Artificial Sweeteners and Their Serious Side Effects

ASPARTAME POISONING
Below is an article on aspartame poisoning that's been floating around the internet for years now. We think you'll find it extremely informative.

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From: [email protected]
Date: Sunday, December 13, 1998 7:54 AM
Subject: Could be very important information on our health...

Sent to PLANETNEWS: WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL CONFERENCE and the MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS FOUNDATION F.D.A. ISSUING FOR COLLUSION WITH MONSANTO

An article written by Nancy Markle (1120197)

"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, they announced that there was an epidemic of multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus, and they did not understand what toxin was causing this to be rampant across the United States. I explained that I was there to lecture on exactly that subject.

* When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in ASPARTAME coverts 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 multiple sclerosis; thus people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is.

* In the case of systemic lupus, we are finding it has become almost as rampant as multiple sclerosis, especially among Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. Also, with methanol toxicity, victims usually drink three to four 12 oz. cans of them per day, some even more. In the cases of systemic lupus, which is triggered by ASPARTAME, the victim usually does not know that the ASPARTAME is the culprit. The victim continues its use, aggravating the lupus to such a degree that sometimes it becomes life-threatening. When we get people off the ASPARTAME, those with systemic lupus usually become asymptomatic. Unfortunately, we cannot reverse this disease.

* On the other hand, in the case of those diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, (when in reality, the disease is methanol toxicity), most of the symptoms disappear. We have seen cases where their vision has returned and even their hearing has returned. This also applies to cases of tinnitus.

* 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, depression, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, blurred vision, or memory loss - you probably have ASPARTAME DISEASE!" People were jumping up during the lecture saying, "I've got this, is it reversible?" Some of the speakers at my lecture even were suffering from these symptoms. In one lecture attended by the Ambassador of Uganda, he told us that their sugar industry is adding ASPARTAME to the sugar! He continued by saying that one of the industry leader's son could no longer walk - due in part to product usage!

* We have a very serious problem. Even a stranger came up to Dr. Escapist (one of my speakers) and myself and said, 'Could you tell me why so many people seem to be coming down with MS?' During a visit to a hospice, a nurse said that six of her friends, who were heavy Diet Coke addicts, had all been diagnosed with MS. This is beyond coincidence.

* Here is the problem. There were Congressional Hearings when ASPARTAME was included in 100 different products. Since this initial hearing, there have been two subsequent hearings, but to no avail. Nothing has been done. The drug and chemical lobbies have very deep pockets. Now there are over 5,000 products containing this chemical, and the PATENT HAS EXPIRED!!!!! At the time of this first hearing, people were going blind. The methanol in the ASPARTAME converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of drugs as cyanide and arsenic - DEADLY POISONS!!! Unfortunately, it just takes longer to quietly kill, but it is killing people and causing all kinds of neurological problems.

* ASPARTAME changes the brain's chemistry. It is the reason for severe seizures. This drug changes the dopamine level in the brain. Imagine what this drug does to patients suffering from Parkinson's Disease. This drug also causes Birth Defects.

* There is absolutely no reason to take this product. It is NOT A DIET PRODUCT!!! The Congressional record said, "It makes you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT". Dr. Roberts stated that when he got patients off aspartame, their average weight loss was 19 pounds per person. The formaldehyde stores in the fat cells, particularly in the hips and thighs.

* Aspartame is especially deadly for diabetics. All physicians know what wood alcohol will do to a diabetic. We find that physicians believe that they have patients with retinopathy, when in fact, it is caused by the poison. ASPARTAME keeps the blood sugar level out of control, causing many patients to go into a coma. Unfortunately, many have died.

* People were telling us at the Conference of the American College of Physicians, that they had relatives that switched from saccharin to an ASPARTAME product and how that relative had eventually gone into a coma. Their physicians could not get the blood sugar levels under control. Thus, the patients suffered acute memory loss and eventually coma and death. Memory loss is due to the fact that aspartic acid and phenylalanine are neurotoxic without the other amino acids found in protein. Thus it goes past the blood brain barrier and deteriorates the neurons of the brain.

* Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon, said, "The ingredients stimulates the neurons of the brain to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. Dr. Blaylock has written a book entitled "EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS."

* Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic specialist and world expert on aspartame poisoning, has also written a book entitled "DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE." Dr. Roberts tells how ASPARTAME POISONING is escalating Alzheimer's Disease, and indeed it is. As the hospice nurse told me, women are being admitted at 30 years of age with Alzheimer's Disease.

