Mary Nash Stoddard's Blog

FDA'S ILLEGAL ATTEMPT TO BAN COOKBOOKS

 
>ATTENTION: ASSIGNMENTS EDITORS & PRODUCERS 
>Contact  Mary Stoddard: marystod@gmail.com 
> 
>"Freedom of the Press embraces the circulation of books as well as their 
>publication." 
> -- from Judge's ruling in Bantam Books v Sullivan [1963] 
> 
>FDA ATTEMPTS TO COMPEL DESTRUCTION OF BOOKS 
>[On Natural Herbal Supplement Stevia] 
> 
>        DALLAS - May 26, 1998 -- In an unprecendented move, US Food and 
>Drug Administration officials threatened legal action against Texas-based 
>Stevita Co., importers of the sweet-tasting herbal dietary supplement, 
>Stevia - for distributing books and literature about their product. The 
>latest volley in a bitter battle has been fired at Texas-based Stevita 
>Co.by federal Food and Drug Administration officials.  The FDA, an agency 
>of the federal government, is responsible for upholding the U.S. 
>Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression. This 
>responsiblity was drawn into question on May 19th when FDA Compliance 
>Officer, James R. Lahar faxed a letter to Stevita Co. addressing the 
>destruction of 2,500 books he deemed "offending," at a cost to the company 
>well in excess of $10,000. The letter further threatens that investigators 
>will conduct a current inventory and "witness the destruction of the 
>cookbooks, literature, and other publications for the purpose of verifying 
>compliance" upon visiting Stevita Co. for a fourth time this year. 
>        One of three books in question is The Stevia Story  - A tale of 
>incredible sweetness & intrigue, by Linda Bonvie, Bill Bonvie and Donna 
>Gates with Foreword by James S. Turner, Esq..  Ironically, Chapter Four of 
>the book the FDA wants to destroy is titled: "What's wrong with the FDA?" 
>An attempt to strongarm critics into silence - similar to book burnings in 
>Nazi Germany? 
>        Oscar Rodes, President of the Stevita Company said the FDA ordered 
>the action because the books contain general information that include: 
>history, usages and scientific studies regarding stevia.  Currently, 
>Federal law requires stevia herbal products can only be marketed as 
>dietary supplements without any mention of having sweetening power. 
> 
>                                ### 
> 
>[Media contact Mary Stoddard for names and telephone numbers of all 
>Principals available for interview] 
> 

 

Neurosurgeon/Author Dr. Russell Blaylock On Aspartame &a...

 

