealed tests, collusion between corporate and their company-funded research, inappropriate antemortum issues, withholding of material facts, alteration of records, lying to investigators, lost records, no records, falsification of reports, bribery, poor test methodology or design....et al...Former corporate officials, who began working for the Food and Drug Administration (and vice versa), were very cavalier about issues uncovered at Searle regarding their drug processing, and about aspartame. Some, with a hidden agenda of promised secret money or better industry jobs, actively hindered the investigation into G.D. Searle's laboratory practices. It is obvious when you see the records and numbers, and WHERE those jobs were."

UPI report part #1, Part #2, Part #3 - Excellent, detailed 1987 8 month UPI investigative report on the history of aspartame. A must read. "Dr. Reuben Matalon, a pediatrician and geneticist....said, 'Let us say cigarettes were invented today, and you give 20 people two packs a day and after six weeks, no one has cancer, would you say that it was safe? That?s what they did with NutraSweet.'...'There are virtually no studies,' Turner said, 'that have been done by individuals using resources other than the industry?s that have given a clean bill of health to aspartame.'"

History of Aspartame approval #2 - Detailed timeline showing how aspartame got approved. An excellent read. "Shortly after the FDA approval for aspartame in carbonated beverages, FDA Commissioner, Arthur Hull Hayes left the FDA under charges of improprieties...and was hired as a consultant ($1,000 per day) with G.D. Searle's public relations firm, Burson Marsteller...The United Press reported on October 12, 1987 that more than 10 federal officials involved in the NutraSweet decision took jobs in the private sector linked to the aspartame industry."

History of Aspartame approval #3 - Excellent, extremely detailed article about the aspartame approval. "Dr. Gross, the chief scientist on the FDA task force, told the CBS *Nightly News* staff in January, 1984, that Searle made "*deliberate* decisions" to cloak the toxic effects of aspartame. "They took great pains to camouflage these shortcomings of the study,'' Gross said, "as I say, filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know. And they did other *terrible* things. For instance, animals would develop tumors while they were under study-well, G.D. Searle would *remove these tumors from the animals*," surgically masking the cancerous effects of aspartame.....Despite what one FDA scientist described as 'very serious' questions concerning pivotal brain tumor tests, Hayes eagerly approved aspartame for use in dry foods in July 1981...Hayes acknowledged in his 1981 decision that he had only consulted a preliminary report of the Japanese evaluation, and only *skimmed* it. More serious, Hayes violated federal law by basing approval on the test, as it had not been reviewed by the FDA board.....James Turner, representing the Community Nutrition Institute in Washington, D.C., said that Arthur Hull Hayes, to arrive at his decision that aspartame is safe, firewalked apath "through a mass of scientific mismanagement, improper procedures, wrong conclusions and general scientific inexactness".

History of Aspartame approval #4 - "Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, a former FDA toxicologist, and member of an FDA task force that investigated the authenticity of research done by Searle to establish the safety of aspartame, says she believes the original aspartame studies were 'built on a foundation of sand.' " Dr. Jacqueline Verrett Congressional testimony

disinfo.com(disinformation): Another long, detailed article.

NSDA Protest - A must read 1983 National Soft Drink Assn. protest letter put in Congressional Record in 1985. Note that this was written AFTER the FDA approved aspartame for use in dry foods. The NSDA later changed their mind and started making billions in diet drink sales. "G. D. Searle and Company has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty that the use of aspartame in soft drinks, without quantitative limitations, will not adversely affect human health as a result of the changes such use is likely to cause in brain chemistry and under certain reasonably anticipated conditions of use....Aspartame is inherently, markedly and uniquely unstable in aqueous media."

The Bressler Report - Detailed scathing 1977 FDA Report on Searle and the incredible number of disparities, missing information, and improper procedures in their aspartame tests. You're fed the quote: "Aspartame is the most tested product in the world" often. It's a bunch of garbage, especially with tests like these: "Observation records indicated that animal A23LM was alive at week 88, dead from week 92 through week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at week 112." All it took was one corrupt FDA commissioner to overrule the FDA board and approve aspartame.

Wall Street Journal article - "Two government lawyers who decided against prosecuting the maker of NutraSweet for allegedly falsifying test results later joined the law firm that represented the company during the criminal investigation, Senate investigators charged."

Star Tribune Article - Excellent article on the FDA and the lack of aspartame testing. "Food and Drug Administration officials have for years resisted proposals from government scientists for comprehensive studies of the safety of the artificial sweetener aspartame, which 100 million Americans consume as NutraSweet....FDA officials said that, since 1981, about 8,000 consumers have complained to the agency that the sweetener has caused them physical ailments.... Huff said that the number of reports is worrisome, though, because "if 100 people have a headache after chewing NutraSweet gum, only one's going to report it...In 1976, the FDA's general counsel requested a federal grand jury investigation of the company because of alleged irregularities in its laboratory. (Such an investigation was never undertaken.)"

News4jax.com article - "One person who doesn't call it safe: former FDA investigator Arthur Evangelista. Evangelista says he left the FDA in the late 19-80's because of its practices. "On several issues -- including Aspartame -- I was told to keep my mouth shut.," Evangelista said. "The FDA was not following a public health policy that was protecting the public itself. but rather, seemed to be in collusion with corporations that were marketing substances that were detrimental to public health." "

Dr. Adrian Gross letter - A 1987 letter from FDA toxicologist Dr. Gross to Senator Metzenbaum. "...the rate of brain tumors amongst the animals exposed to it vastly exceeds that for animals not exposed to it and such excess is very highly significant. What this says is that there cannot be any reasonable, or even shadow of a doubt that aspartame had caused such an increase in the incidence of brain tumors....Thus, it seems to me that we are dealing here with a huge time bomb. There is hardly any need for me to emphasize here that this represents an unacceptably high risk or hazard posed by aspartame."

