The Dangers Of Aspartame

[BuddyLive]

I know no one on this forum uses this stuff, but you might have friends that do. I thought it was worth passing on.

Buddy

(lifeonlivingfood.com)


Subject: The Dangers of Aspartame and other Sugar Substitutes
Everyone needs to read this, Please!

Subject: SWEET POISON: very important to read


In October of 2001, my sister started getting very sick. She had stomach
spasms and she was having a hard time getting around. Walking was a major
chore. It took everything she had just to get out of bed; she was in
so much pain.
By March 2002, she had undergone several tissue and muscle biopsies and was
on 24 various prescription medications. The doctors could not determine
what was wrong with her. She was in so much pain, and so sick...she just
knew she was dying. She put her house, bank accounts, life insurance, etc.,
in her oldest daughters name, and made sure that her younger children were
to be taken care of. She also wanted her last hooray, so she planned a trip
to FL (basically in a wheelchair) for March 22nd.

On March 19th I called her to ask how her most recent tests went, and she
said they didn't find anything on the test, but they believe she had MS. I
recalled an article a friend of mine E-mailed to me and I asked my
sister if she drank diet soda? She told me that she did. As a matter of
fact, she was getting ready to crack one open that moment... I told her not
to open it, and to stop drinking the diet soda !!! I E-mailed her the
article
my friend, a lawyer, had sent.

My sister called me within 32 hours after our phone conversation and told
me she had stopped drinking the diet soda AND she could walk!!!! The muscle
spasms went away. She said she didn't feel 100% but she sure felt a lot
better. She told me she was going to her doctor with this article and would
call me when she got home.
Well, she called me, and said her doctor was amazed! He is going to call
all of his MS patients to find out if they consumed artificial sweeteners
of any kind...

In a nutshell, she was being poisoned by the Aspartame in the diet
soda...and literally dying a slow and miserable death. When she got to FL
March 22nd, all she had to take was one pill, and that was a pill for the
Aspartame poisoning! She is well on her way to a complete recovery . and
she is walking!!! No wheelchair!!!

This article saved her life. If it says "SUGAR FREE" on the label, DO NOT
EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!

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

In the keynote address by the EPA, it was announced that in the United
States in 2001 there is an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic
lupus. It was difficult to determine exactly what toxin was causing this to
be rampant. I stood up and said that I was there to lecture on exactly
that subject. I will explain why Aspartame is so dangerous: When the
temperature of this sweetener exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in
ASPARTAME converts
to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic
acidosis. Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants. The
methanol toxicity mimics, among other conditions, multiple sclerosis and
systemic lupus.

Many people were being diagnosed in error. Although multiple sclerosis is
not a death sentence.. methanol toxicity is! Systemic lupus has become
almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially with Diet Coke and Diet
Pepsi drinkers. The victim usually does not know that the Aspartame is the
culprit. He or she continues its use;
irritating the lupus to such a degree that it may become a life-threatening
condition. We have seen patients with systemic lupus become asymptotic,
once taken off diet sodas.

In cases of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the
disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We've seen
many cases where vision loss returned and hearing loss improved markedly.
This also applies to cases of tinnitus and fibromyalgia. During a lecture,
I said, "If you are using ASPARTAME (NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc.) and
you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, shooting, pains, numbness in
your legs, cramps, vertigo, dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, joint pain,
unexplainable depression, anxiety attacks,
slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss...you probably have
ASPARTAME poisoning!"

People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I have some of these
symptoms." Is it reversible?" Yes! Yes! Yes! STOP drinking diet sodas and
be alert for Aspartame on food labels! Many products are fortified with
it!!!
This is a serious problem. Dr. Espart (one of my speakers) remarked that so
many people seem to be symptomatic for MS and during his recent visit to a
hospice; a nurse stated that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke
addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence! Diet
soda is NOT a diet product! It is a chemically altered, multiple SODIUM
(salt) and ASPARTAME containing product that actually makes you crave
carbohydrates. It is far more likely to make you GAIN weight! These
products also contain formaldehyde, which stores in the fat cells,
particularly in the hips and thighs. Formaldehyde is an absolute toxin and
is used primarily to preserve "tissue specimens."