Neurosurgeon/Author Dr. Russell Blaylock On Aspartame & MSG
Excitotoxins have been found to dramatically promote cancer growth and metastasis. In fact, one aspartame researcher noticed that, when cancer cells were exposed to aspartame, they became more mobile, and you see the same effect with MSG. It also causes a cancer cell to become more mobile, and that enhances metastasis, or spread. These MSG-exposed cancer cells developed all of these pseudopodians and started moving through tissues, which is one of the earlier observations from cancer.When you increase the glutamate level, cancer just grows like wildfire, and then when you block glutamate, it dramatically slows the growth of the cancer. Researchers have done some experiments in which they looked at using glutamate blockers in combination with conventional drugs, like chemotherapy, and it worked very well. It significantly enhanced the effectiveness of these cancer drugs. Research that came out recently, supports all this by establishing a correlation between leukemia and aspartame. This Italian study was very well done. It was a lifetime study, which is very important with these toxins. They fed animals aspartame throughout their lives and let them die a natural death. They found a dramatic and statistically significant increase in the related cancers of lymphoma and leukemia, along with several histological types of lymphomas.When you look it up in the neurosurgical literature, there is a rather significant rise in the incidents of what used to be a rare tumor. We're seeing a lot more of the primary lymphoma of the brain, which is a little different than lymphomas you see elsewhere. When you look back at the original studies done by the G.D. Searle company, they found lymphomas as well as primary brain tumors and tumors of multiple organs. All of this correlation shows we have a powerful carcinogenic substance here. It is either acting as a co-carcinogen or a primary carcinogen. Most likely, it's the formaldehyde breakdown product.What the Italian study found is that if you take these same animals and expose them to formaldehyde in the same doses, they developed the same leukemias and lymphomas. If you look back at the Troker Study conducted in Spain a couple of years ago, what they found was when they radiolabeled the aspartame, they could actually see formaldehyde binding to the DNA, and it produced both single and double strand DNA breakage.We know that when formaldehyde binds to DNA, it's very difficult to remove it. It will stay there for long periods of time. What that means is if you just drink a single diet cola today, or sweeten something with NutraSweet, you're accumulating damage every day. Eventually, you're going to produce this necessary pattern of DNA damage to initiate the cancer, and once you develop the cancer, the aspartic acid component of aspartame will make the cancer grow very rapidly. You've got a double effect; it's causing the cancer, and it's making the cancer move very rapidly. Donald Rumsfeld was the one who pushed a lot of this through, when he was in the chairmanship of the G.D. Searle company, NutraSweet. He got it approved through the regulatory process, but once it was approved, the government didn't want to admit that they had made a mistake. They just continued to cover it up. You're not going to criticize milk in the media, because they are smart enough to advertise in newspapers, magazines, health magazines and journals. They have all the media outlets covered. The only place that they don't have covered is talk radio and the internet. The health blogs can tell the truth.No matter how much a newspaper wants to tell the truth, they're not going to do it. This is the kind of pressure these people are under. Even if you have a good writer who wants to write the story, his editor is going to override him and prevent it or water it down considerably. You see this in journals like the Journal of Clinical Nutrition or College Nutrition. Look at who funds them: The Monsanto Company, and they used to be sponsored by G.D. Searle. They're not going to want to put articles in their journal that will infuriate their primary source of income. Even medical and nutrition journals are controlled by these people. Another big scandal concerning the research is something new we found. We discovered that outside of the brain, there are numerous glutamate receptors in all organs and tissues. The entire GI tract, from the esophagus to the colon, has numerous glutamate receptors. The entire electrical conducting system of a heart is replete with all sorts of glutamate receptors. The lungs, the ovaries, all the reproductive systems and sperm itself, adrenal glands, bones and even calcification are all controlled by glutamate receptors. They act and operate exactly like the glutamate receptors in the brain. So, when you're consuming MSG, the level of glutamate in the blood can rise as high as 20-fold. You get very high glutamate levels in the blood after eating a meal containing MSG. You're stimulating all of the glutamate receptors. That's why some people get explosive diarrhea, because it stimulates the receptors in the esophagus and small bowel. Others may develop irritable bowel, or if they have irritable bowel, it makes it a lot worse. If they have reflux, it makes that a lot worse. The thing about the cardiac conduction system glutamate receptors is this may explain the rise in sudden cardiac death.What you see in almost all these cases is low magnesium. When the magnesium level is low, the glutamate receptors become hypersensitive, and so people -- athletes in particular, if they are not supplementing with magnesium -- are prone to sudden cardiac death, because of the glutamate receptors. If they eat a meal or something that contains glutamate or drink a diet cola before practice, it will produce such intense cardiac irritability, they'll die of sudden cardiac death. We know the sudden cardiac death is due to two things: Most commonly arrhythmia and cardio artery spasm. Both of which can be produced by glutamate. Admitting physicians don't know the first thing about any of this research. They've never heard of it. In fact, most cardiologists I've spoken with have never heard of this. They didn't know there were glutamate receptors throughout the electrical conduction system and in the heart muscle itself. You have a million patients in this country with arrhythmias that are life-threatening, and no one's telling them to avoid MSG and aspartame, yet it's a major source of cardiac irritability. They said they would, but they didn't. What they did is take out pure MSG and substitute it with hydrolyzed protein and caseinate. If you look at most toddler foods, they all have caseinate hydrolyzed protein broth, a significant source of glutamate. One of the things we're hearing a lot about is childhood obesity. One early observation with excitotoxicity is it makes animals grossly obese.Here the government has all these big plans for controlling carbohydrate intake and controlling cereals and sugar and all that. Those things add to the problem, because what we find in MSG-exposed animals is that they prefer carbohydrates and sugars over protein-rich foods. That was one of the characteristics of this type of obesity. It's very difficult to exercise the weight off and almost impossible to diet it off. The appetite is out of control, but the metabolism is also out of control. They have metabolic syndrome on top of obesity, and so then you have a leptin insensitivity. In terms of obesity, they have a leptin insensitivity. It has been shown that you can produce leptin insensitivity very easily with MSG. Once the public gets wind of it and is convinced that this is real, then there'll be an uproar over it. There's just a deception. The average consumer looks at it and goes, "Well, it says that it contains no MSG, so it must be okay."  I find a lot of the vegetarian foods, or so-called health foods, use yeast extracts. The worst of the things they're doing are the soy extracts. Soybeans, naturally, have one of the highest glutamate levels of any of the plant products. When you hydrolyze it, you release the glutamate, and the soy protein isolates. The glutamate levels are higher than a lot of what you'll find in MSG products, yet the vegetarians are just eating it like it's the healthiest thing in the world. There was a 25-year study done, which looked at people who consumed the most soy products, and they followed them for 25 years and did serial CT scans. They found out that the people who consumed the most soybean products had the greatest incidence of dementia and brain atrophy.These people are destroying their nervous system, and I talked to a lot of them who complained of severe migraine headaches. I said, "Get off the soy," and they do, and that migraine headache goes away. In addition, you have very high manganese levels, which istoxic to the very same part of the brain that produces Parkinson's. You've got a mixture of toxins with soy products, and the people think they are eating a healthy, nutritious product. It's destroying their nervous system, as well as other organs. If you're obsessed with milk, use goat's milk. It's closer to human milk, but I wouldn't recommend cow's milk or soy milk. I think people ought to avoid soy products as if they were poison.The Sweetener Industry leaves me alone. I know too much. They've never bothered me. When I wrote the book, George Schwartz warned me, "Are you sure you want to write this book? If you do, they're just going to hound you to death." I said, "Yes, I want to write the book." So, I wrote it with one thing in mind: that they would not be able to refute it.I researched every kind of way you can research and proved the toxicity of glutamate. They know I know that, because I had exchanged this in writing letters to some of their biggest defenders. They all realized that they couldn't answer my arguments. So they leave me alone. They're afraid that if it comes to a big standoff between me and them, they're going to lose. What they're doing is the old ploy of just ignoring and hoping it will go away. Of course, they put pressure on magazines, journals and newspapers not to interview me. They are trying to keep me in the shadows where they hope most people don't hear anything I have to say. It only works for so long.Since I first wrote the book in 1995, proof supporting my viewpoint has increased enormously. The new material on peripheral glutamate receptors absolutely killed these people. They have no defense against that. The new information on the dramatic increase in cancer aggressiveness is something that they are terrified of. I proved it can enter the brain and that all that was a lie. What they've shown is that there are glutamate receptors on both sides of the blood brain barrier and that when you expose these receptors to glutamate, it opens up the blood brain barrier. So, the glutamate itself can open the barrier, and I list all these conditions. For instance, as you get older, your barrier becomes less competent. Almost all Alzheimer's patients have incompetent barriers. Heat stroke, seizures, autoimmune disorder and multiple sclerosis all are related with this active blood brain barrier.You're talking about tens of millions of people, and they are out there gobbling up aspartame, MSG and other excitotoxins, and no one is telling them they are making their neurological conditions infinitely worse. I don't know how many seizure patients I've gotten off their medicines by just getting them off MSG and giving them magnesium. They quit having seizures. They were on maximum dosages of medications and still having seizures. Most neurologists and neurosurgeons that treat seizures are not aware of this.Dr. Blaylock: If you look at the neuroscience literature, you can't pick up an article that's not about excitotoxicity. The hottest topic in neurosciences is glutamate receptors and excitotoxins.They won't mention food, but they talk about the glutamate receptor and what happens when you activate it. All these types of glutamate are bound. They're in oligosaccharides, polysaccharides. They are bound in amino acids groupings. They're not free amino acids. If you have it as a complex protein, you absorb it in your GI tract. In the GI tract, there are almost no free amino acids if you eat foods such as tomatoes. The level of free amino acids is nil; it's almost all absorbed as combined amino acids, and then it's only broken down in the liver, where it's released in very low concentrations that the body can deal with. It was never meant to have free amino acids in such high concentrations.Well, when you hydrolyze them -- or you use yeast extract or enzymes to break down these various proteins into their free, released amino acids -- they're not natural any longer. What you've done is artificially release the amino acids in an unnatural way, and when they enter your GI tract, they are absorbed as free amino acids, then your blood level of that glutamic acid goes up significantly. As I said, it can go up as high as 20-fold, in some cases 40-fold. Your blood brain barrier is not constructed to handle such high levels of glutamate, because it doesn't naturally occur that way. It can handle the lower levels, but it can't handle these very high levels. So this argument, "Oh, it's natural," is just a lot of nonsense. You have other amino acids that can't compete for glutamic acid absorption. So that may be one way to help reduce the rate at which it would be absorbed. Those would include leucine, isoleucine and lysine. They would compete for the same carrier system, so that would slow down absorption. There are a lot of things that act as glutamate blockers. You know, like silimarin, curcumin and ginkgo biloba. These things are known to directly block glutamate receptors and reduce excitotoxicity. Curcumin is very potent. Most of your flavonoids. Magnesium is particularly important, because magnesium can block the MNDA glutamate type receptor. That's its natural function, so it significantly reduces toxicity. Vitamin E succinate is powerful at inhibiting excitotoxicity, as are all of your antioxidants. They found combinations of B vitamins also block excitotoxicity. Restaurants tell you, "We get our food in these big crates, so there's no ingredients listed." It's the same thing for hospitals. I talked to a hospital dietitian and she said, "We can't tell because it comes in a crate, and they won't put the ingredients on it. It just says Salisbury steak or whatever."They don't know, so it's hard for them to come out and tell their customers, "It's free of MSG." What they mean when they do say that is, "We didn't put any in there." Their white sauces are particularly high, as are their salad dressings, especially the ones that are pure oil. They all contain MSG. Gravy mixes almost always have it. They'll put hydrolyzed protein in it. They're selling taste.That's why a person prefers one restaurant to another. The food tastes better. Then they go home and feel sick and don't understand why.One of the things that has been noticed about sudden cardiac death is that most that have it, other than athletes, die after eating a meal in a restaurant. I suspect it's because these people have low magnesium. They eat the meal, the glutamate stimulates the glutamate receptor in the cardiac conduction system as well as the hypothalamus, and they have a sudden cardiac death.I was in a bookstore in Oxford, Miss. This young guy was there, and he just dropped and died. We took him to the hospital and tried to resuscitate him, and we couldn't. He was only 26 years old, and he had just eaten a big bowl of soup at one of the restaurants. Well, I talked to the person that was there, and he said they use a lot of hydrolyzed protein and MSG. People will eat a meal, have a soup before the meal, get this huge dose of MSG, and drop dead from the arrhythmia. Look at the popularity of these soy infant formulas. Mothers are crazy to give their kids soy formula. There is a lot of concern about it. There's concern about the fluoride level, the manganese level, and the glutamate levels in these soy infant formulas.een done that can correct those problems. If aspartame were banned tomorrow, I think you'd see a significant drop in obesity and metabolic syndrome. You'd see a tremendous drop in certain cancers. You would certainly see a tremendous drop in the neurodegenerative diseases, and all of these diseases that are increasing expeditiously.The neurodegenerative diseases are just exploding. Things that used to be rare, we're seeing all the time now. It's just frightening. And when you look through the neurosciences literature, they have no explanation. They don't know why it's increasing so rapidly, but it's because we have such a large combination of toxins. For instance, we know that cellular neurodegenerative diseases are connected to mercury, aluminum, pesticides and herbicides, and the way they produce brain damage is through an excitotoxic mechanism.So, we are all exposed to those toxins, and then when you add MSG and excitotoxins to the food, you tremendously accelerate this toxicity. That's why we're seeing this explosion in neurodegenerative diseases; Alzheimer's and autism and ADD and Parkinson's -- all these things are increasing so enormously because we are exposed to carcinogenic toxicity from all these different things and this huge exposure to excitotoxins, which is the central mechanism.This is what no one's been able to claim. You look at one person's report and they'll say, "Alzheimer's is related to mercury exposure," and then another one says, "No, it's related to pesticides," and yet another one says it something else, but they're all operating through the same mechanism. All of these things operate by increasing brain immune activity, and that activates excitotoxicity. So that's why all of them seem to be related, because they're all doing the same thing to the brain. When you look at the pathophysiology of diabetes and the effect of aspartame, it's absolute nonsense for anybody who has diabetes to be on aspartame. Particularly in a neurological aspect, it's going to make it a lot worse. You can design any study to find whatever you want. Particularly, you can design it to have negative results. That's the easiest thing to do.You need to abstain from all of these things. Aspartame is not a necessary nutrient, and neither is MSG. The weight of the evidence is overwhelming. If you want to avoid obesity, metabolic syndrome and cancer, and if you don't want to make your cancer more aggressive, then you need to stay away from these products.The damage affects pregnant women, unborn babies and newborns. It produces changes in the brain that are irreversible. What we've found is that it reprograms the wiring of the brain, particularly the hypothalamus, so it doesn't function normally. These children are abnormal for the rest of their lives in terms of their physiological function. The pressure on researchers is so enormous. Larry Troker came out with his research about the DNA damage by aspartame. Then his career was damaged by the makers of aspartame. He said he would never do another research project concerning aspartame. Well, a number of researchers have said the same thing. Once they published their results, the full weight of these companies come down on their head. NutraSweet will contribute millions to a university and threaten to pull their donations if someone isn't quieted. There's blatant, and then there's just understood. You have NutraSweet manufacturers donating several million dollars to your university. The director of that laboratory, or the president of the university, will just quietly let them know that they'd really like to see research come to a stop.The editor-in-chief of The Chemical News went through that with fluoride. They fired him because he refused to be quiet about fluoride toxicity, and they had just received this huge grant from Colgate-Palmolive. They said, "We'll lose our grant if you don't get quiet about fluoride." He wouldn't, and they fired him. Researchers know this.They passed a law at one time in several states that no one but dietitians could speak on the subject of nutrition. Several states had that law passed. This meant Ph.D. biochemists couldn't talk about health. It was ridiculous. I'm sure that one day they're going to have an internet bill saying there's just too much dangerous material coming over the internet on health issues, and we need to regulate it.###Labels: Aspartame, MSG, Alzheimers, MS, FAA, Pilots, FDA Coverup of Food Safety Issue, Aspartame Timeline, Neuroexcitotoxins - Nerve Toxins, Isolated Amino Acids, Glutamic Acid, Aspartic Acid Dangers, Cancers, Seizures, Obesity, Heart Disease, Mental: Agressive/Bizarre Behavior, Mood Swings, Serotonin Blocker, Deaths

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Forced To Allow Sale of...

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Forced To Allow Sale of Books They'd Previously Banned

In an unprecedented action - FDA reverses it's decision to publicly Ban and Force Destruction o all books on Stevia Sweeteners as Illegal! Public outcry after CBS TV News aired a Report on the 10:00 p.m. News, showing Book Author holding up book at a Town Hall Meeting in Arlington TX, has forced FDA to reconsider its original action to destroy 10,000 books awaiting sale in a Stevia Company warehouse in Arlington TX. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUENyxGysQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUENyxGysQU

TV RADIO MIRROR ARTICLE OCTOBER ISSUE 1965 pg. 67-68:A G...

 TV RADIO MIRROR ARTICLE OCTOBER ISSUE 1965 pg. 67-68:

A GIRL NAMED SAM
"A girl named Sam and a boy named Tommy, and what they're having together is a great big ball of life."

Once upon a time, way back on June 3rd, 1938, on a bright moonlit night in Wharton, Texas, a little girl was born. Her parents were very happy that 1) she had finally arrived and 2) she was a girl, her mother and father being particularly partial to girls. Her grandparents were just plain happy that she was. All they wanted was a grandchild, and the sex was of no great moment to them.

