The Artificially Sweetened Times
The editors of The Artificially Sweetened Times believe that government product approval is not a license to knowingly poison the public for profit.
Editor: Don Harkins Associate Editor: Ingri Cassel
Graphic Design: Don Harkins
Contributors: Mission Possible Founder Betty Martini;
Aspartame Toxicity Center Director Mark D. Gold;
Consumer Advocate Attorney Jim Turner
Medical Consultants: Russell Blaylock, MD; James Bowen, MD;
H.J. Roberts, MD; John Olney, MD
Copies of The Artificially Sweetened Times, a 24-page, 8 ˝ x 11 booklet, are available for $35 per 100—shipping included. Circulate this publication among friends, family and throughout your community. The future of America could very well depend upon the removal of aspartame (and now neotame) from our food supply.
The Artificially Sweetened Times is the most concise, compelling and cost-effective means of accomplishing this critical goal.
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The Artificially Sweetened Times
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Aspartame: A story of power politics versus public health
Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring, 2004
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<>What is happening to our children?
Half the American population is over the age of 40. That means half of us remember what it was like when most children were healthy, full of energy and had no problems keeping up in class. That also means about half of us have grown up in a world where it is increasingly common for children to suffer chronic health problems, develop learning disabilities and adopt antisocial behavior patterns. For half of us, normal was normal; for the other half, abnormal is normal. One thing is for sure, half of us never received even one microgram of aspartame before the age of 18 while today's infants and children are getting plenty every day.
Aspartame:
Harmless synthetic sweetener or government-approved poison?
Long before achieving FDA approval for use in foods, beverages and drugs, the safety of synthetic sweetener aspartame has been the subject of much controversy. It has even been characterized as a poison linked to a variety of ailments (See FDA list of complaints/symptoms page 10).
A growing body of scientists, doctors and laypeople insist aspartame disease is an ignored epidemic and an underlying cause of chronic ill-health in America. Conversely, aspartame producers, food and beverage industry trade associations, government regulators and some scientists and physicians claim aspartame is safe and its worst characteristic is that it's non-nutritive.
Are aspartame and other synthetic sweeteners like saccharin, Splenda and Neotame harmless? Or are they government-approved poisons?
The answers to these questions are found in the scientific research and thousands of testimonies from current and former aspartame consumers.
Who are these men and which one went on to prove that political muscle trumps public health and safety in the product approval game? See page 2.
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Page 2
Government declares war
on obesity or obese children?
Obesity in children causes blood sugar imbalances and depression. All three conditions are epidemic among today's children. One in five American children are considered "obese" estimates the Institutes of Medicine (IOM).
The IOM is sponsoring a project to combat childhood obesity. It recommends the obvious: More exercise, more fresh fruits and vegetables and less sugars, starches and processed foods.
Most sugar consumed by children is found in sodas and other sweet beverages. Rather than simply recommend children drink water, the recommendation is that children be given sugar free drinks to consume.
Since mounting evidence links aspartame directly to obesity, diabetes and depression in children, replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners like aspartame is not likely to solve the problem of childhood obesity. See page 13
U.S. food and drug administrators' curious approval guidelines: Money
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was commissioned to enforce the Safe Food and Drug Act of 1906. According to the FDA, its "...mission is to promote and protect the public health by helping safe and effective products reach the market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use. Our work is a blending of law and science aimed at protecting consumers."
For decades people have alleged that the FDA commonly approves for human consumption foods and drugs of questionable safety and denies approval of foods, supplements and drugs proved to be safe.
A lot has happened in the field of biochemistry since the FDA protected the public from real snake oil salesmen and unsanitary food packaging processes. By the year 2000, Americans were spending some $117 billion annually on pharmaceutical drugs. The FDA has approved the use of thousands of drugs that mask the symptoms of chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, obesity, anger, depression, heart disease, asthma, Parkinson's, lupus, multiple sclerosis and AIDS—just to name a few.
According to FDA Criminal Investigations official Don Liggett, the key to product approval is money. "...[T]he majority of firms that have drugs approved in the United States are international in scope... fantastically wealthy and able to invest the resources..."
Most drugs that get approved are from large multinational pharmaceutical companies that can spend up to $230 million to achieve approval of their wares. Since many of these drugs were only recently "discovered," it is impossible for them to have undergone scientific studies proving long-term risks or benefits.
If the approval of aspartame is any indication of tests conducted in lieu of FDA approval, we can infer that many have accomplished the expensive feat of drug approval with flawed science.
The proof is in the damage caused by FDA-approved drugs. A congressional committee found that nearly 100,000 people die each year from taking approved drugs per manufacturers' recommendations; American Medical News reported in 2000 that 28 percent of hospital admissions are the result of adverse reactions to prescribed drugs.
There are so many FDA-approved drugs entering the marketplace it is impossible for doctors, or the FDA, to know which drugs will work together to produce therapeutic results and which drugs will recombine to produce toxic and potentially fatal results.
God, refined sweets and political power
In the beginning, there were sweet fruits, vegetables and raw honey—and all was good. Then man said, "Let's isolate that which makes things sweet. We shall discard the vitamin, mineral and enzyme components of food. This will make the sweetnesses sweeter so we can patent them and enter our refined sweet products into commerce."
Soon thereafter, people became addicted to the "refined" sweet stuff. They became cranky and unhealthy; their appetite for vice and tendency toward pettiness replaced morality.
It is understood by those who aspire toward political power that a moral people are self-governing and that amoral people demand more government. See Sweet Slavery page 3
Worldwide aspartame production,
consumption increases 35-fold by 1995
GROWTH OF WORLDWIDE ASPARTAME MARKET (in tonnes)
1982
1986
1991
1995 U.S
220
5100
8000
10200 Europe
30
430
1400
1800 Canada
100
120
400
500 Japan
5
40
80
140 RoW*
15
40
120
500 Total
370
5730
10000
13140
2003—Nutrasweet claims 250 million people worldwide use "high intensity" sweeteners for annual sales of $1.1 billion.
Since its 1981 approval for use in dry goods, aspartame has been approved for beverages, processed foods and medical preparations. Today some 7,000 products contain aspartame.
[RoW* = Rest of World]
Searle CEO Rumsfeld reversed aspartame non-approval tide
By 1976, the G.D. Searle Company's campaign to achieve the approval of aspartame was mired in controversy. Amid objections to aspartame approval formally filed by consumer advocate attorney Jim Turner and neuroscientist John Olney, MD, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an investigation into Searle's laboratory practices.
