posted 05-28-2003 05:31 AM            

1981 Aspartame was invented by the G D Searle Co. acquired by Monsanto in 1985. For 16 years FDA refused to approve it until 1981 when Commissioner Arthur Hayes overruled the objections of a Public Board of Inquiry and the protests of the American Soft Drink Association and blessed it. The tests submitted by Searle were so bad the Department of Justice, initiated prosecution of Searle for fraud. Then the defense lawyers hired the prosecutors, Sam Skinner and Wm. Conlon, and the case expired when the statute of limitations ran out. Aspartame/Nutrasweet, a toxin that blinds, drops intelligence, eradicates memory, grows brain tumors and other cancers, brings fatigue. Depression, ADD, panic, rage, paranoia, diabetes, seizures, suicide and death. This toxin is supported by unlimited advertising and the manufacturers pay off the American Diatetics Association, the American Diabetics Association, the AMA, and whomever else, to convince us its safe as rain. These lies are backed by a Federal Bureaucracy knowing it may kill your child, but the bureaucrat who approved the poison got a fat job as have many of his successors. Suppose this government watchdog, ignoring thousands of consumer complaints, has become an Attack Dog protecting corporate corruption. This is the bitter reality of Aspartame/Nutrasweet, Monsanto, the FDA, Coca Cola, Pepsi, and the hundreds of food, drink and drug makers who add to their products a known poison Conceived in Fraud and Dedicated to the Proposition that Profit is all that Matters! They're Poisoning Our Kids.
Dr Miguel A. Baret of the Dominican Republic removed milk from 360 children's diets, because cow's milk has a specific protein that can cause diabetes, especially in children. They drank juice laced with aspartame instead and many developed "abnormal restlessness, lack of concentration, irritability and depression." When Dr Baret removed it: "The results were astonishing. Their symptoms disappeared in 4-6 days in ALL of them!" Thank you, Dr Baret, for this study showing what aspartame does to the brains of our kids!.

1987 Dr Louis Elsas, Professor of Pediatrics & Genetics at Emory University, testified before Congress; "Aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen [triggers birth defects] 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." [Nov 2, 1987].

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, declares Aspartame is a toxin like arsenic and cyanide that causes confusion, disorientation, seizures, cancer, pancreatic, uterine, ovarian and brain tumors and leads to Alzheimer's. Read Excitotoxins, the Taste That Kills [505-474-0303]. Hear Dr. Blaylock's radio interview on http://www.dorway.com Courageous whistleblowers like these have spoken in three congressional hearings, but industry's lobbying and political action keep the poison in the foods of the world. Our recourse as consumers is personal communication since the media is paid by advertising to push Nutrasweet/Equal/Diet Coke, etc..

1993 The FDA approved aspartame as an ingredient in numerous food items that would always be heated to above 86°degrees F (30°Degrees C). An act that can only be described as "unconscionable".

posted 05-28-2003 07:15 PM            

From Dave Rietz
dorietz@awod.com

Some poisoning victims get their "heads up" with as little as one stick of aspartame-laced gum (8mg). Most take many years. In my case...15 years.

Personal statement of David Rietz owner and webmaster of www.dorway.com (also webmaster of www.notmilk.com, www.hungerstrike.com and more)

There are at least 91 symptoms of aspartame poisoning. (the FDA classes death as a symptom... I don't see ... http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html ).

These symptoms range from A to Z and from headaches through triggering, mimicking and/or making worse a wide range diseases. Most doctors don't have a clue... and with such a broad range of seemingly UNRELATED problems (many of which can be manifested in ONE person) few doctors would suspect toxic poisoning from a food additive that the manufacturer and FDA swear is "safe".

In my case, 21 of 21 doctors misdiagnosed and improperly medicated me for over eleven years. Then... stumped, the medical system tried Prozac as a last resort... thinking my problem might be "mental".

On day one of MY discovery of the REAL problem I had:
*numb-tingling hands and feet
*combination carpel-tunnel/tennis-elbows that made my arms almost
useless
*Fibromyalgia-like hot spots (all over)
*chronic-fatigue like exhaustion
*sleeplessness
*memory loss
*depression (and getting worse)
*had a few short blackouts (just long enough to fall down stairs)
*vision problems (and getting worse)
*bouts of what I called burning heels that made walking impossible
*shooting-stabbing pains in my legs (I was later told this could have
been misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis).
*tinnitus
* and on 15 June, 1996, (the day of MY discovery of the FDA's 92 symptoms of aspartame poisoning) I was then five years into being the FIRST among my long lived Danish/German ancestors to get any form of cancer. This "old man's" prostate cancer was already diagnosed as terminal (already spread) at the young age of 55. I DO believe one or more of the many components/breakdown components of aspartame (see http://www.dorway.com/help.txt ) triggered this cancer. I am also convinced that a lifetime of cow's milk and dairy... with a powerful growth hormone called IGF-1 (identical between cow's and humans... a "plug and play" cancer fuel) for causing this surprise cancer to already have spread at such a young age (see http://www.notmilk.com ).
.... and there was more!