* Dr. Blaylock and Dr. Roberts will be writing a position paper with some case histories and will post it on the Internet. According to the Conference of the American College of Physicians, "We are talking about a plague of neurological diseases caused by this poison."

* Dr. Roberts realized what was happening when ASPARTAME was first marketed. He said "his diabetic patients presented memory loss, confusion, and severe vision loss". At the Conference of the American College of Physicians, doctors admitted that they did not know. They had wondered why seizures were rampant (the phenylalanine in ASPARTAME breaks down the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin, which causes manic depression, panic attacks, rage and violence).

* Just before the Conference, I received a FAX from Norway, asking for a possible antidote for this poison because they are experiencing so many problems in their country. This "poison" is now available in 90 PLUS countries worldwide. Fortunately, we had speakers and ambassadors at the Conference from different nations who have pledged their help. We ask that you help too. Print this article out and warn everyone you know. Take anything that contains aspartame back to the store. Take the "NO ASPARTAME TEST" and send us your case history.

* I assure you that MONSANTO, the creator of ASPARTAME, knows how deadly it is. They fund the American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, Congress, and the Conference of the American College of Physicians. The New York Times, on November 15, 1996, ran an article on how the American Dietetic Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products. Therefore, they can not criticize any additives or tell about their link to MONSANTO. How bad is this? We told a mother who had a child on NutraSweet to get off the product. The child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off NutraSweet. We are still trying to convince the mother that the ASPARTAME is causing the seizures. Every time we get someone off of ASPARTAME, the seizures stop. If the baby dies, you know whose fault it is, and what we are up against. There are 92 documented symptoms of ASPARTAME, from coma to death. The majority of them are all neurological, because the ASPARTAME destroys the nervous system.

* ASPARTAME DISEASE is partially the cause behind some of the mystery of the Dessert Storm health problems. The burning tongue and other problems discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of an ASPARTAME product. Several thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to the Dessert Storm troops. (Remember that heat can liberate the methanol from the aspartame at 86 degrees F). Diet drinks sat in the 120 degree. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. The service men and women drank them all day long. All of their symptoms are identical to ASPARTAME poisoning. Dr. Roberts says "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 brain tumor agent). When Dr. Escapist was lecturing on ASPARTAME, one physician in the audience, a neurosurgeon, said, "when they remove brain tumors, they have found high levels of ASPARTAME in them".

* Stevia, a sweet food, NOT AN ADDITIVE, which helps in the metabolism of sugar, which would be ideal for diabetics, has now been approved as a dietary supplement by the FDA For years, the FDA has outlawed this sweet food because of their loyalty to MONSANTO.

* If it says "SUGAR FREE" on the label - DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!!! Senator Howard Hetzenbaum wrote a bill that would have warned all at risk pregnant mothers and children of the dangers of ASPARTAME. The bill would have also instituted independent studies on the problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). It was killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies, letting loose the hounds of disease and death on an unsuspecting public. Since the Conference of the American College of Physicians, we hope to have the help of some world leaders. Again, please help us too. There are a lot of people out there who must be warned, *please* let them know this information."

One reader's response to the above article:
5/2/2006: Nicole from Miami writes us, "While I believe that aspartame is unhealthy, publishing the "Nancy Markle" letter as some kind of substantiated report is beyond irresponsible. There is no Nancy Markle. No one has found her, ever. http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp
Do right by your readers and publish facts supported by studies. Include footnotes and sources. Don't publish anectodal writings and emails, presenting them as facts."

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2/23/2007: Diane sent us the following link and excerpt from the FDA web site dated August of 2002:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dailys/02/Aug02/080102/98f-0052-her0001-vol5.txt

From: Betty Martini [[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, July 30, 2002 11:25 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; Jaffe Lyle D Cc: info-anzfa.gov.au; annette.king-ministers.govt.nz; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Open Objection to approval of Neotame, Docket Number 98F-0052 abd 99 F - 0187, Request for Hearing. All studies on Neotame meaningless because they are based on aspartame which was never proven safe. Original statute of limitation defense voided by rebir

Dockets Management Branch HFA - 305 - Certified Mail Food and Drug Administration 5630 Fishers Lane Room 1061 Rockville, Maryland 20852

To Docket Management/FDA

A new legal case shows the US may recover 3 times its costs when a company's frauds on the FDA cost the taxpayers money. It is likely that frauds by aspartame producers have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. By lying to the FDA a chemical poison has been marketed in 100 countries creating one of the largest plagues in world history. We have epidemics of autism, ADD, Alzheimers, MS symptoms, lupus, diabetes, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, behavioral and psychiatric problems, sudden death, seizures, brain tumors, blindness, etc., all discussed and documented in Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., (www.sunsentpress.com).