Dr. H.J. Roberts M.D. - Letter. "Personally, I don't believe you can get factual information from the MS Society. They are another organization that takes in contributions....Physicians don't know because Monsanto "funds" all these organizations like the American Diabetic Assn., and American Dietetic Assn., etc. and are told that aspartame is safe. They do it because they can't warn the patients and continue to take money. Notice all these walk-a-thons for diabetics are funded by NutraSweet (Monsanto) and they have people wearing Equal shirts."

Congressman Bernard Sanders - Excellent report by the congressman about FDA & congressional ties to the drug industry. "The pharmaceutical industry is the most powerful special interest in Washington. ...a cynical revolving door policy exists between the FDA and the drug companies...individuals who had the responsibility of regulating an industry end up on working for them after they leave government. ...acting FDA commissioners Michael Friedman, Mark Novitch, Arthur Hull Hayes and Jere Goyan are all currently employed by pharmaceutical companies."

Monsanto & the government - People don't realize that drug company employees & government regulatory agency employees are the same people! Look at this list of connections between Monsanto and the government. Many FDA employees work for drug companies before AND after their time at the FDA.

USA Today: FDA advisors tied to industry - "The experts are supposed to be independent, but USA TODAY found that 54% of the time, they have a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they are asked to evaluate... Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but the FDA has waived the restriction more than 800 times since 1998."

Medical Editor Rips Into FDA - "The editor of a top medical journal on Friday accused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the world's most powerful drug watchdog, of endangering people's lives...Richard Horton of The Lancet said...'the FDA, its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) in particular, has become a servant of the industry...The FDA is not only compromised because it receives so much funding from industry, but because it comes under incredible congressional pressure to be favorable to industry. That has led to deaths'".

Equal pays off American Diabetes Assoc. - The American Diabetes Assn. says that aspartame is completely safe. Where did they get this info from? Perhaps the same place that the huge donation checks come from. They get fat yearly checks from Equal, Nutrasweet, and all the artificial sweetner companies. "The American Diabetes Association accepted a $100,000 donation during the December 12th Equal? Sweetener World Professional Figure Skating Championship...The funds donated by Equal..."

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Over 20 articles written by Dr. Mercola about the dangers of aspartame and the government coverup.

Biotech food & BGH - Excellent article on biotech food and Bovine Growth Hormone(BGH). Be sure to read the section on BGH 1/2 way down the page. "...milk from rBGH injected cows contains substantially higher amounts of a potent cancer tumor promoter called IGF-1...Since 1994, every industrialized country in the world, except for the US, has banned the drug. Even the Codex Alimentarius, the food standards arm of the World Trade Organization, has refused to back up Monsanto's claim that the drug is safe...Moreover, the FDA ruled..that rBGH-derived products did not have to be labeled, despite polls showing that 90% of American consumers wanted labeling--mainly so they could avoid buying rBGH-tainted products.

The Mystery in Your Milk - This article has nothing to do with aspartame but it deals with the FDA, Monsanto(former owners of aspartame), and profits before health. "Dr. Michael Hanson, Consumers Union Scientist:...'Monsanto has a very checkered history with some of its other products...' Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, a respected reporting team at WTTV, a Fox Network Station in Tampa, Florida, were fired from their jobs after refusing to broadcast what they knew and documented to be false and distorted information about Monsanto's bovine growth hormone (BGH) -- a genetically engineered product that has been linked to the proliferation of breast, prostate, and colon cancer cells in humans. On August 28, 2000, a Florida jury unanimously decided that Akre had been fired for threatening to blow the whistle on Fox for pressuring her and Wilson to broadcast a false, distorted and slanted news report and awarded her $425,000 for lost wages and damages... Samuel Epstein, Scientist, University of Illinois: '?there are highly suggestive if not persuasive lines of evidence showing that consumption of this milk poses risks of breast and colon cancer.'"

Cbsnews.com: FDA: Guardian Or Rubber Stamp? - FDA close ties to industry article. Referring to the FDA: "'You see in some of their own internal news letters, they refer to the pharmaceutical industry as their clients,' Mundy said."

New England Journal, (5/18/00) - Long article about how drug companies that pay for research and clinical tests of new medicines have been suppressing or manipulating the results.

Healthscoutnews - An 8/10/01 article on drug companies controlling tests & studies. "a recent JAMA survey asked 1,800 researchers across the country whether they had ever been involved in a situation where publication of a study was delayed because the results ran counter to the sponsor's interest. As it turns out, 120 said yes."

Peer Reviewed Aspartame study results - Dr. Ralph G. Walton: "Of the 166 studies felt to have relevance for questions of human safety, 74 had Nutrasweet? industry related funding and 92 were independently funded. One hundred percent of the industry funded research attested to aspartame's safety, whereas 92% of the independently funded research identified a problem." 6 of the 7 non industry sponsored studies that said aspartame was safe were funded by the FDA, so 85 out of 86 purely independent studies identified problems.

Misc. Articles: Stevia, Splenda (Sucralose) & other related info.

Washington Post 2/27/2001 - Soda dangers article. "Research suggests kids who drink a lot of soft drinks risk becoming fat, weak-boned, cavity-prone and caffeine-addicted...A 1994 Harvard study of bone fractures in teenage athletes found a strong association between cola beverage consumption and bone fractures in 14-year-old girls..."

Embbs.com: Methanol - An "unbiased" article on methanol poisoning that does not mention aspartame at all. "in the presence of ethanol, the metabolism of methanol to its toxic metabolites is greatly slowed. If there is a high clinical suspicion that a patient has ingested methanol it is appropriate to begin an ethanol drip while awaiting blood levels of methanol."

Mednets.com: Formaldehyde - An "unbiased" article on formaldehyde that does not mention aspartame at all. "Formaldehyde is produced by the oxidation of methanol...Formaldehyde is an eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritant. When inhaled, it can produce bronchospasm and pulmonary edema. Metabolic acidosis may occur as a result of accumulation of the metabolite formic acid in the body. Formaldehyde is a potent sensitizer and a suspected human carcinogen."

Dr. Andrew Weil on Stevia - "The Food and Drug Administration has been trying to suppress stevia for years, some say at the instigation of the manufacturer of aspartame. The agency still refuses to classify it as a safe food additive, a position I find untenable." Stevia is a safe, natural non-caloric sweetner that can be found at health food, vitamin stores & online.

