Millions of Americans spend many billions of dollars on "diet" foods that contain toxic sugar substitutes, and yet they still do NOT lose excess body fat. Sugar substitutes do NOT encourage fat loss. It is baffling why consumers continue to buy these ineffective diet products that do not help them lose weight. If anything, powerful artificial sweeteners INCREASE the craving for sweet carbohydrates. There are many studies that have documented weight loss immediately after eliminating the consumption artificial sweeteners.
Although sugar substitutes do not help consumers lose excess body fat, almost without exception, their long-term use increases the risk of many serious health problems (discussed below), whose cause-and-effect may be difficult for uninformed consumers and board-certified medical doctors to understand.
Why do people continue to use diet products that do NOT work, AND are known to cause serious illness and even death?
One answer is the power of misleading commercials. Diet food vendors spend billions of dollars on commercials to get people to do things that intelligent people would NOT do if it were not for the commercials. Mediocre mental midgets lack critical thinking skills.
Another contributing answer is unwarranted reliance on the untrustworthy U.S. Food and Drug Administration and organizations like the corrupted American Dietetic Association to protect us from false and misleading advertising of dangerous foods and drugs. After decades of well-documented evidence of the cause-and-effect of the artificial sweetener / disease connection, the U.S. Congress and FDA refuse to ban clearly-toxic sugar substitutes, or even mandate better warning labels that are strongly recommend by some of the world's best medical research scientists and consumer advocate organizations.
There were significant Congressional Hearings about large numbers of documented aspartame-caused health problems two decades ago, when it was included in only 100 different products. Since then, there have been two subsequent aspartame hearings where far more solid scientific evidence was presented, but to no avail. Now there are over 5,000 products containing aspartame, and the patent has expired. Its usage should increase greatly in the future, unless action is taken. Profit-motivated Monsanto (with little concern for the health of their consumers) has just won approval of the much more powerful "neotame" (discussed below).
Senator Howard Hetzenbaum submitted a bill that would have warned all pregnant mothers, infants and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also instituted INDEPENDENT studies (NOT funded by Monsanto) on the documented health problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). This bill was sadly killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies who "own" the votes of many U.S. Senators. This extreme corruption unleashed "aspartame disease" and premature death on an unsuspecting nation, and world.
There are now at least 92 well-documented symptoms of aspartame disease, including coma to death. The majority of them are neurological disorders, because aspartame is neurotoxic. Aspartame disease is a cause behind some of the mystery of the "Dessert Storm" military health problems. The burning tongue and other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of aspartame products.
Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to Dessert Storm troops. Diet drinks sat in the 120 degree F. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. Aspartame breaks down into its toxic components at 86 degrees. Thirsty, weight-conscious service men and women drank these neurotoxins all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to well-documented aspartame disease poisoning. The Dessert Storm disease is now no longer a mystery. It is a disease of corporate profit being much more important than the health of our nation, including our military troops overseas.
The creators of profitable deadly foods and food additives fund the American Dietetic Association, American Diabetes Association, the campaigns of U.S. Senators and Representatives, U.S. FDA product studies, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians.
The New York Times ran a powerful article on how the corrupt American Dietetic Association receives significant funds from the worst food industry offenders (Monsanto, etc.) to endorse their disease-and-death causing products.
Here is one extremely sad example of what dishonest misinformation is still doing today. A mother who was feeding her overweight child NutraSweet was told to stop giving the child any form of aspartame by a licensed holist physician. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her old family physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off of NutraSweet (because Monsanto had provided significant funding to the ADA to promote NutraSweet).
This example demonstrates the extreme power of those who continue to poison our nation, despite clear documentation of the damage that their influence is doing today. The mother was too intimidated by the uninformed older physician (who had no training in such matters) that the mother had unwisely trusted completely for many years. And where did the family physician get the sage advice that he gave out from his pedestal to the naive mother? The ultimate source was the message that Monsanto had paid the ADA to give out to everyone. The doctor was too stupid and dependent on the corrupted ADA to suggest trying to remove the NutraSweet for a while. What a blind, dumb and corrupt nation we have become. We ignore the truth and trust the untrustworthy. We become addicted to products that do the opposite of what we bought them for in the first place. Our nation generally lacks fundamental critical thinking skills.
Nothing has been done by the government to protect consumers from the aspartame deadly scourge, other than an oversimplified warning label for people with PKU. Today's politician-corrupting diet industry lobbyists are far more powerful than the deadly tobacco industry lobbyists were for many decades. The similarities and number of people killed are appalling and shameful to our nation.
The pattern of how lobbyists with deep pockets influencing dishonest politicians is VERY well documented throughout American history. Nowhere is this truer today than inside the FDA, where the companies whose products are being evaluated fund most of the studies of their own products (How biased is that?).
This unforgivably corrupt FDA misbehavior has led directly to many millions of unnecessary, avoidable, serious-and-painful diseases and untimely deaths. Part of the problem is insufficient independent evaluation funding by the U.S. Congress, but the largest problem is probably direct conflict of interest of politicians, FDA employees and subcontractors.
Today's taste-bud-stimulating, unnatural, man-made laboratory chemical, alternative-sweeteners seem to fall into two basic categories:
Those that have been clearly shown to cause serious health problems and even untimely death, and
Those new sugar substitutes for which the damage that they will do is not well documented, or has been effectively hidden by its creators
Do NOT expect the U.S. government to protect you from them. The general rule (which seems to consistently hold true) is that ALL sugar substitutes should be avoided by all prudent people. All of these products appear to INCREASE (not satisfy) one's craving for sweet flavors and simple carbohydrates, (even if the other damage that individual products do is not well documented, yet).
Many products sold to people on "Low Carbohydrate" Diets and "Low Calorie" diets (especially those labeled "diet," "sugarless" or "no sugar added") contain very unsafe man-made, unnatural sugar substitutes or hazardous alternative sweeteners. Many of these have been clearly shown to be potentially dangerous to human health and well being. New scientific discoveries about their many health hazards are being published almost every month, and dishonestly ignored by the FDA.
One problem is that very few of these products cause immediate damage to most people. For most consumers, the decision of whether or not to consume a "diet" product is its taste, without considering its effectiveness at helping to lose weight, or its long-term health consequences. If it says "diet" and tastes alright, that's good enough for the majority. If months or years later they notice that they have gained weight, the original decision to consume the diet product is NOT reconsidered, since it has become a blind, dumb habit, just like the ones that led to obesity in the first place.
The lengthy cause-and-effect cycle of unhealthy products is difficult to perceive. Many of the most negative impacts of sugar substitutes (which even include unnecessary early death) take many years to accumulate and publish, and then they are still ignored by the corrupt, slow-moving FDA. When a patent expires, the vendor may announce a new patented product that solves the health problems that the vendor denied that the previous produce had while the patent was in effect. GAK ! Something similar is probably getting ready to happen with neotame from Monsanto, the creators of aspartame.
The cause-and-effect relationship of profitable-but-toxic food additives is often not accurately documented or even recognized by the majority of those who suffer from sugar substitute health damage, or by most medical doctors or post-mortem medical examiners (who have very-little training in nutrition and over-the-counter toxic products and food additives). The health damage caused by sugar substitutes and diet foods or drinks is often thought to be age related, when it was actually avoidable.
Correcting A Lifetime Of Bad Eating Habits
Humans are creatures of many good and bad habits that are often repeated for decades and generations. People lacking critical thinking skills do what they have always done, without questioning pervasive traditions. Uninformed consumers look at the fancy packaging on prepared foods and ignore (or do not fully understand) mandated food labels.
False and misleading billion dollar advertising and clever marketing slogans are designed to deceive in a way that maximizes product sales, NOT consumer health. Once a gullible consumer makes the decision to buy an unhealthy diet product for the first time, the new bad habit may be repeated for a long time, until another commercial message overwhelms the mediocre mind.
Our ancestors, parents, friends and caregivers did us a great disservice by rewarding good behavior with candy, feeding us unhealthy caffeinated sugar water, or even fruit juice with most meals, and "lovingly" preparing unhealthy sweet desserts for us (as their own mothers had incorrectly done for them). The massive social impact is an American epidemic of morbid obesity and many other health and quality of life problems. Artificial sweeteners take our sweet teeth to a new high of unhealthy nutrition bad habits.
Humans do NOT need refined sugars or sugar substitutes – They only make the underlying obesity problem much worse, while generating trillions of dollars for their profit-motivated unscrouplous vendors.
We MUST retrain our mental images and our knowledge of "good" versus "bad" nutrition. We MUST understand that the "icky sweet" flavor (of sugar and sugar substitutes) is NOT good for us, or for our offspring. With few exceptions, anything that tastes particularly sweet should be avoided like the plague that it really is:
Specific Sugar Substitute Health Risks
Saccharin, Sodium Saccharin (Sweet 'N Low – the pink packs) – Shown to increase the risk of certain cancers, decades ago. The health risk is slow but cumulative, based on quantity and length of use. In the 1970s, the FDA was going to ban saccharin based on the reports of a Canadian study that showed that saccharin was causing bladder cancer in rats. Powerful political lobbyists corrupted the FDA (as happens very frequently) and saccharin was left on the shelves with a mandated label: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."
Aspartame – Product names like NutraSweet, Spoonful and Equal (many common diet foods, drinks, and the pervasive blue table sweetener packs) – A huge industry with a powerful multi-billion dollar political lobby against those scientists that know that it should be banned. These politician-corrupting sugar substitute lobbyists are far more powerful than the equally unscrupulous tobacco was for many decades. Their fiduciary career responsibility is to make more money for their stockholders, regardless of how it damages the health of, or kills, their hundreds of millions of customers.
The U.S. FDA receives more complaints of symptoms caused by aspartame than any other drug. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, the corrupt FDA refuses to ban or mandate aspartame warning labels!
In a recent presentation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they announced that there was a rapidly rising epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus running rampant across the United States.
When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F (inside our 98.6 degree body, or during cooking), the methanol (wood alcohol) that makes up 10% of aspartame is converted into toxic formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes "metabolic acidosis." Formic acid is the poison found in the painful sting of fire ants. Formaldehyde stores in the body fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. When body fat is burned (long after aspartame is consumed) it is release into the system to be converted into disease-causing formic acid.
Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics (Who consume it in a futile attempt to lose weight). Physicians know how devastating methanol is for everyone, especially diabetics. Some physicians incorrectly believe some of their diabetic patients retinopathy, when in fact, their loss of vision is caused directly by aspartame. Aspartame keeps blood sugar (serum glucose) level out of control, causing many patients to suffer acute memory loss, go into a diabetic coma and die.
Aspartame-caused methanol toxicity exactly mimics multiple sclerosis (nerve death). Many people continue to be incorrectly diagnosed with MS. As it turns out, MS is not a death sentence, but methanol toxicity is. Once a nerve is dead, no medication can bring it back to life. The progress of this misdiagnose MS can be stopped by avoiding aspartame (and the new more-powerful version called neotame), but the nerve damage previously done is irreversible.
Systemic lupus is almost as prevalent in America as MS, especially among frequent Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The unsuspecting victims usually drink three to four 12 oz. servings per day. The naive victims usually do not suspect that diet foods and drinks are gradually killing their central nervous systems, with cumulative devastating effects. Continued used of aspartame is seriously life threatening.
Since aspartame's adverse health risks have been shown to be so significant, widespread, serious and even deadly, we will devote more text explaining the important reasons to avoid aspartame products altogether. Your body does not "need" refined white sugar, and it certainly does not "need" (or know what to do with) artificial sweeteners like toxic aspartame, neotame, sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc. that are made in unnatural chemical laboratories.
"Phenylalanine" is one of the two amino acids in aspartame. According to Monsanto's NutraSweet website:
"Aspartame is made from aspartic acid and phenylalanine, as the methyl ester.
Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into its components - the amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and methanol."
This statement is damning enough all by itself, since methanol (wood alcohol) is well known for its powerful neurotoxic characteristic, especially in diabetics (who consume aspartame, often mixed with other toxic artificial sweeteners). Monsanto claims that the health impact of aspartame is small, since the quantity consumed is small, but how much rat poison do you think it is safe for you to consume each day? What happens if a person consumes more than one diet food or beverage each day?