Many products we use every day! contain this chemical but we SHOULD NOT
store it IN our body!!!
Dr. H. J. Roberts stated in his lectures that once free of the "diet
products" and with no significant increase in exercise; his patients lost
an average of 19 pounds over a trial period. Aspartame is especially
dangerous for diabetics. We found that some physicians, who believed that
they had a patient with retinopathy, in fact,
had symptoms caused by Aspartame. The Aspartame drives the blood sugar out
of control. Thus diabetics may suffer acute memory loss due to the fact
that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are NEUROTOXIC when taken without the
other amino acids necessary for a good balance. Treating diabetes is all
about BALANCE. Especially with diabetics, the Aspartame passes the
blood/brain barrier and it then deteriorates the neurons of the brain;
causing various levels of brain damage, seizures, depression, manic
depression, panic attacks, uncontrollable anger and rage.

Consumption of Aspartame causes these same symptoms in non-diabetics, as
well. Documentation and observation also reveal that thousands of children
diagnosed with ADD and AHD have had complete turnarounds in their behavior
>>>>>>when these chemicals have been removed from their diet. So called
"behavior modification prescription drugs" (Ritalin and others) are no
longer needed. Truth be told, they were never NEEDED in the first place!
Most of these children were being "poisoned" on a daily basis with the very
foods that were "better for them than sugar." It is also suspected that
the Aspartame in thousands of pallets of diet Coke and diet Pepsi consumed
by men and women fighting in the Gulf War, may be partially to blame for
the well-known Gulf War Syndrome.

Dr. Roberts warns that it can cause birth defects, i.e., mental
retardation, if taken at the time of conception and during early pregnancy.
Children are especially at risk for neurological disorders and should NEVER
be given
artificial sweeteners. There are many different case histories to relate of
children suffering grand mal seizures and other neurological disturbances
due to the use of NutraSweet. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to
convince people that Aspartame is to blame for their child's illness.
Stevia, which is a sweet herb, NOT A MANUFACTURED ADDITIVE, helps in the
metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics. It has now been
approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA. It is known that for many
years the FDA outlawed this true sweet food,"
due to their loyalty to MONSANTO Chemical Company."

Books on this subject are available:
EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS written by Dr. Russell Blayblock (Health
Press 1-800-643-2665)

AND: DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE-written
>>>>>>by DR H. J. Roberts, also a diabetic specialist.

These two doctors will soon be posting a position paper with case histories
on the deadly effects of Aspartame on the Internet. According to the
Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a
plague of neurological diseases directly caused by the use of this deadly
poison." Herein lies the problem: There were Congressional Hearings when
Aspartame was included 100 different products and strong objection was made
concerning
it's use. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent
hearings and still, nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies
have very deep pockets. Sadly, MONSANTO'S patent on Aspartame has EXPIRED!!
There are now over 5,000 products on the market that contain this deadly
chemical and there will be thousands more introduced. Everybody wants a
"piece of the Aspartame pie." I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of
Aspartame, knows how deadly it is. And isn't it ironic that MONSANTO funds,
among others, the American Diabetes Association, the American Dietetic
Association and the Conference of the American College of Physicians? This
has been recently exposed in the New York Times. These cannot criticize any
additives or convey their link to MONSANTO because they
take money from the food industry and are required to endorse their
products.

Senator Howard Metzenbaum wrote and presented a bill that would require
label warnings on products containing Aspartame, especially regarding
pregnant women, children and infants. The bill would also institute
independent studies on the known dangers and the problems existing in the
general population regarding seizures, changes in brain
chemistry,neurological changes and behavioral symptoms. The bill was
killed. It is known that the powerful drug and chemical lobbies are
responsible for this, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an
unsuspecting
and uninformed public.

Well, you're informed now!!!! YOU HAVE A RIGHT

[sungoddess]

I used to DOWN this stuff. No wonder my skin detox is horrible :eek:

[Revvell]

'bout time you posted Buddy. How are ya?

We're got a retreat starting out your way in Anza.

Revvell

[Morn]

Thanks for posting this. I have been off of this for the last two months but my husband is still drinking it. I used to drink 5 or 6 diet sodas a day. I will print this off for my husband to read. I wondered why I was such a carb addict before.

Interestingly my brother in law went on the maker's diet and was doing great til he gave in and had a diet coke. He said after that he went downhill and went back to eating everything he used to. :( Interesting that a product that is supposed to help you lose weight actually makes you hold on to the weight.

Thanks

[GlimR]

I just read Sweet Deception by Dr. Mercola.......amazing.....scarry stuff.......just boggles the mind that so much crap goes on~

Splenda is no different.

[kiki_louis]

I finally got my mom to stop drinking that poison recently, but my best friend still does!! It drives me wild.

[BuddyLive]

I know it's hard to sit back and watch people suffer with affects of all of this kind of stuff when we all know they don't have to. It sure drives me nuts, too!