Lauralee.com: Stevia - Excellent article on Stevia & its health benefits and FDA suppression. "Stevia is nutritious, too, containing magnesium, niacin, potassium, and vitamin C. It has been shown to stabilize blood sugar levels....in Japan, where extensive research provided more sound scientific evidence of Stevia's safety than for most foods and additives, and convinced the Japanese government to approve Stevia for wide use."

Stevia book burning - "...in May of '98 when the FDA directed a Texas-based distributor of stevia dietary supplements, Stevita Company, to destroy three books on its history, benefits and uses....In a letter to the company president, FDA compliance officer James R. Lahar wrote that an investigator would not only be coming around to take a current inventory, but would also 'be available to witness the destruction of the cookbooks, literature and other publications for the purpose of verifying compliance'"

Holisticmed.com, Dr. Mercola, Dr. Gazsi - 3 Sucralose (Splenda) articles. Sucralose is a new artificial sweetener, found in several products such as Diet Rite soda. Although it is much safer than aspartame, it's still not recommended. If you "must" drink diet soda, switch to Diet Rite. A safer option would be to drink water & use Stevia to sweeten tea, coffee etc. Or move to Japan, where Stevia has been used in soda with no complaints for 50 years.

Red Yeast Rice suppression by FDA - "The FDA ruled that a red rice yeast extract, Cholestin, must be taken off of the market as it contains mevinolin which is chemically identical to lovastatin which is Merck's anti cholesterol agent called Mevacor. Mevinolin is found naturally in the red yeast, Monascus purpureus which has been used for thousands of years to ferment rice..." Dr. Mercola: "This ruling by the FDA is absolute insanity. Merck should have never been allowed to patent a naturally occurring chemical."

A "pro" aspartame article - Here's one of several articles on the web that claims aspartame is completely safe. Notice how her tiny argument on methanol toxicity is based on the fact that methanol is found in fruits & vegetables, neglecting to mention that natural foods contain ethanol which prevents methanol from being metabolized into formaldehyde & formic acid. Also, she recommends going to Mayoclinic.com and other reliable health sites. Look at Mayoclinic's sponsors. Yes, that Searle is the same G.D. Searle Co. that brought aspartame to the market. All of these "reliable" sites are sponsored by large drug companies.

Sign Our Guestbook Print Out Our Flyers
Links:


More Important Health Tips - Simple health tips to further improve your general health and decrease your chances of getting cancer & other diseases.

Organicconsumers.org - Info on genetically engineered food, BGH and other important topics.

Presidiotex.com/aspartame - Tons of aspartame articles & testimonials.

Dorway.com - Tons of aspartame articles.

AspartameKills.com - More aspartame links, articles & info.

[MORTARDUDE]

ASPARTAME - Is There Poison in That Can?

Two-hundred fifty miles off the east coast of the United States, 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, the early afternoon weather is clear and a jetstream tailwind speeds Transglobal Airlines Flight 901* toward New York's Kennedy International Airport. In the cockpit of 901 the captain straps on his oxygen mask as per FAA regulations because the co-pilot has left the right seat to tend to a biological need. Just before the pilot straps on the mask, however, he takes a large gulp from an aluminum can, finishing off a diet soda--the only thing he has put in his stomach since breakfast.

"Kennedy approach, TransGlobal Flight 901" says the Captain as he contacts Kennedy's Air Route Traffic Control Center.
"TransGlobal 901, Kennedy approach, go ahead," the controller responds.
"Kennedy, 901 inbound, flight level three-five-zero," the pilot replies, "two-five-zero miles east, request approach instructions."
"901, Kennedy. Squawk three-two-zero-one."
"901, roger," responds the pilot as he switches his transponder to the designated numbers.
A few minutes pass, then, "901, Kennedy" the controller calls.
No response.
"901, Kennedy."
Again, no reply.
"TransGlobal 901, this is Kennedy approach, we have you on a descending right turn passing through flight level two-seven-zero. Climb and maintain three-five-zero, heading two-five-five degrees until further instructed."
No response.
"901, this is Kennedy approach. Come in."
Nothing.
"901, Kennedy we have you descending through flight level two-zero-zero at 4,000 feet per minute. Correct, climb and maintain three-five-zero."
Further silence is followed by several more attempts by the controller to contact the airliner. Then:
"Any aircraft in the vicinity of TransGlobal 901, this is Kennedy approach, we have lost 901 from transponder and ground radar. Please advise if you have radar contact or a visual on 901."
In this fictional scenario, the pilot consumes, on an empty stomach, a diet soda containing the artificial sweetener aspartame, [a.k.a. NutraSweet, Equal, et al]. Shortly thereafter, the captain experiences a grand mal seizure, a kind of brain electrical short-circuiting, rendering him unconsciousand causing the aircraft to descend into the Atlantic Ocean. Highly unlikely? Even ridiculous? Perhaps, but not as much so as one might think. Even calling the story "fictional" may not be entirely accurate. On September 8, 1994, US Air Flight 427, a Boeing 737-300, crashed while maneuvering to land at Pittsburgh International Airport. All 132 persons on board were killed. The Associated Press (AP) reported that Flight 427's cockpit voice recorder indicates "the flight was routine until the final seconds.

"Capt. Peter Germano," the AP report continued, "sips a cranberry orange juice and Diet Sprite drink ten minutes before the crash...."

Coincidence? Possibly.

THE FLIGHT OF CAPTAIN HAROLD WILSON

THE INCIDENT:

At approximately 4:00 p.m. on August 13, 1987 Harold Wilson, an Australian-born pilot flying for the Alaska commuter airline Peninsula Airways, was approximately 1,000 miles out of Anchorage at 10,000 feet headed west over the Bering Sea. Captain Wilson was ferrying charterpassengers to a fishing fleet en route to Atka, the most remote of inhabited islands in the Aleutian archipelago, when his life in a moment of time was changed forever.