There is an inherited genetic condition known as phenylkenoturia (PKU), which is a disorder of amino acid metabolism. Metabolic problems similar to PKU can also be consistently demonstrated by consumption of certain food and drug combinations. Aspartame package labels have an oversimplified warning for people with PKU to avoid aspartame, for good reason – it causes serious disease and even death (despite the fact that Monsanto still claims that it poses no health risk at all).
What if you have PKU but it has not been accurately diagnosed yet? What if a pregnant woman is carrying a child with PKU, but does not realize it? Should she consume aspartame in an ineffective vain attempt to look slimmer? Is raising a retarded child worth the non-benefit provided by aspartame?
What if something in your diet affects your metabolism of amino acids? Common foods like grapefruit impact metabolism for three days after consuming just one serving. Grapefruit alone has been shown to interact negatively with over 200 different over-the-counter and prescription medications. Other foods and drugs dramatically effect metabolic processes and are likely to interact with phenylalanine in complex ways that are difficult for consumers AND untrained medical professionals to understand.
The important point is that artificial sweetener metabolism and health risks are most certainly dependent on complex individual genetic, nutrition and medication issues. The newer a product is, the less time there has been to accumulate specific knowledge about is risks. The 17-year span of a U.S. patent may not be enough time to fully explain long-term cause-and-effect. Aspartame has been widely prompted by Monsanto (who is very familiar with its many health risks and consumer complaints) for two decades. Many millions of naive Americans have documented aspartames many adverse effects, but it remains on the market with only minimal mandated warning on its label.
It has been clearly and conclusively shown that aspartame causes mental retardation as well as many neurological, behavioral, and dermatological diseases in people with certain amino acid metabolism problems! Women who are, or may become, pregnant should absolutely avoid unnatural "diet" foods and beverages. Aspartame-caused retardation begins at the moment of conception.
The U.S. should mandate a label on all products that contain aspartame that says: "This product contains aspartame, which has been shown to cause mental retardation as well as neurological, behavioral, and dermatological problems in people who are sensitive to it." However, the powerful aspartame industry lobby has corrupted the U.S. Congress, the FDA and other public health agencies, and blocked mandatory publication of the factual truth.
Aspartame breaks down with time, temperature and moisture, either on the shelf or in the body. As it breaks down, aspartame releases methanol, which is highly toxic to the liver and brain, and can cause vascular failures that lead to micro strokes, total blindness, irreversible optic nerve damage, dementia, tumors, etc.
10% of aspartame is deadly methanol (extremely toxic wood alcohol). If methanol is consumed in a significant quantity (e.g., drinking a few ounces of "denatured" rubbing alcohol), it will cause blindness very quickly. Consumed in small amounts (as in one daily serving of diet soda), partial blindness and other nerve damage can take a year or a decade to become noticeable, but nerve death happens to a small degree each time aspartame is consumed. The methanol in aspartame is neurotoxic to EVERYONE.
The nerve death caused by aspartame is permanent and irreversible. By the time you notice the permanent nerve damage (e.g., retardation, partial loss of a field of vision, sensory or control function loss, etc.), you cannot reverse the nerve death. You can only stop its progression by eliminating intake of the neurotoxin that caused it.
The more aspartame you consume, the longer you consume it, the more irreversible damage is done to your entire central nervous system, and other tissues and organs. Some people are more susceptible to the damage caused by aspartame than others (e.g. those with amino acid metabolic problems or those consuming certain food or drugs). These individual variations make the cumulative damage rate vary by individual, but aspartame's methanol is neurotoxic to EVERYONE to some degree and conditions like phenylkenoturia may be undiagnosed in those who have it.
When a nerve dies, it is dead forever, and in almost all cases irreplaceable. Thus, the neurotoxic damage cause by aspartame is irreversible – no drug can bring a dead neuron back to life. The partial or total blindness (can't tell day from night) that can be caused directly by aspartame in many individuals will last the rest of your life, as will mental retardation, dementia, etc.
Vision effects, headaches and central nervous system problems are a large percentage of the very real continual ongoing FDA complaints from aspartame-users. Optic nerve damage has little to do with the need for glasses. The damage commonly caused by aspartame is to the sensory portion of the back or the eye (not to the lens), which glasses cannot correct.
Methanol causes hemorrhages to the micro capillaries that supply the extremely small retina optical nerves (and the entire brain). \When one nerve literally starves to death as the result of a methanol-caused hemorrhage, a histamine swelling response occurs, causing inflammation in a desperate futile attempt to increase the blood supply. The visual symptom while this is happening is multi-color flashing speckles that can be seen when the eye lids are closed. This will eventually become a permanent blind spot causing a loss of vision in the same area for the rest of your life.
The best retinologists and optic neurologists do not have a clue how to stop or prevent the progression of this devastating disease, since they have no training in the deadly effects of American food additives, and Monsanto has spent a lot of money making sure that this critical information does NOT become widespread. If you know anyone with these symptoms, PLEASE demand that they immediately stop consuming artificial sweeteners and see if the progress of their blindness does not permanently subside.
Since the problem that is caused by the methanol in aspartame is vascular failure hemorrhages, in addition to eliminating artificial sweeteners they need to strengthen and protect the blood vessel walls. Grape seed extract is a powerful antioxidant (readily available at low cost) that has the unique characteristic of adhering to connective tissue, which is what blood vessels are made of. It has been prescribed by European physicians for vascular problems for over four decades, but the many benefits of grape seed extract are essentially unknown by American board-certified medical doctors.
When one nerve swells, it pinches off the blood supply to adjacent nerves, causing multiple nerves to starve to death over a short period of time (hours or days). The cumulative damage process will continue over time. Ischemic optic nerve death can sometimes be photographed when the retinal hemorrhages are large and visible blood leakage occur. A "fluorescein angiogram" clearly documents the retinal hemorrhages (A dye is injected and the back of the eye is photographed showing blood vessel leakage caused by aspartame's methanol.)
Dangerous mega doses of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs (requiring hospitalization and close monitoring) is sometimes administered by uninformed medical professionals in desperation, but the benefit of this treatment of acute inflammation symptoms is only temporary. It ignores the root cause: methanol. The cumulative degradation process will continue when the short-term treatment is over, especially if the consumer returns to unhealthy "diet" foods and beverages.
The extremely sad thing is that inept hospital "registered dietitians" often serve foods containing aspartame, or the blue "Equal" sweetener packets, to their patients. This common practice should be considered a felony requiring a mandatory federal prison sentence! It surely would be highly regulated, except for the money that Monsanto has spent to protect their profitable product.
Even though specialists can easily monitor the progress of ischemic optic neuropathy, most doctors who do not extensively study research journals have no idea about its underlying cause-and-effect. The source of the problem is almost never understood by the consumer who goes blind (while foolishly trying to lose weight by consuming FDA-approved artificial sweeteners).
Medical doctors, optometrists, ophthalmologists (even neuro-ophthalmology specialists) and retinologists are generally NOT trained to recognize the cause-and-effect relationship of excitotoxins like aspartame and MSG on ischemic optic neuropathy. Dietitians, agency officials and legislators also ignore the documented studies about the damage caused directly by aspartame.
Many well-informed medical research scientists who have studied aspartame have lobbied the Federal Government to not only label products containing aspartame (with the documented health hazards), but to go beyond warning labels and ban aspartame altogether. But, the many-billion-dollar industry that is based on this well-documented nerve killer now has a political lobby that is much stronger than the tobacco companies once did. These large corporations have effectively blocked all legislation and education of the general public, even though the Internet has many privately funded web sites (like this one) trying to inform the public about the real issues.
The result of a government that has been completely corrupted by the aspartame profit-motivated lobby is that vendors can now freely sell their known poisons to ever-increasing numbers of innocent, uninformed, hungry victims, with devastating social, emotional and economic consequences among the uninformed.
There is no scientific evidence that anyone has ever lost weight by using aspartame. In fact, the exact opposite is true: There are many examples of weight reduction by people when they STOP using aspartame (and their aspartame-conditioned cravings for sweet carbohydrates subside). Average weight loss is one study was 19 pounds after eliminating aspartame. (Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic specialist and world-renowned expert on aspartame poisoning, Defense Against Alzheimer's Disease)
Dr. Roberts also states "consuming aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects." The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation, according to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician Professor - Genetics, at Emory University in his testimony before Congress. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors (phenylalanine breaks down into DXP, a known brain tumor trigger).
See our Joyful Aging material on Excitotoxins
See the excellent book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
Aspartame is a dipeptide (methyl ester of l-aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine). (Also see the discussion of Neotame below, which is a more powerful new form of Aspartame). Aspartame excites the sweet-sensing taste buds 160 to 220 times more than does sucrose (table sugar).
Since the late 1960's it has been well documented that intestinal esterases hydrolyze aspartame to aspartic acid, methanol (highly neurotoxic; causes: blindness, vascular hemorrhages, dementia, mental retardation, etc.), and phenylalanine.
The above statement is biologically true, but the biased ADA/FDA conclusion, which ignores the serious cumulative hazard of daily methanol and phenylalanine ingestion, is completely wrong:
In 1981, FDA first approved aspartame as a sweetener for a number of dry uses (eg, tabletop sweetener, cold breakfast cereal, gelatins, puddings) and in chewing gum and carbonated beverages. Demand for aspartame in the United States rose from 8.4 million lb in 1986 to 17.5 million lb in 1992, a figure that represented more than 80% of the world demand. (Coincidently, most of the world's aspartame-related medical problems occur in the U.S.) Although soft drinks account for more than 70% of today's aspartame consumption, this sweetener is added to more than 6,000 foods, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals. Aspartame is available in liquid, granular, encapsulated, and powder forms to extend its use in food and beverage products.
Detailed studies have been conducted to determine how ingestion influences plasma levels of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol (or the by-product formate). Plasma phenylalanine response to aspartame varies genetically. Persons with phenylketonuria, (a homozygous recessive inborn metabolism problem which is undiagnosed in many who have it), are unable to metabolize phenylalanine. These persons have much higher plasma levels and altered synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters (Maher T, Wurtman R. Possible neurological effects of aspartame, a widely used food additive. Environ Health Perspect. 1987;75:53-57.) and adverse effects (Wolf-Novak L, Stegink L, Brummel M, Person TJ, Filer LT Jr, Bell EF, Ziegler EE, Krause WL. Aspartame ingestion with and without carbohydrate in phenylketonuric and normal subjects: effect on plasma concentrations of amino acids, glucose, and insulin. Metabolism. 1990;39:391-396.).
When properly diagnosed, the medical nutrition therapy for its many serious adverse effects involves eliminating aspartame. The analogy is that some people are genetically more sensitive to air pollutants, smoking, etc. You may not know until it is too late to avoid serious health problems that you have a metabolic defect, which increases your risk of getting lung cancer, etc. If you knew that you had such a genetic defect, you certainly should not smoke, but even if you don't have a genetic characteristic that increases your risk of respiratory disease, you are still better off to NEVER SMOKE. This concept can be generalized to ALL potential consumers of products that impact different individuals in varying degrees.
This is true of aspartame. IF you have a genetic defect (which thousands of Americans do have), then large quantities of aspartame can cause headaches, seizures, irreversible permanent blindness, neurodegenerative diseases, or worse. Even if you do not have such a genetic defect, you will probably weigh less and be healthier if you do NOT ever consume aspartame (or other risky sugar substitutes).
The FDA requires foods containing aspartame to have a label indicating that they contain phenylalanine (but the label fails to educate the public about what the adverse medical effects are, and why aspartame should be avoided – resulting in thousands of readily-avoidable serious medical problems).
Aspartame breaks down to diketopiperazine based on time and temperature, and loses it sweetness. When aspartame is used in foods prepared with heat (baked goods, etc.), much larger amounts are normally used, which further increases dangerous diketopiperazine.
Some persons report almost immediate allergic reactions to aspartame, including headaches (similar to "hangovers" after consuming neurotoxic alcohol), edema of the lips, tongue, and throat (as in aspartame-caused Dessert Storm disease); dermatologic reactions; and serious respiratory problems (Health Hazard Evaluation. Summary of Adverse Reactions Attributed to Aspartame. Washington, DC: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 1995.). Even so, the government still requires no adequate warning label to protect at-risk individuals, despite the significant effort of many highly-qualified medical research scientists.
Aspartame is classified in medical terms as an "excitotoxin" – it excites and permanently kills non-replaceable essential neurons throughout the central nervous system. It does not stop doing what it does after it passes beyond the tongue. Excitotoxins can damage and destroy neurons located anywhere throughout the entire body in varying degrees, from the brain to the toes.