The FDA determined that the aspartame developer's testing procedures were shoddy, producing inaccurate results due to manipulated data. The investigators stated in their 1976 report they, "...had never seen anything as bad as Searle's testing."
The FDA report prompted a grand jury investigation led by U.S. Attorney Samuel Skinner. Six months later, Skinner left the U.S. attorney's office to take a position at Searle's law firm Sidley & Austin.
By March, 1977 Searle had hired former Illinois congressman and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as its CEO. By Dec., 1977, the statute of limitations had run out on the grand jury investigation and charges against Searle were dropped by the U.S. attorney's office. Though opposition to aspartame approval was increasingly being supported by independent scientific studies, Rumsfeld's political muscle prevailed. On July 15, 1981, in one of his first official acts as FDA commissioner under Ronald Reagan, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., approved aspartame for use in dry products.
Pages 3-4
Sweet Slavery:
A brief history of the international sugar trade
Whether in cubes dropped in cups of coffee; in 100 pound sacks grandma had in the pantry for her cakes, pies, jellies and jams or; unseen in soda pop, ice cream, processed breakfast cereals and corporate candy, refined sugar, and now its synthetic substitutes, has been a mainstay of the "civilized" diet for centuries. Only recently have sugar and artificial sweetener consumers become aware of health risks associated with their consumption. But contemporary health concerns come centuries after the sweet story began.
The international sugar trade is a story of slavery—slaves planted and harvested the canes and addicted people became slaves to their sweetness. Following is a brief look into the history of sweet slavery. Understanding how 300 years of refined sugar commerce shaped history will give us a much clearer understanding of synthetic sweetener production, politics and economics in today's world.
by Don Harkins
In the beginning
For thousands of years, refined forms of sugar were unknown to man: From the Garden of Eden to the New Testament and the Koran, there is no mention of what we now know as sugar.
Ancient Chinese medical texts make no reference to sugar; the Ancient Greeks did not even have a word for it. But, in 325 B.C., Admiral Nearchus, sailing in the service of Alexander the Great, described "a kind of honey" that comes from canes.
Peoples native to where sugar cane grows would press the cane and drink its sweet juice, or simply cut it into bite-sized pieces and chew it (juice from the sweet cane would not keep, however and would quickly ferment).
William Duffy, in his classic #1 bestseller "Sugar Blues (1975)" identified the technological development that marked the beginning of the international sugar trade and sweet slavery. "The school of medicine and pharmacology at the University of Djondisapour, the pride of the Persian Empire, is credited with the research and development of a process for solidifying and refining the juice of the cane into solid form that would last without fermenting. Transportation and trade were now possible. This happened sometime after 600 A.D. when the Persians began growing the sweet cane on their own."
The fall of the Arab Empire
The Persians began exporting "loaves of stone honey," or "saccharum" to the Orient. When the Persian Empire was overrun by the armies of Islam and fell in the 9th century, A.D., Arabs took control of the saccharum trade. The Arab world discovered sugared food, sugared drinks and fermented sugar beverages. The Arab world also discovered many new diseases.
Duffy believes sugar played a key role in the decline of the Arab Empire. He interprets the notes of German botanist Leonhard Rauwolf as indicating he viewed the sugar addiction of the sultan's armies in the same light modern observers viewed American forces in Viet Nam who became addicted to heroin. The sugar-addicted Turks and Moors, "...are no longer the intrepid fighters they had formerly been," Rauwolf observed.
Similarly, a Japanese philosopher told Duffy in 1965, "If you really expect to conquer the North Vietnamese, you must drop army PXs on them—sugar, candy and Coca-Cola. That will destroy them faster than bombs."
Europeans wrestle for control of the sugar trade
The European sugar trade was largely controlled by the Portuguese by the mid-1400s—but the Spaniards were yapping at their heels.
The Portuguese captured negroes from the west African coast and set them to slavery on sugar cane plantations in Valencia and Grenada.
By 1510, the Portuguese had expanded their sugar production to South America and were importing negro slave labor to grow and harvest sugar cane in Brazil. Rather than keep lawbreakers imprisoned at home, they shipped them to the New World where they were encouraged to breed with natives and produce halfbreeds capable of working the sugar cane plantations.
The Spaniards, following Christopher Columbus, had exterminated the natives in the West Indies by 1596 (per a 1555 decree by Emperor Charles V) and brought in African slaves to work their fields of cane.
Sugar profits were largely responsible for the rise of the Spanish and Portuguese empires. Sugar addiction and the diseases and immorality that accompany it, was also, arguably, a contributing factor in their fall.
British and Dutch interests had control of West Indies sugar production by 1648. During this era, the rum trade began to flourish: Enough rum was being imported into the American colonies for the annual consumption of "every man, woman and child" to be "four gallons," wrote Duffy.
Ships loaded with rum were exchanged for blacks who were traded to British plantation owners in the West Indies in trade for molasses that was sold to rum makers in the colonies to satisfy the colonists' growing thirst for distilled spirits.
Rum was also being traded to Indians for furs at tremendous profit to the white traders and at tremendous social and economic loss to the Indians.
Millions of slaves
The 1860 census population of negro slaves in the U.S. was 4,441,830; it is estimated that some 20,000,000 negroes survived the voyage to become slaves in the Western World. "It will be no exaggeration to put the tale and toll of the slave trade at 20 million Africans, of which two-thirds are to be charged against sugar," wrote British historian Noel Deerr in "The History of Sugar" (1949).
Planting, tending and harvesting sugar cane is backbreaking work performed in the hot, humid climates cane prefers to grow. Negroes are the only human race able to survive under the yoke of sweet servitude. According to Deerr, it took some 13.2 million negro slaves to produce enough raw sugar cane to satisfy the western world's demand.
By the 1800s, France and Great Britain were wrestling for control of the international sugar trade. "No cask of sugar arrives in Europe to which blood is not sticking. In view of the misery of these slaves, anyone with feelings should renounce these wares and refuse the enjoyment of what is only to be bought with tears and death of countless unhappy creatures," wrote French Philosopher Claude Adrien Helvetius in the 1850s while his nation was profiting immensely from the sugar trade.
On the eve of the American Civil War, sugar and slavery were as solidly linked together as two sides of the same coin.
Colonists could have had a sugar party
England was so addicted to sugar, as a substance and as a commodity of unparalleled profitability, it amended its Navigation Acts in 1660. American colonists were banned from trading sugar, indigo and tobacco with any other country except England, Ireland or another British colony. In 1664, the Acts were again amended so British colonies could only receive foreign goods via England. The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a colonial response to the Navigation Acts.