Capt. Wilson told The WINDS that with absolutely no warning whatever he went totally unconscious, his brain shutting off like a switch. "The first thing I recall was waking up afterwards," Capt. Wilson said, "and the passengers were wondering what in the world was going on. They thought I'd had a heart attack.

"I was still gripping the aircraft's controls," Wilson recalled, "and had collapsed over the throttles disengaging the autopilot." The turboprop commuter plane then began a nose-down tight left turn corkscrewing toward the water two miles below. The first indication the passengers had that something wasn't right was when they heard the loud squeal from the autopilot's disengagement alarm. They then rushed to the cockpit, Wilson remarked, upsetting further the airplane's forward center of gravity which exacerbated and steepened their spiraling dive to the Bering Sea. By the time Capt. Wilson regained consciousness, they had plunged from 10,000 to less than 1500 feet.

Wilson, a former flight instructor and aircraft engineer, was told that by the time one of the passengers had gained control of the plane, the airspeed indicator needle was buried off the dial well past the red line or "never exceed speed" which is likely to cause structural damage or even airframe failure. The passenger who took control of the plane, a non-pilot (who referred to the control wheel as "handlebars" in the FAA report) had never sat in the front seat of an aircraft before but managed to use the radio to ask for help. Wilson had preset the radio to Adak Navy Approach Control and a Navy P3 Orion patrol plane that was in the vicinity responded and was able to effectively instruct the passenger in halting the aircraft's dive.

"By the passengers' accounts, I was out for about ten to twenty minutes. My first remembrance was kind of slowly waking up afterwards," Capt. Wilson said. "I didn't know what in the world had gone on. I just thought I'd dozed off--or hoped that's all it was. They had me propped up against the bulkhead still in the left seat."

THE PRECURSOR:

"The first indications of a problem I had was eight to ten months before the seizure event," Capt. Wilson explained. "I was experiencing unusual smell sensations, auras. If I was around some strong chemicals, paint thinners and so forth, I would smell them for like a week afterward, and I knew that wasn't right." The doctors Wilson consulted at that time, prior to the aircraft incident, could not tell him what was causing the smell-aura sensation. "Then about four or five months afterward I had the in-flight seizure."

Captain Wilson was featured, with others, on the television programs "Hard Copy" and the Australian and American "60 Minutes" productions about aspartame. The physicians in Alaska who examined Capt. Wilson were unable to determine the cause of his seizure and he was sent to a neurology specialist at Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital. When the neurologist was told of the strange smell-auras, he immediately recognized them as a definite precursor to seizure activity.

THE APPARENT CAUSE:

The former airline pilot is of the firm belief that the consumption of the artificial sweetener aspartame was the cause of his seizure. When asked what led up to his making that connection he said that he had been made aware of a "Pilot's Hotline" dealing with aspartame-related incidents and specific research into neurological problems attributed to the substance. He admitted to consuming large quantities of the sweetener in his coffee and other foods via the brand name Equal.

Previously to this incident, Capt. Wilson had been in perfect health, which is necessary to maintain the first-class medical certificate required to fly commercial passenger aircraft. By the time he was convinced to stop his intake of aspartame, he was already on an anti-seizure medication but was still experiencing the strange smell-aura sensations. Following the aircraft incident, he experienced yet another seizure while still on his medication--and still using aspartame. After he stopped using the sweetener, the smell-auras stopped. "I stayed off the stuff for about six months," Wilson said, "and then I started using it again and the smell-auras came back immediately. That," Capt. Wilson concluded, "was proof positive for me."

There are a multitude of other instances where aspartame sweetened beverages appear to be connected with aircraft pilot mishaps--far too many to be carelessly dismissed as merely apocryphal or anecdotal. Capt. Wilson also told The WINDS of other instances involving pilots that he says bear a potentially strong connection with the use of products containing aspartame.

"I'm personally acquainted with a pilot who was a captain for United on a 737. He was on short final into Portland airport about one year ago and experienced a seizure. He blames it on aspartame," Wilson said. "Fortunately he had a co-pilot." "I also know of a pilot in Texas I have spoken with a few times. He was a captain for Continental Airlines and he had a seizure, but it was on the ground. He was in the military reserves on a training exercise and woke up in the hospital--which was, of course, the end of his flying career." That pilot was Captain Haynes Dunn.

Captain Dunn, a former Navy pilot, told The WINDS that his ordeal began when he decided to trim a few pounds and started using diet drinks and the dieting supplement Slimfast which also contains aspartame. "About a week after I began, I started having insomnia and headaches and I went two straight weeks with an average of three hours or less of sleep a night. It all culminated," Capt. Dunn said, "in my having a grand mal seizure in front of about 200 people in the naval reserve. I was faced with an FAA flight physical at the time and the questionnaires you fill out ask you about those things." When Capt. Dunn informed his flight surgeon about the incident, he was immediately grounded.

"My whole life was changed in a heartbeat," he recalled. "And about that time I got a call from another pilot who said, 'By chance are you drinking diet sodas?'" The fellow pilot informed Capt. Dunn of information indicating that "that stuff can cause seizures." Dunn passed if off as unimportant attributing his problem to fatigue due to lack of sleep. What began to convince the pilot there might be something to the idea was when he was given a video tape entitled, "Is Aviation Safety Jeopardized by NutraSweet?" The video was produced by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) with Pat Robertson and in it, Dunn said, there was presented "a litany of symptoms" most of which he was experiencing.

"This was too coincidental," Capt. Dunn observed. "Here I've got seventeen years in the Navy--seventeen years of flight physicals--where I was screened specifically for epilepsy. I had no family history of epilepsy, and all these various side effects they listed--none of that happened" until the six months following the use of aspartame-containing products. Dunn eventually refused to take the anti-seizure medicine Dilantin but has still had no seizure recurrence--and no reinstatement of his medical certificate by the FAA.