Excitotoxins often produce progressive symptoms in long-term, high-quantity consumers that are similar to neurodegenerative diseases such as: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, etc. Excitotoxins increase the rate of aging and death throughout the entire central nervous system. (Monosodium Glutamate/MSG is also a pervasive excitotoxin, with adverse short-and-long-term reactions that are similar to aspartame.)
Adverse reactions increase as the volume of excitotoxin intake increases. FDA (unwisely) increased acceptable maximum daily intake for aspartame (in healthy persons without hidden genetic defects like PKU) to the current dangerously high level of 50 mg/kg body weight, when aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages. Many people now consume far more than the FDA maximum.
Mixing a variety of different artificial sweeteners (which is common among naive dieters), with foods that are known to significantly impact metabolism (like grapefruit, etc.), over-the-counter and prescription drugs is chaotically difficult to predict in different individuals. But, even a rudimentary understanding of metabolic biochemistry and well known cause-and-effect relationships with aspartame-caused diseases suggests that the product should be immediately and totally banned from the market (despite the fact that those who profit from it the most claim that it has no ill health effects, just as powerful tobacco lobbyists did for many decades, before the truth was forced into the light, and 22% of Americans still stupidly smoke).
Food labels can help intelligent consumers identify unnatural products that contain aspartame, although the amount of this neurotoxic substance is NOT part of the required label. Consumers must contact the companies (which very few do) to determine the amount of aspartame in each product. The amount in some common products can be: 225 mg in a 12-oz diet soda, 100 mg in an 8-oz drink made from powder, 80 mg in an 8-oz yogurt or a 4-oz gelatin dessert, 32 mg in 3/4 cup of sweetened cereal, and 47 mg in 1/2 cup of frozen dairy dessert. As a tabletop sweetener, blue packets of Equal contain 37 mg of dangerous aspartame.
Aspartame Toxicity – Overview of adverse effects from short-or-long-term use: (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/)
Seizures, convulsions, dizziness, tremors, migraines, severe headaches, memory loss, mental retardation, dementia, slurring of speech, confusion, tingling of extremities, numbness / loss of sensation, loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia, irritability, panic attacks, marked personality changes, phobias, rapid heart beat / tachycardia, asthma, chest pains, hypertension (high blood pressure), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, swallowing pain, itching, hives, urticaria, other allergic reactions of the tongue, lips and respiratory system, blood sugar control problems (hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia), menstrual cramps and other problems or changes, impotency and sexual problems, food cravings (especially for simple carbohydrates, weight gain!, hair loss / baldness / thinning of hair, burning urination & other urination problems, excessive thirst, excessive hunger, bloating, edema (vascular water leakage and fluid retention), infection susceptibility, joint pain and brain cancer (based on studies in animals and a statistical increase in the number of American brain tumors after aspartame was introduced and became more popular).
Included in these formal complaints are "hundreds of pilots who have reported life threatening adverse reactions due to aspartame," according to Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, in an article from General Aviation News. Commercial pilots have documented epileptic seizures shortly after consuming aspartame while piloting passenger flights.
Michael Collins, former commercial pilot, suffered from seizures whenever he drank diet soda. The cause-and-effect reaction became clear. When he stopped using aspartame products, he remained seizure-free. Unfortunately, he lost his pilot's medical certification and can no longer fly. This immediately ended the career that he had spent his life preparing for and earning seniority – An extremely high price to pay for his naive consumption of ineffective, hazardous excitotoxins – the taste that kills but does not help anyone lose weight. Monsanto's marketing effort and political corruption did this to him and damaged the health of millions of other Americans. You might ask "How?"
The phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the epileptic seizure threshold and depletes the neurotransmitter "serotonin", which also causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence. EpilepsyFoundation.org now posts specific warnings to avoid aspartame, but the corrupt FDA STILL ignores all of the overwhelming scientific evidence about why aspartame and similar products should be banned altogether.
Aspartame Mimics The Symptoms or Worsens These Diseases
Alzheimer's disease, anxiety attacks, arthritis, attention deficit disorder (ADD and ADHD), birth defects, blurred vision, chronic fatigue syndrome, cramps, depression and other psychological and personality disorders, depression, diabetes, diabetic complications (feet, kidneys, heart, etc.), dizziness, epilepsy, fibromyalgiam, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, lyme disease, lymphoma, memory loss, mental retardation, migraine headaches, multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), multiple sclerosis (MS), neuropathy, numbness (especially in the legs), palsy, panic disorder, Parkinson's disease, lupus, seizures, shooting pains, slurred speech, spasms, tinnitus, vertigo, vision field loss and other nervous system diseases.
Note: It often takes at least sixty days without ANY aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, or other artificial sweeteners) to see a significant improvement in symptoms. Improvement in health is also often accompanied by weight loss. (Stop using aspartame and lose weight!). Some of the above symptoms that are related to aspartame-caused permanent nerve death (neuropathy) are irreversible.
Check all labels very carefully (including vitamins, pharmaceuticals, tooth paste, breath fresheners, etc.). Look for the word "aspartame" (or other toxic artificial sweeteners like sucralose or polyols) on the label and fanatically avoid all such products. Finally, avoid getting nutrition information from junk food industry PR organizations such as IFIC or organizations (including the inept, often-obsolete, slow-to-change, corrupt American Dietetic Association). Such organizations and the U.S. FDA often accept large sums of money from the junk and chemical food industry.
Neotame is a new sweetener developed by Monsanto Chemical Corporation – the people who created deadly Aspartame and Agent Orange in the Viet Nam war era. Extremely powerful Neotame is approximately 8,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar, which is 40 to 60 times sweeter than toxic Aspartame.
The precise chemical formula for Neotame was published in the February 10, 1998 Federal Register. It is very similar in structure to neurotoxic Aspartame. (Neotame is a derivative of the Aspartame dipeptide composed of, aspartic acid and phenylalanine – well know for causing serious health problems discussed extensively above).
Neotame is merely a much stronger form of Aspartame (whose Monsanto patent has now expired). There were no legitimate, independent, long-term human studies of Neotame before it was approved by the fraudulent FDA in February 2005, despite strong protests from many medical research scientists and consumer advocacy groups who understand aspartame biochemistry.
Due to its chemical similarity to Aspartame, many well-informed scientists have strong reason to believe that Neotame's long-term excitotoxic health impact will be similar or worse than that of Aspartame, but that the (clearly corrupt) U.S. FDA will be just as hesitant to ban Neotame, or require well-informed caution labels, as they still are with Aspartame, which DOES have significant scientific documentation of its many serious disease-causing effects.
If you are concerned about aspartame, you should be even more concerned about Neotame being added to pervasive food products worldwide. When a consumer mixes aspartame or the stronger neotame products with other toxic diet foods containing sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc. the combination could be very toxic to many individuals, and yet not well documented for decades.
The following is one representative formal letter to the FDA about Neotame.
Open Letter to Dr. Jane Henney, FDA Commissioner
From Betty Martini, Founder Mission Possible International
Dear Dr. Henney: As Founder of Mission Possible International and on behalf of the Mission Possible operations in the United State and other countries, I ask that you deny for approval, Neotame. We are a worldwide volunteer force warning the consumer public in 100 countries of the world off the deadly toxin, aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. Neotame is nothing more than a more potent aspartame, and H. J. Roberts, M.D., has declared Aspartame Disease to be a world epidemic and is in the process of publishing a medical text on the world plague. His material was distributed at the First International Conference on Emerging Diseases in Atlanta to doctors and scientists in 91 countries of the world.
Monsanto Communications Director Nancy Nevin said of neotame: "Compositionally it begins with ASPARTAME, but a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base of aspartame uniquely and marketedly changes its sweetness. It is 40 times sweeter than ASPARTAME,"
The formulation has been investigated by many physicians. Dr. Roberts said on 3/3/98 to Dockets Management of the Neotame petition: "The timing and self-serving corporate interests of this petition are suggested by the fact that the patent on aspartame expired several years ago." He also said "The fundamental issue is that Neotame, a synthetic variation of aspartame, requires extensive evaluation before the FDA should accept a superficial opinion about its purported safety based largely on limited short-term data involving potentially flawed protocols that were almost totally funded by corporate contracts."
The world's health is hostage to the covert, devious cynical sellout of public interests to corporate gold. On another issue, Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, told the New York Times: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
So who would take the blame for Neotame approval? You would, Dr. Henney!! You are an oncologist and according to the FDA's own audit on aspartame, the Bressler Report, on www.dorway.com, aspartame triggered brain tumors, mammary tumors, pancreatic tumors, ovarian tumors, pituitary adenomas, uterine tumors, etc. A senior FDA toxicologist, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, who tried to prevent the approval of aspartame, told Congress that it violated the Delaney Amendment because it triggered brain tumors, and that "If the FDA violates its own laws who is left to protect the public?"
(Congressional Record SID835:131 - 8/1/85). Expect a new report soon on escalating cancer cases linked with aspartame!
Famed researcher, Dr. John Olney made world news in l996 on the aspartame/brain tumor issue as unwarned consumers suffer the same consequences of the rats in the original studies that approved this toxin. Yet, Dr. Friedman of the FDA went to the defense of Monsanto on 60 Minutes, and this is after the FDA themselves kept aspartame off the market for 16 years because aspartame triggered brain tumors. And secret trade information by the original manufacturer (as posted at www.DORway.com and released to Congress) admits they have to consider "complete conversion to DKP", the brain tumor agent. And yet, they wanted to market it anyway. Profit was more important than life!! And I weep for every consumer that dies from these brain tumors, so many leaving young children to grow up without a parent.
Dr. Jeffrey Bada, a peptide chemist, at the University of California at San Diego, warned against heating aspartame and the resultant internal rearrangement of its chemical structure. The FDA themselves said for years you could not heat aspartame and then in l993 turned right around and approved it for baking. Then in l996 Dr. David Kessler gave blanket approval for this deadly drug that interacts with other drugs including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alpha-methyldopa and L-dihydroxphenylalanine. Complete irresponsibility! Even in the secret trade information Herbert Helling said "I think that it's vital to point out to the Food and Drug people at this meeting that the sweetener is not suitable for all applications for artificial sweeteners and at best would only be functional in part of the market"... Yet, Dr. Kessler saw fit for this drug to be used like sugar and even for pregnant women to use without a warning.
Dr. Louis Elsas (Emory University Pediatric Professor, genetics) testified before congress that aspartame is a neurotoxin and teratogen (triggers birth defects). If the baby even survived, and were PKU, it would be mentally retarded. And neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock says if the baby survives you could even see problems at the age of puberty when more complex parts of the brain are utilized, and that it also is triggering ADD. Dr. Roberts in his position paper on pregnancy and aspartame says even a man using aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects in his own child. I told Dr. Friedman at the time my own daughter got pregnant that the food supply was no longer safe and that aspartame is now unlabeled in many things because of this blanket approval. Last week my own daughter lost her baby and was told that 50% of first pregnancies are now ending in miscarriage. An OB-GYN specialist told me yesterday this was not normal. Some women have told me they have lost as many as 7 babies on aspartame. I call it first degree murder! Monsanto funded a study on birth defects which was disastrous, so they withdrew their funding and Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards had to pay it herself. Then neither Monsanto or the FDA would accept it. Quite a message to the world - if a researcher will not say it is safe, the study will not be accepted. Do you want to inflict more of this on the world with Neotame???
I called Dr. Bada about Neotame and asked him to look over the formula. He told me they scrambled the formula but yes , it was the same deadly breakdown products! Biochemist Dr. Madelon Price who works with the famed Dr. John Olney agrees.
The Material Safety Data Sheet on Aspartame (CAS# 22839-47-0 says that to work with aspartame one should wear chemical goggles, protective gloves to prevent skin exposure, a chemical apron and a NIOS/MSHA approved air purifying dust or mist respirator. And Dr. Henney, this toxin is in children's vitamins and medications. Are you not horrified?! It lists the hazardous decomposition products as methanol, formaldehyde and DKP (tumor agent), carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. Do you understand that we do not want this toxin in our food. Dr. Blaylock in a lecture on www.dorway.com explains that the reactions to aspartame are not allergic but toxic in nature like arsenic and cyanide!! Do you want to approve more of the same and can you imagine the synergistic effects with other excitotoxins like MSG??