The queen's addicted subjects
When sugar was first introduced to Great Britain in the 1300s, only the upperclass could afford the exotic treat. By the mid-1600s, the nation was importing 16 million pounds of sugar annually; 20 million pounds by 1700 and, by 1800, the British were consuming 160 million pounds of sugar—72 pounds per person—each year.
It was about this time that the British Empire began crumbling.
Sweet slavery in America
According to Dr. Nancy Appleton, author of "Lick the Sugar Habit," the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that, between 1970 and 1995, Americans increased their sugar and corn sweetener consumption by 22 percent.
The USDA reported in 2000 that Americans consumed nearly 22 million tons—about 151 pounds each—of sugar and corn, glucose and dextrose sweeteners in 1999. Americans derive 36-40 percent of their carbohydrate intake from sugar.
Since 1984, Americans have gotten in the habit of drinking more soda pop than water. The number of 12-ounce cans of soda produced in 1997 was 580 per person—about 1.5 cans a day per person—a figure that has doubled since 1974; seven-fold since 1942. Each 12-ounce can contains about 9 teaspoons of sugar.
The myth of sugar substitutes
The main argument in support of providing non-caloric, sugar substitutes for the sweet-toothed consumer is to diminish their intake of sugar. Health officials have determined that America's addiction to sugar causes obesity, tooth decay, diabetes, heart disease and behavioral problems.
Sugar consumption in the U.S. continues to increase regardless of the marketplace presence of sugar substitutes such as aspartame, which itself has skyrocked in use since 1982 (see page 2).
We are also experiencing in this country epidemics of chronic ailments historically associated with sugar addiction. The problem appears to be compounded by the world's new addiction to aspartame.
Conclusion: Our self-destructive demand for sweets has been shaping human history for centuries.
Page 5
How aspartame causes damage to the body
When a matter is in controversy, the fair and civilized manner of solving it is allowing both parties of a dispute to bring their evidence before an impartial body. Once both sides have presented their evidence, the impartial body is adequately prepared to settle the matter based upon the facts. Were such a forum used to determine the safety of aspartame, the substance would no longer be an item of controversy and would no longer be poisoning a trusting public.
compiled by Don Harkins
Prior to and since its 1981 FDA approval, an international who's who of scientific minds have been producing peer-reviewable reports warning against the dietary use of aspartame. To my knowledge, not one of these studies has been duplicated and scientifically determined to be in error.
What this means is that, until new, peer-reviewable science is published to the contrary, aspartame is linked to the FDA's list of 92 reported symptoms (see page 10). It also means that anyone who consumes aspartame is a candidate for a broad spectrum of physiological and psychological complications that include blindness, insanity and/or death.
But there will be no new, credible, peer-reviewable science to reveal that aspartame is safe. There wasn't any in 1965, 1981, 1983, 1985 or at any time since then. If you take a look at the "Aspartame: Point/Counterpoint" pages 7-8, you will see that published science and field experience easily refute claims promoting aspartame safety.
The argument in support of aspartame approval
Aspartame developer Searle conducted studies that are difficult to find and impossible to duplicate because they were scientifically flawed. Manipulated data were used to arrive at preconceived conclusions. Based upon these studies (for which Searle was being investigated for fraud), aspartame was initially approved by the FDA for use in dry goods only. As of 1993, it has been approved for use in any product consumed by people living in the U.S.
European Union officials recently approved the use of aspartame and labeling requirements per recommendation of the FDA, World Health Organization and the American Medical Association.
The argument in opposition to aspartame approval
This section will take a little work on our part, the laypeople, to understand. Brilliant men and women have independently performed studies, largely at their own expense and personal sacrifice, to save your life and the lives of those close to you. Please honor their commitment to your health by reading this article with a dictionary close to you, if necessary.
Aspartame and the BBB
As of 1995, aspartame accounted for 75 percent of adverse reactions (see page 10) reported to the FDA. 1
Aspartame is comprised of 40 percent aspartic acid, 50 percent phenylalanine and 10 percent methanol. Some of the metabolites of aspartame are methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid and diketopiperazine.
The body protects the brain from chemical imbalances through the blood brain barrier (BBB). However, the BBB matures during childhood, is compromised by ill-health and often allows substances to pass while functioning properly.
Aspartic acid
The body produces aspartic acid that serves as a neurotransmitter, facilitating the transition of information from neuron to neuron. Excess aspartic acid (an amino acid) creates too many neurotransmitters in certain areas of the brain. This excess damages or kills neurons by overstimulating them—hence the term "excitotoxin."
Excessive amounts of aspartate over time begin to destroy neurons. Significant populations of people who consume aspartame develop a variety of symptomologies commonly diagnosed as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease. Undiagnosed, aspartame users commonly experience memory loss, sexual dysfunction, blindness, heart irregularities, headaches, loss of hearing, seizures, blood sugar anomalies, irritability and varying degrees of dementia.
Naturally, populations most vulnerable to excitotoxic neurological damage are infants and developing children, pregnant women, the elderly and the chronically ill.
Phenylalanine
Phenylalanine is also an amino acid produced in the body. Phenylalanine from aspartame can cross the BBB and cause an imbalance of it in the brain, causing serotonin to decrease. This leads to emotional disorders. Elevated phenylalanine levels have been seen in the blood and in areas of the brain of human subjects who chronically use aspartame.2 Dr. Louis Elsas showed Congress that such levels are dangerous to fetuses and infants. He also showed that lab rats metabolize phenylalanine more efficiently than humans.3
Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock shows earlier studies indicating concentrations of phenylalanine accumulate in the hypothalamus, medulla oblongata, and corpus stranium areas of the brain. Previous science has determined that phenylalanine buildup in the brain can cause schizophrenia or susceptibility to seizures.
Can we infer that aspartame use is partially responsible for increased sales of Prozac and other psychotropic drugs?
Methanol
Methanol is a well-known neurotoxin. The EPA recognizes it as a "cumulative" poison and that "methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic." Methanol is slowly released in the small intestine when aspartame encounters the enzyme chymotrypsin.
Methanol metabolizes faster as "free" methanol which is created when aspartame is heated above 86 degrees F. In 1993, the FDA approved the use of aspartame in a wide variety of food items that would always be heated above 86 degrees F.
The symptoms of methanol poisoning include headaches, tinnitus, dizziness, nausea, digestive disturbances, weakness, vertigo, chills, vision problems, retinal damage and blindness, memory lapses, numbness and shooting pains in the extremities, behavioral problems and neuritis.