[rawpriestess]

I remember when I was on Nutra systmes, finding out about Nutrasweet, which is aspertame, it tasted great, buy my body reacted very negatively to it. Oh, I lost weight alright, but I had such horrible head aches and joint aches, I could barely function, thankfully, I got off it. 3 times, I went there, always the same horrible feeling.

I also know someone who thought she had MS, I showed her some info on aspertame, she quit diet pop, (very hard to do) and her symptoms went away.

[Crystal Rose]

Thank you so much for this, Buddy Live. People need to know this information. I know people who have gone through this -- it's real. Thank you again.

Vicki

[blueberrygirl]

My mom have MS, but she didnt drink any coke.. wish that would be easy.
we all drink water. but that is important info... thank you ;)

[juliebove]

Gah! I wish these lies would not be posted here. It's bad enough that we are being bombared on the diabetes newsgroups with this stuff, but now I am reading it here as well! It can NOT be proven that Aspartame is unsafe to consume. Yes, some people will react to it, just as some people will react to pretty much anything on the face of this earth. I get sick if I eat almonds. That doesn't mean they are unsafe for everyone.

I didn't bother to read through all the blather but it appears to be the same nonsense started by one Betty Martini, aka Nancy Markle who is a proven quack. I am not going to bother posting everything I know about her here but if you care to look, you can read about it here:

http://quackwatch.org/search/webglimpse.cgi?ID=1&query=aspartame&case=&whole=&lines=&errors=&age=&maxfiles=25&maxlines=20&maxchars=3000&filter=&cache=yes&rankby=DEFAULT]

Or here:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

Total nonsense.

[freetarian]

Ive known this for about ten years.

When I told this to someone who was wheight conscious and drank diet coke, they simply dismissed it. I feel this is because to these people wheight gain is more frightening than body damage.

I have always eaten the full blown normal sugar junk food due to the very reason that I knew the sugar substitutes are way worse than sugar itself, and I was addicted to normal coke. I had diet coke once in my life and almost spit it out. It doesnt even taste good.

[LovesAnimals777]

I believe all those sugar subsitutes that are out on the market are worst than just sugar or honey

[drbloem]

Gah! I wish these lies would not be posted here. It's bad enough that we are being bombared on the diabetes newsgroups with this stuff, but now I am reading it here as well! It can NOT be proven that Aspartame is unsafe to consume. Yes, some people will react to it, just as some people will react to pretty much anything on the face of this earth. I get sick if I eat almonds. That doesn't mean they are unsafe for everyone.

http://quackwatch.
Or here:

http://www.snopes.com

Total nonsense.

Aspartame is NOT safe. Just because many people don't obviously react to it does not mean that it is without any danger.

QuackWatch is not a credible source of information. It may just be a matter of time until Stephen Barrett will do an article "exposing" the raw vegan diet.

If you want to learn more about the dangers of aspartame and other food additives such as MSG I recommend the book Excitotoxins - The Taste That Kills by Dr. Russell Blaylock.

[dreamrawalwz]

Aspartame is a man made chemical. It's not natural, therefor NOT safe or good for consupmtion. Aspartame reactions to the blood and isulin just the same as sugar does...hence weight gain with these products and addiction! Sure, not everyone will react immediately but later in their lives they will pay in one way or another.Just like those that are super thin and can eat everything they want and not gain any weight...seem healthy and oknow, but they'll mostlikely get some disease, unfortunately. I believe there are two forms of reactions - immediate and then severely delayed.

[sungoddess]

Quackwatch also support chemotherapy 'diet is not the answer for cancer', immunization, and is against every single anternative healling practice out there. Their support of aspartame does not sway me. Aspartame has been proven to be bad for diabetics, even if the effect isn't necessarily immediate with every diabetic like it may be with sugar they consume.

[juliebove]

Quackwatch also support chemotherapy 'diet is not the answer for cancer', immunization, and is against every single anternative healling practice out there. Their support of aspartame does not sway me. Aspartame has been proven to be bad for diabetics, even if the effect isn't necessarily immediate with every diabetic like it may be with sugar they consume.

Asparatame has been proven to be bad for diabetics? Where has it been proven? I don't care if it is man made, not man made, if you choose to use it or not. But I can't stand blatant lies!

And if you think sugar is bad for diabetics, then you don't know much about diabetes. Sugar is no worse for our blood sugar than rice, potatoes, white bread, an banana or any other source of carb. Now if we're talking nutrition, that's another matter. If a diabetic could eat sugar and have it have an immediate effect, then I wouldn't have to suffer through those hypos I sometimes have. Alas, there is nothing that has an immediate effect on blood sugar AFAIK. Nothing you can ingest anyway. Glucogan perhaps is immediate. Dunno. I've never had it or needed it. That's a shot given to those who use insulin and can't get their blood sugar back up from ingesting carbs.