In l986, the Community Nutrition Institute petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame because people were going blind -- but the FDA refused! Cases continue to pour in on this issue as aspartame destroys also the optic nerve. Focus RP Magazine in November wrote an article on aspartame titled: "What's Blinding the World?" (http://www.focusnewsletter.org/aspartame.htm) Would you dare to approve neotame and increase this problem? The aspartame ADI was set for rats, not humans and 26 questions to the FDA have gone unanswered for years (on www.dorway.com)
Monsanto is the largest manufacturer of poisons in the world responsible for aspartame, agent orange, RBGH and genetic engineering. An article titled "Monsanto in Parliament" quoted speaker Norman Baker saying Monsanto has made itself Public Enemy No. 1. He says they have bulldozed elected governments across the world and forced its wretched products on to the world's population, whether we want them or not. Further Monsanto has been condemned by the Advertising Standards Authority, which found it guilty of making "wrong ... unproven, misleading and confusing claims". He further says it has used the revolving door policy and makes sure that personnel from Monsanto and government agency advisory bodies frequently switch positions. "Marcia Hale, the former adviser to the US President is now the director of international government affairs of the Monsanto corporation. Michael Kantnor, the former Secretary to the US Department of Commerce is now a member of the Monsanto corporation board. Josh King, the former director of production for White House events, is now the Director of Global Communications for the Monsanto corporation. Margaret Miller, the former chemical laboratory supervisor for Monsanto, is now the deputy director of the new animal drug evaluation office in the US Union documents that have been passed to Monsanto by Dr. Nick Weber of the FDA, and a former Monsanto analyst." Also he says: "It is getting the Food and Drug Administration on board"...
The public has to know if you are on board with Monsanto and willing to approve this toxin or there for the protection of the consumer's health against unsafe food and drugs. Action speaks louder than words. Dr. James Bowen told the FDA many years ago that aspartame was mass-poisoning of the American public and more than 70 countries of the world. He ought to know as a victim that now suffers with Lou Gehrigs Disease. Aspartame destroys the brain, the central nervous system and the optic nerve and ravages every organ in the body. A recent study by Trocho, Pardo and co-workers, has demonstrated that following aspartame ingestion, significant amounts of formaldehyde accumulate in the tissues. Formaldehyde is known to bind strongly to proteins and nucleic acids, forming adducts that are extremely difficult to eliminate through normal metabolic pathways. Dr. Blaylock says in this study, they demonstrated that labeled methanol (as formaldehyde) accumulated in high concentrations in the liver (50%) and in lower, but substantial, concentrations in the kidney, adipose tissue, brain and retina. within the cell, they found large amounts located within the DNA.
The largest study on aspartame is being conducted on the consumer public and as we tally the results, this may end up being one of the largest epidemics in world history! In May 1992, the official U.S. Air Force Magazine, FLYING SAFETY explained: .."People have suffered aspartame related disorders with doses as small as that carried in a single stick of chewing gum. This could mean a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo or to flicker-induced epileptic activity. It also means that all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight and gradual loss of vision." (Three American Airline pilots who were heavy users of aspartame died within the last year and a half and the FAA says they can't do anything until the FDA does!) Indeed, Dr. Roberts said that aspartame laced gum works like nitroglycerin, small molecules, goes through saliva straight to the brain. We have sent case histories to FDA where consumers have suffered grand mal seizures on a stick of this gum. I'll quote a copy of a letter sent to you on 3/14/99 by Chelsea Tallman, 491 Westerly Rd, #102, Bellingham, Wa 98226, a 24 year old in whom aspartame shattered half of her life.
"For the past 12 years I have been plagued by the following symptoms: Severe headaches, digestive problems, asthma, breathing problems, chronic fatigue, depression, suicidal tendencies, dizziness, ringing in ears, pressure in ears, loss of equilibrium, numbness in arms and legs, shooting pains in legs, blurred vision, floaters, watering eyes, dry eyes, fibromyalgia symptoms, hormonal problems, menstrual irregularities, pre-menopause, confusion, heart palpitations, spasms, nausea, personality changes, rashes, Lyme's disease symptoms, sleeping disorders, speech difficulties, swaying and staggering when walking, swollen optic nerves, racing heart, change of taste, uncoordinated walk, vertigo, weakness, weight gain in hips and thighs, and loss of 12 normal functioning years of my life. The worst part is that I am only 24 years old!"
Dr. Henney, she goes on to say that her parents spent thousands of their hard-earned money to try and find the culprit, and that her illness was so much of a part of her life that it was written about in her marriage vows. She also said: "After the total elimination of this substance from my diet, the symptoms listed above have either disappeared, or are greatly diminished. I have, however, accidentally ingested aspartame on 3 occasions, within minutes I started suffering all over again. My suffering would last anywhere from days to weeks depending on how much aspartame I ingested. Most of my original suffering was from CHEWING 1 SINGLE STICK OF ASPARTAME-FILLED GUM A DAY." Chelsea said you would never want to see any of your own family suffer the way hers has. "Imagine having your daughter always in such severe pain that it moved her to tears and unneeded torture every single day. Imagine always being in fear that you would get a phone call telling you your child had killed themselves just to stop the pain they endured." Recently an aspartame victim did commit suicide!
In Dr. Roberts letter about Neotame on March 3, l998 he said: "As a physician and citizen, I am appalled at the thought of American consumers being again subjected to an anticipated repeat of the aspartame fiasco"..
Another senior FDA toxicologist, Dr. Verrett told Congress that the studies that approved aspartame were built on a foundation of sand and should have been thrown out. These studies that were the target of an indictment for fraud that was not carried out when two U.S. Prosecutors went to work for the law firm defending the case and let the statute of limitations expire, actually approved aspartame.
A petition for recall is now being signed at http://www.e-thepeople.com/petition.cfm?PETID=109862
At Dr. Roberts first press conference he said unless something is done about aspartame we would end up with a world plague, and that we have. This time, listen to demands for recall by an outraged consumer public that has been screaming about this toxin since it was approved. Dr. Ralph Walton on 60 Minutes said only 90 independent studies are valid on aspartame, and of these 83 showed problems!
As aspartame destroys the CNS it is mimicking MS, as it hardens the synovial fluids victims are being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia and consumers are getting brain tumors and going blind. Babies are being murdered in their mother's womb and young people with their whole life ahead of them are dying of brain tumors. It is escalating Alzheimers according to Dr. Roberts. It precipitates diabetes, Graves Disease, epilepsy, chronic fatigue, Parkinson's and ALS. A pivotal study (SC18862) submitted was done on 7 infant monkeys: 5 had grand mal seizures and 1 died. The FDA report shows 92 symptoms from coma to death. It triggers an irregular heart rhythm and interacts with drugs. Dr. Henney, don't let further disability and death be your legacy. Recall aspartame and refuse to approve Neotame.
The above desperate letter was ignored by the FDA, which approved Neotame in February 2005.
Sucralose, Splenda (Promoted extensively in products from the misleading profit-motivated Atkins Foundation, and others) 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 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., accumulate in body fat, and are considered to be toxic carcinogens. The manufacturer falsely states that: "sucralose passes through the body unabsorbed."
The truth is that 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 midst of the continued controversy over aspartame and the more-intense neotame, many pharmaceutical and health food manufacturers - Pro Lab, Twin Lab and Ross Products, makers of Pedialyte - have switched to sucralose, which may be similar or worse (long term problem documentation is not yet available, as it is for aspartame).
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI – aka "the food police") is attacking McNeil Nutritionals, (the sucralose manufacturer - a division of Johnson and Johnson), for the way they go to great lengths to falsely imply that Splenda is natural and safe, when it clearly is neither.
McNeil's deceptive misleading marketing slogan is: "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." The sucralose in Splenda is in fact a synthetic chemical that contains dealdly chlorine, something that no natural sugar contains. In many chemical forms, chlorine is a powerful toxin. Would you intentionally feed your family chlorine beach, or a cumulative deadly pesticide like DDT, even in small quantities?
Then why is Splenda so very popular? Once again, commercials tell naive, gullible Americans to buy it, and they do without further investigation.
McNeil's misleading "made from sugar," slogan sounds a lot better to the cast majority of irrational, indiscriminate mediocre minds than a true statement like: "made from chlorinated hydrocarbons," or "a synthetic chemical made in a laboratory with chlorine, just like DDT."
Splenda's unhealthy artificial chemical composition may present a marketing challenge (for good reason), but that's not a valid excuse to intentionally mislead consumers and cause the majority to believe that Splenda is safe or in any way related to natural sugar.
The fact Sucralose is such a fantastic marketing success is clear evidence that millions of people believe misleading marketing messages and do dumb things without taking the time required to investigate the long-term impact of important lifestyle changes. Commercials tell them to eat Splenda, and without further study they do. This is particularly curious, since there is a long history of a variety of serious healthy problems associated with various sugar substitutes.
Somehow they erroneously believe that a new patented product must be a better that other alternatives. In drugs and food additives, this is frequently NOT TRUE. So far, in almost all cases, a sugar substitute with no well known health hazards is either (a) one that has not been studied well enough, (b) one where the vendor has effectively hidden the truth, or (c) all of the above.
To understand how consumers incorrectly perceive hazardous Splenda, CSPI commissioned a national Internet survey of people who had used Splenda. Only 57 percent of Splenda users correctly believed that Splenda was an "artificial sweetener." 47 percent of Splenda users incorrectly believed it was a "natural product." Only 8 percent of the respondents correctly believed that it was made from sugar and deadly toxic chlorine.
The Atkins Foundation's widespread use and support of chlorine-containing sucralose is doing the public a great disservice. We agree with Atkins that some types of carbohydrates should be greatly reduced in the American diet, BUT Atkins' extensive use of hazardous, improperly marketed, unsafe sugar substitutes is the primary reason that JOYFUL AGING DOES NOT SUPPORT OR AGREE WITH MANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR ENDORSED BY THE POPULAR ATKINS FOUNDATION.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200502141.html
www.holisticmed.com/splenda/
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
Other Dangerous Sugar Substitutes – This section is under construction
If you find any of the following products in a food or beverage that you like, please avoid it, or at least search the Internet for problems associated with it.
Stevia Extract (Stevioside or Steviol) - Stevia is NOT FDA-approved as an artificial sweetener; however it can be (and is) sold as a dietary supplement, where people then use it as a sweetner. We know that there are many health risks for sweeteners that the FDA has approved, how much worse is Stevia? Because the FDA refuses to protect the public by monitoring or regulating sometimes-deathly food supplements, such products have no guarantee of purity, non-toxicity or efficacy. Stevia is being promoted iun the U.S., with no valid long-term studies of its safety or interactions with other foods or drugs. Due to this lack of knowledge, it should be avoided completely.
Licorice Extract
Acesulfame Potassium (Acesulfame-K, Sunett) – Insufficient testing. Preliminary tests link it to several forms of cancer.
Alitame
Disodium Glycyrrhizinate
D-Sorbitol – See Sorbitol
D-Tagatose (Sugaree)
D-Xylose
Erythritol
Isomalte
Lactitol
Maltitol
Mannitol
N-Acetyl Glucosamine
Sorbitol is a tissue toxin - Contributes to retinopathy, neuropathy, cataracts, kidney disease, diarrhea, cramping and other digestive disorders.
Sunette - See Acesulfame Potassium
Tagatose – See D-Tagatose
Xylitol
Substituting sugar with other simple carbohydrates is similar to eating plain white sugar. Examples of sugar substitutes that increase human blood sugar include: sucrose, raw sugar, turbinado, glucose, dextrose, corn syrup, fructose, honey, lactose, maltose and alcohol sugars like erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xybitol and xylitol.
When profit-motivated unscrupulous food companies try to appeal to naive and gullible "low-carbohydrate" dieters (with unreasonable products like low-carb candy bars) they often replace the natural carbohydrates with unnatural unhealthy substances such as sorbitol or maltitol, which act as irritating laxatives and in large quantities can cause retinopathy (blindness), neuropathy (dementia, loss of senses and control), cataracts (blurred vision), kidney disease (death), diarrhea (dehydration, starvation), cramping and other painful digestive disorders. As little as 50 grams of sugar alcohol (as found in only a few pieces of sugar free candy) has been shown to cause bloating and diarrhea. Larger amounts of sugar alcohol, over longer periods of time, lead toward more serious illness and even death.