I gained 60 pounds over the 15 years I used Equal in my coffee... and this formaldehyde-laced fat is still causing me NEW problems.
Within a few weeks off Equal I was walking much better, and before long I walked a new Super K-Mart end to end and all around three times... with minimal pain. Today I am around 95% pain free despite being over sixty.

One by one the problems melted away. What remains? Maddening tinnitus, massive memory loss, and the prostate cancer. My vision has improved (no longer need glasses to drive), the depression is LONG gone, and now I sleep like a baby. Most of the Fibromyalgia-like hot spots are gone, and what remains in my shoulder may be from being rear-ended in 1987, and a subsequent neck operation in 1990. The 60 pounds of formaldehyde-laced fat that I acquired while using Equal are now only 30 pounds (after four years)... and if I lose weight too fast I have nasty episodes of erratic heart beats and blood pressure problems. That surfaced fully 18 months after removing Equal from my coffee... and will most likely be with me for the rest of my much shortened life. (My grandfather died at the age of 92, my father at 83... both of natural causes. I am now 8 years onto terminal prostate cancer at the age of 63.. and I doubt that I will see 73).

I never did have headaches, seizures, hives, or other... what I think of as "short term" and "rapid onset" problems (the majority of aspartameconsumers have long-term damage/effects, as did I).

The problems that remain are, mostly likely, permanent. Massive memory loss (probably attributable to both aspartame AND MSG), maddening tinnitus, still overweight, and of course I am now eight years into terminal prostate cancer.

However, now that I am 95% pain free and fully mobile I can function as a father and provider again. Thanks to the cancer and useless radiation treatments, my plumbing is shot... so the romantic aspect of being married for almost 40 years has been trashed... along with eleven lost years trying to get well from ignorant doctors and all the money wasted on useless tests, ineffective treatments, and expensive but useless drugs.

Any aspartame poisoning victim can have just about any combination of problems... and that same person can have DIFFERENT problems at different times... perhaps dependent upon diet, consumption levels of aspartame AND MSG, other REAL medical problems, other drug intake to combat real and aspartame-induced problems... etc. One fellow told me he had most of my symptoms after using aspartame for only a couple of months. Everyone is different... and the effects are different.

That suggests that recovery may well be as erratic and variable as the original symptoms. Two months was set as the point after which whatever remains may be the "real thing" (perhaps triggered by aspartame). Things like migraines, hives, and seizures usually clear up within a week or so. Joint pain, FM or CFS type symptoms usually take three or more weeks to ease up and evaporate.

For the record:: as owner and WEBmaster of www.dorway.com I sell nothing and have no vested interest in any sweetener. I promote the same simple, straightforward, common sense idea that got ME mostly well (1996) and which led to my large free information web site (770 pages):

"If one has medical problems that their doctors cannot seem to cure (or they are too young to have old-age related problems) *AND* they consume products laced with aspartame, then try the FREE at-home 60-day NO-aspartame self-test... and simply observe the results".

When the dust settles and the truth is known... that aspartame was one (if not all) of the reasons for one's medical problems... I DO ask, when convinced that one has been a victim, that they file an official complaint with the FDA, tell other folks... and help them to get well for free.

Regards,
Dave Rietz
Webmaster and cancer victim fighting for ALL of us on my nickle. http://www.notmilk.com http://www.dorway.com http://www.dorway.org
milkinfo@dorway.org overview on milk/dairy
nmflyer@dorway.org milk/dairy flyer
aspartame@dorway.org overview on aspartame (Equal/Nutrasweet)
msg@dorway.org overview on MSG ("flavor enhancer")
to subscribe to this list: aspartame-subscribe@onelist.com

Check out our Aspartame Group's Website http://presidiotex.com/aspartame
Take aspartame products back and demand a refund! http://www.dorway.com http://aspartamekills.com http://nancymarkle.com

Take our latest survey! http://onelist.com/surveycenter/aspartame

posted 02-19-2004 01:25 PM            

quote:

---

In 1991, the FDA banned the importation of Stevia intended for use in foods.
This ban was reportedly at the request of NutraSweet (owned by Monsanto) which
produces a toxic artificial sweetener called aspartame. This action, a clear
violation of the law which allows any product with a history of safe use before
1958 to be automatically approved, kept manufacturers from using stevia and
kept NutraSweet from having to compete with a safe, "natural" sweetener.