[Xanadu]

Some day you will be old enough to admit you could be wrong even when you think you are right, I hope. Then you will have gained a measure of maturity that is, at least at this time, lacking.

Meanwhile it is obvious that aspartame when changed by heat is harmful to everyone as it has been experienced by too many and the chemical it changes into cannot help but be just what it is, poison. I do not need a printed study produced by normally biased groups/etc. to believe it when enough people say the sky is blue who have no reason to lie. You can argue veiwpoints and semantics all day but common sense still stands. Why take the chance that the aspartame I get has not been changed by heat when there are healthy alternatives created for humans by the perfect designer so immeasurably far above us humans who mess up just about everything we do. Now you may not be religious and in that case you can ignore the previous sentence. It is not necessary to this argument anyway.

Also sugar IS bad for diabetics on a cooked food diet. My husband is a severe diabetic needing as much as 100 units of insulin or more a day, not able to eat any fruit without rocketing blood sugar levels previous to the raw living food diet. As a consequence, due to devoted research and study, he knows more about diabetes than most doctors and has been told so by several of them. On the Atkins diet's first level very strictly and jogging an hour and a half a day he could keep his blood sugar in normal levels, but eat a bite of banana, a drop of honey, an eighth tsp of SUGAR , etc. and his blood sugar would go up to 3 to 4 hundred or more, to two hundred within a minute of ingestion. Now sugar found naturally in raw foods does not do this to him since he has gone 100% raw and I hope to have my husband of 35 years with me much longer that I had thought previously. Oh...and sugar DOES include rice, potatoes, white bread, and banana or any other source of carb in that on a cooked food diet they are bad for diabetics. I won't bother to argue with you any after this so go ahead...blow off some more steam...most of us are very patient people here.

[juliebove]

Some day you will be old enough to admit you could be wrong even when you think you are right, I hope. Then you will have gained a measure of maturity that is, at least at this time, lacking.

Meanwhile it is obvious that aspartame when changed by heat is harmful to everyone as it has been experienced by too many and the chemical it changes into cannot help but be just what it is, poison. I do not need a printed study produced by normally biased groups/etc. to believe it when enough people say the sky is blue who have no reason to lie. You can argue veiwpoints and semantics all day but common sense still stands. Why take the chance that the aspartame I get has not been changed by heat when there are healthy alternatives created for humans by the perfect designer so immeasurably far above us humans who mess up just about everything we do. Now you may not be religious and in that case you can ignore the previous sentence. It is not necessary to this argument anyway.

Also sugar IS bad for diabetics on a cooked food diet. My husband is a severe diabetic needing as much as 100 units of insulin or more a day, not able to eat any fruit without rocketing blood sugar levels previous to the raw living food diet. As a consequence, due to devoted research and study, he knows more about diabetes than most doctors and has been told so by several of them. On the Atkins diet's first level very strictly and jogging an hour and a half a day he could keep his blood sugar in normal levels, but eat a bite of banana, a drop of honey, an eighth tsp of SUGAR , etc. and his blood sugar would go up to 3 to 4 hundred or more, to two hundred within a minute of ingestion. Now sugar found naturally in raw foods does not do this to him since he has gone 100% raw and I hope to have my husband of 35 years with me much longer that I had thought previously. Oh...and sugar DOES include rice, potatoes, white bread, and banana or any other source of carb in that on a cooked food diet they are bad for diabetics. I won't bother to argue with you any after this so go ahead...blow off some more steam...most of us are very patient people here.

I am 47 years old. I had gestation diabetes at at 38 and have had type 2 since age 40. I am insulted that you insinuate that I am not mature.

As for semantics, I do not feel I am going there. What the OP posted has been proven to be a lie, an urban legend.

Now you can say that aspartame is bad for you. I don't care. You may think that. But that doesn't mean what the OP posted is the truth as far as that story goes. It is not a true story. It is something that has been passed around in e-mails for many years.

You say your husband is a "severe" diabetic. There is no such thing. There are over 300 types of diabetes but the majority of us fit into categories of type 1, type 2 or gestational. Some of the lesser known varities are MODY or LADA. Some have the misfortune of having both type 1 and type 2. People who have difficult to control diabetes are called "brittle". No two cases of diabetes are the same. Most diabetics have at least one other disease to complicate things and in the case of type 2, the amount of insulin resistance will vary. Hormonal levels also factor into things.