Humans, lacking a couple of key enzymes, are many times more sensitive to the toxic effects of methanol than animals. Therefore, animal studies with regard to the effects of methanol in the body are of no value.
Aspartame enthusiasts are quick to mention that many common foods such as fruit juices and alcoholic beverages contain methanol. However, in these instances, ethanol is always present, usually in higher amounts. Ethanol serves as an antidote to methanol.4 Aspartame contains no ethanol.
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication and causes birth defects.5
Diketopiperazine (DKP)
A by-product of aspartame metabolism, DKP has been associated with the formation of brain tumors. DKP has been found to form in aspartame-containing beverages during prolonged storage, particularly above 86 degrees F.
Gulf War troops drank copious amounts of aspartame-sweetened sodas that had been stored for extended periods in the hot Arabian sun.
Conclusions
Science has shown how the components of aspartame are metabolized in the body. Aspartame's three main ingredients are themselves problematic and break down into substances already known to be toxic to the human body.
Tests conducted by Searle to support claims that aspartame is safe do not withstand peer review and the company was being investigated for fraud prior to aspartame being approved by the FDA for use in foods and beverages.
This article was largely taken from the article "The Bitter Truth About Artificial Sweeteners" by Mark D. Gold as it appeared in two parts (Nexus Magazine, Oct/Nov., 1995 and Dec/Jan., 1996). References available upon request.
1981
On January 21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president of the United States, G.D. Searle resubmitted its petition for FDA approval of aspartame.
According to former G.D. Searle salesperson Patty Wood-Allott, G.D. Searle President and former (and current) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld circulated a memo among his sales people stating that, if necessary, "he would call in all his markers and that, no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year."
(Gordon, 1987, page 499, U.S. Senate, 1987)
True to his word, aspartame was approved for use in dry products July 15, 1981.
Page 6
How diet soda becomes poison
In 1997, 11-year-old Jennifer Cohen saved her babysitting money for lab tests to measure how aspartame breaks down in cans before ingestion by consumers. With $1,250 this young girl was able to produce peer-reviewable results that Searle, Monsanto and the FDA, with their $multi-million budgets, state-of-the-art testing facilities and scientists, could not.
On January 21, 1997, Jennifer Cohen bought a case of Diet Coke. She put seven cans in the refrigerator (36 degrees F.), seven cans in her bedroom (69 degrees F.) and seven cans in an incubator set at 104 degrees F. She checked the temperatures daily for 10 weeks. The remaining cans she took to Winston Laboratories in New Jersey. The cans were found to contain .06 percent aspartame.
Prior to conducting her experiments, she discovered that aspartame was being consumed by over 100 million Americans and that aspartame has a shelf life of 262 days at 77 degrees F.
Her research also revealed that the FDA gets more complaints about aspartame than any other substance and; that aspartame use has been linked to brain tumors, seizures and symptoms mimicking multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease.
On April 1, 1997, Cohen took the refrigerated, room temperature and incubated cans of pop to Winston Labs for analysis. The refrigerated cans showed aspartame diminished to .0058 percent with .001 percent DKP and 53.5 parts per billion (ppb) formaldehyde. The room temperature samples showed .0051 percent aspartame, .002 percent DKP and 231 ppb formaldehyde. The incubated samples showed .026 percent aspartame, .010 percent DKP and 76.2 ppb formaldehyde.
The higher the temperature, the more DKP; room temperature produced the highest levels of formaldehyde.
Cohen also conducted a double-blind taste test and found that "fresh" diet Coke was preferred and the incubated samples scored the lowest.
"The FDA says, ‘we believe, based upon all the information we received to date, that this is a safe product,'" Cohen wrote.
"I say, ‘Decide for yourself,'" she concluded.
Cohen's entire 1997 study can be found at www.dorway.com
Pages 7-8
Aspartame: Point/Counterpoint
The National Diabetic Association and the International Food Information Council (IFIC) maintain that the government-approved artificial sweetener aspartame is safe for use in foods, beverages and medicines. Below are answers to frequently asked questions regarding aspartame safety. The questions are first answered (in italics) as posed by the IFIC then refuted (in normal typeface) with analyses supported by published scientific and medical literature. The original 1995 IFIC article, "Everything you need to know about aspartame," as rebutted by Mark Gold (complete with fully cited references to published scientific reports), is available in its entirety at www.dorway.com.
What is aspartame made of?
Aspartame is made by joining two protein components, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and a small amount of methanol. Aspartic acid and phenylalanine are building blocks of protein and are found naturally in all protein-containing foods, including meats, grains and dairy products. Methanol is found naturally in the body and in many foods such as fruit and vegetable juices.
Aspartame-containing products also contain breakdown products of aspartame such as beta-aspartame (Lawrence 1987, Stamp 1989) and aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine (DKP) (Tsang 1985).
Because the amino acids are not bound in proteins, they are absorbed quickly and spike the plasma aspartic acid and phenylalanine to high levels. Even the industry researchers admit that these amino acids are metabolized differently than those found in foods (Stegink 1987a, Stegink 1987b). Methanol is found in available form in much greater quantities in aspartame than in real foods (Monte 1984). Methanol taken orally is extremely toxic to humans. Even though a small amount is found in the body, as little as one can of diet soda can spike the plasma methanol levels significantly (Davoli 1986).
How is aspartame handled by the body?
Aspartame is digested just like any other protein. Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into its basic components and is absorbed into the blood. Neither aspartame nor its components accumulate in the body over time.
Formic acid (a toxic metabolite of methanol) likely can accumulate in the organs (Liesivuori 1991). No one knows if DKP or a metabolite of DKP accumulates in the body over time. Proper tests have not been conducted. Aspartic acid may accumulate for a significant amount of time like another excitotoxic amino acid, glutamic acid (Toth 1981). Much of the damage caused by aspartic acid and glutamic acid ingested orally is clearly laid out by Dr. Russell Blaylock, Professor of Neurosurgery, in his well-referenced book, "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills." Either way, gradual damage can be caused by aspartame breakdown products even when they do not accumulate. A chemical does not have to accumulate to cause damage.
Can aspartame be used in cooking or baking?
Aspartame's components separate when heated over time, resulting in a loss of sweetness. Therefore, aspartame is not recommended for use in recipes requiring lengthy heating or baking. It may, however, be added at the end of the cooking cycle in some recipes. If a food containing aspartame is inadvertently heated, it would still be safe, but would simply not provide the desired sweetness.
Any heating, even at the end of cooking, will cause DKP and free phenylalanine to quickly form. Significant amounts of DKP are formed when aspartame is stored in liquid form at room temperature. Heating will speed that process considerably. See Tsang (1985) discussed above.