Sugar-free or low-sugar candy
Serving
Calories
Sugar alcohol (grams)
Mint patties
6 pieces
(86 grams)
400
54
Although sugar substitutes do not help consumers lose excess body fat, almost without exception, their long-term use increases the risk of many serious health problems (discussed below), whose cause-and-effect may be difficult for uninformed consumers and board-certified medical doctors to understand.
Why do people continue to use diet products that do NOT work, AND are known to cause serious illness and even death?
One answer is the power of misleading commercials. Diet food vendors spend billions of dollars on commercials to get people to do things that intelligent people would NOT do if it were not for the commercials. Mediocre mental midgets lack critical thinking skills.
Another contributing answer is unwarranted reliance on the untrustworthy U.S. Food and Drug Administration and organizations like the corrupted American Dietetic Association to protect us from false and misleading advertising of dangerous foods and drugs. After decades of well-documented evidence of the cause-and-effect of the artificial sweetener / disease connection, the U.S. Congress and FDA refuse to ban clearly-toxic sugar substitutes, or even mandate better warning labels that are strongly recommend by some of the world's best medical research scientists and consumer advocate organizations.
There were significant Congressional Hearings about large numbers of documented aspartame-caused health problems two decades ago, when it was included in only 100 different products. Since then, there have been two subsequent aspartame hearings where far more solid scientific evidence was presented, but to no avail. Now there are over 5,000 products containing aspartame, and the patent has expired. Its usage should increase greatly in the future, unless action is taken. Profit-motivated Monsanto (with little concern for the health of their consumers) has just won approval of the much more powerful "neotame" (discussed below).
Senator Howard Hetzenbaum submitted a bill that would have warned all pregnant mothers, infants and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also instituted INDEPENDENT studies (NOT funded by Monsanto) on the documented health problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). This bill was sadly killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies who "own" the votes of many U.S. Senators. This extreme corruption unleashed "aspartame disease" and premature death on an unsuspecting nation, and world.
There are now at least 92 well-documented symptoms of aspartame disease, including coma to death. The majority of them are neurological disorders, because aspartame is neurotoxic. Aspartame disease is a cause behind some of the mystery of the "Dessert Storm" military health problems. The burning tongue and other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of aspartame products.
Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to Dessert Storm troops. Diet drinks sat in the 120 degree F. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. Aspartame breaks down into its toxic components at 86 degrees. Thirsty, weight-conscious service men and women drank these neurotoxins all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to well-documented aspartame disease poisoning. The Dessert Storm disease is now no longer a mystery. It is a disease of corporate profit being much more important than the health of our nation, including our military troops overseas.
The creators of profitable deadly foods and food additives fund the American Dietetic Association, American Diabetes Association, the campaigns of U.S. Senators and Representatives, U.S. FDA product studies, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians.
The New York Times ran a powerful article on how the corrupt American Dietetic Association receives significant funds from the worst food industry offenders (Monsanto, etc.) to endorse their disease-and-death causing products.
Here is one extremely sad example of what dishonest misinformation is still doing today. A mother who was feeding her overweight child NutraSweet was told to stop giving the child any form of aspartame by a licensed holist physician. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her old family physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off of NutraSweet (because Monsanto had provided significant funding to the ADA to promote NutraSweet).
This example demonstrates the extreme power of those who continue to poison our nation, despite clear documentation of the damage that their influence is doing today. The mother was too intimidated by the uninformed older physician (who had no training in such matters) that the mother had unwisely trusted completely for many years. And where did the family physician get the sage advice that he gave out from his pedestal to the naive mother? The ultimate source was the message that Monsanto had paid the ADA to give out to everyone. The doctor was too stupid and dependent on the corrupted ADA to suggest trying to remove the NutraSweet for a while. What a blind, dumb and corrupt nation we have become. We ignore the truth and trust the untrustworthy. We become addicted to products that do the opposite of what we bought them for in the first place. Our nation generally lacks fundamental critical thinking skills.
Nothing has been done by the government to protect consumers from the aspartame deadly scourge, other than an oversimplified warning label for people with PKU. Today's politician-corrupting diet industry lobbyists are far more powerful than the deadly tobacco industry lobbyists were for many decades. The similarities and number of people killed are appalling and shameful to our nation.
The pattern of how lobbyists with deep pockets influencing dishonest politicians is VERY well documented throughout American history. Nowhere is this truer today than inside the FDA, where the companies whose products are being evaluated fund most of the studies of their own products (How biased is that?).
This unforgivably corrupt FDA misbehavior has led directly to many millions of unnecessary, avoidable, serious-and-painful diseases and untimely deaths. Part of the problem is insufficient independent evaluation funding by the U.S. Congress, but the largest problem is probably direct conflict of interest of politicians, FDA employees and subcontractors.
Today's taste-bud-stimulating, unnatural, man-made laboratory chemical, alternative-sweeteners seem to fall into two basic categories:
Those that have been clearly shown to cause serious health problems and even untimely death, and
Those new sugar substitutes for which the damage that they will do is not well documented, or has been effectively hidden by its creators
Do NOT expect the U.S. government to protect you from them. The general rule (which seems to consistently hold true) is that ALL sugar substitutes should be avoided by all prudent people. All of these products appear to INCREASE (not satisfy) one's craving for sweet flavors and simple carbohydrates, (even if the other damage that individual products do is not well documented, yet).
Many products sold to people on "Low Carbohydrate" Diets and "Low Calorie" diets (especially those labeled "diet," "sugarless" or "no sugar added") contain very unsafe man-made, unnatural sugar substitutes or hazardous alternative sweeteners. Many of these have been clearly shown to be potentially dangerous to human health and well being. New scientific discoveries about their many health hazards are being published almost every month, and dishonestly ignored by the FDA.
One problem is that very few of these products cause immediate damage to most people. For most consumers, the decision of whether or not to consume a "diet" product is its taste, without considering its effectiveness at helping to lose weight, or its long-term health consequences. If it says "diet" and tastes alright, that's good enough for the majority. If months or years later they notice that they have gained weight, the original decision to consume the diet product is NOT reconsidered, since it has become a blind, dumb habit, just like the ones that led to obesity in the first place.
The lengthy cause-and-effect cycle of unhealthy products is difficult to perceive. Many of the most negative impacts of sugar substitutes (which even include unnecessary early death) take many years to accumulate and publish, and then they are still ignored by the corrupt, slow-moving FDA. When a patent expires, the vendor may announce a new patented product that solves the health problems that the vendor denied that the previous produce had while the patent was in effect. GAK ! Something similar is probably getting ready to happen with neotame from Monsanto, the creators of aspartame.
The cause-and-effect relationship of profitable-but-toxic food additives is often not accurately documented or even recognized by the majority of those who suffer from sugar substitute health damage, or by most medical doctors or post-mortem medical examiners (who have very-little training in nutrition and over-the-counter toxic products and food additives). The health damage caused by sugar substitutes and diet foods or drinks is often thought to be age related, when it was actually avoidable.
Correcting A Lifetime Of Bad Eating Habits
Humans are creatures of many good and bad habits that are often repeated for decades and generations. People lacking critical thinking skills do what they have always done, without questioning pervasive traditions. Uninformed consumers look at the fancy packaging on prepared foods and ignore (or do not fully understand) mandated food labels.
False and misleading billion dollar advertising and clever marketing slogans are designed to deceive in a way that maximizes product sales, NOT consumer health. Once a gullible consumer makes the decision to buy an unhealthy diet product for the first time, the new bad habit may be repeated for a long time, until another commercial message overwhelms the mediocre mind.
Our ancestors, parents, friends and caregivers did us a great disservice by rewarding good behavior with candy, feeding us unhealthy caffeinated sugar water, or even fruit juice with most meals, and "lovingly" preparing unhealthy sweet desserts for us (as their own mothers had incorrectly done for them). The massive social impact is an American epidemic of morbid obesity and many other health and quality of life problems. Artificial sweeteners take our sweet teeth to a new high of unhealthy nutrition bad habits.
Humans do NOT need refined sugars or sugar substitutes – They only make the underlying obesity problem much worse, while generating trillions of dollars for their profit-motivated unscrouplous vendors.
We MUST retrain our mental images and our knowledge of "good" versus "bad" nutrition. We MUST understand that the "icky sweet" flavor (of sugar and sugar substitutes) is NOT good for us, or for our offspring. With few exceptions, anything that tastes particularly sweet should be avoided like the plague that it really is:
Specific Sugar Substitute Health Risks
Saccharin, Sodium Saccharin (Sweet 'N Low – the pink packs) – Shown to increase the risk of certain cancers, decades ago. The health risk is slow but cumulative, based on quantity and length of use. In the 1970s, the FDA was going to ban saccharin based on the reports of a Canadian study that showed that saccharin was causing bladder cancer in rats. Powerful political lobbyists corrupted the FDA (as happens very frequently) and saccharin was left on the shelves with a mandated label: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals."
Aspartame – Product names like NutraSweet, Spoonful and Equal (many common diet foods, drinks, and the pervasive blue table sweetener packs) – A huge industry with a powerful multi-billion dollar political lobby against those scientists that know that it should be banned. These politician-corrupting sugar substitute lobbyists are far more powerful than the equally unscrupulous tobacco was for many decades. Their fiduciary career responsibility is to make more money for their stockholders, regardless of how it damages the health of, or kills, their hundreds of millions of customers.
The U.S. FDA receives more complaints of symptoms caused by aspartame than any other drug. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, the corrupt FDA refuses to ban or mandate aspartame warning labels!
In a recent presentation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they announced that there was a rapidly rising epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus running rampant across the United States.
When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F (inside our 98.6 degree body, or during cooking), the methanol (wood alcohol) that makes up 10% of aspartame is converted into toxic formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes "metabolic acidosis." Formic acid is the poison found in the painful sting of fire ants. Formaldehyde stores in the body fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs. When body fat is burned (long after aspartame is consumed) it is release into the system to be converted into disease-causing formic acid.
Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics (Who consume it in a futile attempt to lose weight). Physicians know how devastating methanol is for everyone, especially diabetics. Some physicians incorrectly believe some of their diabetic patients retinopathy, when in fact, their loss of vision is caused directly by aspartame. Aspartame keeps blood sugar (serum glucose) level out of control, causing many patients to suffer acute memory loss, go into a diabetic coma and die.
Aspartame-caused methanol toxicity exactly mimics multiple sclerosis (nerve death). Many people continue to be incorrectly diagnosed with MS. As it turns out, MS is not a death sentence, but methanol toxicity is. Once a nerve is dead, no medication can bring it back to life. The progress of this misdiagnose MS can be stopped by avoiding aspartame (and the new more-powerful version called neotame), but the nerve damage previously done is irreversible.
Systemic lupus is almost as prevalent in America as MS, especially among frequent Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The unsuspecting victims usually drink three to four 12 oz. servings per day. The naive victims usually do not suspect that diet foods and drinks are gradually killing their central nervous systems, with cumulative devastating effects. Continued used of aspartame is seriously life threatening.
Since aspartame's adverse health risks have been shown to be so significant, widespread, serious and even deadly, we will devote more text explaining the important reasons to avoid aspartame products altogether. Your body does not "need" refined white sugar, and it certainly does not "need" (or know what to do with) artificial sweeteners like toxic aspartame, neotame, sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc. that are made in unnatural chemical laboratories.
"Phenylalanine" is one of the two amino acids in aspartame. According to Monsanto's NutraSweet website:
"Aspartame is made from aspartic acid and phenylalanine, as the methyl ester.
Upon digestion, aspartame breaks down into its components - the amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and methanol."
This statement is damning enough all by itself, since methanol (wood alcohol) is well known for its powerful neurotoxic characteristic, especially in diabetics (who consume aspartame, often mixed with other toxic artificial sweeteners). Monsanto claims that the health impact of aspartame is small, since the quantity consumed is small, but how much rat poison do you think it is safe for you to consume each day? What happens if a person consumes more than one diet food or beverage each day?
There is an inherited genetic condition known as phenylkenoturia (PKU), which is a disorder of amino acid metabolism. Metabolic problems similar to PKU can also be consistently demonstrated by consumption of certain food and drug combinations. Aspartame package labels have an oversimplified warning for people with PKU to avoid aspartame, for good reason – it causes serious disease and even death (despite the fact that Monsanto still claims that it poses no health risk at all).