When Capt. Dunn contacted a Los Angeles physician about the possibility of flying for an Australian airline, that doctor informed him that "in his [the doctor's] opinion NutraSweet was the second leading cause of pilots losing their medical certificates." That same physician told Dunn that the then head of the FAA's Aeromedical Certification Branch, Audie Davis, said "we know it's a big problem but our hands are tied. Our sister organization, the FDA, said it's safe, therefore, we can't put out a letter to airmen telling them not to use it."

Interestingly, Dunn told The WINDS, immediately after allowing the TV program "Hard Copy" to film him in a segment on aspartame, he was fired from his non-flight position at Continental for a minor violation of FAA regulations and was denied the customary recourse to review and appeal. The FAA subsequently cleared Capt. Dunn of any wrongdoing, but Continental has not reinstated him.

In 1987 the U.S. Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee conducted hearings regarding aspartame. Chaired by Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum, the committee heard testimony on the questionable safety of the substance. "One of those to testify was Air Force Major Michael Collings, 35," says a report in Aviation Medical Bulletin.[1] "He indicated that he had experienced tremors and seizures...which he had correlated with his intake of two diet sodas and three quarts per day of lemon-flavored Kool Aid sweetened with NutraSweet. An enthusiastic runner, he had experienced no medical problems when stationed at a remote Korean air base with no access to NutraSweet. However, ingestion of Crystal Lite soda, purchased at Korea's Osan air base, triggered tremors. On October 4, 1985, at Las Vegas' Nellis air base, his seizure occurred approximately two hours after he flew his F-16 jet."

Collings' father informed him of the link between the sweetener and seizures and after ceasing the intake of any aspartame, he remained free of neurological problems for a period of time before his physician finally placed him on the anti-seizure medication Dilantin. It was because of such pilot-related incidents like the foregoing that Major Collings approached Mary Nash Stoddard with the idea of creating a Pilot's Hotline after the two of them presented testimony at the 3rd Senate Hearing on the Safety of Aspartame in November of 1987.

Mrs. Stoddard, a former Texas State Judge, consumer food safety advocate and member of the President's Council on Food Safety, is founder of ACSN the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network** and one of only three individuals qualified as an expert medical witness in giving court testimony on the health effects of aspartame. She has also lectured at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School's Continuing Education program. Since Stoddard initiated the Pilot's Hotline in 1988, it has received over a thousand pilot-related calls concerning the effects of aspartame. "Pilot-related" meaning that often it is wives or relatives placing the calls simply because the pilots themselves are afraid to do so.

When considering the number of responses to the hotline, a pilot's extreme reticence to expose himself to FAA scrutiny must be taken into account. A commercial pilot has undergone years of training to place him in the cockpit of any passenger aircraft. The pilot's license is valid for a lifetime, but the medical certificate, in the case of passenger pilots, must be renewed yearly. That certificate can be pulled by the FAA at the least hint of seizures or potential dysfunction on the part of the pilot, and his career can thus be summarily ended--as were those of Harold Wilson, Haynes Dunn, Michael Collings and others. As a result of this hard reality, Stoddard assures them of strict confidentiality.

A PHYSICIAN / SCIENTIST'S PERSPECTIVE

"I knew there was something wrong with aspartame, but I could not quite put my finger on it," begins the foreward by the highly respected pediatrician Dr. Lendon Smith in a 250-page book entitled "Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame."[2] The book, written and compiled by Mary Nash Stoddard, is undisputedly the most damning single repository of evidence available that the artificial sweetener aspartame is toxic to many and even deadly to some.

Dr. Smith, himself no lightweight hitter in the medical arena, has been the focus of a feature article in Life Magazine, has made more than 60 appearances on the old Johnny Carson Show, twenty on Phil Donahue, received an Emmy Award for excellence in programming, participated in ABC Television's "The Children's Doctor" series and other ABC specials about medicine. With a drive that would make a hummingbird appear comatose, Dr. Smith has authored 16 books dealing with medicine, primarily oriented toward children, with one occupying The New York Times best seller list for six months. His most recent and currently his most well known book is "How to Raise a Healthy Child". Dr. Smith has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael, Regis and Kathy Lee, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas and at age 77 is retired from a full professorship in pediatrics from the University of Oregon Medical School.

Not incidentally, Dr. Smith's license to practice medicine was revoked, he asserts, because he dared to step out of the realm of allopathic medicine and prescribe natural rather than drug-based treatment. One other such incidence was chronicled in a previous WINDS article and the list of MDs who have experienced such governmental wrath is long and growing.

In his foreward to Stoddard's book Dr. Smith noted that reports indicate aspartame is responsible for a witch's brew of maladies. Among those "five deaths and at least 92 different symptoms have resulted from its use. The list includes neurological, dermatological, cardiac, respiratory...all the symptoms I have ever seen reported for food sensitivities, low blood sugar, Alzheimer's, chronic fatigue syndrome, amalgam-filling disease and methanol poisoning. The Searle Pharmaceutical Company," Dr. Smith continues, "has actually covered up or, at the very least, failed to report adverse reactions just so the FDA would allow this product to be used by millions worldwide."

A LEGACY OF "JUNK SCIENCE" AND FEDERAL ADMINISTRATIVE MALFEASANCE

"The thing that bugs me is that people think the Food and Drug Administration is protecting them -- it isn't. What the FDA is doing and what the public thinks it's doing are as different as night and day." --Dr. Herbert L. Ley, former Commissioner of the FDA.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it seems, has turned a blind eye to strong, perhaps overwhelming, evidence of bad and even falsified research upon which they based their approval for a potentially deadly substance added to America's food supply. Aspartame, a three-part molecule composed of aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol (wood alcohol), was discovered accidentally in the mid 1960s at G.D. Searle, the large Chicago pharmaceuticals company who was trying to develop it as an ulcer drug. After the discovery, Searle was bought out by the chemical giant Monsanto which then created the subsidiary NutraSweet/Kelco.