Is aspartame safe?
As a governmental agency charged with safeguarding the American food supply, the FDA has concluded that aspartame is safe for the general public, including diabetics, pregnant and nursing women, and children. Persons with a rare hereditary disease known as phenylketonuria (PKU) must control their phenylalanine intake from all sources, including aspartame. These persons are diagnosed at birth by a blood test performed on all babies. Products sweetened with aspartame carry a statement on the label that they contain phenylalanine.
In 1981 the FDA's Public Board of Inquiry, made up of scientists (including the President of the American Association of Neuropathologists), voted unanimously against approval of aspartame. The board believed the brain tumor data was "worrisome." As the pages of the AS Times will demonstrate, aspartame's FDA approval was secured by the political influence of Donald Rumsfeld, not as a result of safety-proving science.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SYMPTOMS attributed to ASPARTAME in complaints submitted to the FDA
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
SYMPTOMS attributed to ASPARTAME in complaints submitted to the FDA
REPORTED SYMPTOMS NO. OF
COMPLAINTS % OF
REPORTS % OF
COMPLAINTS
HEADACHE 1847 21.1% 19.0%
DIZZINESS/POOR EQUILIBRIUM 735 11.2% 7.5%
CHANGE OF MOOD 656 10.0% 6.7%
VOMITTING OR NAUSEA 647 9.8% 6.6%
ABDOMINAL PAIN AND CRAMPS 483 6.9% 4.7%
CHANGE IN VISION 362 5.5% 3.7%
DIARRHEA 330 5.0% 3.4%
SEIZURES AND CONVULSIONS 290 4.4% 3.0%
MEMORY LOSS 255 3.9% 2.6%
FATIGUE, WEAKNESS 242 3.7% 2.5%
OTHER NEUROLOGICAL 230 3.5% 2.4%
RASH 226 3.4% 2.3%
SLEEP PROBLEMS 201 3.1% 2.1%
HIVES 191 2.9% 2.0%
CHANGE IN HEART RATE 85 2.8% 1.9%
ITCHING 175 2.7% 1.8%
GRAN MAL 172 2.6% 1.8%
LOCAL SWELLING 14 1.7% 1.2%
CHANGE IN ACTIVITY LEVEL 113 1.7% 1.2%
DIFFICULTY BREATHING 112 1.7% 1.2%
ORAL SENSORY CHANGES 108 1.6% 1.1%
CHANGE IN MENSTRUAL PATTERN 107 1.6% 1.1%
SYMPTOMS REPORTED BY LESS
THAN 100 COMPLAINTS 1812 -- 18.6%
DISTRIBUTION of REACTIONS to ASPARTAME by product name.
REPORTED SYMPTOMS NO. OF
COMPLAINTS % OF
REPORTS % OF
COMPLAINTS
DIET SOFT DRINKS 3021 45.9% 38.3%
TABLE TOP SWEETNER 1716 26.1% 21.7%
PUDDINGS - GELATINS 633 9.6% 8.0%
LEMONADE 410 6.2% 5.2%
OTHER 346 5.3% 4.4%
KOOL AID 339 5.1% 4.3%
ICED TEA 319 4.8% 4.0%
CHEWING GUM 319 4.8% 4.0%
FROZEN CONFECTIONS 136 2.1% 1.7%
CEREAL 119 1.8% 1.5%
SUGAR SUBSTITUTE TABLETS 71 1.1% 0.9%
BREATH MINTS 62 0.9% 0.8%
PUNCH MIX 45 0.7% 0.6%
FRUIT DRINKS 24 0.4% 0.3%
NON-DAIRY TOPPINGS 8 0.1% 0.1%
CHEWABLE MULTI-VITAMINS 8 0.1% 0.1%
FRUIT, DRIED 1 0.01% 0.01%
How much aspartame may people consume?
The FDA uses the concept of an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for many food additives, including aspartame. The ADI represents an intake level that, if maintained each day throughout a person's lifetime, would be considered safe by a wide margin. The ADI for aspartame has been set at 50 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of body weight.
The FDA's ADI was determined by tests conducted with mice—not humans. Mice are able to metabolize methanol, for instance, much more efficiently than humans. All independent experiments using much less than the FDA's ADI show aspartame causes problems in humans. Therefore, the FDA's ADI with regard to aspartame is not an accurate measure of safe levels for consumption in people.
How much aspartame are people actually consuming today?
The FDA monitors the amount of aspartame that Americans consume through ongoing dietary surveys. The average daily intake of Americans who consume aspartame has remained fairly constant since July 1984, averaging less than 2 percent of the FDA guideline for acceptable consumption. The most frequent consumers of aspartame are consuming only 4 percent to 7 percent of the ADI.
Children have been shown to consume far more than the FDA's ADI on an on-going basis and even overweight adults can consume more than half of the FDA's ADI on an ongoing basis (Frey 1976, Porikos 1984). The steady increase in consumption of aspartame since 1984 (see page 2 and USDA Situation and Outlook Report; Sugar and Sweeteners, 1988) indicates the mathematical impossibility of IFIC claims.
How was aspartame tested before it was approved for use in foods?
Aspartame is one of the most thoroughly studied ingredients in the food supply. It was tested in more than 100 scientific studies prior to its approval by the FDA in 1981. These tests were conducted in animals and humans, including normal adults and children, lactating women and persons with diabetes, obesity and special genetic conditions. Aspartame was tested in amounts many times higher than individuals could consume in the diet. Today scientists continue to conduct new studies on this sweetener as they do many other ingredients used in the food supply. The FDA also monitors and evaluates all research on this and other food ingredients.
If the studies to which IFIC refers exist, they are not part of the public record. IFIC has not provided copies of or even citations for these "more than 100 scientific studies" for peer review.
Have independent physicians and dietitians reviewed the safety of aspartame?
Yes. The American Medical Association's Council on Scientific Affairs reviewed research on aspartame and found the sweetener to be safe. The American Dietetic Association also has concluded that moderate use of aspartame is acceptable as part of a healthy diet.
The American Medical Association's Council on "Scientific" Affairs, in 1985, merely restated comments made by FDA Commissioner Hayes in the Federal Register when he ignored the Public Board of Inquiry ruling and his own scientific team of experts in 1981. The American Dietetic Association (ADA), which receives generous contributions from Monsanto, admitted that NutraSweet assists in the writing of its "fact" sheets (ADA 1993).
Can persons with diabetes consume aspartame?