All carbohydrate containing foods contain "sugar", raw or cooked. I do not like for you to imply that I am stupid. I know a lot about nutrition. Carbohydrates as NOT bad for diabetics, although we do need to limit how many of them we eat. And some more than others. What is bad for everyone, but particularly harmful to diabetics are trans-fats and fructose that has been extracted from the fruit. Eating a whole piece of fruit is not harmful (although it might raise blood sugar), because it contains all of the natural sugars such as sorbitol in addition to the fructose. Fructose in and of itself leads to heart problems in diabetics. Remember, there are many types of sugar.

As you say, there is no point in arguing because you are doing the very thing you are accusing ME of. Thinking that you are right and I am wrong. *poof*

[Xanadu]

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not. We'll see.

[Revvell]

I personally know of one person who has had episodes of blindness and another who has had a stroke from drinking diet sodas sweetened with aspartame.

Many people are not "seemingly" affected by sulphites yet if I eat anything with it on it, it'll cause an asthma attack yet it doesn't mean that they're safe to others who don't "seem" to be affected.

Many people smoke cigarettes with no "obvious" ill effects yet it doesn't mean that they're safe.

As someone else here said, aspartame is a man-made drug. It is NOT natural. (not to say that all things natural are not or may not be harmful yet, it IS to say that pretty much anything put in the body that IS man-made is more than likely harmful). The body understands and utilizes food.

Seems simple to me. MANY people are experiencing the side effects of aspartame. It is NOT safe and you can argue this point as much as you want it wont make it any less harmful.

Revvell

[juliebove]

I personally know of one person who has had episodes of blindness and another who has had a stroke from drinking diet sodas sweetened with aspartame.

Many people are not "seemingly" affected by sulphites yet if I eat anything with it on it, it'll cause an asthma attack yet it doesn't mean that they're safe to others who don't "seem" to be affected.

Many people smoke cigarettes with no "obvious" ill effects yet it doesn't mean that they're safe.

As someone else here said, aspartame is a man-made drug. It is NOT natural. (not to say that all things natural are not or may not be harmful yet, it IS to say that pretty much anything put in the body that IS man-made is more than likely harmful). The body understands and utilizes food.

Seems simple to me. MANY people are experiencing the side effects of aspartame. It is NOT safe and you can argue this point as much as you want it wont make it any less harmful.

Revvell

I am not arguing whether it is safe or not. I was merely pointing out that the story the OP posted is an out and out lie. When I attempted to prove that it was a lie, all I got was people saying my sources were biased. Whatever.

Anyone can have a reaction to anything on the face of this earth. That doesn't make that thing unsafe for the rest of us.

[Revvell]

Anyone can have a reaction to anything on the face of this earth. That doesn't make that thing unsafe for the rest of us.

Does it mean it's safe for the rest of us?

Food will most often give an immediate (within hours if not minutes) reaction. Drugs don't. One can go years ingesting a poisonous man-made drug then find they have an incurable dis-ease caused by the drug. Personally, I'll not ingest anything with drugs in it and aspartame is a drug.

And whether the story is true or not matters not to me. The drug is unsafe and anytime someone comes to me complaining of migraines all I know is, the first question I ask is how many diet sodas are you drinking? End of story.


Revvell

[Xanadu]

ASPARTAME

Article courtesy of: Mark Gold mgold@holisticmed.com
(researcher for twenty years on such subjects)

Long-Term Damage. It appears to cause slow, silent damage in those unfortunate enough to not have immediate reactions and a reason to avoid it. It may take one year, five years, 10 years, or 40 years, but it seems to cause some reversible and some irreversible changes in health over long-term use.

METHANOL (AKA WOOD ALCOHOL/POISON) (10% OF ASPARTAME) Methanol/wood alcohol is a deadly poison. People may recall that methanol was the poison that has caused some "skid row" alcoholics to end up blind or dead. Methanol is gradually released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounter the enzyme chymotrypsin.

The absorption of methanol into the body is sped up considerably when free methanol is ingested. Free methanol is created from aspartame when it is heated to above 86 Fahrenheit (30 Centigrade). This would occur when aspartame-containing product is improperly stored or when it is heated (e.g., as part of a "food" product such as Jello).

Methanol breaks down into formic acid and formaldehyde in the body.
Formaldehyde is a deadly neurotoxin. An EPA assessment of methanol states that methanol "is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion once it is absorbed. In the body, methanol is oxidized to formaldehyde and formic acid; both of these metabolites are toxic." The recommend a limit of consumption of 7.8 mg/day. A one-liter (approx. 1 quart) aspartame-sweetened beverage contains about 56 mg of methanol. Heavy users of aspartame-containing products consume as much as 250 mg
of methanol daily or 32 times the EPA limit.