Mrs. Stoddard claims in her book that an astounding 78 percent of all non-pharmaceutical related complaints registered with the FDA concern aspartame's adverse reactions.[3] When the FDA approved it for human consumption in 1974, it went against a body of evidence so enormous as to stagger the credulity of virtually any thinking person. "What most consumers don't know," says Mike Wallace of CBS's "60 Minutes," "is that aspartame's approval was one of the most contested in FDA history. Consumers have reported more than 7,000 adverse reactions to the FDA, ranging from dizziness to headaches to seizures."[4]

Mary Nash Stoddard told The WINDS that "a representative from the Food and Drug Administration reported on CBS television in 1995 that the FDA had received only six complaints involving saccharin. Imagine! Six. And, for this, anything containing saccharin has to have the 'causes cancer' stigma attached on all its labels. "FDA called a 'moratorium' on breast implants," Stoddard continued, "even though Dr. Kessler said six times in his press conference, 'We don't know if silicone breast implants cause harm, but we want to err on the side of caution.' "Why don't they do that for aspartame," she asks, "the most complained about food additive in history. There were no deaths attributed to breast implants - no double-blind tests showing harm - no empirical data showing harm" Stoddard adds. "Yet, they chose to call the moratorium anyway. Where's the justice in that?"

WELL...WHAT ARE CONSUMERS BEING TOLD TODAY?

Just two weeks ago in the February 8, 1999 issue of Time magazine, columnist Christine Gorman takes to task those who distribute information claiming aspartame is anything but perfectly safe. Her article, entitled "A Web of Deceit" takes the rather media-typical approach used by those who desire to discredit a particular issue without having to actually present a serious body of evidence to back it up. That approach is to lump a series of clearly absurd tales of what some products have been purported to do and include with them the issue upon which one wishes to cast fatal discredit. Such a story, in hyperbole, might be that Elvis was kidnapped by aliens and fed Reese's Pieces until he "transmorphed" into Monica Lewinsky--and aspartame causes health problems too. One lends its incredibility to the other by mere association.

The Time article begins by debunking something that truly needed to be debunked; that being a widely circulated e-mail purported to have been written by a "Nancy Markle" (no one seems to know who she is). That e-mail glues together a hodge-podge of fairy tales connected to some truths about aspartame. This "guilt by association" scenario Gorman uses to discolor what appear to be strong realities about aspartame. Ms. Gorman draws from only a single study that claims to discredit myths about the health risks of the sweetener. But what is clearly lacking in the piece is any reference to the mountain of credible research data obtained by equally credible world renowned scientists. Data that indicate a very clear link between the artificial sweetener and numerous medical disorders. The only research cited by the Time author quotes an investigation conducted at Duke University by Dr. Susan Shiffman that looked at people who were "aspartame sensitive" and supposedly experiencing headaches triggered by the substance. Gorman says that "a little probing often revealed the real trouble. One woman," she said, "who often ate peanuts with her diet soda, was allergic to peanuts."

What Ms. Gorman fails to note in her article is that the Duke study took place at the University's G.D. Searle Center (name sound familiar?). "The Searle Center is under the office of the University Vice-President William Anylan, a former Searle Director." Dr. Schiffman, not incidentally, is a former Searle consultant and her study was funded by--guess who--Searle.[5]

Had Time bothered to check, they would have discovered that the Schiffman study has been shot so full of holes one could not sift trucks from a parking lot with it. Omitted from the article were results of tests conducted at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).[6] Those studies specifically addressed Dr. Shiffman's research.

"...Consumer complaints and survey data support the role of aspartame as a dietary trigger of headaches..." one study concluded. "We believe that the study of Schiffman et al had some serious flaws and did not reflect the realities of migraine due to dietary factors," says another. "...Their experimental design was flawed in such a way that their negative results in no way support their conclusion that 'aspartame is no more likely to produce headache than placebo.'" "...It would seem reasonable to expect the authors [of the Schiffman study] to review the literature when concluding that a known neurotoxin, L-phenylalanine [a component of the aspartame molecule], has no effect on headache."[7] Apparently, the authors of the Schiffman study conducted no such review.

One researcher published in the NEJM went so far as to strongly suggest the possibility that a serious conflict exists between good scientific investigation and self-interest in Schiffman's studies. "The NutraSweet Company, which supported this experimental design," he said, "may have had an interest in protocols that would find that their product had no untoward effects." Short form: NutraSweet quite possibly designed the tests to show that aspartame was safe.

The medical journal Neurology, among the most distinguished of world research publications, published a study prompted by "reports of increased seizures in humans after ingestion of aspartame." The study entitled "Aspartame exacerbates EEG spike-wave discharge in children with generalized absence epilepsy: a double-blind controlled study"[8] was conducted at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. That research produced significant and ominous findings. Examining children with "newly diagnosed but untreated generalized absence seizures" they were fed sucrose (table sugar) sweetened drinks on one day and aspartame sweetened beverages the other. During the course of the study while recording the children's EEGs (brain-wave activities), it was discovered that "following aspartame compared with sucrose, the number of spike-wave discharges per hour and mean length of spike-wave discharges increased... Aspartame appears to exacerbate the amount of EEG spike-wave in children with absence seizures." In all, the scientists recorded an average increase of 40 percent of those seizure-type brain waves when the children consumed aspartame.

Epileptic or grand mal seizures can be described as an electrical storm in the brain that totally disables the victim until it runs its course. Absence seizures, also known as petite mals, are a less violent form that manifest a brief, total loss of awareness. That electrical storm in miniature is characterized by increased "spike-wave" EEG activity, identical to that produced in the children after the ingestion of aspartame. The term "absence seizure" is just what it implies; the victim appears to be absent, or not present. It does not require an IQ greater than one's sleeve length to determine that an airline pilot who is suddenly absent or somewhere else than the cockpit presents a clear and present danger to his passengers.

The Halifax researchers also warned that other credible studies have indicated aspartame "might be a proconvulsant, lowering the threshold for chemically induced convulsions." The scientists also recommended that certain children avoid the intake of aspartame. Time's columnist Gorman, stating the obvious by use of superlatives, declares that "just as no single chemical cures everything, none causes everything."