This little girl was standard in every respect but one - she had the regulation number of hands, feet, fingers toes and no teeth - but there was one thing outstanding about her. She was a lot prettier than a lot of girls. This difference, which was immediately noted by doctors and laymen alike, remained with her and as she grew older and older, was more and more outstanding, for she grew prettier and prettier.

Along with this somewhat remarkable difference, this little girl - we'll call her Sam, because that eventually became her name, although she really started out as Mary - this Sam had a very sweet voice, and being what they now call outgoing, found herself something of a child celebrity. For instance, she was only three when she was singing in public. At four, she was the singing mascot for the high school band.

A combo of voice and face being a natural, Sam continued her way up the lovely path that fate had prepared for her. During her last two years in high school, she had a radio show on a local station, KULP, on which she sang Songs Just For You. Also, while still in school, she won a beauty contest and the title of "Miss Rice" and made appearances on Houston radio and television.

And, then Sam met a boy. He soon turned into The Boy, and then there was Sam standing up in front of a preacher and saying, "I do," and all the relatives and friends saying what a handsome couple they were.

That lasted for about six years, and what happened, it was just one of those things. Two charming people, but maybe they were just a little too young for the serious business of marriage and a baby - a cute little boy named Tommy. Tommy Sanders.

So, there was a divorce. Meanwhile, Sam had lined up a job for herself with a Dallas radio station. She was one of the fellas on the station - in fact, the Sam who keeps the KVIL fires burning from midnight to 6:00 AM with her show Night Light.

Or, as the station boss put it when he hired her: "How would you like to be our new midnight man?"

Night Light is just what the doctor ordered for Sam. She loves every minute of it. "I'm crazy about it. I always was a 'night people,' anyway."

As for her listeners, Sam says: "They're all just great. I love them and they know it. They're people from all walks of life: policemen, service station attendants, the nightclub set, musicians, ranchers, oilmen, etc. Everywhere I go, people tell me they listen. I'm still a little awed by the show's success and acceptance."

Of course, working the hours she does presents certain problems. And advantages, too. Sam says, "Like dating. I feel like Cinderella, having to be a t work by midnight. But I never had so many breakfast dates, either!"

And then there's Tommy.

Sam and Tommy share a two-bedroom studio apartment - complete with private, fenced-in patio and pool - with a girlfriend of Sam's, Ann Guinn, and these three characters have a ball together. Ann has even taught Tommy (he's four now) to do The Monkey.

Moving into the apartment presented a big problem. Sam owned a small foreign car, built to hold two and maybe an extra safety pin. So one day, during their lunch hour, a bunch of the men at the station brought their cars over and moved the Sanders family, kid, kit and kaboodle, into their new abode.

There is also a babysitter around who takes car of Tommy when Sam is working. During the day, he attends nursery school, where he tells everyone who will listen that his Mommy is "Sam on the radio." On the few occasions when he was permitted to stay up late enough to hear the show, the babysitter reported that he was quite angry with Sam because she wouldn't answer him when he heard her voice over the radio.

We asked Sam whether she plans to remarry.

Sam shook her head. "Right now, I'm just dating. I think I'd better just try for a career now."

"First, I want to have a very successful career in radio, television or some phase of show business. And I don't mind working hard to achieve my goal, either. The next time I marry, it will probably be to someone in the entertainment field. But that will be in the distant future - after I've fulfilled my career goals for myself."

Meanwhile, it's all a great big ball. Sam loves the people, and they love her right back. "Some of my listeners write saying they enjoy the show. Others call to talk to me. In general, they make me feel that people are pretty wonderful, and that they're all on my side."


Mary Nash Stoddard:
Professional and Volunteer Activities 1964-2002:
. Publicist 1989-2002
. Author Deadly Deception [story of a food additive] Odenwald Press 1998
. International Keynote Speaker 1995-2002
. Member Texas Radio Hall of Fame 2001
. Visiting Professor American University Graduate School of Journalism 1999
. Appointed Judge - State of Texas 1977-1984
. Founding Board Member Dallas' first Public-Access Radio Station 1974
. Dallas Mayor's Task Force on User Fees 1977
. Dallas Mayor's Committee on Citizen Safety 1975 Charter member
. Vice-President Dallas Operation-Get-Involved 1974-1976
. President, Save Open Space 1976 (Board of Directors 1975-2002)
. Steering Committee member for U.S. President Jimmy Carter 1976
. Nationally recognized as First Female Disc Jockey in Dallas, KVIL Radio 1964-1966
. Miss Rice 1956

-30- 

PREVENTION THE CURE FOR THESE #CANCERS?

 QUESTION #1: WHAT % OF LUNG #CANCERS IN #SMOKERS CAN BE 'CURED' BY QUITTING SMOKING? 

QUESTION #2:  WHAT % OF CANCERS IN #ASPARTAME SWEETENER USERS CAN BE CURED BY QUITTING USE OF THE ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS? (aka AminoSweet, tmNutraSweet, EQUAL, Neotame, etc.)

THUS MAKING 'ABSTINENCE FROM EXPOSURE TO THESE #TOXINS THE CURE' FOR MANY CANCERS? Given the available published Research Showing Harm - the Answer to this is a No-Brainer! Right? -- #MaryNashStoddard, Editor: #Deadly_Deception Story of Aspartame. CoFounder: Aspartame Consumer Network, 1987. Testimony at #SenateHearing on "Safety of Aspartame," Nov. 4, 1987, Washington D.C. 

BITTERSWEET: THE TRUTH ABOUT ASPARTAMECATALYST MAGAZINEF...

 BITTERSWEET: THE TRUTH ABOUT ASPARTAME

CATALYST MAGAZINE

February, 02 -- The desire for something sweet is a natural instinct: It is the compulsion that spurred our early ancestors to seek out foods that were a source of concentrated energy. The human brain is hardwired to crave sugar when it is low on serotonin, dopamine and beta endorphin — chemicals that help us focus our attention, tolerate pain, and initiate movement and emotional expression. Natural sugar, in small amounts, is requisite for normal brain and body function.
But, as we all know, too much sugar is the perfect example of “too much of a good thing is bad.” Excess sugar in the bloodstream overstimulates the adrenal glands and pancreas, depletes nutrient reserves, inhibits the immune system, and promotes the overgrowth of opportunistic microorganisms like Candida albicans. Over-consumption of refined sugar is linked to diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, hypoglycemia, atherosclerosis, chronic fatigue, hypertension, tooth decay, cancer, heart disease, depression, PMS, hyperactivity and aggressive behavior. 
It’s no wonder then, that so many weight- and health-conscious Americans enthusiastically embrace artificial sweeteners, those seemingly magical compounds that are meant to provide all the sweetness but none of the distasteful side effects of sugar. Since the introduction of diet soft drinks in the 1950s, the artificial sweetener industry has become a $1.1 billion juggernaut; sugar substitutes are now used in everything from bottled water to frozen cheesecakes to protein drinks.
But, ironically, the health risks from artificial sweeteners are turning out to far outweigh those of the sugar they replace. 

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits six low-calorie sweeteners to be used as food additives: Saccharin, aspartame (known around the world as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonfuls, Canderel, Bienvia, NatraSweet and Miwon), acesulfame potassium (sold under the brand name Sunette), sucralose (marketed as Splenda), trehalose and tagatose. Of the six, aspartame is by far the most widely used — and the most controversial. 
According to the FDA, over 100 million people worldwide consume aspartame-sweetened products. In the United States alone, it is found in more than 5,000 products, including tabletop sweeteners, baked goods, baking and dry beverage mixes (including many protein powders), breakfast cereals, chewing gum, gelatins, puddings and pie fillings, dessert toppings, carbonated beverages, ice cream, popsicles, breath mints, yogurt, frozen desserts, fruit spreads, syrups, candies, cough drops, malt beverages, wine coolers and pharmaceuticals. 
Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by a scientist working for pharmaceutical behemoth G.D. Searle and Company. In the course of experimenting with amino acids, the chemist inadvertently created a sweet-tasting compound containing 40% aspartic acid, 50% phenylalanine and 10% methanol. While all three are natural substances, excessive amounts of any one of them, much less all of them, can wreak havoc on the human mind and body. 
Phenylalanine is one of the “essential” amino acids, meaning that humans must get it from their diet. When consumed as a natural constituent of protein, it facilitates the necessary synthesis of tyrosine and several neurotransmitters. In unnaturally high concentrations, however, phenylalanine becomes a neurotoxin, lowering the seizure threshold, inhibiting the production of serotonin, and causing mental retardation. During pregnancy, high levels of phenylalanine can cause retardation in the fetus. 
The dangers of excess phenylalanine have long been known to science: A condition called phenylketonuria, in which the body is unable to metabolize phenylalanine, was the first genetic disease to be routinely screened for. Persons having phenylketonuria must monitor their diet carefully, therefore aspartame-sweetened products must be labeled as containing phenylalanine. Iron deficiency and kidney disease may also cause unnaturally high phenylalanine levels, though physicians rarely think to council those patients to avoid diet drinks and other products containing aspartame.
Aspartic acid is a naturally occurring amino acid and a component of all proteins. It is important in the synthesis of new DNA and in the creation of urea, and as a neurotransmitter in the brain. In the body, the level of aspartic acid is carefully regulated; like phenylalanine, it is neurotoxic in high concentrations, causing brain tumors and lesions, endocrine disorders and genetic damage. It is considered particularly hazardous to young children, as it penetrates the blood brain barrier and disrupts the development of the central nervous system. 
When aspartame is heated above 85 degrees — whether through baking, boiling, dumping it in hot liquid, or storing it in a warm place — it breaks down into methanol, also known as methyl alcohol. The results of methanol poisoning are legion and well-documented: vision problems, confusion, headache, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, abdominal pain, cramping, impaired speech, labored breathing, fetal alcohol syndrome, DNA damage and birth defects. A fatal dose is a mere two teaspoons. 
Methanol is considered by the FDA to be a “cumulative poison,” as once it is absorbed, it is slow to be excreted. In the body, it breaks down to into formaldehyde (a known carcinogen), formic acid, and diketopiperazine (which causes brain tumors). As the NutraSweet Company loves to point out in their literature, fruits and vegetables also contain methanol, but they fail to mention that all natural products also contain its antidote, ethanol. Aspartame, on the other hand, contains no ethanol.