During the approval process of aspartame on which Neotame is based the original manufacturer lied to FDA. One of the most famous neuroscientists on the planet , John Olney, M.D. did the studies on the excitotoxin aspartic acid, 40% of aspartame (literally stimulates the neurons of the brain to death - as written on the back cover of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. ). He found that it caused lesions in the brains of mice. He told Searle but Searle didn't come clean to you - the FDA. Obviously, FDA would not want an excitotoxin on the market to destroy the brains of consumers? Right?

But the manufacturer continued lying and deceiving the FDA.

Transcript of Document Number 3 from Congressional Record, Voluntary Submission, Confidential Trade Secret Information (12/28/70). This document is psychomanipulation, how they would convince you that assumptions were true. But here is the last paragraph:

"With the spoon-for-spoon, we have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this use in the original FAP, we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing in the short run and nothing in the long run whereas the other approach would give us something in the short run and quite likely as much as we would ever get in the long run. I think it becomes very important for us to start to get our sweetener into commercial channels as soon as possible to minimize the incentive that people now have to work on other sweeteners. Action in the US will tend to influence the outcome in other countries as well."

They concealed the almost complete conversion to DKP, the brain tumor agent because they knew you wouldn't approve it. Lies, lies and more lies.

FDA toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross said:

"Failure to report to the FDA all internal tumors present in the experimental rats, e.g. polyps in the uterus, ovary neoplasms as well as other lesions." (Gross 1987a, page 8).

"Animals which had died were sometimes recorded as being alive and vice versa.. These include approximately 20 instances of animals reported as dead and then reported as having vital signs normal again at subsequent observation periods." (Gross 1985, page S10835).

Wilson, l985 - Dr. Adrian Gross, FDA Toxicologist and Task Force Member:

"They (G. D. Searle) lied and they didn't submit the real nature of their observations because had they done that it is more than likely that a great number of these studies would have been rejected simply for adequacy. What Searle did, they took great pains to camouflage these shortcomings of the study. As I say filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know and they did other terrible things for instance animals would develop tumors while they were under study. Well, they would remove these tumors from the animals."

Dr. Gross was not the only FDA toxicologist. There was Dr. Jacqueline Verrett who was also a member of the Task Force that investigated the authenticity of Searle's research. She believed the original aspartame studies were "built on a foundation of sand". (Testimony of Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, FDA Toxicologist before the U.S. Senate committee on Labor and Human Resources, regarding "NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns." ( Nov 3, l987) . She testified the flawed tests conducted by Searle - used as the basis of FDA approval - were a "disaster" and should have been "thrown out". She said she believed the studies left many unanswered questions about possible birth defects and the safety of aspartame. She let it be known that the team was instructed not to be concerned with, or comment upon, the overall validity of the study. She said a subsequent review discarded or ignored the problems and deficiencies outlined by her team's original report. She said: "serious departures from acceptable toxicological protocols" that her investigative team noted in the reevaluation of these studies were also discounted. She warned that any of the improper practices would compromise and negate a safety study of a food additive. Verrett declared the data in the study was worthless, and the safety of aspartame and its breakdown products have therefore not been determined.

Dr. Verrett emphasized that aspartame is in the marketplace without basic toxicity information. She said there ware no data to assess the interactions with DKP, excess phenylalanine, other aspartame metabolites, additives, drugs or other chemicals. In her testimony, Verrett elaborated on DKP problems, including significant increases of uterine polyps and changes in blood cholesterol. DKP is formed when liquids in particular are presweetened with aspartame. The production of DKP is vulnerable to increase in temperature, and higher temperatures produce increasingly amounts of DKP. She reminded members of the Congressional Committee "that is why initially, aspartame was not intended or not planned to be used in liquids because of this decomposition.. it was decided it was too unstable to be used in hot preparations, hot liquids and also in diet drinks."

Dr. Richard Wurtman of MIT testified in congress in l985 how the phenylalanine in aspartame as an isolate is neurotoxic and goes directly into the brain. FDA knows that, of course, as it tried to remove it from all supplements during the era of the Dietary Supplement bill.