What if you have PKU but it has not been accurately diagnosed yet? What if a pregnant woman is carrying a child with PKU, but does not realize it? Should she consume aspartame in an ineffective vain attempt to look slimmer? Is raising a retarded child worth the non-benefit provided by aspartame?
What if something in your diet affects your metabolism of amino acids? Common foods like grapefruit impact metabolism for three days after consuming just one serving. Grapefruit alone has been shown to interact negatively with over 200 different over-the-counter and prescription medications. Other foods and drugs dramatically effect metabolic processes and are likely to interact with phenylalanine in complex ways that are difficult for consumers AND untrained medical professionals to understand.
The important point is that artificial sweetener metabolism and health risks are most certainly dependent on complex individual genetic, nutrition and medication issues. The newer a product is, the less time there has been to accumulate specific knowledge about is risks. The 17-year span of a U.S. patent may not be enough time to fully explain long-term cause-and-effect. Aspartame has been widely prompted by Monsanto (who is very familiar with its many health risks and consumer complaints) for two decades. Many millions of naive Americans have documented aspartames many adverse effects, but it remains on the market with only minimal mandated warning on its label.
It has been clearly and conclusively shown that aspartame causes mental retardation as well as many neurological, behavioral, and dermatological diseases in people with certain amino acid metabolism problems! Women who are, or may become, pregnant should absolutely avoid unnatural "diet" foods and beverages. Aspartame-caused retardation begins at the moment of conception.
The U.S. should mandate a label on all products that contain aspartame that says: "This product contains aspartame, which has been shown to cause mental retardation as well as neurological, behavioral, and dermatological problems in people who are sensitive to it." However, the powerful aspartame industry lobby has corrupted the U.S. Congress, the FDA and other public health agencies, and blocked mandatory publication of the factual truth.
Aspartame breaks down with time, temperature and moisture, either on the shelf or in the body. As it breaks down, aspartame releases methanol, which is highly toxic to the liver and brain, and can cause vascular failures that lead to micro strokes, total blindness, irreversible optic nerve damage, dementia, tumors, etc.
10% of aspartame is deadly methanol (extremely toxic wood alcohol). If methanol is consumed in a significant quantity (e.g., drinking a few ounces of "denatured" rubbing alcohol), it will cause blindness very quickly. Consumed in small amounts (as in one daily serving of diet soda), partial blindness and other nerve damage can take a year or a decade to become noticeable, but nerve death happens to a small degree each time aspartame is consumed. The methanol in aspartame is neurotoxic to EVERYONE.
The nerve death caused by aspartame is permanent and irreversible. By the time you notice the permanent nerve damage (e.g., retardation, partial loss of a field of vision, sensory or control function loss, etc.), you cannot reverse the nerve death. You can only stop its progression by eliminating intake of the neurotoxin that caused it.
The more aspartame you consume, the longer you consume it, the more irreversible damage is done to your entire central nervous system, and other tissues and organs. Some people are more susceptible to the damage caused by aspartame than others (e.g. those with amino acid metabolic problems or those consuming certain food or drugs). These individual variations make the cumulative damage rate vary by individual, but aspartame's methanol is neurotoxic to EVERYONE to some degree and conditions like phenylkenoturia may be undiagnosed in those who have it.
When a nerve dies, it is dead forever, and in almost all cases irreplaceable. Thus, the neurotoxic damage cause by aspartame is irreversible – no drug can bring a dead neuron back to life. The partial or total blindness (can't tell day from night) that can be caused directly by aspartame in many individuals will last the rest of your life, as will mental retardation, dementia, etc.
Vision effects, headaches and central nervous system problems are a large percentage of the very real continual ongoing FDA complaints from aspartame-users. Optic nerve damage has little to do with the need for glasses. The damage commonly caused by aspartame is to the sensory portion of the back or the eye (not to the lens), which glasses cannot correct.
Methanol causes hemorrhages to the micro capillaries that supply the extremely small retina optical nerves (and the entire brain). \When one nerve literally starves to death as the result of a methanol-caused hemorrhage, a histamine swelling response occurs, causing inflammation in a desperate futile attempt to increase the blood supply. The visual symptom while this is happening is multi-color flashing speckles that can be seen when the eye lids are closed. This will eventually become a permanent blind spot causing a loss of vision in the same area for the rest of your life.
The best retinologists and optic neurologists do not have a clue how to stop or prevent the progression of this devastating disease, since they have no training in the deadly effects of American food additives, and Monsanto has spent a lot of money making sure that this critical information does NOT become widespread. If you know anyone with these symptoms, PLEASE demand that they immediately stop consuming artificial sweeteners and see if the progress of their blindness does not permanently subside.
Since the problem that is caused by the methanol in aspartame is vascular failure hemorrhages, in addition to eliminating artificial sweeteners they need to strengthen and protect the blood vessel walls. Grape seed extract is a powerful antioxidant (readily available at low cost) that has the unique characteristic of adhering to connective tissue, which is what blood vessels are made of. It has been prescribed by European physicians for vascular problems for over four decades, but the many benefits of grape seed extract are essentially unknown by American board-certified medical doctors.
When one nerve swells, it pinches off the blood supply to adjacent nerves, causing multiple nerves to starve to death over a short period of time (hours or days). The cumulative damage process will continue over time. Ischemic optic nerve death can sometimes be photographed when the retinal hemorrhages are large and visible blood leakage occur. A "fluorescein angiogram" clearly documents the retinal hemorrhages (A dye is injected and the back of the eye is photographed showing blood vessel leakage caused by aspartame's methanol.)
Dangerous mega doses of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs (requiring hospitalization and close monitoring) is sometimes administered by uninformed medical professionals in desperation, but the benefit of this treatment of acute inflammation symptoms is only temporary. It ignores the root cause: methanol. The cumulative degradation process will continue when the short-term treatment is over, especially if the consumer returns to unhealthy "diet" foods and beverages.
The extremely sad thing is that inept hospital "registered dietitians" often serve foods containing aspartame, or the blue "Equal" sweetener packets, to their patients. This common practice should be considered a felony requiring a mandatory federal prison sentence! It surely would be highly regulated, except for the money that Monsanto has spent to protect their profitable product.
Even though specialists can easily monitor the progress of ischemic optic neuropathy, most doctors who do not extensively study research journals have no idea about its underlying cause-and-effect. The source of the problem is almost never understood by the consumer who goes blind (while foolishly trying to lose weight by consuming FDA-approved artificial sweeteners).
Medical doctors, optometrists, ophthalmologists (even neuro-ophthalmology specialists) and retinologists are generally NOT trained to recognize the cause-and-effect relationship of excitotoxins like aspartame and MSG on ischemic optic neuropathy. Dietitians, agency officials and legislators also ignore the documented studies about the damage caused directly by aspartame.
Many well-informed medical research scientists who have studied aspartame have lobbied the Federal Government to not only label products containing aspartame (with the documented health hazards), but to go beyond warning labels and ban aspartame altogether. But, the many-billion-dollar industry that is based on this well-documented nerve killer now has a political lobby that is much stronger than the tobacco companies once did. These large corporations have effectively blocked all legislation and education of the general public, even though the Internet has many privately funded web sites (like this one) trying to inform the public about the real issues.
The result of a government that has been completely corrupted by the aspartame profit-motivated lobby is that vendors can now freely sell their known poisons to ever-increasing numbers of innocent, uninformed, hungry victims, with devastating social, emotional and economic consequences among the uninformed.
There is no scientific evidence that anyone has ever lost weight by using aspartame. In fact, the exact opposite is true: There are many examples of weight reduction by people when they STOP using aspartame (and their aspartame-conditioned cravings for sweet carbohydrates subside). Average weight loss is one study was 19 pounds after eliminating aspartame. (Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic specialist and world-renowned expert on aspartame poisoning, Defense Against Alzheimer's Disease)
Dr. Roberts also states "consuming aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects." The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta, causing mental retardation, according to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician Professor - Genetics, at Emory University in his testimony before Congress. In the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors (phenylalanine breaks down into DXP, a known brain tumor trigger).
See our Joyful Aging material on Excitotoxins
See the excellent book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
Aspartame is a dipeptide (methyl ester of l-aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine). (Also see the discussion of Neotame below, which is a more powerful new form of Aspartame). Aspartame excites the sweet-sensing taste buds 160 to 220 times more than does sucrose (table sugar).
Since the late 1960's it has been well documented that intestinal esterases hydrolyze aspartame to aspartic acid, methanol (highly neurotoxic; causes: blindness, vascular hemorrhages, dementia, mental retardation, etc.), and phenylalanine.
The above statement is biologically true, but the biased ADA/FDA conclusion, which ignores the serious cumulative hazard of daily methanol and phenylalanine ingestion, is completely wrong:
In 1981, FDA first approved aspartame as a sweetener for a number of dry uses (eg, tabletop sweetener, cold breakfast cereal, gelatins, puddings) and in chewing gum and carbonated beverages. Demand for aspartame in the United States rose from 8.4 million lb in 1986 to 17.5 million lb in 1992, a figure that represented more than 80% of the world demand. (Coincidently, most of the world's aspartame-related medical problems occur in the U.S.) Although soft drinks account for more than 70% of today's aspartame consumption, this sweetener is added to more than 6,000 foods, personal care products, and pharmaceuticals. Aspartame is available in liquid, granular, encapsulated, and powder forms to extend its use in food and beverage products.
Detailed studies have been conducted to determine how ingestion influences plasma levels of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol (or the by-product formate). Plasma phenylalanine response to aspartame varies genetically. Persons with phenylketonuria, (a homozygous recessive inborn metabolism problem which is undiagnosed in many who have it), are unable to metabolize phenylalanine. These persons have much higher plasma levels and altered synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters (Maher T, Wurtman R. Possible neurological effects of aspartame, a widely used food additive. Environ Health Perspect. 1987;75:53-57.) and adverse effects (Wolf-Novak L, Stegink L, Brummel M, Person TJ, Filer LT Jr, Bell EF, Ziegler EE, Krause WL. Aspartame ingestion with and without carbohydrate in phenylketonuric and normal subjects: effect on plasma concentrations of amino acids, glucose, and insulin. Metabolism. 1990;39:391-396.).
When properly diagnosed, the medical nutrition therapy for its many serious adverse effects involves eliminating aspartame. The analogy is that some people are genetically more sensitive to air pollutants, smoking, etc. You may not know until it is too late to avoid serious health problems that you have a metabolic defect, which increases your risk of getting lung cancer, etc. If you knew that you had such a genetic defect, you certainly should not smoke, but even if you don't have a genetic characteristic that increases your risk of respiratory disease, you are still better off to NEVER SMOKE. This concept can be generalized to ALL potential consumers of products that impact different individuals in varying degrees.
This is true of aspartame. IF you have a genetic defect (which thousands of Americans do have), then large quantities of aspartame can cause headaches, seizures, irreversible permanent blindness, neurodegenerative diseases, or worse. Even if you do not have such a genetic defect, you will probably weigh less and be healthier if you do NOT ever consume aspartame (or other risky sugar substitutes).
The FDA requires foods containing aspartame to have a label indicating that they contain phenylalanine (but the label fails to educate the public about what the adverse medical effects are, and why aspartame should be avoided – resulting in thousands of readily-avoidable serious medical problems).
Aspartame breaks down to diketopiperazine based on time and temperature, and loses it sweetness. When aspartame is used in foods prepared with heat (baked goods, etc.), much larger amounts are normally used, which further increases dangerous diketopiperazine.
Some persons report almost immediate allergic reactions to aspartame, including headaches (similar to "hangovers" after consuming neurotoxic alcohol), edema of the lips, tongue, and throat (as in aspartame-caused Dessert Storm disease); dermatologic reactions; and serious respiratory problems (Health Hazard Evaluation. Summary of Adverse Reactions Attributed to Aspartame. Washington, DC: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 1995.). Even so, the government still requires no adequate warning label to protect at-risk individuals, despite the significant effort of many highly-qualified medical research scientists.
Aspartame is classified in medical terms as an "excitotoxin" – it excites and permanently kills non-replaceable essential neurons throughout the central nervous system. It does not stop doing what it does after it passes beyond the tongue. Excitotoxins can damage and destroy neurons located anywhere throughout the entire body in varying degrees, from the brain to the toes.
Excitotoxins often produce progressive symptoms in long-term, high-quantity consumers that are similar to neurodegenerative diseases such as: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis, etc. Excitotoxins increase the rate of aging and death throughout the entire central nervous system. (Monosodium Glutamate/MSG is also a pervasive excitotoxin, with adverse short-and-long-term reactions that are similar to aspartame.)