It has been aspartame's best defense that it shows itself in so many varied symptoms and maladies. When seeking evidence of pathology, a multitude of expressions are usually not expected nor given much credibility. It is seldom the case, however, that a toxic substance creates only a single negative effect. Like the drinking water additive fluoride, aspartame gives strong evidence of being a systemic poison that causes an abundance of dysfunctional and pathological effects in the human central nervous system, none of which at any given time is easily attributable to it.

Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., a noted neurosurgeon and associate professor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center is the author of the book "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills". During his sixteen- year practice Dr. Blaylock has authored numerous scientific papers and contributed to medical text books. The title page of Blaylock's book Excitotoxins subtitles the work:

"How Monosodium Glutamate, Aspartame (NutraSweet) and Similar Substances can Cause Harm to the Brain and Nervous System and their Relationship to Neurodegenerative Diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) and Others."

Dr. Blaylock cites a multitude of studies (nearly 500 footnoted references) among which are those that specifically point to the neurotoxicity of aspartame. The one study he cites that showed no connection between aspartame and seizures was funded by none other than--surprise--the NutraSweet company. It should be noted that with nearly all the studies showing a connection between aspartame and neurological problems the main culprit is thought to be a blood level rise of the amino acid L-phenylalanine. An ominous finding in the research is that it was found that "rats require twice the dose and mice seven times the dose of aspartame as humans require to produce the same increase in plasma phenylalanine."[9] By empirical reasoning this would seem to make humans two to seven times more sensitive to the chemical than the test animals. "In one study," Blaylock says, "the blood phenylalanine levels [in humans] rose thirty fold following a one gram dose of aspartame." The neurosurgeon/scientist, however, believes that the effect of aspartame on brain seizures is "likely...the direct excitatory effect of the aspartate itself"--aspartate or aspartic acid being one of the constituent molecules of aspartame.

Dr. Blaylock includes in his commentary about NutraSweet: "From what we do know, it is conceivable that NutraSweet can, in commonly consumed doses, cause abnormalities of [the] delicate endocrine control system, especially in the developing infant and child. As more and more foods containing NutraSweet are added to our diets, the greater the danger to ourselves and our children grows. According to the FDA, in 1985 America consumed 3500 tons of aspartate as NutraSweet. Even more foods contains this excitotoxin sweetener today, and it continues to be promoted by a series of powerful advertising campaigns. With over a 100 million persons in the United States alone consuming NutraSweet on a regular basis, these questions demand answers. And until these answers are forthcoming NutraSweet should be banned from foods.[10]

Dr. Lendon Smith, in his foreward to Deadly Deception says "the NutraSweet people had a commercial on TV bragging that they now have 200 million people consuming ASP in over 5,000 different products. "Next time you're mugged, ask the perpetrator if he is getting ASP. When you see someone sitting on the sidewalk, tired, alone and depressed, ask them if they are drinking diet soft drinks. Chances are aspartame is responsible for a lot of sickness and crime. It is not what Mother Nature wants us to eat."

60 MINUTES FROM DOWN UNDER

Dr. John W. Olney, for 30 years a brain specialist at Washington University and one of the most respected neuroscientists in the world, conducted studies on the effects of aspartame on rats. "The first study showed a high incidence of brain tumors," Dr. Olney said on the Australian version of "60 Minutes" (earlier produced in America with Mike Wallace). "They had twelve brain tumors in 320 aspartame-fed rats. They didn't find any brain tumors in the control group of rats. "Our analysis in human population in the United States," Dr. Olney continued, "shows that there was a large increase in brain tumor incidence about three years after aspartame was introduced and there was also a change in the malignancy of brain tumors."

The U.S. Congressional Record quotes Olney's findings claiming that the scientist "informed G.D. Searle that aspartic acid caused holes in the brains of mice. G.D. Searle did not inform the FDA of this study until after aspartame's approval. None of the tests submitted by G.D. Searle to the FDA contradicted these findings."[11] "The same types of aggressive brain tumors that showed up in the aspartame animal studies over twenty years ago," Mike Wallace quotes Dr. Olney, "are now increasing in the American human population."[12] "Considerable evidence that aspartame is not safe," Wallace said, "has been published in the prestigious Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology."[13]

When the Australian "60 Minutes" team asked for an interview with Monsanto, the parent company of NutraSweet/Kelco, the commentator claimed that the company refused with the question, "'What are you doing this story with this fellow Dr. John Olney for, when you know he's into junk science?'" Junk science published in the Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology? In the scientific world that is somewhat akin to accusing Rolls Royce of producing cheap cars.

An interview by Wallace of Dr. Ralph G. Walton, Professor of Psychiatry at Northeastern Ohio University's College of Medicine, produced some fascinating and sobering information. Dr. Walton, it seems, had taken a survey of the results of aspartame studies and compared them with who it was that actually conducted the research. "Of 164 studies on aspartame," Dr. Walton revealed, "74 were funded by the NutraSweet industry and every single one of them attested to the safety of aspartame. Of the 90 independently funded studies," Walton continues, "83 identified a problem."[emphasis supplied] Dr. Walton's stated point was to illustrate that no researcher should be involved in studies where his personal interest is directly effected.

When CBN (the Christian Broadcasting Network) interviewed Dr. Olney, he told them that G.D. Searle's findings "among aspartame-fed rats...found that abnormal growths were 47 times what would occur naturally in the animals." This same Dr. Olney is the researcher responsible for prompting baby food manufacturers to remove monosodium glutamate (MSG) from their products. Junk scientist?

THE CASE OF THE MAGIC RAT

The Australian commentator in their "60 Minutes" production made a significant point in indicating an extreme and perhaps even fraudulent problem in G.D. Searle's research and records keeping. In studies presented by Searle to the FDA for the approval of aspartame, "60 Minutes" quoted from the infamous Bressler Report. That FDA document records the results of a five-member investigation team looking into the research methods used by Searle and headed by FDA veteran inspector, Jerome Bressler.[14]

The report, consisting of 75 pages of discrepancies found by Bressler's team, makes a fascinating claim that would be immensely humorous were the implications of falsified research not so grave. "Records indicated," the report says, "that animal A23LM was alive at week 88, dead from week 92 through week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at week 112." (Nothing fouls up a study more than an obstreperous lab rat that can't decide whether to be dead or alive). "There's not a company PR man anywhere in the world who could explain that," said the Australian "60 Minutes" commentator; and, yet, it is this quality of research upon which the "safety" of aspartame was based.