Yes. The American Diabetes Association has stated that aspartame is acceptable as a sugar substitute and can be included in a diabetic meal plan.
H.J. Roberts, MD, has been studying the effects of aspartame on diabetics for 20 years. He has noticed significant metabolic, neurologic, vision and other problems in diabetics that remedy themselves when aspartame is removed from the diabetic diet. Dr. Roberts' observations can be found in his meticulously referenced work, "Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic" (see page 23). It was reported in 1995, the American Diabetes Association received generous annual contributions from Monsanto.
Is aspartame safe for people with epilepsy?
Yes. The Epilepsy Institute, an organization devoted to people suffering from seizure-related problems, has concluded that aspartame is not related to seizures among epileptic patients.
The Epilepsy Institute is not the Epilepsy Foundation, but a Monsanto-funded epilepsy center in New York. This entity has never submitted properly conducted tests on aspartame and seizures for peer review. Independent research (Camfield 1992, Elsas 1988, Walton 1986, Walton 1988) has shown that seizures are one of the most common adverse reactions linked to aspartame usage.
Has aspartame been found to affect children's behavior?
No. Studies have shown that aspartame consumption does not affect the behavior of children, including those diagnosed as hyperactive or with attention deficit disorder.
Scientists who believe children's behavior might be affected by aspartame and who saw case histories of erratic behavior from children on aspartame believed that it was the medium to long-term use of aspartame that often led to these changes. Some scientists believed it was the constant spiking of plasma phenylalanine levels that led to brain chemistry changes.
Industry "researchers" conducted numerous experiments of very short length, often using encapsulated aspartame (which reduced the plasma phenylalanine spike) and then declared that there was no effect on children. They also averaged the results of all the children in each group so that if a few children were sensitive, their results would get lost in the averages. Independent, double-blind studies on children with behavior problems have yet to be conducted. However, when independent researchers conducted blinded studies of aspartame they have invariably found problems.
Can aspartame cause visual damage?
No. Scientists know that only huge quantities of methanol can affect vision. A small amount of methanol is formed when aspartame is digested or when its components separate. However, the amount of methanol one could possibly consume from aspartame is well within safe levels, and is actually less than that found in many fruit and vegetable juices.
The relationship between methanol and blindness has been known for decades. The relationship between macular degeneration and aspartame was explained to Congress in 1987 by methanol expert and eye specialist, Dr. Morgan B. Raiford. Dr. Raiford testified about one of the many persons he had seen with eye damage from aspartame. Per his paper (Raiford 1987), he described how the deterioration of Shannon Roth's eyes (due to methanol poisoning attributed to NutraSweet) "...was identical to the damage I observed repeatedly in the eyes of individuals whose eyes have been damaged by methyl alcohol toxicity."
Dr. Raiford's work was supported in 1991 (Cook and Bergman, et al).
Do some people have adverse reactions to aspartame?
There is no scientific evidence that aspartame is linked to adverse reactions in people. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reviewed some 500 consumer complaints related to aspartame in 1984. CDC concluded that there was no specific group of symptoms clearly related to aspartame consumption. The FDA has investigated all complaints since 1984, and has stated that there is "no consistent or unique pattern of symptoms reported with respect to aspartame that can be causally linked to its use." Individuals who have concerns about possible adverse reactions to aspartame should contact their physicians.
Adverse reactions to aspartame comprise about 80 percent of product complaints to the FDA. Contrary to IFIC claims, independently produced, double-blind studies showing adverse reactions in humans to aspartame have been published (Camfield, et al, 1992; Elsas, Trotter 1988; Koehler, Glaros 1988; Kulczycki 1995; Spiers, et al, 1988; Van den Eeden, et al, 1994; Walton 1993).
Page 9
Physicians, scientists, laypeople question safety of government-approved synthetic sweetener
People have a natural tendency to believe government-approved-products are safe. However, in the case of aspartame, the product is comprised of substances that are not safe and every phase of its journey through the body produces additional substances of known toxicity. This fact has caused increasing numbers to question its safety as an artificial sweetener.
Aspartame breaks down into substances such as methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid—all known neurotoxins. Our layperson hypothesis becomes: "Aspartame cannot be safe because it breaks down into substances known to be toxic to the human body."
The next logical step is to locate the science that proves or disproves our new hypothesis.
This is exactly the process that has led thousands of physicians, scientists, attorneys and laypeople to investigate government approval of aspartame. Their investigations reveal a trail of fraud, deceit and power politics—not science and public health considerations—that led to the approval of aspartame.
"Every known metabolite of aspartame is of marked or questionable toxicity and patently unsafe for human use...The only responsible action would be to immediately take aspartame off the market, fully disclose its toxicities, offer full compensation to the injured public and criminally prosecute anyone who participated in the placement of aspartame on the market—that includes those who work so diligently to keep it there as well," explained James Bowen, MD.
On Nov. 2, 1987, Emory University Professor of Pediatrics and Genetics Dr. Louis Elsas testified before Congress. "Aspartame is, in fact, a well-known neurotoxin and teratogen [causes abnormal embryonic development] which, in some undefined dose, will, irreversibly, in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects...I am particularly angry at this type of advertising that is promoting the sale of a neurotoxin in the childhood age group," Dr. Elsas told the nation's lawmakers assembled on Capitol Hill.
Betty Martini of Mission Possible claims hundreds of peoples' chronic symptoms have reversed once aspartame is removed from their diets.
Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, author of numerous books, including "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills," has declared that aspartame is a toxin like arsenic and cyanide. He has demonstrated that aspartame causes tumors, cancer, seizures and other chronic disorders. He also said it can make people confused, disoriented and is linked to autism and Alzheimer's disease.
Endocrinologist H.J. Roberts, MD, FACP, has studied the case histories of 1,300 aspartame victims over 15 years. Dr. Roberts has declared aspartame disease a "worldwide epidemic."
Aspartame's curious rise to marketplace success
In 1980, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Public Board of Inquiry ordered that G.W. Searle Company's petition for aspartame approval be withdrawn. The FDA concluded that it had not been presented with evidence of aspartame safety and "may contribute to the development of brain tumors."
The order was overturned a year later without the benefit of additional studies proving aspartame safety. Today the artificial sweetener aspartame may be added to all foods, drinks, dietary supplements and medications sold in America without restriction.
FDA labeling requirements no longer require aspartame to be specifically listed as an ingredient.
Considering the controversial history of this synthetic sweetener, blanket government approval for its inclusion in any consumable product is suspect—particularly when it is estimated that the substance can be fatal to the world's 20 million phenylketoneurics (or PKU carriers—those who cannot metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine).