(For proof that there is methanol, and that it converts to formaldehyde and DOES get stored in the fat.. visit: www.PRESIDIOTEX.COM/barcelona/)

The most well known problems from methanol poisoning are vision problems. Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication, and causes birth defects. Due to the lack of a couple of key enzymes, humans are many times more sensitive to the toxic effects of methanol than animals. Therefore, tests of aspartame or methanol on animals do not accurately reflect the danger for humans. As pointed out by Dr Woodrow C. Monte, Director of the Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory at Arizona State University, "There are no human or mammalian studies to evaluate the possible mutagenic, teratogenic, or carcinogenic effects of chronic administration of methyl alcohol."

It has been pointed out that fruit juices and alcoholic beverages contain small amounts of methanol. It is important to remember, that the methanol in natural products never appears alone. In every case, ethanol is present, usually in much higher amounts. Ethanol is an antidote for methanol toxicity in humans. The troops of Desert Storm were "treated" to large amounts of aspartame-sweetened beverages which had been heated to over 86 degrees F. in the Saudi Arabian sun. Many of them returned home with numerous disorders similar to what has been seen in persons who have been chemically poisoned by formaldehyde. The free methanol in the beverages may have been a contributing factor in these illnesses. Other breakdown products of aspartame such as DKP, may also have been a factor.

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

Much worse, on 27 June 1996, without public notice, the FDA removed all restrictions from aspartame allowing it to be used in everything, including all heated and baked goods.

The truth about aspartame's toxicity is far different than what the NutraSweet Company would have you readers believe. In February of 1994, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the listing of adverse reactions reported to the FDA (DHHS 1994). Aspartame accounted for more than 75% of all adverse reactions reported to the FDA's Adverse Reaction Monitoring System (ARMS). By the FDA's own admission fewer then ONE PERCENT of those who have problems with something they consume ever report it to the FDA. This balloons the almost 10,000 complaints they once had to around a million. However, the FDA has a record keeping problem (they never did respond to the certified letter from the WEBMASTER of this site... a major victim!) and they tend to discourage or even misdirect complaints, at least on aspartame. The fact remains, though, that MOST victims don't have a clue that aspartame may be the cause of their many problems! Many reactions to aspartame were very serious including seizures and death. Those reactions included:

Abdominal Pain
Anxiety attacks
arthritis
asthma
Asthmatic Reactions
Bloating, Edema (Fluid Retention)
Blood Sugar Control Problems (Hypoglycemia or Hyperglycemia)
Brain Cancer (Pre-approval studies in animals)
Breathing difficulties
burning eyes or throat
Burning Urination
can't think straight
Chest Pains
chronic cough
Chronic Fatigue
Confusion
Death
Depression
Diarrhea
Dizziness
Excessive Thirst or Hunger
fatigue
feel unreal
flushing of face
Hair Loss (Baldness) or Thinning of Hair
Headaches/Migraines dizziness
Hearing Loss
Heart palpitations
Hives (Urticaria)
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Impotency and Sexual Problems
inability to concentrate
Infection Susceptibility
Insomnia
Irritability
Itching
Joint Pains
laryngitis
"like thinking in a fog"
Marked Personality Changes
Memory loss
Menstrual Problems or Changes
Migraines and Severe Headaches (Trigger or Cause From Chronic Intake)
Muscle spasms
Nausea or Vomiting
Numbness or Tingling of Extremities
Other Allergic-Like Reactions
Panic Attacks
Phobias
poor memory
Rapid Heart Beat
Rashes
Seizures and Convulsions
Slurring of Speech
Swallowing Pain
Tachycardia
Tremors
Tinnitus
Vertigo
Vision Loss
Weight gain

Aspartame Disease Mimics Symptoms or Worsens the Following Diseases

Fibromyalgia
Arthritis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Parkinson's Disease
Lupus
Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS)
Diabetes and Diabetic Complications
Epilepsy
Alzheimer's Disease
Birth Defects
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lymphoma
Lyme Disease
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Panic Disorder
Depression and other Psychological Disorders

(For visual proof of this list of DHHS/FDA compiled complaints ... which is a scanned graphic of the original document, please visit www.presidiotex.com/aspar...toms.gif).

How it happens:

Methanol, from aspartame, is released in the small intestine when the methyl group of aspartame encounters the enzyme chymotrypsin (Stegink 1984, page 143). Free methanol begins to form in liquid aspartame-containing products at temperatures above 86 degrees F.. also within the human body.