Dr. Olney said of the Searle studies, "there is a prior commissioner of FDA, Alexander Schmidt, who declared these studies to be sloppy at best and in fact some of them he referred to the Justice Department for prosecution for apparent fraud."[15] In the face of that fact, why was aspartame approved? The reason Olney gave was that "a commissioner of FDA came into office who decided he would approve it regardless of the evidence." That commissioner was Arthur Hull Hays, a Reagan appointee who, a few months after leaving FDA, having approved NutraSweet, accepted a lucrative consulting position with Monsanto's public relations company. There is that slick Washington dictionary in use again. The one that does not contain a working definition for the term "conflict of interest."

When Monsanto learned that the story about NutraSweet was to air on Australia's "60 Minutes," "their first talk was of a court injunction," then they demanded a company spokesman to appear on the program--"after a month of refusing to put up a spokesman." During that interview with Monsanto, representative Dr. Robert H. Moser M.D., the Vice President of Health Communications & Education for the NutraSweet Company, the program host pointedly asked Dr. Moser about lab rat A23LM. This question came immediately following Moser's claim that Searle's research was in perfect order. Moser replied equally pointedly that he would not address that issue or anything else contained in the Bressler Report.

Dr. Moser's presentation asserting the safety of his company's product was disingenuous at best. He stated that the aspartame molecule never gets into the blood stream. It occurred to this reporter that the doctor thinks that the public must actually believe literally the image used in the old animated Bufferin commercial that depicts whole tablets flowing through veins and arteries on the way to relieving pain. Of course, aspartame never reaches the bloodstream as a complete molecule. There is a thing called digestion that gets in the way of that. Moser rightfully claimed that aspartame is broken down into its three main constituents. That is precisely the problem according to researchers. It is those main components that they claim are destroying the health of many consuming the sweetener. Laboratory research shows that aspartame does not await digestion to break down. Above 86 degrees Fahrenheit the molecule decomposes releasing methanol which is metabolized into formaldehyde (embalming fluid) which is a known strong carcinogen, proceeds on to formic acid (ant sting venom) and diketopiperazine, a suspected agent in brain tumors and uterine polyps.[16] It is no secret to anyone who notices that soft drink delivery trucks in hotter climates do not refrigerate their cargo which frequently exceeds that 86-degree threshold.

In the face of an extraordinary volume of evidence concerning the health risks of aspartame, the FDA not only approved it for human consumption, but continues to endorse their actions. "The FDA stands behind its original approval decision," says a "Talk Paper" issued by FDA, "but the Agency remains ready to act if credible scientific evidence is presented to it -- as would be the case for any product approved by the FDA."[17] Huh?

One cannot help but ask what quantity of data would be required to convince the FDA to review its "original approval decision." The question seems rhetorical.

WHOSE BUCK ARE THEY PASSING ANYWAY?

Monsanto's director of corporate communications, Phil Angell, was quoted in The New York Times as claiming that the chemical company disavows any responsibility for product safety. Commenting on the company's bovine growth hormone Angell said, "Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food," he said. "Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety," he added, "is the FDA's job."[18] Monsanto claims it is not their responsibility to assure the safety of their food products? It is clear, if for no other reason than its not-so-blind acceptance of Monsanto's research, that the FDA believes the chemical giant is accountable in this matter. In this circular, musical-chairs game of whose responsibility it is to protect the consumer from their products another matter becomes clear: neither of them cares.

By Monsanto's claim that their interest "is in selling as much of it as possible," and FDA's acceptance of their research, it is evident that expedience and profit-and-loss are the only laws driving both the corporations and the federal agencies tasked with regulating them. The collusion and conflicts of interest displayed by both sectors should be a distinct ensign, to all who can see, that humanity in their sight amounts to no more than those laboratory animals used to produce their "junk" research. When any nation worships in the temple of the dollar, or whatever their monetary exchange medium, their end has become assured. Visible destruction becomes little more than a formality--and a matter of time.

REFERENCES:

1.Aviation Medical Bulletin, October, 1988.
2.Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame by Mary Nash Stoddard, Odenwald Press, Dallas, Texas. ISBN 1-884363-14-8.
3.Ibid.
4."60 Minutes," CBS Television, Dec. 28, 1996.
5.Deadly Deception: The Story of Aspartame by Mary Nash Stoddard, Odenwald Press, Dallas, Texas. ISBN 1-884363-14-8.
6.New England Journal of Medicine, May 5, 1988.
7.Ibid.
8."Aspartame exacerbates EEF spike-wave discharge in children with generalized absence epilepsy: a double-blind controlled study." Neurology, May, 1992; Vol. 42(5): p. 1000-3.
9.Ibid.
10.Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills, Russell L. Blaylock, MD, Health Press, 1997.
11.Olney 1970, Gordon 1987, page 493 of U.S. Senate 1987.
12.Ibid.
13.Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology, Nov. 1996.
14."The Bressler Report", Congressional Record page S5499 of 1985a.
15.Ibid.
16."Aspartame, Methanol and the Public Health", Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol. 36, No. 1, 1984.
17.T96-75, Food and Drug Administration, November 18, 1996.
18.Michael Pollan, "Playing God in the Garden," The New York Times, October 25, 1998.

*The account of "TransGlobal Flight 901" is not based on any actual incident. The airline as well as the story are fictional and no connection with any real persons or organizations, current or historical, are intended or implied.

**For further information the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network can be contacted at 1-800-969-6050, or international 1-972-919-6100.

[Tamaroa]

My doctor was right!!!!!!!!! I am an epilectic. My doctor told me many years ago that I should stay away from Aspartame because it causes seizures in normal folks and maginifies seizures in people like me.

Bill

[MORTARDUDE]

Anything that turns into formaldehyde ( embalming fluid ) has to be bad news.

Larry