There is mounting evidence that mothers using aspartame during pregnancy or while breastfeeding can pass PKU onto their children. The inability to metabolize phenylalanine can cause mental retardation. The presence of aspartame in our food supply is setting the stage for millions of people to suffer retarded neurological development.
Regardless that the aspartame approval process was mired in controversy and its developer GD Searle was being investigated by a federal grand jury for fraud, Searle CEO Donald Rumsfeld achieved limited approval for use of aspartame in dry goods by 1981.
Since that time, aspartame has become a multi-billion industry with powerful lobbying influence in Washington, D.C.
There are no independently performed studies regarding the long-term physiological effects of aspartame being cited to support claims that it is a safe substitute for sugar. Yet the general public believes aspartame is safe because it has the seal of government approval.
There are, however, scores of independently performed and published scientific reports and hundreds of case studies available to government regulators in the FDA linking the use of aspartame to the same symptoms described in the FDA's own list of 92 potential adverse effects associated with the use of aspartame (See page 10).
It is reported that aspartame was once on a list of chemical biowarfare agents the Department of Defense submitted to Congress.
At present, an estimated 200 million Americans consume at least 5,000 products containing 15,000 tons of aspartame each year, making it the most widely distributed and commercially successful biowarfare agent ever produced. It is ironic that then Searle CEO Rumsfeld, after having served as secretary of defense, muscled the approval of aspartame and is, once again, 20 years later, serving as secretary of defense as the disastrous effects of aspartame become epidemic.
The scuttled grand jury investigation
In 1977 U.S. Attorney Sam Skinner was leading the grand jury investigation into Searle's fraudulent omission of unflattering aspartame test data.
Skinner left the investigation and accepted a job at Sidley & Austin—the law firm representing Searle. He was later appointed transportation secretary in 1989. This turned out to be a strategic post because aspartame was severely affecting the performance of pilots and Skinner was in an ideal position to conduct damage control in this high-profile area.
During the 1991 Gulf with aspartame-laced soft drinks. It is believed that aspartame, in conjunction with experimental vaccines, nerve agent antidotes and personal insecticides, is playing a critical role in what is now known as Gulf War Illness—a cluster of chronic/fatal symptoms that have affected nearly 250,000 Gulf War I veterans.
During Gulf War I, Skinner became President Bush's chief of staff. Skinner was again strategically positioned to head off all inquiries related to aspartame and Desert Storm—no matter which agency was fielding them.
Page 10
Eighty percent of complaints to FDA aspartame related
According to records provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—the agency responsible for the approval of aspartame as an additive to foods, beverages and medications—adverse reactions to the artificial sweetener comprise about 80 percent of consumer complaints received each year.
The high volume of adverse reactions has prompted the FDA to list 92 symptoms, including death, associated with the use of aspartame (see table on page 7).
The evidence overwhelmingly indicates that government approval does not necessarily indicate product safety. In the case of aspartame, the FDA has approved a product that its own documents prove can be fatal to those who use it as provided by law.
FDA list of 92 aspartame-related symptoms:
Abdominal Pain, Anxiety Attacks, Arthritis, Asthma, Asthmatic Reactions, Bloating, Edema (Fluid Retention), Blood Sugar Control Problems (Hypoglycemia or Hyperglycemia), Brain Cancer (Pre-approval studies in animals), Breathing Difficulties, Burning Eyes or Throat, Burning Urination, Can't Think Straight, Chest Pains, Chronic Cough, Chronic Fatigue, Confusion, Death, Depression, Diarrhea, Dizziness, Excessive Thirst or Hunger, Fatigue, Feel Unreal, Flushing of Face, Hair Loss (Baldness) or Thinning of Hair, Headaches/Migraines, Hearing Loss, Heart Palpitations, Hives (Urticaria), Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), Impotency and Sexual Problems, Inability to Concentrate, Infection Susceptibility, Insomnia, Irritability, Itching, Joint Pains, Laryngitis, "Like Thinking in a Fog", Marked Personality Changes, Memory loss, Menstrual Problems or Changes, Migraines and Severe Headaches (Trigger or Cause From Chronic Intake), Muscle spasms, Nausea or Vomiting, Numbness or Tingling of Extremities, Other Allergic-Like Reactions, Panic Attacks, Phobias, Poor Memory, Rapid Heart Beat, Rashes, Seizures and Convulsions, Slurring of Speech, Swallowing Pain, Tachycardia, Tremors, Tinnitus, Vertigo, Vision Loss, Weight Gain.
Aspartame Disease Mimics Symptoms or Worsens the Following Diseases:
Fibromyalgia, Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's Disease, Lupus, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS), Diabetes and Diabetic Complications, Epilepsy, Alzheimer's Disease, Birth Defects, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lymphoma, Lyme Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Panic Disorder, Depression and other Psychological Disorders.
Note: The website at www.dorway.com/symptoms/ provides the list of 92 FDA-recognized adverse reactions to aspartame with a link to published medical journal reports describing them. It can be stated with absolute authority that government, industry and science has determined the toxic nature of aspartame. It appears the only people who do not understand the toxic nature of aspartame are those who consume it.
Totally
Artificial
Beverage
Most people over the age of 30 remember the diet soft drink "TAB." An urban legend explains that TAB was an acronym for "Totally Artificial Beverage."
TAB revolutionized the soft drink industry in an extremely significant way: Separate liquid ingredients could be pumped in correct proportions directly from rail tanks into large stationary tanks for mixing and storage until bottling.
In the good old days when ingredients such as sweeteners were granulated, they came in large sacks that had to be handled manually. Quality control was an issue because the sacks were given to bursting and sack storage attracted insects and rodents.
These problems were solved with blending artificial liquid ingredients directly from tank to tank without ever being handled by humans.
Page 11
The human side of aspartame poisoning
While government and industry claim aspartame is safe, millions of people suffer its effects on the human body. There are real people whose chronic symptoms disappear soon after aspartame is eliminated from their diets. On the website at www.dorway.com are hundreds of case histories where extremely sick people were able to identify aspartame as the cause of their ill-health. How? Simple: They began feeling a lot better after eliminating it from their diet. The most compelling evidence that aspartame is a systemic poison is not found in lab tests performed on lab rats or in statistical studies among human populations. It is found in the bodies of real people.
David Oliver Reitz, 1947-2003
This second edition of The Artificially Sweetened Times is dedicated to the memory of Dave Reitz. He is the DOR of www.dorway.com. In 1992 he began suffering the ravages of aspartame. After 21 physicians could not tell him what was causing him to be crippled with joint pain, the Internet provided the answer. Dave found that joint pain was on the FDA's list of 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning. After removing aspartame from his diet, his joint pain disappeared.