Aspartame is responsible for approximately 85% of all the complaints made to the FDA. Over 90 symptoms resulting from aspartame consumption have been well-documented, including headache, dizziness, depression, migraine, fatigue, convulsions, vision problems, hyperactivity, nausea, irritability, insomnia, heart palpitations, memory loss, anxiety, tinnitus, vertigo, slurred speech, rashes, joint pain, breathing difficulties, menstrual irregularities, bloating, excessive thirst, tremors and numbness. Many researchers believe that a number of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, lymphoma, brain tumors, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, blindness, systemic lupus, Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig's disease, Lyme disease, Graves disease, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and heart valve disease can be worsened — or triggered — by aspartame ingestion. And paradoxically, aspartame can actually cause weight gain, as well as uncontrollable cravings for sweets. 
“The whole concept of artificial sweeteners in general, and aspartame in particular is bizarre,” says Washington D.C. consumer protection attorney James Turner. “The craving for something sweet is a physiological reaction, caused by your serotonin level going down. So you eat sugar, and it goes back up. But if you eat aspartame, not only does it not go back up, it goes down farther, so you’ve defeated the entire purpose and put yourself deeper in the hole.”
Turner, who was the first of Ralph Nader’s famous “Nader’s Raiders” consumer protection advocates, has been involved in food safety issues since the late ’60s, when he joined neuropathologist Dr. John Olney in fighting against the use of MSG in baby food.
“Dr. Olney had a grant from the National Institutes of Health to examine foods that might cause mental retardation,” he explains. “He found that MSG caused holes in the brains of mice. When he looked at aspartic acid, he found the same kinds of holes.”
Other scientists were finding similarly alarming reactions to aspartame and its ingredients. In 1969, Dr. Harry Waisman, an expert on phenylketonuria, was approach by G.D. Searle officials to conduct a study on the effects of the phenylalanine in aspartame. In the only aspartame study ever conducted on primates, Waisman fed seven infant monkeys aspartame-laced milk: One of the monkeys died after 300 days, and five suffered grand mal seizures. Other early, Searle-sponsored tests found high incidence of uterine, liver, mammary, pancreatic, thyroid, testes and brain tumors. According to the late Dr. M. Adrian Gross, an FDA toxicologist who later investigated Searle’s laboratory practices, at least one of Searle’s studies “established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals,” a fact he considered to be of great significance. 
Unfortunately, Searle officials failed to mention the majority of those negative findings to the FDA when they applied for approval of aspartame. Olney’s test results were hidden from sight, while Waisman’s and many others were falsified.
In several subsequent investigations, it was found that many of the tumors developed by the aspartame-fed lab animals had been excised, and the animals returned to the study. When questioned, Searle scientists stated they had to remove the tumors “because these masses were in the head and neck areas, and prevented the animals from feeding.” In many cases, the tumors were not even examined for malignancy, but merely thrown away; others were examined, but the malignancies not reported. And in several instances, animals that were reported as dead were later miraculously revived in final reports. 
Many of the studies conducted by Searle and their contractor Hazelton Laboratories also lacked protocols and were written as chatty narratives, rather than reports. “At the heart of FDA’s regulatory process is its ability to rely upon the integrity of the basic safety date submitted by sponsors of the regulated products,” wrote Task Force member Adrian Gross. “Our investigation clearly demonstrates that, in the case of the G.D. Searle Company, we have no basis for such reliance now.”

Despite the troubling test results and Searle’s blatant disregard of scientific procedure — and over the heated objections of many of its own scientists — the FDA approved aspartame for limited use (as a food additive and tabletop sweetener) in 1981. [See sidebar for a chronicle of the political maneuvering involved in the approval process.] In 1983, despite protests from the National Soft Drink Association, aspartame was again approved, this time for use in aqueous solutions. And in 1996, the FDA approved aspartame as a “general purpose sweetener,” removing all restrictions for its use in cooking and baking.
That same year that Dr. Olney published his findings showing that incidence of brain tumors had increased by 10% in the 10 years since aspartame had been used in soft drinks. 
Other independent researchers continued to make similarly worrying discoveries: Aspartame was found to exacerbate mood disorders (particularly when consumed with carbohydrates), disrupt endocrine and reproductive functions, trigger severe fluctuations in blood sugar, and cause extreme agitation and loss of motor function — especially in children. In 1998, a Price, Utah girl won a the National Science Fair award for her findings that aspartame hindered learning ability in elderly rats. She found her results to have “frightening implications.”


Mary Nash Stoddard, founder of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, had her own first bittersweet taste of aspartame [in 1984], soon after it was approved for use in soft drinks in ’83.
“It came in the mail to as samples,” she says, “The NutraSweet Company mailed out thousands of packets of Crystal Light.” Concerned about her weight, Stoddard enthusiastically embraced the new low-cal sweetener, and encouraged her young daughter to do the same. “My 16-year-old daughter started drinking it because I didn’t want her to have sugar,” she says. “Like millions of other people, I was so paranoid about sugar that I rushed unquestioning into the open jaws of something far worse.”
Soon after they started using aspartame, Stoddard and her daughter began experiencing unusual and frightening physical symptoms, including migraines, joint pain, fatigue and chest pains. Most terrifying of all, says Stoddard, was her daughter’s grand mal seizure. “I was very familiar with seizures,” she says. “My husband had just died from a brain tumor, so I’d seen plenty of them. It was terrifying; I thought, ‘Oh, dear God, I’m going to lose my daughter, too.’”
After Innumerable medical tests failed to diagnose either of their problems. Stoddard mentioned the new sweetener to her MD.., wondering if it might be at fault. After researching aspartame’s breakdown components, her doctor agreed confirmed her suspicions, and recommended the family stop using it. He also wrote to the NutraSweet Company, which sent him a letter back saying that his patient could not possibly be responding to their product, and that he should look elsewhere for answers. Nonetheless, both Stoddard’s and her daughter’s symptoms ceased within six weeks of going off aspartame, though Stoddard sustained permanent muscle damage and a tremor.  
She might have let the situation drop (“I was willing to put it down to allergic reactions”) had she not heard a woman on television describe a similar experience with the sweetener. Stoddard, a former broadcast journalist, expert medical witness and Texas state judge, tracked down the woman and, as she says, “things just clicked into place.”
The Florida woman was working with James Turner on a lawsuit against the NutraSweet Company, and also had the rough beginnings of a consumer organization, which she asked Stoddard to take over. 
After several meetings with Turner and Ralph Nader (“Ralph told me, ‘always tell the truth, and have the facts to back it up’”), July, 1987, Stoddard formally launched the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network. Among her first supporters were a large number of airplane pilots.
“In 1987, I was asked to testify at the Senate safety hearings on aspartame,” she says, “and after my testimony, I was approached by an F16 pilot, who had also testified. He told me that he and many other pilots had suffered aspartame-related seizures in the cockpit. So I set up a special ACSN pilot hotline, and since that time we’ve had thousands of calls.” 
Although the FAA and military cannot prohibit pilots from consuming aspartame — since it is a legally approved product — Stoddard says that off the record, officials have acknowledged the problem. Dozens of articles cautioning against aspartame use have been published in aviation magazines, and former Defense Secretary William Cohen sent Stoddard’s warnings to the heads of each branch of the military. Unfortunately, says Stoddard, current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — who, as president of G.D. Searle, used his political clout to ram aspartame’s approval through FDA — is unlikely to issue a similar warning. 
Stoddard has also received hundreds of calls from Gulf War Veterans, who wonder if aspartame could be one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome. The troops of Desert Storm were treated to thousands of cases of Diet Coke and other aspartame-sweetened beverages, which sat on pallets for months beneath the blistering Saudi Arabian sun. Many of the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome are similar to those seen in methanol poisoning — and aspartame breaks down into methanol when heated over 85° — and that’s a coincidence Stoddard and many other members of the ACSN would like to see investigated.


The NutraSweet Company and other aspartame distributors continue to tout the sweetener’s safety, calling it “the most tested product on the market.” But, as James Turner points out, the artificial sweetener industry has funded — either directly or indirectly — virtually every study that has ever given aspartame a clean bill.
“There are all kinds of studies that supposedly show that it’s safe,” he says. “But if you take a close look at them, they’re foolish and poorly designed. I feel sorry for those so-called scientists who can only make a living whoring themselves out to industry; they’re a pathetic lot.” 
But what troubles Turner even more than the research that’s been done, is the research that hasn’t been done. “We don’t know just who aspartame affects, if it’s everybody, or a just subset of people. Searle also never looked at its impact on the human brain, because the FDA didn’t require it. So why bother? The FDA and the [artificial sweetener] industry have based their decisions only on the things that they know — not what they don’t know. If they haven’t looked at the brain to see if there are problems, then there must not be any problems. That’s a very poor way of doing science.” 
Turner says too that none of the original tests done by Searle — those found questionable or inconclusive by the FDA — have ever been repeated. Nor, he adds, are they likely to. “As far as the FDA and industry are concerned, aspartame is a billion-dollar-a-year product, so they’re just going to just keep their mouths shut and make their money.”
It’s also money — in the form of major funding — he says, that inspires such supposedly reputable organizations as the American Dietetic Association, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association (which regularly sponsors “Cooking with Aspartame” classes), to endorse aspartame, despite the scientific controversy surrounding its use.