---

Monsanto/Searle was the #1 roadblock to Stevia coming in this country. Stevia is an herb that is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and it's only side effect is a smoothening of the skin.

http://www.holisticmed.com/sweet/stv-alert.txt

Aspartame increases the desire for carbohydrates, a disaster for diabetics, who were supposedly the recipients of Nutrasweet's promise.

I also have a theory that the brain-numbing abilities of aspartame coincides with the Dumbing-Down of America.

Go with Stevia, malt, or maple syrup in small amounts

http://www.stevia.net/

posted 03-04-2004 08:54 AM            

http://www.healthy-start-alaska.com/FoodTips/nutrasweet.asp

On the Stevia prices-- In using Stevia for 10 years now, this is the best value:

http://store.yahoo.com/iherb/stevia6.html

The sources you gave cut the Stevia with various other sweeteners like malt, and you thus have to use more.

posted 03-04-2004 09:41 AM            

Another one to watch for is MSG (monosodium Glutamate)

Its in A LOT of foods.

Even in stuff like Heinz ketchup and most salsas.

They dont call it MSG though...they label it "NATURAL FLAVORING".

Bad stuff.

posted 03-04-2004 10:17 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mech:
Call me a kook, but I always read the labels and contents before I buy.

[Edited 2 times, lastly by Mech on 03-04-2004]

---

Yes, and when you are a Vegan, you are called worse than a kook, and have to read the labels twice.

What I find amazing is the addition of "Natural Cane Juice, Cane Powder, and Cane Juice Powder" It's Freakin' sugar!

When we became Veggies 32 years ago, there was ZERO sugar in health foods. Now that Heinz, Bristol-Myers, and tobacco companies have bought out 80% of the health food industry, try and find a cookie without sugar. Even GM foods have found their way into health food stores.

Back in the early 70's, when you went into a health food store, the other people shopping were almost always trim and vigorous. Now in the heath food stores, are people completely out of shape. Of course, if you go to a Shop-Rite or the like, the people look even worse.

Sugar, aspartame, hormones, MSG, and generally crap food, has aided and abetted the sick condition of our society.

posted 04-24-2004 07:01 PM            

The Aspartame/NutraSweet Fiasco
by James S. Turner

Many health-conscious people believe that avoiding aspartame, found in over 5000 products under brand names such as Equal and NutraSweet, can improve their quality of life. The history of this synthetic sweetener's approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a long record of consumer complaints and the agency's demonstrated insensitivity to public concern, suggests they're right.

In October 1980 the Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) impaneled by the FDA to evaluate aspartame safety found that the chemical caused an unacceptable level of brain tumors in animal testing. Based on this fact, the PBOI ruled that aspartame should not be added to the food supply.

This ruling capped 15 years of regulatory ineptitude, chicanery and deception by the FDA and the Searle drug company, aspartame's discoverer and manufacturer (acquired by Monsanto in 1985), and kicked off another two decades of maneuvering, manipulating and dissembling by FDA, Searle and Monsanto.

In 1965, a Searle scientist licked some of a new ulcer drug from his fingers and discovered the sweet taste of aspartame. Eureka! Selling this chemical as a food additive to hundreds of millions of healthy people every day would mean many more dollars than limited sales to the much smaller group of ulcer sufferers.

Searle, a drug company with little experience in food regulation, began studies to comply with the law -- but which failed to do so. Its early tests of the substance showed it produced microscopic holes and tumors in the brains of experimental mice, epileptic seizures in monkeys, and was converted by animals into dangerous substances, including formaldehyde.

In 1974, however, in spite of the information in its files, the FDA approved aspartame as a dry-foods additive. But the agency also made public for the first time the data supporting a food-additive decision. This data was subsequently reviewed by renowned brain researcher John Olney from Washington University in St. Louis, and other scientists.

Dr. Olney discovered two studies showing brain tumors in rats and petitioned FDA for a public hearing. Consumer Action for Improved Foods and Drugs (represented by the author of this piece) also petitioned for a public hearing based on the approval process having been based on sloppy science and the product's having reportedly caused epileptic seizures in monkeys and possible eye damage.

Dr. Olney had already shown that aspartic acid (one aspartame component) caused microscopic holes in the brains of rats after each feeding. Aspartame also includes phenylalinine, which causes PKU in a small number of susceptible children, and methyl, or wood, alcohol which is neurotoxic in large amounts.