The methanol is then converted to formaldehyde. The formaldehyde converts to formic acid, ant sting poison. Toxic formic acid is used as an activator to strip epoxy and urethane coatings. Imagine what it does to your tissues!

Phenylalanine and aspartic acid, 90% of aspartame, are amino acids normally used in synthesis of protoplasm when supplied by the foods we eat. But when unaccompanied by other amino acids we use [there are 20!], they are neurotoxic.

That is why a warning for Phenylketonurics is found on EQUAL and other
aspartame products. Phenylketenurics are 2% of the population with extreme sensitivity to this chemical unless it's present in food. It gets you too, causing brain disorders and birth defects! Finally, the phenyalanine breaks down into DKP, a brain tumor agent.

In other words: Aspartame converts to dangerous byproducts that have no
natural countermeasures. A dieter's empty stomach accelerates these conversions and amplifies the damage. Components of aspartame go straight to the brain, damage that causes headaches, mental confusion, seizures and faulty balance. Lab rats and other test animals died of brain tumors.

Despite the claims of Monsanto and bedfellows:

1. Methanol from alcohol and juices does not get converted to formaldehyde to any significant extent. There is very strong evidence to confirm this fact for alcoholic beverages and fairly strong evidence for juices.

2. Formaldehyde obtained from methanol is very toxic in *very small* doses as seen by recent research.

3. Aspartame causes chronic toxicity reactions/damage due to the methanol to formaldehyde and other break down products despite what is claimed otherwise by the very short, industry-funded experiments using a test substance that is chemically different and absorbed differently than what is available to the general public. "Strangely enough", almost all independent studies show that aspartame can cause health problems.

4. A common ploy from Monsanto is to claim that aspartame is "safe" yet a few select people may have "allergic" reactions to it. This is typical Monsanto nonsense, of course. Their own research shows that it does not cause "allergic" reactions. It is there way of trying to minimize and hide the huge numbers of toxicity reactions and damage that people are experiencing from the long-term use of aspartame.

Summary

Given the following points, it is definitely premature for researchers to discount the role of methanol in aspartame side effects:

1. The amount of methanol ingested from aspartame is unprecedented in
human history. Methanol from fruit juice ingestion does not even approach the quantity of methanol ingested from aspartame, especially in persons who ingest one to three liters (or more) of diet beverages every day. Unlike methanol from aspartame, methanol from natural products is probably not absorbed or converted to its toxic metabolites in significant amounts as discussed earlier.

2. Lack of laboratory-detectable changes in plasma formic acid and formaldehyde levels do not preclude damage being caused by these toxic metabolites. Laboratory-detectable changes in formate levels are often not found in short exposures to methanol.

3. Aspartame-containing products often provide little or no nutrients which may protect against chronic methanol poisoning and are often consumed in between meals. Persons who ingest aspartame-containing products are often dieting and more likely to have nutritional deficiencies than persons who take the time to make fresh juices.

4. Persons with certain health conditions or on certain drugs may be much more susceptible to chronic methanol poisoning.

5. Chronic diseases and side effects from slow poisons often build silently over a long period of time. Many chronic diseases which seem to appear suddenly have actually been building in the body over many years.

6. An increasing body of research is showing that many people are highly sensitive to low doses of formaldehyde in the environment. Environmental exposure to formaldehyde and ingestion of methanol (which converts to formaldehyde) from aspartame likely has a cumulative deleterious effect.

7. Formic acid has been shown to slowly accumulate in various parts of the body. Formic acid has been shown to inhibit oxygen metabolism.

8. The are a very large and growing number of persons are experiencing chronic health problems similar to the side effects of chronic methanol poisoning when ingesting aspartame-containing products for a significant length of time. This includes many cases of eye damage similar to the type of eye damage seen in methanol poisoning cases.

Toxicity Effects of Aspartame Use Selection of Health Effects from Short-term and/or Long-Term Use Note: It often takes at least sixty days without any aspartame NutraSweet to see a significant improvement. Check all labels very carefully (including vitamins and pharmaceuticals). Look for the word "aspartame" on the label and avoid it. (Also, it is a good idea to avoid "acesulfame-k" or "sunette.") Finally, avoid getting nutrition information from junk food industry PR organizations such as IFIC or organizations that accept large sums of money from the junk and chemical food industry such as the American Dietetic Association.