While neither Turner or Stoddard expect so see it taken off the market any time soon, they do hope to make a dent in the aspartame’s artificially sweet image.
“Our goal is very simple,” says Stoddard. “We want educated consumers. People need to know that there are two sides to the aspartame story. Their side has all the money and political influence, but we have the truth and unbiased science on our side.” 
Turner would like to see aspartame labeled in the same way as saccharin, and believes the warning should state: ‘Aspartame caused brain tumors in lab animals during its original testing, and it is responsible for more complaints from consumers than any other food additive in history.’ 
Stoddard fields dozens of calls to the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network hotline [214.352.4268] each week, from people concerned that the sweetener is making them ill. [They also email her their filled-in questionnaire forms to marystod@airmail.net.]Her advice: “Stop using it for four to six weeks; if the symptoms don’t cease or diminish, look for another cause. If you feel better, never use it again. And tell all your friends and family not to use it either.”
Stoddard and Turner are also working to prevent neotame, the NutraSweet Company’s new artificial sweetener, and alitame (created by Pfizer, Inc.), from entering the U.S. market. “NutraSweet opened the door for all these other chemically synthesized sweeteners that are every bit as bad, if not worse [in the case of Neotame],” says Stoddard. “And we have to slam the door on them, to stop embracing artificial foods and supplements. We need to learn to eat real food again — that’s the lesson that we should be learning from all this — when it comes to food, real is always better.” •

ASPARTAME SIDEBARS
ASPARTAME’S HISTORY OF POLITICAL INTRIGUE

Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by a scientist working for pharmaceutical behemoth G.D. Searle and Company. Recognizing a potential cash, G.D. Searle and Co set about gaining FDA approval for their entry into the lucrative artificial sweetener market. In a 1970 internal memo, company officials laid out a strategy of “bringing the FDA into a subconscious spirit of participation.” Our approach …should be to try to get them to say “Yes,” to rank the things that we are going to ask for, so we are putting first those questions we would like to get a "yes" to, even if we have to throw some in that have no significance, other than putting them in a yes saying habit.
The first scientists who conducted clinical studies on aspartame, biochemist Dr. Harry Waisman and neuroscientist Dr. John W. Olney, gave it thumbs down. Searle’s only reaction to their findings was to use their own scientists — or those of their favorite contractor — throughout the rest of approval process. Waisman’s results, when reported to the FDA, were falsified, while Olney’s were hidden from sight, techniques the company would continue to use in all their dealings with the FDA and other government and consumer agencies concerning aspartame.
Searle’s slight of hand was noted early on by a number of FDA scientists and officials, but in July of 1974, the director of the FDA approved aspartame for limited use. Before it could go on the market, however, Dr. Olney and James Turner Esq. filed a formal objection, stating they believed that aspartame had the potential to cause brain damage, and that they were particularly concerned about its effects on children. Searle’s non-response to the subsequent questions about their methodology set off a controversy within the FDA, and a special in-house Task Force was convened to examine the key studies done on aspartame and a number of pharmaceuticals. 
The task force’s preliminary findings caused the FDA to put a hold on aspartame’s approval. Further obfuscation by Searle led FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill to recommend a grand jury be convened to investigate Searle — a recommendation that ran into a brick wall when presiding U.S. Attorney Sam Skinner left his job to work for Sidley & Austin, G.D. Searle’s law firm. Following Skinner’s departure, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Conlon convened a grand jury, but let the statue of limitations run out on the complaint. Fifteen months later he, too, went to work for Sidley & Austin. 
In 1977, amidst continued rumblings about the company’s fraudulent research, Searle brought out the Big Gun. Donald Rumsfeld, former Chief of Staff in the Ford administration — and current Secretary of Defense — was hired as president of the company. Though it took nearly four years, Rumsfeld eventually proved to be worth his weight in artificial sweetener. The day after Ronald Reagan took office in 1980, G.D. Searle reapplied for FDA approval of aspartame. At that time, according to a former Searle employee, Rumsfeld told his sales force that, “he would call in all his markers and that no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year.” Six months later, it was approved (for use in dry foods only) by the new, Reagan- appointed Commissioner of the FDA. 
Soon after, an amendment was attached to the Orphan Drug Act which extended Searle’s patent on aspartame by 5 years, 10 months and 17 days. The bill passed, speeded along by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who later received $2,500 from the soft drink political action committee, and $1,000 each from William and Daniel Searle and a Searle brother-in-law and William Searle. Since then, Hatch has been an outspoken advocate for the sweetener, possibly due to his holdings in Twin Lab, a health supplement company that uses aspartame in a number of their products. Between 1979 and 1982, four FDA officials who assisted in the aspartame approval process landed jobs in artificial sweetener industry.
In 1983, aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages. Shortly after, the Commissioner of the FDA, Arthur Hayes, left the FDA under charges of impropriety, and was hired as a consultant with Searle’s public relations firm, Burson Marsteller [at $1,000 a day]. That same year, James Turner, Esq. filed a petition with the FDA on behalf of himself and Community Nutrition Institute objecting to the approval of aspartame. Three months later, the FDA denied the request “because public interest did not require it.”
In May of 1985, the U.S. Senate heard testimony relating to an amendment put forth by Senator Howard Metzenbaum requiring the quantity of aspartame used in products to be labeled. Senator Orrin Hatch led the fight against the labeling amendment, which was defeated. Three months later, Metzenbaum introduced the Aspartame Safety Act of 1985, another attempt at labeling, that also mandated a moratorium on new uses of aspartame until independent research could be conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The bill died in the Senate.
Also in 1985, G.D. Searle sold the NutraSweet Company (the subsidiary formed by Searle to market aspartame) to the Monsanto Company, over the objections of Monsanto’s stockholders, who were leery of the legal liabilities associated with the product. 
In November, 1987, a hearing was held in a U.S. Senate Committee to address aspartame safety and proposed labeling. Senator Orrin Hatch once again blocked the proceedings.
The patent for aspartame expired in December of 1992, opening up the market to other companies, such as the Holland Sweetener Company.
In 1996, the FDA approved aspartame for “general use,” allowing it to be used in baking and cooking. 
In 1999, Brand Week magazine named NutraSweet one of the top 100 brands of the century. NutraSweet brand aspartame is sold in more than 100 countries and used in approximately 5,000 products by 250 million people on a regular basis.
In May 2000 The J.W. Childs company purchased the NutraSweet Company from Monsanto for $440 million in cash. The sale includes the sweetener business, the NutraSweet brand name and rights to the company’s new sweetener, neotame.
“The NutraSweet Company revolutionized the sweetener industry in 1981 with the introduction of
aspartame," says Nick Rosa, the new president and CEO of the NutraSweet Company, "and we intend to do it again with neotame when we receive approval from various regulatory agencies around the world.” • 

OTHER NON-CALORIC SWEETENERS
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) permits six low-calorie sweeteners to be used as food additives: Saccharin, aspartame (known around the world as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonfuls, Canderel, Bienvia, NatraSweet and Miwon), acesulfame K, (sold under the brand name Sunett), sucralose (marketed as Splenda), trehalose and tagatose. 

Saccharin
Discovered in 1879, saccharin was initially used as an antiseptic and a food preservative. Its use as a sweetener developed slowly until World Wars I and II, when sugar rationing caused its popularity to boom. The FDA has allowed the makers of saccharin to make a self-determined Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) declaration, claiming exemption from the premarket or food additive approval requirements, although the FDA also lists it as an "anticipated" human carcinogen. All saccharin-sweetened products must bear a label stating: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals." 

Acesulfame-K (Sunette)
Acesulfame-K (5,6-dimethyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H)-one-2,2-dioxide) is approximately 200 times sweeter than sucrose. It has been approved by the FDA in 1988 for use in baked goods, refrigerated and frozen desserts, alcoholic beverages, yogurt, dry dessert mixes, confections, hard and soft candies, tabletop sweeteners, bulk sweeteners, chewing gum, dry dairy analog bases, syrups, sweet sauces and toppings. Acesulfame K, produced by Hoechst Food Ingredients in Germany, is often used in combination with other artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and saccharin. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food watchdog agency, has repeatedly expressed concern that acesulfame K is a potential carcinogen, and that the FDA has failed to require the manufacturer to conduct high-quality tests of the artificial sweetener.
According to CSPI, testing done on acesulfame K “ followed inadequate protocols, which are greatly at variance with current standards for test design, execution and reporting required for the National Toxicology Program's bioassays.” 

Sucralose (Splenda)
Sucralose (trichlorogalactosucrose) was approved by the FDA in 1988 as a tabletop sweetener and for use in a number of desserts, confections, and nonalcoholic beverages. Sucralose is produced by chlorinating sucrose (sugar); three chlorine atoms are substituted for three three hydroxyl groups. According to Consumers Research Magazine , some concern was initially raised about sucralose being a chlorinated molecule, as chlorinated molecules also serve as the basis for pesticides such as D.D.T., and accumulate in body fat. However, the manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson emphasized that “sucralose passes through the body unabsorbed."
Research animals fed sucralose exhibited the following symptoms: Shrunken thymus glands (up to 40% shrinkage), enlarged liver and kidneys, atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus, reduced growth rate, decreased red blood cell count, hyperplasia of the pelvis, extension of the pregnancy period , aborted pregnancy, decreased fetal body weights and placental weights and chronic diarrhea. 
In the wake of the continued controversy over aspartame, many pharmaceutical and health food manufacturers — including Pro Lab, Twin Lab and Ross Products, makers of Pedialyte) — have switched over to sucralose.

Tagatose & Trehalose
Like saccharin, both of these sweeteners have slipped through the FDA with a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status. 
The Calorie Control Council — which enthusiastically endorses the use of all artificial sweeteners — describes tagatose as “a naturally occurring reduced-calorie sweetener that can be found in some dairy products” and “commercially produced via a patented process.” Less sweet than sugar, tagatose also “browns” more readily than sucrose in baked goods, and has been shown to cause diarrhea and gas. Nonetheless, manufacturers plan to use tagatose in chocolate, caramel, chewing gum, ice cream, soft drinks, cereals and meal replacements.
Trehalose is almost half as sweet as table sugar, and is said to occur naturally in honey, mushrooms, lobster, shrimp and foods produced using baker's and brewer's yeast. It is approved for use in beverages, including fruit juices, purees, fillings, nutrition bars, dehydrated fruits and vegetables and white chocolate for cookies or chips. though because of its low sweetness rating, trehalose is most often used as a preservative. 
And On the Horizon…

Alitame, 
Discovered by Pfizer, Inc., alitame (brand name Aclame) is 2,000 times sweeter than sugar. Like aspartame, it is made from amino acids, including aspartic acid, D-alanine and a novel amine.
Alitame has the potential to be used in almost all areas where sweeteners are presently used —e.g., baked goods and baking mixes, hot and cold beverages, dry beverage mixes, milk products, frozen desserts and mixes, fruit preparations, chewing gums and candies, tabletop sweeteners, toiletries and pharmaceuticals.
Pfizer applied for FDA approval of alitame in 1986, but it has yet to be granted. It is, however, available in other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and the People’s Republic of China.