Title 18, Section 1001 of the Criminal Code which declares: "Whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the Government of the United States , knowingly and willfully -

* (1) falsifies, conceal, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact: * (2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; * (3) or makes or uses any false writing or document knowingly the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned.

FDA chief counsel Richard Merrill recommended to U.S. Attorney Sam Skinner a grand jury investigate Searle for "apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act 21, USC 331 and the False Reports to the Government Act, 18 USC 1001, for their willful and knowingly failure to make reports to the FDA required by Act 21 USC 355 (i) and for concealing material facts and making false statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of aspartame."

The manufacturer was powerful, and two U.S. Prosecutors were hired by the defense team and the statute of limitations expired. Aspartame was approved when Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes over-ruled the Board of Inquiry report of the FDA refusing approval.

Now they want a new patent. As Dr. Jeffrey Bada, a peptide chemist, told me when he first reviewed the formula of Neotame "they just scrambled the formula, same dangerous breakdown products," etc.

Monsanto Communications Director Nancy Nevin said about Neotame in l998: "Compositionally it begins with aspartame, but a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base of aspartame uniquely and markedly changes its sweetness. It is 40 times sweeter than aspartame." Monsanto's Nick Rosa in l998 also said that Neotame is "based on the aspartame formula".

Dr. H. J. Roberts who has declared Aspartame Disease to be a global plague and published the new medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, www.sunsentpress.com, wrote the Dockets Management Branch on March 3, l998 about Neotame saying:

"The timing and self-serving corporate interests of this petition are suggested by the fact that the patent on aspartame expired several years ago.

The approval of any analog of aspartame for human use MUST be challenged. In my opinion, there is already sufficient evidence for aspartame products to be withdrawn from the market as an "imminent public health hazard" NOW!"

He also 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" ......

Discussed even in the medical text on page 770 - 771 is: Neotame: Will History Repeat Itself?

"The Monsanto Company petitioned the FDA on January 23, 1999 to approve its high intensity sweetener, N-[N-(3.3-dimethybutyl)-L-a-aspartyl]-L-phenylalanine 1- methyl ester, as an all purpose sweetener and flavor enhancer. This analog of aspartame (on which the patent had expired), named Neotame, is 30-60 times sweeter than aspartame.

The author submitted detailed letters of professional opposition to such approval - dated March 3, 1998, February 25, 1999, and April 10, 1999 - pending additional data about the safety of this chemical in humans. He concluded with this opinion:

"I am a totally corporate-neutral physician, who is concerned about the ongoing exposure of the population to aspartame and numerous other chemicals that were approved without adequate long term studies by corporate-neutral investigators and politically neutral regulators. Let me repeat: I anticipate a public health tragedy if the aspartame problem is allowed to be repeated in the case of Neotame without these safeguards!"

Remarkably and coincidentally, my novel projecting a public health scenario caused by a fabricated analog of aspartame was published. It is titled, THE CACOF CONSPIRACY: LESSONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM (Sunshine Sentinel Press, 1999). When conceived a decade earlier, the author had no knowledge of Neotame."

All lies are reborn via this new application plus any new ones. Statute of limitation defense is voided by rebirthing this poison. Any studies on Neotame are meaningless because they are based on aspartame which was never proven safe!

Just imagine how much aspartame the government has bought. Equal even has the Presidential Seal. And think how much Diet Coke has been bought by the government.

The tax-payers are owed BILLIONS, and Title 18, Section 1001 is rings loudly.

Aspartame disease is now a global plague, and the medical text gives 20 years of experience with this deadly chemical poison being on the market, drug interaction, chemical hypersensitivity and the legal implications of mass poisoning the people. Dr. James Bowen wrote you 18 years ago that aspartame is mass poisoning of the American public and more than 70 countries of the world. (www.dorway.com). He has Lou Gehrigs just like many of those who served in the Persian Gulf and drank diet pop laced with aspartame, that also interacted with vaccine. Millions of babies have been murdered in their mother's womb. Aspartame support groups contain the comments from the outraged public who have been poisoned. Aspartame Detoxification Centers are now in America and Canada. Case histories are being collected for class action.

Enclosed are the documents that give the evidence the FDA was lied to and knows aspartame is a chemical poison. As you well know, it should never have been approved. Some of your documents t are on www.dorway.com And your Board of Inquiry report saying not to approve aspartame is on www.greatfallspro.com along with Dr. Olney's testimony to the Board of Inquiry and the l985 congressional record. You can purchase from Bob Flint (Mission Possible Maine) actual CD's of these documents. Read the horror stories at the Aspartame Toxicity Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

All it takes is one drop of Neotame on the market and the statute of limitations is voided!

Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible International , 9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097, www.dorway.com Deadline August 8, 2002 CC: ANZFA, European Union

Enclosures:

Dr. John Olney's Study on Aspartic Acid, 1970 Secret Trade Information Government Record Statements admitting manufacturer Lied to FDA"

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Here's another email that we received on aspartame perils.

Aspartame's extreme, and highly fatal carcinogenesis, Dr Jim Bowen

Carcinognesis! I am one of the only few "Nutra Sweet Dissidents" to ever see the first (original) pre-marketing Aspartame toxicity studies. It has to be strongly emphasized! These first studies were done at only 1/1000th the legally required Aspartame dosage levels. (And for only sixty days!) The law specifies that one hundred times the "greatest possible maximum human consumption" must always be used in pre-marketing testing of animals. This law is entirely conservative, because it only allows for only a ten fold species to species variation of effect, and only a ten fold variation of individual effect within a given species: In order to protect all humans who may ever ingest a given chemical! Only 3 cans of pop per day (level) scaled down the weight of each given animal species, was ever used, in spite of the thousands of ways Aspartame is presently dosed into us, even being "sneaked" in with yogurts, chewing gums, etc! (The FDA recently got a law enacted that "ASPARTAME" does not now even have to be at all mentioned on the product label itself!) The phenyl alanine isolate poisoning from Aspartame is exemplary of why this legally mandated testing standard, (even if followed,) is inadequate protection for human beings. PKU (phenylketonuria) is a human enzyme deficiency, leading to severe brain damage even if even a small amount of a balanced mix of proteins containing significant phenyl alanine content is consumed! Moreover, all the tested animals metabolize phenyl alanine outside the brain, while the human being metabolizes it inside the brain, and at its brain enzyme sites, with extreme damages resulting, (even in non PKU "normal" humans) from the bolus of Phenyl alanine isolate obtained from a single can of Aspartame pop! Both concepts are inadequate in the case of Aspartame because: 1. Aspartame is a highly synergized methyl alcohol poisoning, and all the test animals used have the proper enzyme channels to harmlessly break down methanol without processing it through the Methanol>formaldehyde>formic acid>carbon monoxide toxic axis. This entire toxic axis is the only way methanol, from Aspartame, can be at all metabolized in humans. The "hangover" after drinking alcoholic beverages, (which contain only small traces of methanol,) is a small example of this toxicity, (even though the ethyl alcohol itself, is a specific, and the most highly effective antidote known, for methyl alcohol toxicity.) "Excitotoxins" also markedly increase the severity of their poisonings, as the two indicated factors of greater molecule size, and other incorporated toxic chemistries increase in their molecular makeup! Moreover in methyl esters like Aspartame, the larger the ester, and the more highly toxic its other components, the far worse will be the poisoning from each methyl ester. Aspartame maximizes these two extreme toxicities! 2. Because the Aspartic acid is a dicarboxylic amino acid, (and therefore a powerful neural excitoxin!) Aspartame then will also form its own diketopiperazine entity while sitting in solution, or even while being digested. This DKP form is an extremely far more highly chemically reactive, and an even far greater and stronger polymerization agent, than the parent chemical in every case. DKPs therefore, are the major substrate class used in synthesizing plastics! The DKP form of Aspartame was (in even that minuscule dose, and for only 60 days) found to be number one chemical ever identified to cause brain cancers in rats! (Even when the other chemicals tested were used at maximal dosages, and over lifetime test periods, in the animals tested.) Just 1/1000th the legally mandated dose of Aspartame, ingested for only 60 days, caused the highest incidence of brain tumor in rats, that any chemical ever tested at any dose, ever caused! The Aspartame "dicarboxlic amino acid neural excito toxicity" is also molecularly maximized, when given the two factors mentioned above, (which also maximize the methyl alcohol toxic axis toxicity.) Medically well known examples of the extreme damage from these two factors and chemical classes, are "Guam Parkinson disease," and "Prince Edward Island shell fish: Domoic Acid" poisoning, both of which have caused extreme neurological disease epidemics in Guam (And all around the World's Oceans), and Prince Edward Island, with lifelong neural sequelae, and also additional disease generations, occurring in those epidemic's victims!( Just as Aspartame also always does!) For a clearer presentation of the even greater picture of Aspartame's extreme toxicity, Plz get Ch 7 of "Sweet Mystery in The Present Darkness: What Ever Happened to We Scientists Who First Spoke Out Against Aspartame?" from wnho.net, www.aspartame.ca, or dorway! (It is freely available, for free!) Billions of Victims"is also "free" on those sites! While I was driving cab in Denver: Upon hearing this, one of my fares screamed out: "Doc! You are sure right! Within a year of the time we started drinking Aspartame pop, three of my immediate family members experienced brain tumors, even though there had never before even been a single brain tumor in our entire known family tree. Moreover, all three then were dead within the year following, in spite of all which medicine, surgery, and radiation had to offer them!" (This is because Aspartame so damages and defocus es the entire immune system!) The first six months after they put "Nutra Sweet" into our "diet" pop and soft drinks, the US brain cancer occurrence rate jumped 10%, and the US diabetes "new case" rate 30%! In those first low dose Aspartame: FDA pre-marketing studies the infant monkeys ONLY showed up with a 100% incidence of Grand Maul epilepsy! Those human subjects then tested at only "three cans of Aspartame pop" level per day for just sixty days, also showed an immediate 250% increase of "all physical complaint" incidence. Two of the sixty people used as Aspartame test subjects, then immediately developed highly malignant cancers: One Breast carcinoma, and One Bone sarcoma. Both test subjects were dead within the year following, in spite of all which medicine, surgery and radiation had to offer them! The Food and Drug Death Association (FDA) comment: "Well, that's all just insignificant!" When they then went ahead and marketed Aspartame under the influence of Reagan, Rumsfeld, and Dr Arthur Hull Hayes!(Hayes refused, but was, at that time, BLACKMAILED into approving Aspartame, by godfather Rumsfeld!) These names, along with the Bushes, who are the primal New World Order force, amongst all this human "Aspartame devastation" should live in Infamy!