If you are a user of any products with aspartame, and you have physical,
visual, mental problems... take the 60-day no aspartame test. If, after two months with no aspartame your symptoms are either gone, or are much less severe, please get involved to get this neurotoxin off the market. Write a letter to the FDA, with a copy to Betty Martini (for proof of how the FDA doesn't keep proper records). Write your congressmen. Return products containing aspartame to the point of purchase... for a FULL refund. Make a big stink if they WON'T give you a full refund! Tell all your friends and family... and if they stop using aspartame and also "wake up well"... get them involved in the same way.

Aspartame is an "approved sweetener" because of a few greedy and dishonest people who place profits above human life and well-being. With the FDA and our Congress culpable, only an INFORMED and ACTIVE public will affects its reclassification from "food additive" to TOXIC DRUG, and removed from the human food chain.

Link to a printable report form:

www.dorway.com/reprtfrm.html
www.dorway.com/reprtfrm.txt

Addresses:

Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857

Mrs. Betty Martini
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Internet E-mail: bettym19@mindspring.com

Links for additional information:

www.dorway.com Front door to everything!
www.dorway.com/symptoms.html cross reference of symptoms with files
www.dorway.com/possible.html Mission Possible Files
www.dorway.com/asprlink.html Links to more sites/source information
www.holisticmed.com/aspartame More in-depth Information
www.trufax.org/menu/chem.html#aspartame More good articles
www.PRESIDIOTEX.COM/aspartame/ English
www.PRESIDIOTEX.COM/asparspan/ Spanish

Links for books:

www.dorway.com/books.html Dr. Roberts and others
www.dorway.com/amazon.html Good books from amazon.com

**********

NOW that you are aware of the 92 FDA recognized symptoms (that required
a Freedom Of Information Act request to pry from their reluctant hands)
and HOW aspartame does its dirty work, change to my "Official Dogma" page. On this page Mark Gold has taken the IFIC "Official" aspartame safety myth and shot it full of holes using all of the smoking guns that were used by the FDA to approve this poison as a food additive, along with information they either ignored or discounted.

This excellent debunking of the official FDA, Monsanto, Searle, Nutrasweet, Nutrasweet Kelco/AMA/ADA/IFIC/??? chain of lies and half truths includes a long history of this "product's" sordid trail to the marketplace and the sweet tooth. That page is at:

www.dorway.com/enclosur.html
www.dorway.com/offasprt.html and to see what doctors are saying:
www.dorway.com/doctors.html

[Veganforlife]

Yummy! Sounds like really good stuff -
NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek:

[juliebove]

Does it mean it's safe for the rest of us?

Food will most often give an immediate (within hours if not minutes) reaction. Drugs don't. One can go years ingesting a poisonous man-made drug then find they have an incurable dis-ease caused by the drug. Personally, I'll not ingest anything with drugs in it and aspartame is a drug.

And whether the story is true or not matters not to me. The drug is unsafe and anytime someone comes to me complaining of migraines all I know is, the first question I ask is how many diet sodas are you drinking? End of story.


Revvell

Whether it is safe or not does not matter to me. I just get sick of seeing this lie story posted all over the place.

I have two friends who get migraines. Neither of them drink diet sodas. One used to but had to give up all sodas, diet or otherwise because of severe GERD. The other does not drink any sodas and never has.

My original post was that the story was a lie. I then got the thing about sugar being bad for diabetics and when I questioned this, the poster did not post anything about sugar being bad for diabetics but implied that I was not very bright and said that sugar raised her husband's blood sugar. Duh!

Sorry. I'm probably ranting. It's just that I know who the person is who started this story. This has been all over the diabetes newsgroups and forums for years. One of her minions went on the attack against me and a few other diabetics, spambotting our inboxes to the point where we could not get our real e-mail. It's a nasty little story and it didn't have a happy ending for him, although my ISP in NY took great joy in prosecuting him. They said they lived for things like that.

So whenever I see this lie of a story being posted yet again in another forum it rather gets my ire up. The minion I speak of is active once again on the diabetes newsgroups and other places on the internet. His account was shut down for a couple of years due to his actions, but he is back in business again.

[juliebove]

If ya'll want to believe lies, go right ahead. Like I said... Betty Martini, aka Nancy Markle is the one who started these lies. Dorway is her baby. I posted the links to prove this although you are claiming my sources are biased. You can believe that too. I don't care. She's a whack job from the word go, and has been prosecuted for using names of deceased and some living Drs. and quoting them as saying things they did not say. Her mistake was in picking that one Dr. who is still living and he saw what she wrote that she claimed he said. She has many who work for her. Just because she has a large group of loyal minions doesn't make what she says be true. And if you're one of her minions you can stop replying to me because I don't need to have my computer messed up again!