Neotame
Neotame contains all the dangerous elements of aspartame and more: the amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine, and two organic functional groups: one known as a methyl ester group and the other as a neohexyl group. These components are joined together to form an incredibly sweet (8,000 times sweeter than sugar) and potentially dangerous compound.
The FDA was petitioned in 1997 to approve neotame for use as a tabletop sweetener. Approval is still pending. The NutraSweet Company, which owns the right to neotame, plans to use the sweetener in chewing gum, carbonated soft drinks, refrigerated and non-refrigerated ready-to-drink beverages, frozen desserts and novelties, puddings and fillings, yogurt-type products, baked goods and candies.

Cyclamate
Cyclamate was first introduced as a sweetener in the early 1950s, and dominate the artificial sweetener market though much of the ‘60s. In the late 60s, however, concerns arose over cyclamate’s potential to cause genetic damage, testicular atrophy and cancer, and in 1970, the FDA imposed a total ban on its use. Under pressure from the sweetener industry, the FDA is said to be considering reapproval of cyclamate, which is still in use in 50 other countries. In many products made overseas and shipped to the United States, cyclamate, Acesulfame-K and aspartame are blended together to create a “super sweetener.” •

WHAT TO EAT WHEN YOU CRAVE SWEET
Sugar cravings are natural: It’s the way we answer them that’s unnatural. All too often, when our energy starts to flag, we reach for a cookie or a soda — or, worse yet, a sugar-free cookie or a diet soda. But what our body really wants is the natural sugar found in fresh fruits and vegetables. 
According to Dr. Kathleen DesMaisons, author of Potatoes, Not Prozac, the ultimate sugar snack is one low in fat and protein and high in complex carbohydrates — such as baked potato. Eating protein and fat at each meal, she says, will also help stabilize blood sugar and lessen cravings for sweets. People who are prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and other forms of depression often consume excessive amounts of sugar and carbohydrates in an effort to boost their serotonin levels. DesMaisons recommends potatoes, yams and winter squash — and regular exposure to full-spectrum light — to increase serotonin levels without loading up on refined sugar (or Prozac). 

ASPARTAME / BREAST CANCER CONNECTION EXPLAINED:

Strong statistical evidence links the artificial sweetener, aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) to breast cancer. The American Cancer Society figures show that breast cancer cases have doubled since 1981, the year aspartame was approved for use as a food additive. Aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) is added to over 5,000 food and drink products and is sold in almost 100 countries. 

There is chemical proof that the synthetic amino acids that compose aspartame-- phenylalanine, aspartic acid, and the methanol in which they are bound, are neurotoxins [nerve poisons]. Phenylalanine (50% of aspartame) lowers the seizure threshold and degrades into DKP, a tumor causing agent. Aspartic acid (40% of aspartame) caused holes in the brains of mice (Dr. John Olney, neuroscientist, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.) 

Methanol (wood alcohol, 10% of aspartame) is a cumulative toxin in the body. Since it is "free" methanol", appearing without ethanol (the antidote for methanol toxicity always present in natural food such as fruit juice), the methanol in aspartame is lethal. Methanol destroys the optic nerve and can cause blindness. Fetal tissue cannot tolerate methanol. 

In addition, the methanol in aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) breaks down into formaldehyde (embalming fluid) and formic acid which has the chemical composition of ant venom. Formic acid is used commercially in products such as paint stripper. 


There is actual proof from recent records released by the Freedom of Information Act that aspartame caused dozens of mammary tumors in animals tested from 1971 to 1974 by G.D. Searle, the pharmaceutical company, responsible for aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet). 


Searle falsified results of their animal testing when they presented evidence of aspartame safety to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for approval as a "food additive." 

The U.S. Government trusts the manufacturer of a product to perform its own safety tests. 

To verify the breakdown of aspartame into its toxic breakdown products (phenylalanine into DKP and methanol into formaldehyde) Jennifer Cohen, eleven, a student in the sixth grade did her own experiment. 

Jennifer bought a case of diet Coke, and she took three cans to a food-testing laboratory that found the aspartame amount in one can was 0.06%. Jennifer stored seven cans of the diet Coke in the refrigerator, seven cans at room temperature (68 to 70 degrees) and seven cans in an incubator at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. "I chose that temperature because in 1983, the National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) said that 104 degrees was the average daily high for July in Phoenix, Arizona." 

Jennifer checked the temperatures of the diet Cokes daily and after seventy days took them out of storage and performed a double blind experiment (neither the subject nor the tester knows who gets what) on ten adult subjects. "I was going to do a taste in my sister's fourth grade class, but the school nurse said that I couldn't because of all the bad things people say about aspartame." 

"I put all of the cans in a cooler and covered them with ice. I gave each person a small cup of the soda from the refrigerator, from the incubator, from my room, and from a new can of soda fresh from the supermarket. I asked them to rate the taste on a scale of one to four, four being the worst and one being the best." 


The subjects preferred the new can of diet Coke, and the average rating was 2.0. The refrigerated sample was rated 2.5. Lab analysis showed this coke contained 0.058% aspartame, 0.001% DKP and 53.5 parts per billion of formaldehyde. The diet Coke sample at room temperature was rated 2.6 and lab analysis showed 0.051% aspartame left with conversion to 0.002% DKP and 231.0 parts formaldehyde, (the most formaldehyde in the test.) The diet Coke stored in the incubator rated the worst taste at 3.8. All that was left of the 0.06 % aspartame was 0.02%. The aspartame had turned onto 0.010 % DKP and 76.2 parts per billion of formaldehyde. 

The experiment to prove aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) breakdown into formaldehyde and DKP cost Jennifer $1200. (Chemical News, 1997) 

A twenty-five year old trade memo reveals Searle's concern about aspartame's stability: "We have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse, and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. We stand a good chance of ending up with nothing." 

Among the findings Searle Laboratories ended up with in a complete conversion to DKP were mammary tumors, brain tumors, uterine polyps, enlarged pituitary and thyroid glands and atrophied testes. 

The animals under test in the 115 Week Oral Tumor Study in the Rat, with DKP, were 360 albino rats, 21 days old. Rats are less sensitive than human beings and the amount of DKP fed to the test animal correlates to human ingestion. 

"In any such study of even a few hundred test animals, it takes no more than a dozen or so of them to exhibit a particular lesion... to associate with the test agent, i.e., aspartame or its related chemicals." (Dr. Adrian Gross, FDA toxicologist, in a letter to Senator Metzenbaum, Oct. 30, 1986.) 

Here is a description of mammary tumors found in Female Rat.No.M17LF, (a low dose female) fed DKP in rat chow. "In toto" means the tissue has been left to deteriorate before microscopic examination, one of the felonious things Searle did to hide negative results. 

Mammary Gland:
Mass (1) A 3 X 3 X 2.5 cm. Spheroidal Multi-nodular yellowish non-adherent to the surrounding muscles or tissue (submitted in toto)

Mass (2) 2X5 X 2X1 cm. Irregularly shaped, spheroidal, smooth, yellowish white firm mass located subcutaneously and adjacent to the above described mass (submitted in toto) mass non-adherent to the surrounding muscles or tissues.

Mass (3) A 2.3 X 1cm. Irregularly shaped, multinodular, yellowish white, firm mass located subcutaneously on the rt. Axillary area. Mass non-adherent to the surrounding muscles or tissues (submitted in toto).

Mass (4) A 3X1X1 cm. Elongated, multinodular, yellowish white, firm mass located subcutaneously on the left inguinal area. Mass non-adherent to the surrounding muscles or tissues (submitted in toto.)

Mass (5) A 2X1.5 X 1 cm. Flat, multinodular, yellowish white firm mass located subcutaneously of the rt. Inguinal area. Mass non-adherent to the surrounding muscles or tissues (submitted in toto.)

Pathologist Dr. Charles H. Frith spent 3 days with the FDA to review 145 animals from Searle's DKP toxicity study. Sufficient slides substantiated 73 female animals with grossly observed masses. (Bressler Report to FDA) 

To hide the mammary tumors, Searle scientists excised them and returned the animals to the study or removed the tumors, post-mortem (after death). 

Malignancies were made to appear benign. Searle explained that a computer "programming error" was responsible. 

Dr. Gross interviewed all concerned with the tests and concluded that "to accept the Searle explanation is to believe that the unfavorable mammary malignancy data were innocently omitted from the summary table four separate times by three different individuals (Congressional Record, 1985.) 

The following statistics are from SEER, (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) The statistics are age standardized and computed to account for slight surges, due to mammogram screening. 

Breast cancer is the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 35-54. In 1971, a woman's lifetime risk for contracting breast cancer was one in fourteen. Today it is one in eight. (The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. and David Steinman, Macmillan, 1997) 

Breast cancer began to rise rapidly concurrent with the use of aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), when it was approved in 1981 for table top use in dry foods and, in 1983, for use in sweetening aqueous solutions - carbonated beverages. 

Between 1940-1982, there was a steady, annual rate of breast cancer increase of about 1% per year. 

Between 1982-1987, the increase in breast cancer accelerated to 4%, annually. (ACS) 

Between 1983-1988 the per capita consumption of aspartame quadrupled (USDA) 

Increased longevity is not the reason for the rise in breast cancer cases. Life expectancy rates have remained relatively stable since 1950, while the incidence of breast cancer has increased by about 55% (The Breast Cancer Prevention Program, Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. and David Steinman), Macmillan, 1997) 

Mammogram accounts for finding 10% of all breast cancer cases. The woman herself discovers the other 90% of breast cancer cases. 

Although the numbers are recorded separately from other breast cancers by the American Cancer Society, DCIS, Ductile Carcinoma in Situ accounts for 40% of all breast cancer detected by mammogram. DCIS is abnormal (sometimes called pre-cancerous) cells confined to the milk ducts of the breasts. 

On a mammogram, DCIS shows up as tiny specks of calcium.(Wessex Cancer Trust, England). 