Sincerely, James D. Bowen MD

Donna, the worst hazards of Aspartame is the wood alcohols as they can be quite toxic if not properly detoxified. To help the detox: Zinc, Manganese, and Niacin are the principle nutrients. Milk Thistle Seed would help the liver also. One clear symptom of Aspartame toxicity is light sensitivity in the pupils of the eyes. I once had this condition which became obvious after looking at a stop-light and those bright colors continuing in my visual field for several seconds following. If Aspartame is not discontinued, this condition could worsen to blindness.

Does vit. C mitigate the toxicity of aspartame, and if so, how much? Thank you.

All of Wrigleys Chewing Gum has Aspartame in it. I will bet that most people does not know that.

Right on the money with the Aspartame. I read this article, and some of the testimonials, and got off it awhile back. The reversal of symptoms were almost imediate. Especially the dizzy spells. Also instability in my legs. These are mostly gone now. I have to say that all the water I drink (now) is helping to clean me out, so I've felt much better in a short time.

Saccharin is safe. That test in the late 1970s was BS.

Most sweetners have side effect and should on no account be used. I don't use any so I don't really know what Splenda is but I suppose that it is also a sweetner. People here in France must have been complaining so now most of the sweetners you see in the supermarket all of a sudden contain Stevia which is natural. I have just done a google on Splenda and found out that it hasn't been sold in the supermarkets here in France since 2009 but it seems to be a decision on the part of the manufacturer.

Hi I was wondering if anyone else has expierenced a red swelling around the elbow and very painful from the use of Splenda I have and the first time I woke up with it that way and could not bend at the elbow for nothing. Got off Splenda and now I do not have that problem anymore.

Hi Francisca -

Not silly at all. I ate a lot of MSG once (on accident) and my legs actually started to go numb, along with a killer headache. I read the label on what I had eaten about an hour prior, and realized my mistake. I then looked up on the internet how to make it better - and the site I found listed taurine, B complex, and water (as in drink a LOT of water to dilute your system). I took a B-100 complex vitamin, and drank two big 16 oz. Glasses of water, (I didn't have any taurine) and within an hour I felt about 75% better.

Scary stuff the additives put into things that you don't even realize until you eat them. A person can't read everything. I try, but every once in a while something slips by me. It is nice to know that a huge hit of the B's will help with the NEUROTOXINS (that's what I call them now).

Carly :-)

Hi Francisca,

This was actually meant for those who still continue to consume it (and other chemicals in processed food). I saw the other thread here on Aspartame and its side effects. I for one avoid that, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, nitrites and nitrates like the plague.