Adverse reactions increase as the volume of excitotoxin intake increases. FDA (unwisely) increased acceptable maximum daily intake for aspartame (in healthy persons without hidden genetic defects like PKU) to the current dangerously high level of 50 mg/kg body weight, when aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages. Many people now consume far more than the FDA maximum.
Mixing a variety of different artificial sweeteners (which is common among naive dieters), with foods that are known to significantly impact metabolism (like grapefruit, etc.), over-the-counter and prescription drugs is chaotically difficult to predict in different individuals. But, even a rudimentary understanding of metabolic biochemistry and well known cause-and-effect relationships with aspartame-caused diseases suggests that the product should be immediately and totally banned from the market (despite the fact that those who profit from it the most claim that it has no ill health effects, just as powerful tobacco lobbyists did for many decades, before the truth was forced into the light, and 22% of Americans still stupidly smoke).
Food labels can help intelligent consumers identify unnatural products that contain aspartame, although the amount of this neurotoxic substance is NOT part of the required label. Consumers must contact the companies (which very few do) to determine the amount of aspartame in each product. The amount in some common products can be: 225 mg in a 12-oz diet soda, 100 mg in an 8-oz drink made from powder, 80 mg in an 8-oz yogurt or a 4-oz gelatin dessert, 32 mg in 3/4 cup of sweetened cereal, and 47 mg in 1/2 cup of frozen dairy dessert. As a tabletop sweetener, blue packets of Equal contain 37 mg of dangerous aspartame.
Aspartame Toxicity – Overview of adverse effects from short-or-long-term use: (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/)
Seizures, convulsions, dizziness, tremors, migraines, severe headaches, memory loss, mental retardation, dementia, slurring of speech, confusion, tingling of extremities, numbness / loss of sensation, loss of motor control, chronic fatigue, depression, insomnia, irritability, panic attacks, marked personality changes, phobias, rapid heart beat / tachycardia, asthma, chest pains, hypertension (high blood pressure), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, swallowing pain, itching, hives, urticaria, other allergic reactions of the tongue, lips and respiratory system, blood sugar control problems (hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia), menstrual cramps and other problems or changes, impotency and sexual problems, food cravings (especially for simple carbohydrates, weight gain!, hair loss / baldness / thinning of hair, burning urination & other urination problems, excessive thirst, excessive hunger, bloating, edema (vascular water leakage and fluid retention), infection susceptibility, joint pain and brain cancer (based on studies in animals and a statistical increase in the number of American brain tumors after aspartame was introduced and became more popular).
Included in these formal complaints are "hundreds of pilots who have reported life threatening adverse reactions due to aspartame," according to Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, in an article from General Aviation News. Commercial pilots have documented epileptic seizures shortly after consuming aspartame while piloting passenger flights.
Michael Collins, former commercial pilot, suffered from seizures whenever he drank diet soda. The cause-and-effect reaction became clear. When he stopped using aspartame products, he remained seizure-free. Unfortunately, he lost his pilot's medical certification and can no longer fly. This immediately ended the career that he had spent his life preparing for and earning seniority – An extremely high price to pay for his naive consumption of ineffective, hazardous excitotoxins – the taste that kills but does not help anyone lose weight. Monsanto's marketing effort and political corruption did this to him and damaged the health of millions of other Americans. You might ask "How?"
The phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the epileptic seizure threshold and depletes the neurotransmitter "serotonin", which also causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence. EpilepsyFoundation.org now posts specific warnings to avoid aspartame, but the corrupt FDA STILL ignores all of the overwhelming scientific evidence about why aspartame and similar products should be banned altogether.
Aspartame Mimics The Symptoms or Worsens These Diseases
Alzheimer's disease, anxiety attacks, arthritis, attention deficit disorder (ADD and ADHD), birth defects, blurred vision, chronic fatigue syndrome, cramps, depression and other psychological and personality disorders, depression, diabetes, diabetic complications (feet, kidneys, heart, etc.), dizziness, epilepsy, fibromyalgiam, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, lyme disease, lymphoma, memory loss, mental retardation, migraine headaches, multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS), multiple sclerosis (MS), neuropathy, numbness (especially in the legs), palsy, panic disorder, Parkinson's disease, lupus, seizures, shooting pains, slurred speech, spasms, tinnitus, vertigo, vision field loss and other nervous system diseases.
Note: It often takes at least sixty days without ANY aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, or other artificial sweeteners) to see a significant improvement in symptoms. Improvement in health is also often accompanied by weight loss. (Stop using aspartame and lose weight!). Some of the above symptoms that are related to aspartame-caused permanent nerve death (neuropathy) are irreversible.
Check all labels very carefully (including vitamins, pharmaceuticals, tooth paste, breath fresheners, etc.). Look for the word "aspartame" (or other toxic artificial sweeteners like sucralose or polyols) on the label and fanatically avoid all such products. Finally, avoid getting nutrition information from junk food industry PR organizations such as IFIC or organizations (including the inept, often-obsolete, slow-to-change, corrupt American Dietetic Association). Such organizations and the U.S. FDA often accept large sums of money from the junk and chemical food industry.
Neotame is a new sweetener developed by Monsanto Chemical Corporation – the people who created deadly Aspartame and Agent Orange in the Viet Nam war era. Extremely powerful Neotame is approximately 8,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar, which is 40 to 60 times sweeter than toxic Aspartame.
The precise chemical formula for Neotame was published in the February 10, 1998 Federal Register. It is very similar in structure to neurotoxic Aspartame. (Neotame is a derivative of the Aspartame dipeptide composed of, aspartic acid and phenylalanine – well know for causing serious health problems discussed extensively above).
Neotame is merely a much stronger form of Aspartame (whose Monsanto patent has now expired). There were no legitimate, independent, long-term human studies of Neotame before it was approved by the fraudulent FDA in February 2005, despite strong protests from many medical research scientists and consumer advocacy groups who understand aspartame biochemistry.
Due to its chemical similarity to Aspartame, many well-informed scientists have strong reason to believe that Neotame's long-term excitotoxic health impact will be similar or worse than that of Aspartame, but that the (clearly corrupt) U.S. FDA will be just as hesitant to ban Neotame, or require well-informed caution labels, as they still are with Aspartame, which DOES have significant scientific documentation of its many serious disease-causing effects.
If you are concerned about aspartame, you should be even more concerned about Neotame being added to pervasive food products worldwide. When a consumer mixes aspartame or the stronger neotame products with other toxic diet foods containing sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc. the combination could be very toxic to many individuals, and yet not well documented for decades.
The following is one representative formal letter to the FDA about Neotame.
Open Letter to Dr. Jane Henney, FDA Commissioner
From Betty Martini, Founder Mission Possible International
Dear Dr. Henney: As Founder of Mission Possible International and on behalf of the Mission Possible operations in the United State and other countries, I ask that you deny for approval, Neotame. We are a worldwide volunteer force warning the consumer public in 100 countries of the world off the deadly toxin, aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. Neotame is nothing more than a more potent aspartame, and H. J. Roberts, M.D., has declared Aspartame Disease to be a world epidemic and is in the process of publishing a medical text on the world plague. His material was distributed at the First International Conference on Emerging Diseases in Atlanta to doctors and scientists in 91 countries of the world.
Monsanto Communications Director Nancy Nevin said of neotame: "Compositionally it begins with ASPARTAME, but a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base of aspartame uniquely and marketedly changes its sweetness. It is 40 times sweeter than ASPARTAME,"
The formulation has been investigated by many physicians. Dr. Roberts said on 3/3/98 to Dockets Management of the Neotame petition: "The timing and self-serving corporate interests of this petition are suggested by the fact that the patent on aspartame expired several years ago." He also said "The fundamental issue is that Neotame, a synthetic variation of aspartame, requires extensive evaluation before the FDA should accept a superficial opinion about its purported safety based largely on limited short-term data involving potentially flawed protocols that were almost totally funded by corporate contracts."
The world's health is hostage to the covert, devious cynical sellout of public interests to corporate gold. On another issue, Phil Angell, Monsanto's director of corporate communications, told the New York Times: "Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
So who would take the blame for Neotame approval? You would, Dr. Henney!! You are an oncologist and according to the FDA's own audit on aspartame, the Bressler Report, on www.dorway.com, aspartame triggered brain tumors, mammary tumors, pancreatic tumors, ovarian tumors, pituitary adenomas, uterine tumors, etc. A senior FDA toxicologist, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, who tried to prevent the approval of aspartame, told Congress that it violated the Delaney Amendment because it triggered brain tumors, and that "If the FDA violates its own laws who is left to protect the public?"
(Congressional Record SID835:131 - 8/1/85). Expect a new report soon on escalating cancer cases linked with aspartame!
Famed researcher, Dr. John Olney made world news in l996 on the aspartame/brain tumor issue as unwarned consumers suffer the same consequences of the rats in the original studies that approved this toxin. Yet, Dr. Friedman of the FDA went to the defense of Monsanto on 60 Minutes, and this is after the FDA themselves kept aspartame off the market for 16 years because aspartame triggered brain tumors. And secret trade information by the original manufacturer (as posted at www.DORway.com and released to Congress) admits they have to consider "complete conversion to DKP", the brain tumor agent. And yet, they wanted to market it anyway. Profit was more important than life!! And I weep for every consumer that dies from these brain tumors, so many leaving young children to grow up without a parent.
Dr. Jeffrey Bada, a peptide chemist, at the University of California at San Diego, warned against heating aspartame and the resultant internal rearrangement of its chemical structure. The FDA themselves said for years you could not heat aspartame and then in l993 turned right around and approved it for baking. Then in l996 Dr. David Kessler gave blanket approval for this deadly drug that interacts with other drugs including monoamine oxidase inhibitors, alpha-methyldopa and L-dihydroxphenylalanine. Complete irresponsibility! Even in the secret trade information Herbert Helling said "I think that it's vital to point out to the Food and Drug people at this meeting that the sweetener is not suitable for all applications for artificial sweeteners and at best would only be functional in part of the market"... Yet, Dr. Kessler saw fit for this drug to be used like sugar and even for pregnant women to use without a warning.
Dr. Louis Elsas (Emory University Pediatric Professor, genetics) testified before congress that aspartame is a neurotoxin and teratogen (triggers birth defects). If the baby even survived, and were PKU, it would be mentally retarded. And neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock says if the baby survives you could even see problems at the age of puberty when more complex parts of the brain are utilized, and that it also is triggering ADD. Dr. Roberts in his position paper on pregnancy and aspartame says even a man using aspartame at the time of conception can cause birth defects in his own child. I told Dr. Friedman at the time my own daughter got pregnant that the food supply was no longer safe and that aspartame is now unlabeled in many things because of this blanket approval. Last week my own daughter lost her baby and was told that 50% of first pregnancies are now ending in miscarriage. An OB-GYN specialist told me yesterday this was not normal. Some women have told me they have lost as many as 7 babies on aspartame. I call it first degree murder! Monsanto funded a study on birth defects which was disastrous, so they withdrew their funding and Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards had to pay it herself. Then neither Monsanto or the FDA would accept it. Quite a message to the world - if a researcher will not say it is safe, the study will not be accepted. Do you want to inflict more of this on the world with Neotame???
I called Dr. Bada about Neotame and asked him to look over the formula. He told me they scrambled the formula but yes , it was the same deadly breakdown products! Biochemist Dr. Madelon Price who works with the famed Dr. John Olney agrees.
The Material Safety Data Sheet on Aspartame (CAS# 22839-47-0 says that to work with aspartame one should wear chemical goggles, protective gloves to prevent skin exposure, a chemical apron and a NIOS/MSHA approved air purifying dust or mist respirator. And Dr. Henney, this toxin is in children's vitamins and medications. Are you not horrified?! It lists the hazardous decomposition products as methanol, formaldehyde and DKP (tumor agent), carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. Do you understand that we do not want this toxin in our food. Dr. Blaylock in a lecture on www.dorway.com explains that the reactions to aspartame are not allergic but toxic in nature like arsenic and cyanide!! Do you want to approve more of the same and can you imagine the synergistic effects with other excitotoxins like MSG??