Oncologists now categorize different kinds of DCIS (cribiform, comedo, papillary, solid type, low intermediate and high nuclear grade) One description of a case of DCIS, comedo type reads: Solid sheets of malignant cells fill the dilated (milk) ducts. The center of the involved ducts undergoes necrosis and calcification (Online, Management of Breast Diseases). 

From 1983-1989, the years in which aspartame use quadrupled, DCIS rose 52%. There were 23,000 DCIS cases in 1992; 30,000 in 1996 and 36,000 estimated for 1998, 200% higher than was projected in 1983. (Ductile Carcinoma In Situ of the Breast by Gil Lederman, M.D.) 

"A Diagnosis on the Rise." "Is It Really Breast Cancer?" "Weighing Treatment Options", and "A Mysterious Condition" are medical problems "Good Housekeeping" magazine tried to answer for their readers, in 1996. 

The problem is that there is no way to tell if early stage cancer, as DCIS is sometimes called will develop into invasive cancer. The only information about its natural course comes from three small studies which found 30% of women who had biopsies developed breast cancer within ten years of the biopsies, but it wasn't clear why this happened in some cases and not in others. 

DCIS is a poorly understood condition. A University of California, San Francisco report, found that while the number of cases of ductile carcinoma in situ has risen dramatically in the last 15 years, clinicians still do not know the best treatment approach. 

In 1992, 10,000 American women diagnosed with DCIS underwent a mastectomy. 


The increasing incident rates for DCIS "mirror what all of us have been seeing in practice for the last decade", says Dr. Hiram Cody, a breast cancer specialist at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. "This study (from UCSF) creates the impression that a large number of women are being treated with mastectomy, but these numbers are declining all the time." 

Dr. Virginia Ernster, UCSF professor: "These findings (the unexpected increase in DCIS) underscore an urgent need to determine the best treatment for DCIS, as well as for research to define which DCIS cases will progress to invasive cancer." 

When aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet) is exposed to temperatures above 86 degrees F, it breaks down into its neurotoxins faster. 
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TRIGGERS EXPOSED FOR VETERAN'S GULF WAR ILLNESS : ASPARTAME IN EXPIRED SODAS & MREs

 

STATEMENT TO COMMITTEE ON IDENTIFYING EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR GULF WAR VETERAN'S HEALTH PROBLEMSInstitute of Medicine – National Academy of Sciences  [FO3030B]
2101 Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington D.C. 20418Thank you for this opportunity to share our research with the Committee today. For over half a decade, our organization has been concerned about the far reaching effects of Gulf War Syndrome touching the lives of the brave men and women who served so valiantly in the Persian Gulf.Last year, as the invited guest of the Desert Storm Justice Foundation, I attended the Gulf War Veteran's Annual Conference in Las Vegas to observe and gather more evidence to support our allegations that aspartame ingestion may be partially responsible for many of the very real symptoms suffered by a large number of those who served in Desert Storm. In talking with various attendees, I learned that most had been exposed to the toxic breakdown products of aspartame: methanol, formaldehyde, diketopiperazine and formic acid during their tour of duty.The fact that ingestion of degraded, toxic substances due to breakdown of aspartame in desert heat [sugarfree sodas, kool aids, MREs] can not be disputed. What is important now is that further damage is not done by ingesting more aspartame.Those unfortunate individuals suffering the devastating effects of Gulf War Syndrome – from whatever the cause of their initial illness – must now know that GWS is exacerbated by further use of any product containing aspartame. The risk of greater neurological damage is a very real threat. Aspartame may commonly be found in the following items: chewing gums, breath mints, diet sodas, instant coffees, teas, kool aids, protein drinks, yogurts, puddings, toppings, tabletop sweeteners, cereals, fiber drinks, Tums, Alka Seltzer formulas, etc.Therefore, I submit that all treatment of Gulf War illnesses must include a warning to avoid all products containing aspartame. Avoidance of further toxic assaults on the immune system is a very important part of the healing process and should not be ignored by those who remain ill and health care providers entrusted with their treatment. Beyond that, we've found the normal attempts to observe the principals of a healthy lifestyle – proper rest, exercise, Re hydration with pure water and eating real fruits, vegetables, grains and unprocessed foods allows the body to attempt to heal itself. Obviously, those who have suffered the most severe physical damage will need to work with health care providers to find the best therapies and medications for their particular needs and symptoms.Thank you for allowing us to enter our data into the public records. Please feel free to call upon me if you have further questions. I have enclosed [in triplicate] copies of articles from the U.S.A.F. Flying Safety magazine; Hazards International, [a scientific journal in the U.K.]; The Plano Star Courier [article on GWS] and a press release from the Las Vegas Gulf War Veteran's Conference.Respectfully,Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder and President

Aspartame Consumer Safety Network Fact Sheet[1987 - 2010...

 Aspartame Consumer Safety Network Fact Sheet

[1987 - 2010]

80% of all consumer complaints to the FDA are aspartame related
[5 deaths registered prior to 1987]

THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT ASPARTAME AND NEOTAME
"Aspartame/Neotame - the most dangerous substances in our food supply today." - Mary Nash Stoddard
[Founder ACSN & Pilot Hotline]

Illegal Actions to Gain FDA Approval:

FDA approved the new genetically engineered molecule in 1974, following a spate of criminal acts committed by G.D. Searle pharmaceutical employees and contractors. That approval was rescinded before aspartame got to market, because it was revealed a component of aspartame [diketopiperazine] caused brain tumors. Tests were "falsified." Second approval occurred in 1981 under President Reagan's new FDA Director, Dr. Arthur H. Hayes. In 1983, Hayes' office approved the new molecule for aqueous solution [soft drinks, etc.] and three months later, Dr. Hayes left government, went to work for the NutraSweet public relations firm, Burson Marsteller for $1,000 a day. Hayes continues to craftily dodged all media requests for interviews on the topic. In fact, many government officials connected with this issue have defected - going to work for the industry whose products they were entrusted to approve or reject.

In the laboratory, aspartame produced:

* Brain Tumors
* Breast Tumors
* Uterine Tumors
* Pancreatic Tumors
* Seizures
* Deaths

These went unreported, as did the deaths and seizures of other animals in the original tests. Tumors were removed then animals put back in test as tumor free, animals who died were brought back to life on paper when results officially submitted by G.D. Searle pharmaceutical to FDA.

Aspartame changes DNA:
In tests, the third generation of pups born to animals fed aspartic acid [component of aspartame] were born:
1) Morbidly obese and
2) Sexually Dysfunctional
Components of aspartame and its breakdown products can adversely affect the brains and central nervous systems of children and adults who consume it.

"When you harm the brain, you harm the very expression of one's self." - Peter Breggin, M.D. [Psychiatrist - Bethesda, MD]

Reported psychological symptoms:

* Suicidal Depressions
* Panic Attacks and Anxiety [PAD] - Manias
* Sleep Disorders
* Severe Mood Disorders [rages, mood swings]
* Brain Chemical Imbalance
* Brain Wave Malfunctions [shows up in EEGs]
* Personality Disorders
* Hallucinations
* Aberrant Behaviors

Medicine In Our Food?

Aspartame Components & Breakdown Products:

Phenylalanine 50% - Lowers the seizure threshold. Causes mental retardation in some. Blocks production of serotonin [key neurotransmitter which controls: Moods / Sleep Patterns / Satiety ] Cultured in e-coli bacteria in the lab.

Aspartic Acid 40% - Caused lesions or holes in the brains of lab animals. Neuroexcitatory [excites brain cells to death] amino acid. Causes motor-neuronal disorders in studies.

Methanol 10% - Also known as "methyl alcohol", "moonshine", "Sterno." Damages the liver and eye. Two teaspoons can be lethal to humans. [Not processed the same in humans and animals, so lab tests do not show full impact of toxicity] Breaks down into formaldehyde [embalming fluid] and formic acid [venom in insect stings] at temperatures exceeding 86 degrees Fahrenheit. [Body temperature is 98.6 F] Implicated in birth defects and fetal alcohol syndrome in newborn infants. As a constituent of other foods in nature, it is found in combination with ethyl alcohol, which counteracts or neutralizes the toxic affects of methanol as it is metabolized by the body. There is no ethyl alcohol in aspartame, therefore methanol in aspartame is in "free form" and is immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. For every molecule of aspartame, there is a molecule of methanol released. Classic signs of methanol poisoning include: lethargy, confusion, leg cramps, back pain, severe headache, abdominal pain, slurred speech, fainting, visual loss/blindness, labored breathing.

Diketopiperazine [DKP] - Caused brain tumors in laboratory tests. Thirteen out of 320 lab animals developed brain tumors in testing. Aspartame breakdown products cross the blood brain barrier to damage the brain.

Aspartame is known to exacerbate or trigger onset of the following medical conditions:

* Epilepsy
* Parkinson's
* Alzheimer's
* Multiple Sclerosis
* Chronic Fatigue Syn.
* Lymphoma
* Fibromyalgia / Eosinophilia Myalgia
* Mental Retardation / Birth Defects
* Diabetes / Hypoglycemia
* Graves Disease
* Heart Disease
* Lung Disease
* Liver Disease
* Kidney Disease
* Brain Tumors [astrocytoma/glioblastoma]
* Pancreatic Disease
* Kidney / Adrenal Disease
* Arthritis
* Blindness
* Tinnitus
* PMS
* Carpal Tunnel
* Lyme Disease
* Muniere's Disease
* Other: Rare / Hard to diagnose disorders

[Aspartame has been called a "systemic" toxin - which means it may virtually adversely affect the function of every organ of the body. The effects are "cumulative" and do not show up in short term testing.]

Aspartame and the Media:
1990, The Guardian [London newspaper] was sued for publishing headline story - "NutraSweet Faked Tests to Get Sweetener Approved." Later settled out of court. NutraSweet sent intimidating press releases to all U.S. media warning they were suing.

Documented instances are on record where the manufacturers of aspartame, threatened to sue and/or withdraw advertising dollars, from media. Health care professionals, scientists and medical schools have been "bribed" or intimidated into silence.