Maybe a silly question but why would you want to counter the effect of aspartame, a chemical nobody should actually eat?

I've been using sublingual methyl-B12 drops when I feel a headache coming on. It works, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but I don't know if it counters the effects of Aspertame.

for those aspartame or splenda headaches, which are like migraines: take dyphenhydramine (benadryl) and a pain killer combined for as long as the symptoms of a headache last. It may take a whole day but the relief is worth it.... Aslo you may feel tired and drained but you will get relief. I have had this problem too and it is the only thing I have found to help. Oh, and I have had to stop using all of the diet sweeteners due to allergies.

My response is directed to "Mark from Decatur, Ilinois".

I read your post with a mixture of surprise and pity. Surprise because you believe Aspartame to be safe. Pity because you've not yet been affected by this sweet but deadly poison, assuming you ingest it. When you do, you'll know about it.

I consider myself a fairly healthy person, I was last off work sick about 4 years ago. I attribute this good health to Earth clinic, to Ted and to all the feedbacks posters have kindly provided.

I oil pull in the morning 5 times a week, after which I drink a glass of warm water with a teaspoon of ACV and 2 shakes of cayenne pepper.

My only real issues are mild sinus congestion and ... Tinnitus. Tinnitus began about a year ago when I consumed several packets of sugar free gum a day plus used the sweetner Splenda. Symptoms: heavy head, deep tiredness, unclear eyesight, ringing ears, dripping nose, forgetfulness, sugar craving, aching limbs, blocked nose at night, too many other issues to mention.

Strangely enough, my doctor could find nothing wrong. I assumed it was just old age catching up with me.

2 weeks after giving up all sweeteners, only using Stevia, all symptoms, apart from the Tinnitus, has gone.

Aspartame, and all its derivatives, is toxic to humans. Some people are not affected but most are. The debilitating effects (worse than what I experienced) creep up on a person over a very long period of time, so it can be hard to pinpoint the cause(s).

Anyone who advocates artificial sweeteners as "safe" needs to re-educate themselves before more innocent people are damaged.

I'm with Carmen on this one! Sorry, but in no way, shape or form is aspartame "safe" to ingest. According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, it's a neurotoxin made up of three chemicals discovered by accident in 1965 when James Schlatter, a chemist of G. D. Searle Company, was testing an anti-ulcer drug.

"Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death. A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as being caused by aspartame include: Headaches/migraines, dizziness, seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rashes, depression, fatigue, irritability, tachycardia, insomnia, vision problems, hearing loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, loss of taste, tinnitus, vertigo, memory loss, and joint pain."

The fact that it was approved by the FDA means nothing. They also approved so many drugs that had to be withdrawn after patients were killed using them (the cure was worse than the disease).

I agree that sugar isn't healthy. However, I would drink or eat something containing sugar, while I would never do so with aspartame. Something to note: I have found that since drinking green smoothies (an acquired taste for sure), my craving for cane sugar has dropped dramatically.

I, being your average lay-person am able to do my research. I, without a doubt beleive there is a danger to consuming aspertame. I'm not saying it is poison to everybody but is most certianly is nothing but poison to some, myself included. I will listen to my body and the experiences of others on such sites as this. Thanks but no thanks, my children will be educated on the dangers of aspertame, sugar, gmo's, factory farms, microwave ovens, floride, over processing ETC, ETC, ETC. The choice will be theirs to make but they will not easily swallow a line like yours stating that aspertame is less dangerous than sugar.

If you want to read up on the "Nancy Markel" scheme then it traces back to Betty Martini. It seems as if Betty Martini has an agenda to brainwash people about the "dangers" of aspartame. I'm almost certain she is associated with the sugar industry.

Betty Martini is a regular visitor to many "anti-aspartame" websites always suggesting unsubstantiated claims about aspartames side effects.

If you want the opinion of an actual expert with a background in this area(toxicology)then search what John Garst has to say. If you would like to research this better and not

believe all the anti-aspartame hype then check pubmed.gov

Research things like aspartame and diabetes.

Note the amount of studies that come back. Then research sugar and diabetes then note the much larger amount of studies. Blindness and aspartame a WHOPPING(chuckle) 2 studies come back. Now blindness and sugar.. Figure it out. What is more dangerous to society.