Dave vowed to give back to others what the Internet gave back to him—his life. He began developing the website at www.dorway.com which has grown to be the world's most comprehensive collection of aspartame information and the official website of Mission Possible. Dave also became director of Mission Possible South Carolina. Though most of his aspartame-related symptoms had disappeared many years ago, aspartame, a class-A carcinogen, finally took the life of this incredible humanitarian in the form of prostate cancer.
Dave's DORWAY to DISCOVERY will continue to grow and his work will continue saving lives until the day our actions lead to the removal of this toxin from the world's food supply.
Joyce Wilson
The 1991 aspartame-related death of Joyce Wilson marked the beginning of Mission Possible. Described by those close to her as a wonderful wife, mother and friend, Joyce began to use products containing NutraSweet after it was approved by the FDA. Though not overweight, she wanted to stay slim. She began drinking diet sodas, Slimfast and chewing sugar-free gum. She gained 35 pounds and her health began to fail. She also began to lose her vision. Thirty-four doctors could not figure out what was happening. One day she heard how a woman named Shannon Roth became blind in one eye because of her consumption of NutraSweet. She contacted Roth and found that aspartame is a deadly poison. Indeed, this poison destroyed her brain, ravaged her internal organs and blinded her. She suffered headaches, hypertension and developed multiple-sclerosis-like symptoms. In her deteriorating state, she vowed to do everything in her power to warn the world about aspartame. In advance of testifying before Congress in 1986, she told Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, "I feel aspartame is the most dangerous substance introduced for human consumption. Please stop this product now before the toll on the health of Americans is disastrous. It is too late for me, but I hope I can help others..."
Joyce successfully got many people off aspartame and watched their health return—an option that was not available to her. Aspartame disease eventually took her memory completely away and she passed away like an Alzheimer's victim.
The memory of Joyce Wilson lives on as more and more of us become informed about aspartame and become part of the team working to remove this horrible substance from our foods, beverages and medicines.
George Jantz
My name is George Jantz and I am 69 years old. I have visited the www.dorway.com website many times and was extremely impressed. You had expressed the need for ‘hornblowers' and this is why I am writing to you as I have lived an unforgettable ordeal over the years.
For years, I had consumed a lot of soft drinks containing aspartame. Both of my knees had been replaced in August, l988, and I was still consuming large amounts of aspartame when, in l989, I started to fight a severe form of depression that landed me in the Oshkosh Psycho Ward for one week. From there I was transferred to the VA Hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, and stayed there for a number of months.
After being released in the fall of 1990 from the VA Hospital, I was forced to deal with a separation from my wife Lois for 1˝ years. During the 1991 summer I sank into a deeper depression and became psychotic. I had been placed on the medications of Lithium and Depekote. I believe now that it was the combination of these drugs along with my large consumption of aspartame that took at least 15 years of my life causing me to make two suicide attempts and experience many serious health and financial problems.
I have since gotten off of Lithium and Depekote and stopped consuming aspartame. My personal experience, along with witnessing the deteriorating effects of aspartame on three of my personal acquaintances, has left me devastated. My stand against the use of aspartame and sharing with others the effects of aspartame on the human body has alienated me from most of my family and caused much heartache and sorrow.
In closing, it is my sincere hope that you and many others like you, can understand the long-term effects on a person's life because of the daily use of aspartame as well as prescription drugs. It is my sincere hope that my personal experiences can somehow help others in the future!
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox was the posterchild for aspartame-containing Diet Pepsi. Now he is the posterchild for Parkinson's disease. While the Michael J. Fox Foundation continues to solicit donations for Parkinson's research, Mr. Fox's health continues to deteriorate. We believe that Mr. Fox's Parkinson's is due to aspartame poisoning. Mission Possible, The Idaho Observer and others have repeatedly attempted to contact Mr. Fox and deliver to him information that could save his life. After sending an email out to the world, people close to the actor responded and promised to make sure he got our message. Recent reports indicate that Mr. Fox's health is returning, including an article in the "Star" tabloid. Mission Possible and The Idaho Observer believe the message got through, and that Mr. Fox has quit aspartame and is using an intelligent, non-pharmaceutical approach in his recovery.
Page 12
Aspartame and sudden death
Steve Belcher, 1979-2003
Steve Belcher, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, died at age 23 Feb. 17, 2003, in a Fort Lauderdale hospital. A bottle of ephedra-containing weight-loss supplements was found in his locker. Dr. H.J. Roberts contacted Broward County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Perper and found that the official cause of death was hyperthermia because his internal body temperature reached 108 degrees F. to cause multiple organ failure. Dr. Roberts asked how many diet drinks Belcher drank per day. Dr. Perper did not even think to inquire as to the possibility of aspartame poisoning contributing to Belcher's untimely death.
Dr. Roberts maintains that the ephedra alone could not have caused Belcher, a physically-fit professional athlete in the prime of his life, to die from hyperthermia. He believes that the excitotoxin aspartame must have been consumed by Belcher to achieve the toxicity that led to his death. News of the last few years has been punctuated with reports of world-class athletes and others in generally good health simply dropping dead. What could be causing the rise in incidences of "Sudden Adult Death Syndrome?" Dr. James Bowen has written an in-depth report on aspartame and sudden death (available at www.bowendrjim.com). It is the editorial belief of The Artificially Sweetened Times that, if the case histories of each one of these untimely and unexpected deaths were to be thoroughly analyzed, the common denominator would be consumption of aspartame over an extended period of time coupled with its metabolic interactions with dietary supplements and medications.
Chuck Fleming, 1963-2000
At age 37, Chuck Fleming was a fit, athletic man who habitually consumed a variety of health drinks, health powders, energy bars and muscle mass-building products. On the way home from church in June, 2000, Fleming and his wife Diane stopped at a store to buy a case of Gatorade and a carton of Creatine, a product marketed to help build muscle mass. Chuck and Diane mixed the Creatine into the Gatorade. Chuck misread the directions and mixed tablespoons—not teaspoons as directed—into one bottle of Gatorade. He sipped the mixture and, not liking the taste, put it into the refrigerator and took off to play basketball, as was his custom 2-3 times per week. For a month prior Chuck had been complaining of intermittent nausea and shortness of breath. Diane claims he drank about eight 12-ounce cans of diet pop each day, drank very little water and never drank coffee or tea. He took several pharmaceuti