Aspartame and Flying Safety:
Many military, general aviation and commercial airline pilots have lost medical certification to fly based on seizures which occurred while they were ingesting aspartame. Grand mal seizures have been reported in flight in the cockpits of commercial airliners. A pilots' hotline in Dallas,TX was established by ACSN, in 1988 for the anonymous reporting of adverse reactions and safety-of-flight incidents. USAF Flying Safety magazine published warnings re: aspartame use by pilots. Pilot's publications around the globe have warned readers. The FAA will not send out an official memo - because the FDA refuses to recall aspartame as a safety hazard to consumers. Is aspartame the unacknowledged "terrorist" in every cockpit on every flight?

Legal:

ACSN co-founders Turner & Stoddard have both qualified in court as medical Expert Witnesses. Many consumer lawsuits have been dropped or settled out of court since the mid-eighties. The Washington D.C. Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought against the FDA by James Turner, Esq. Aspartame is illegal because it violated The Delaney Clause, which states no substance can be approved that is shown to cause cancer.

In 1995, a stealth law crept across the land, which made it illegal to say anything disparaging about a perishable food product -example: yogurt sweetened with aspartame. Oprah was later sued under this law. [Agricultural Defamation Act]

In 1985, G.D. Searle and NutraSweet Co. became wholly-owned subsidiaries of Monsanto Chemical in St. Louis. Controversial Supreme Court Judge, Clarence Thomas is a former Monsanto attorney.

Monsanto sold their sweetener divisions to current owner, the J.W. Childs Partnership.

1998, Monsanto applied for FDA approval for a monster molecule, "based on the aspartame formula" with one addition: 3-dimethylbutyl [listed on EPA's most hazardous chemical list]. Thus, Neotame becomes 13,000 times sweeter than sugar.

July 5, 2002 - Neotame, Monsanto's super bio-manipulated molecule [newest fake sweetener] was approved by FDA over formally registered objections of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and others. Long term effects on humans are unknown.

Aspartame is in over-the-counter drugs like: Tums, Pepsid AC, Metamucil, Alka Seltzer Plus, tooth whiteners, breath mints/strips and more.


Diabetes and Aspartame / Neotame:

Diabetics are most insidiously harmed , because they are told aspartame is their "life line" to good health, when, in fact, just the opposite is true. Remember, aspartame caused pancreatic tumors in the lab. A diabetic may see the real life effects of aspartame on blood sugar by performing this simple test with a finger-stick test kit:

* Confirm blood sugar levels to be well within normal limits. If they are, then continue. Drink 2-3 cans [or the bottled equivalent] of Diet Soda containing aspartame, without stopping. Then, begin to retest for blood sugar level readings approximately one hour later. In this way, the adverse effects on blood sugar levels may be proven. This test is NOT recommended for anyone except individuals who already drink more than 2 diet drinks per day.

The American Diabetic Association and The American Dietetic Association [Registered Dietitians] have been "bought out" by the sweetener manufacturers. [ACSN has proof!]

Parents the FDA does not protect
your children.
Greed and avarice have made government officials, industry and mainstream science, turn a deaf ear to the truth. Children are at least 4 times more susceptible to aspartame toxicity because of the developing central nervous system. Read labels. If it says:"phenylalanine" don't buy it. Insist your child's pediatric medical records contain this warning - "Never prescribe any medications containing phenylalanine [always present in aspartame and neotame]." Aspartame is a multi-billion dollar a year industry in more than 7,000 food products, chewing gums, children's antibiotics and meds, children's vitamins and pain medications for kids. In the lab, aspartame caused tragic birth defects.

Aspartame Maker's 9 Million Dollar Lawsuit For Applicant Intentionally Misrepresenting Another Product

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A federal jury Friday awarded a woman nearly$9 million in finding that G.D. Searle & Co. made intentional misrepresentations of the IUD.7 intrauterine device, leading to the woman's sterility.

The jury also decided the company was negligent in its testing.

Kociemba, 30, of Elk River, was awarded $7 million in punitive damages, $1 million for emotional distress and $750,000 for pain and disability.

Searle attorney Paul Strain of Baltimore said the verdict will be appealed.

About 500 lawsuits have been filed over the Copper-7, the most widely used IUD in 'the United States' before it was withdrawn from the U.S. market, in January 1986, in the midst of the. litigation.

Searle won 15 of the previous18 cases to be decided, but Kociemba's attorneys' have said none of the previous cases included as many documents or as much deposition testimony as this one.

NEOTAME HIDDEN DANGER IN INDIA'S FOOD & BEVERAGE SUPPLY (now added to livestock feed!)

 

Neotame - Hidden Danger in India's Food Supply

By Mary Nash Stoddard of The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network (ACSN).

Everyone wants to indulge a sweet tooth, without suffering the inevitable consequences of weight gain. But, be aware of the hidden (not listed on ingredient labels) dangers of Neotame sweetener in almost everything consumed by humans, and now even in feed for livestock raised for human consumption. 

In 1998, Monsanto applied for FDA approval for a monster molecule, "based on the aspartame formula" with one critical addition: 3-dimethylbutyl [listed on EPA's most hazardous chemical list]. Neotame is touted as being 13,000 times sweeter than sugar.

On July 5, 2002 - Monsanto's Neotame molecule was approved by the USFDA over formally registered objections of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and others. (Long term effects on humans are unknown.) 

The food labeling requirements required for aspartame have now been dropped for Neotame, and no one is clear why this was allowed to happen. Neotame has been ruled acceptable, and without being included on the list of ingredients, for:

USDA Certified Organic food items.Certified Kosher products with the official letter k inside the circle on labels.

Ever ready to give the public what it craves - guilt-free, low calorie treats that taste as good as sugar, is the multi billion dollar sweetener industry. The sugar industry pales by comparison, in the profit generating arena. Fake sugars, in the form of Aspartame and now the Aspartame super clone, Neotame, give 'foodies' and fitness fanatics false hope and the empty promise that all can 'have our cake and eat it, too.' Not necessarily so.

Controversy has swirled around the artificial sweetener, Aspartame, now also known as AminoSweet, since its FDA approval in 1982. Virtually all corporate sponsored scientific studies show aspartame to be perfectly safe. Virtually all independently done studies show just the opposite. In the lab, Aspartame was shown to cause the following forms of cancers: brain tumors, pancreatic tumors, breast tumors and uterine tumors. Five deaths are registered with FDA. In more recent tests, leukemia, lymphoma and kidney cancers were discovered as well. 

There is a parallel issue with which to compare the Aspartame issue. That of cigarettes and the deadly effects of smoking. The massive Tobacco Industry is able to produce large volumes of scientific studies showing smoking does not cause: lung cancer, heart disease, strokes or death. Today, mainstream science accepts the fact that smoking can be deadly and addictive. So it is with Aspartame, whose approval was based, not on scientific fact, but as an issue of public policy. 

One form of subliminal advertising, called Product Placement, was successfully used in the 30's through the 60's, by the Tobacco Industry, in films, later on television and in newspaper articles. Product Placement has been successfully employed, in like manner, for Aspartame products, such as diet sodas, etc. Popular actors on sit coms asking pointedly for a Diet Coke, for example. Only once, in the film, I Love Trouble, have I noted seeing a diet drink consumed by the villain. This was in a film about a mythical chemical company which produced a neurotoxic bovine growth hormone product. Sound familiar?

Ironically, prior to U.S. government approval of this controversial new sweetener, Neotame was approved by the regulatory agency in Australia, the day after Donald Rumsfeld (former CEO of the drug company that falsified tests to gain Aspartame approval in the U.S.), was in that country for a one day meeting with government officials. Coincidence? Maybe.

What's the latest, in-your-face, profit making method utilized by the makers of Neotame, partnering with a Health Care company in India? The most recent Press Release from the company explains novel new uses proposed for the ubiquitous new Aspartame formula-based sweetener, Neotame (Sweetos):

EnSigns Health Care Pvt Ltd and The NutraSweet Co USA have recently launched 'Sweetos', a cattle feed sweetener. Sweetos has been developed with Neotame, a high intensity sweetener.

Amino acids based sweetener Neotame is 8,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and is a patented product of the NutraSweet Co USA. Ensigns is one of the leading manufacturer of Sweetos, low calorie sweeteners for the food industry. Together the two companies have launched this sweetener to be added to cattle feed.

Presently, molasses is used as a feed sweetener to mask the low palatable taste of certain non-conventional feed ingredients. But, the prices of molasses have sky rocketed due to its use as a raw material in alcohol production and other chemical manufacturing industries. Besides, there are stringent regulatory measures for purchase and use of molasses.

"Sweetos is an economical substitute for molasses. Sweetos guarantees the masking of unpleasant tastes and odor and improves the palatability of feed. This product will be economical for farmers and manufacturers of cattle feed. It can also be used in mineral mixture," said Craig Petray, CEO, The NutraSweet Company.

Sweetos is 20 per cent cheaper than molasses, which costs Rs 14 per kg. While Sweetos is priced at Rs 11 per kg, which is available in both powder and liquid form. Ensigns' has a manufacturing facility at Wagholi, where the company manufactures low calorie sweeteners for the food and beverage (F&B) industry containing sucralose. "We are in talks with the animal husbandry department to reach out to farmers and are trying to tie up with extension services with co-operative societies as well. Cattle consume more fodder when mixed with Sweetos. This product has great export potential as well," said Mohan Nair, chairman, Ensigns Health Care.

The NutraSweet Company is looking at launching the same product in Brazil soon. It will also launch tabletop sweeteners and products in India. India also has approved the usage of Neotame in the F&B industry in July 2010. Ensigns, therefore, also plans to replace its sucralose based sweetening products with Neotame soon.
___________________________________________________

Diet sweeteners being used to fatten cattle, by causing them to eat more feed, before they become your favorite burger, steak, cheese or other dairy product? This NutraSweet produced document proves our point that Aspartame, Neotame and related sweeteners cause weight gain, loss of appetite control (and cancers) - in animals and humans.

Find out more about which neuroexcitatory sweeteners are in your foods, beverages and chewing gums. Eliminating them could be a life saving decision. 

###

Mary Nash Stoddard is a freelance journalist, lecturer, expert medical witness, former member President's Council on Food Safety, voting member Texas Radio Hall of Fame and founder of Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline (1987-present). Mary edits the toxicology source book, Deadly Deception Story of Aspartame. Her articles appear regularly in print publications and on the Internet.