In l986, the Community Nutrition Institute petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame because people were going blind -- but the FDA refused! Cases continue to pour in on this issue as aspartame destroys also the optic nerve. Focus RP Magazine in November wrote an article on aspartame titled: "What's Blinding the World?" (http://www.focusnewsletter.org/aspartame.htm) Would you dare to approve neotame and increase this problem? The aspartame ADI was set for rats, not humans and 26 questions to the FDA have gone unanswered for years (on www.dorway.com)
Monsanto is the largest manufacturer of poisons in the world responsible for aspartame, agent orange, RBGH and genetic engineering. An article titled "Monsanto in Parliament" quoted speaker Norman Baker saying Monsanto has made itself Public Enemy No. 1. He says they have bulldozed elected governments across the world and forced its wretched products on to the world's population, whether we want them or not. Further Monsanto has been condemned by the Advertising Standards Authority, which found it guilty of making "wrong ... unproven, misleading and confusing claims". He further says it has used the revolving door policy and makes sure that personnel from Monsanto and government agency advisory bodies frequently switch positions. "Marcia Hale, the former adviser to the US President is now the director of international government affairs of the Monsanto corporation. Michael Kantnor, the former Secretary to the US Department of Commerce is now a member of the Monsanto corporation board. Josh King, the former director of production for White House events, is now the Director of Global Communications for the Monsanto corporation. Margaret Miller, the former chemical laboratory supervisor for Monsanto, is now the deputy director of the new animal drug evaluation office in the US Union documents that have been passed to Monsanto by Dr. Nick Weber of the FDA, and a former Monsanto analyst." Also he says: "It is getting the Food and Drug Administration on board"...
The public has to know if you are on board with Monsanto and willing to approve this toxin or there for the protection of the consumer's health against unsafe food and drugs. Action speaks louder than words. Dr. James Bowen told the FDA many years ago that aspartame was mass-poisoning of the American public and more than 70 countries of the world. He ought to know as a victim that now suffers with Lou Gehrigs Disease. Aspartame destroys the brain, the central nervous system and the optic nerve and ravages every organ in the body. A recent study by Trocho, Pardo and co-workers, has demonstrated that following aspartame ingestion, significant amounts of formaldehyde accumulate in the tissues. Formaldehyde is known to bind strongly to proteins and nucleic acids, forming adducts that are extremely difficult to eliminate through normal metabolic pathways. Dr. Blaylock says in this study, they demonstrated that labeled methanol (as formaldehyde) accumulated in high concentrations in the liver (50%) and in lower, but substantial, concentrations in the kidney, adipose tissue, brain and retina. within the cell, they found large amounts located within the DNA.
The largest study on aspartame is being conducted on the consumer public and as we tally the results, this may end up being one of the largest epidemics in world history! In May 1992, the official U.S. Air Force Magazine, FLYING SAFETY explained: .."People have suffered aspartame related disorders with doses as small as that carried in a single stick of chewing gum. This could mean a pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo or to flicker-induced epileptic activity. It also means that all pilots are potential victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight and gradual loss of vision." (Three American Airline pilots who were heavy users of aspartame died within the last year and a half and the FAA says they can't do anything until the FDA does!) Indeed, Dr. Roberts said that aspartame laced gum works like nitroglycerin, small molecules, goes through saliva straight to the brain. We have sent case histories to FDA where consumers have suffered grand mal seizures on a stick of this gum. I'll quote a copy of a letter sent to you on 3/14/99 by Chelsea Tallman, 491 Westerly Rd, #102, Bellingham, Wa 98226, a 24 year old in whom aspartame shattered half of her life.
"For the past 12 years I have been plagued by the following symptoms: Severe headaches, digestive problems, asthma, breathing problems, chronic fatigue, depression, suicidal tendencies, dizziness, ringing in ears, pressure in ears, loss of equilibrium, numbness in arms and legs, shooting pains in legs, blurred vision, floaters, watering eyes, dry eyes, fibromyalgia symptoms, hormonal problems, menstrual irregularities, pre-menopause, confusion, heart palpitations, spasms, nausea, personality changes, rashes, Lyme's disease symptoms, sleeping disorders, speech difficulties, swaying and staggering when walking, swollen optic nerves, racing heart, change of taste, uncoordinated walk, vertigo, weakness, weight gain in hips and thighs, and loss of 12 normal functioning years of my life. The worst part is that I am only 24 years old!"
Dr. Henney, she goes on to say that her parents spent thousands of their hard-earned money to try and find the culprit, and that her illness was so much of a part of her life that it was written about in her marriage vows. She also said: "After the total elimination of this substance from my diet, the symptoms listed above have either disappeared, or are greatly diminished. I have, however, accidentally ingested aspartame on 3 occasions, within minutes I started suffering all over again. My suffering would last anywhere from days to weeks depending on how much aspartame I ingested. Most of my original suffering was from CHEWING 1 SINGLE STICK OF ASPARTAME-FILLED GUM A DAY." Chelsea said you would never want to see any of your own family suffer the way hers has. "Imagine having your daughter always in such severe pain that it moved her to tears and unneeded torture every single day. Imagine always being in fear that you would get a phone call telling you your child had killed themselves just to stop the pain they endured." Recently an aspartame victim did commit suicide!
In Dr. Roberts letter about Neotame on March 3, l998 he said: "As a physician and citizen, I am appalled at the thought of American consumers being again subjected to an anticipated repeat of the aspartame fiasco"..
Another senior FDA toxicologist, Dr. Verrett told Congress that the studies that approved aspartame were built on a foundation of sand and should have been thrown out. These studies that were the target of an indictment for fraud that was not carried out when two U.S. Prosecutors went to work for the law firm defending the case and let the statute of limitations expire, actually approved aspartame.
A petition for recall is now being signed at http://www.e-thepeople.com/petition.cfm?PETID=109862
At Dr. Roberts first press conference he said unless something is done about aspartame we would end up with a world plague, and that we have. This time, listen to demands for recall by an outraged consumer public that has been screaming about this toxin since it was approved. Dr. Ralph Walton on 60 Minutes said only 90 independent studies are valid on aspartame, and of these 83 showed problems!
As aspartame destroys the CNS it is mimicking MS, as it hardens the synovial fluids victims are being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia and consumers are getting brain tumors and going blind. Babies are being murdered in their mother's womb and young people with their whole life ahead of them are dying of brain tumors. It is escalating Alzheimers according to Dr. Roberts. It precipitates diabetes, Graves Disease, epilepsy, chronic fatigue, Parkinson's and ALS. A pivotal study (SC18862) submitted was done on 7 infant monkeys: 5 had grand mal seizures and 1 died. The FDA report shows 92 symptoms from coma to death. It triggers an irregular heart rhythm and interacts with drugs. Dr. Henney, don't let further disability and death be your legacy. Recall aspartame and refuse to approve Neotame.
The above desperate letter was ignored by the FDA, which approved Neotame in February 2005.
Sucralose, Splenda (Promoted extensively in products from the misleading profit-motivated Atkins Foundation, and others) 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 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., accumulate in body fat, and are considered to be toxic carcinogens. The manufacturer falsely states that: "sucralose passes through the body unabsorbed."
The truth is that 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 midst of the continued controversy over aspartame and the more-intense neotame, many pharmaceutical and health food manufacturers - Pro Lab, Twin Lab and Ross Products, makers of Pedialyte - have switched to sucralose, which may be similar or worse (long term problem documentation is not yet available, as it is for aspartame).
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI – aka "the food police") is attacking McNeil Nutritionals, (the sucralose manufacturer - a division of Johnson and Johnson), for the way they go to great lengths to falsely imply that Splenda is natural and safe, when it clearly is neither.
McNeil's deceptive misleading marketing slogan is: "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar." The sucralose in Splenda is in fact a synthetic chemical that contains dealdly chlorine, something that no natural sugar contains. In many chemical forms, chlorine is a powerful toxin. Would you intentionally feed your family chlorine beach, or a cumulative deadly pesticide like DDT, even in small quantities?
Then why is Splenda so very popular? Once again, commercials tell naive, gullible Americans to buy it, and they do without further investigation.
McNeil's misleading "made from sugar," slogan sounds a lot better to the cast majority of irrational, indiscriminate mediocre minds than a true statement like: "made from chlorinated hydrocarbons," or "a synthetic chemical made in a laboratory with chlorine, just like DDT."
Splenda's unhealthy artificial chemical composition may present a marketing challenge (for good reason), but that's not a valid excuse to intentionally mislead consumers and cause the majority to believe that Splenda is safe or in any way related to natural sugar.
The fact Sucralose is such a fantastic marketing success is clear evidence that millions of people believe misleading marketing messages and do dumb things without taking the time required to investigate the long-term impact of important lifestyle changes. Commercials tell them to eat Splenda, and without further study they do. This is particularly curious, since there is a long history of a variety of serious healthy problems associated with various sugar substitutes.
Somehow they erroneously believe that a new patented product must be a better that other alternatives. In drugs and food additives, this is frequently NOT TRUE. So far, in almost all cases, a sugar substitute with no well known health hazards is either (a) one that has not been studied well enough, (b) one where the vendor has effectively hidden the truth, or (c) all of the above.
To understand how consumers incorrectly perceive hazardous Splenda, CSPI commissioned a national Internet survey of people who had used Splenda. Only 57 percent of Splenda users correctly believed that Splenda was an "artificial sweetener." 47 percent of Splenda users incorrectly believed it was a "natural product." Only 8 percent of the respondents correctly believed that it was made from sugar and deadly toxic chlorine.
The Atkins Foundation's widespread use and support of chlorine-containing sucralose is doing the public a great disservice. We agree with Atkins that some types of carbohydrates should be greatly reduced in the American diet, BUT Atkins' extensive use of hazardous, improperly marketed, unsafe sugar substitutes is the primary reason that JOYFUL AGING DOES NOT SUPPORT OR AGREE WITH MANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR ENDORSED BY THE POPULAR ATKINS FOUNDATION.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200502141.html
www.holisticmed.com/splenda/
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
Other Dangerous Sugar Substitutes – This section is under construction
If you find any of the following products in a food or beverage that you like, please avoid it, or at least search the Internet for problems associated with it.
Stevia Extract (Stevioside or Steviol) - Stevia is NOT FDA-approved as an artificial sweetener; however it can be (and is) sold as a dietary supplement, where people then use it as a sweetner. We know that there are many health risks for sweeteners that the FDA has approved, how much worse is Stevia? Because the FDA refuses to protect the public by monitoring or regulating sometimes-deathly food supplements, such products have no guarantee of purity, non-toxicity or efficacy. Stevia is being promoted iun the U.S., with no valid long-term studies of its safety or interactions with other foods or drugs. Due to this lack of knowledge, it should be avoided completely.
Licorice Extract
Acesulfame Potassium (Acesulfame-K, Sunett) – Insufficient testing. Preliminary tests link it to several forms of cancer.
Alitame
Disodium Glycyrrhizinate
D-Sorbitol – See Sorbitol
D-Tagatose (Sugaree)
D-Xylose
Erythritol
Isomalte
Lactitol
Maltitol
Mannitol
N-Acetyl Glucosamine
Sorbitol is a tissue toxin - Contributes to retinopathy, neuropathy, cataracts, kidney disease, diarrhea, cramping and other digestive disorders.
Sunette - See Acesulfame Potassium
Tagatose – See D-Tagatose
Xylitol
Substituting sugar with other simple carbohydrates is similar to eating plain white sugar. Examples of sugar substitutes that increase human blood sugar include: sucrose, raw sugar, turbinado, glucose, dextrose, corn syrup, fructose, honey, lactose, maltose and alcohol sugars like erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xybitol and xylitol.
When profit-motivated unscrupulous food companies try to appeal to naive and gullible "low-carbohydrate" dieters (with unreasonable products like low-carb candy bars) they often replace the natural carbohydrates with unnatural unhealthy substances such as sorbitol or maltitol, which act as irritating laxatives and in large quantities can cause retinopathy (blindness), neuropathy (dementia, loss of senses and control), cataracts (blurred vision), kidney disease (death), diarrhea (dehydration, starvation), cramping and other painful digestive disorders. As little as 50 grams of sugar alcohol (as found in only a few pieces of sugar free candy) has been shown to cause bloating and diarrhea. Larger amounts of sugar alcohol, over longer periods of time, lead toward more serious illness and even death.
Sugar-free or low-sugar candy
Serving
Calories
Sugar alcohol (grams)
Mint patties
6 pieces
(86 grams)
400
54