Faced with this array of possible health dangers, FDA granted the hearing requests. In lieu of withdrawing its aspartame approval, the agency prevailed on Searle to refrain from marketing the sweetener until after completion of the hearing process. it then proposed that a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI) review the matter.

In July of 1975, as the FDA prepared for the PBOI, an FDA inspector conducted a routine review of the Searle's Skokie Ill., testing facilities and found many deviations from proper procedures. This report led the FDA commissioner to empanel a Special Commissioner's Task Force to review Searle's labs.

In December of 1975 the Task force reported serious problem with Searle research on a wide range of products, including aspartame. It found 11 pivotal studies conducted in a manner so flawed as to raise doubts about aspartame safety and create the possibility of serious criminal liability for Searle.

The FDA then stayed aspartame's approval. It also contracted, over serious internal objection, with a group of university pathologists (paid by Searle) to review most of the studies, set up a task force to review three studies and asked the U.S. Attorney for Chicago to seek a grand jury review of the monkey seizure study.

The pathologists paid by Searle only reviewed failure to properly report data and not the study's design or conduct. They found no serious problems. The FDA task force found Searle's key tumor safety study unreliable, but was ignored. The U.S. attorney let the statue of limitations run out, then (along with two aides) proceeded to join Searle's law firm.

While these committees met, the FDA organized the PBOI. Searle, the petitioners and the FDA Bureau of Foods each nominated three members for the board and the FDA commissioner selected one member from each list. the board, which convened in January of 1980, rejected petitioners' request to include the commissioner's task force information in its deliberations. Still, in October 1980, based on its limited review, the board blocked aspartame marketing until the tumor studies could be explained. Unless the commissioner overruled the board, the matter was closed.

In November 1980, however, the country elected Ronald Reagan President. Donald Rumsfeld (former congressman from Skokie, former White House chief of staff, former secretary of defense and since January 1977 president of Searle) joined the Reagan transition team. A full court press against the board decision began.

In January 1981 Rumsfeld told a sales meeting, according to one attendee, that he would call in his chips and get aspartame approved by the end of the year. On January 25th, the day the new president took office, the previous FDA commissioner's authority was suspended, and the next month, the commissioner's job went to Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes.

Transition records do not show why the administration chose Hayes, a professor and Defense Department contract researcher. In July Hayes, defying FDA advisors, approved aspartame for dry foods -- his first major decision. In November 1983 the FDA approved aspartame for soft drinks -- Hayes' last decision.

In November 1983 Hayes, under fire for accepting corporate gifts, left the agency and went to Searle's public-relations firm as senior medical advisor. Later Searle lawyer Robert Shapiro named aspartame NutraSweet. Monsanto purchased Searle. Rumsfeld received a $12 million bonus. Shapiro is now Monsanto president.

Shortly after the FDA soft-drink approval, Searle began test marketing, and complaints began to arrive at the FDA -- of such reactions as dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, and seizures. The complaints were more serious than the agency had ever received on any food additive, At the same time, scientists began looking more closely at this manufactured chemical sweeetner.

In 1985, the FDA asked the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to review the first 650 complaints (there are now over 10,000). CDC found that the symptoms in approximately 25% of the complainants had stopped and then restarted, corresponding with their having stopped and then restarted, either purposely or by accident, aspartame consumption.

The CDC also identified several specific subjects whose symptoms stopped and started as they stopped and started consuming aspartame. The FDA discounted the report. The day the FDA released the CDC report, Pepsi Cola -- having obained an advance copy -- announced its switch to aspartame with a worldwide media blitz.

Former White House Chief of Staff Rumsfeld owed a debt of gratitude to former White House confidante and Rumsfeld friend Donald Kendal, Pepsi's chairman. The Pepsi announcement and aggressive marketing (millions of gumballs, a red and white swirl, tough contracts) made NutraSweet known in every home.

At the same time, according to data released in 1995, human brain tumors like those in the animal studies rose 10% and previously benign tumors turned virulent. Searle and FDA's deputy commissioner said the data posed no problem. Two years later this same FDA official became vice president of clinical research for Searle.

From 1985 to 1995, researchers did about 400 aspartame studies. They were divided almost evenly between those that gave assurances and those that raised questions about the sweetener. Most instructively, Searle paid for 100% of those finding no problem. All studies paid for by non-industry sources raised questions.

Given this record, it is little wonder that many health-conscious people believe avoiding NutraSweet improves their quality of life. If and when a scientific consensus concludes that aspartame puts some, if not all, of its consumers at risk, it will be much too late. The point is to eat safely now. Remember: the brain you save may be your own.