Remember a couple of things:

1)Despite Betty Martini's biggest argument about rats getting cancer from aspartame it is NOT been even remotely established to be true in humans.
Here's a shocker for the layperson: RATS GET CANCER!!! Why? In the longetivity newsgroups they first of all "know their stuff" because many have backgrounds in longetivity research suggest that rats getting cancer is merely a way to control overpopulation.NO BIG DEAL.

I know the feeling! I had it with MSG a few years ago. I ate a big bowl of chicken ramen soup (the really tasty cheap stuff) and within 15 mins I could barely even walk! I immediately went to the soup container to read what was in it... Yep, TONS of MSG (it was listed right up there first, along with "hydrolized this and hydrolized that" which is just another name for MSG. I went online to see what might help, and they suggested taurine (which I didn't happen to have on hand) and B vitamins. I took a couple of multi balanced B's and a LOT of water and started feeling better in about an hour or two. It was odd though... Never got the MSG headache, which I normally would have after eating MSG.

Anyway, thank for the heads up on Aspartame. I now attempt to avoid all of the crud the food manufacturers keep trying to push at us. They make it so hard to know what we are eating with all of the MANY names for these evil things. It is true, if it comes out of a box or a bag - it is usually not good for you. Best, Carly

WARNING!

Here's my experience with aspartame: About 10 years ago, back when I enjoyed chewing gum, I was fixing up my condo to sell it, doing physical work daily and having severe muscle spasms in my back, especially my upper back. The pain was so severe that I went to a massage supply store and bought this hard plastic curved device that let me push the hard end into the spasming muscles to try to get the spasm to stop. It worked marginally and I managed to get the condo fix-up done. I don't remember why or how the pain stopped but it did and the plastic device went into a closet for years. (I do know that at some time back then I gave up chewing sugar-free gum bc I realized it caused me some gastric distress. ) Fast forward to early 2010: I'm working at my office as a tax preparer and times are hectic and stress is high. I decide to treat myself to chewing gum, even tho it has aspartame which I've avoided for years. Quite frankly, I forgot exactly why I'd avoided it! Anyway, I started chewing quite a bit of it - probably 8 to 10 pieces daily, thinking that just some chewing gum wouldn't bother me. I had probably gone through 5 large packs already when, while just sitting at my desk one day, the very same muscle spasm pain stabbed through my shoulders. I knew instantly that this was the same pain I'd experienced while working on my condo years ago. It was very distinct. I took the remaining pack of gum and got rid of it. The pain went away after that day and did not return. I am convinced that I must have been chewing gum with aspartame back 10 years ago and gave it up - never realizing it's connection to the muscle pain I had then; Never connecting giving up the gum to the vanishing back pain. Glen Beck is suffering ill effects right now that could be side effects of aspartame. From what I've read he's been alerted to the possible connection but is not taking it seriously. I hope he takes a serious look at the possibility. I know it's real and severe.

I took my girlfriend to the emergency room of the hospital, she awoke in the night with severe stomach pains. We couldn't figure out why? After a thorough exam the doctor said she had a severe inflammation in her bowels, due to what he didn't know. My girlfriend has diabetes, so she started substituting her caloric intake with artificial sweeteners and as a good boyfriend I decided to support her and do the same. I already had my suspicions about aspartame sweeteners, I never felt right after consuming diet sodas or chewing gum. Well to make a long story short I have had one too many horrific episodes using aspartame e.i. (stomach cramps, spasms, dry mouth, panic attacks), that I have swore off the use and hope others do the same. It's not worth it!

Hi, I stopped using all artificial sweeteners this weekend and have felt shaky & like my blood sugar is too low also for 2 full days. How long did it take you to stabilize and feel normal again? Heather

Vertigo

Eliminate Aspartame and sugar free foods and drinks. I realized after reading a article regarding aspartame on EC was linked to lupus and other aliments. I came to the conclusion it caused my Vertigo. I was overdosing on the stuff daily without being aware of it. I began drinking coffee at work with artificial sweetners 1-2 cups daily, had a diet soda with my lunch, then would drink energy drinks, chewing sugar free gum. ALLLLLL contained aspartame. Once I took that out of my diet and started paying more attention to the labels on the products I consume. Its one year later still no signs of vertigo.

Here is my story. And Lizz, how long did it take you to feel 100%? I am on week 5. Now I am just getting over a bad cold/sore throat too.

About 14 months ago I started getting really sick. It began with being constantly dizzy and having a ringing in my ears. Of course I went to my doctor and an ENT and they said this would go away and it was simply fluid in my ears. In the following few months I began to feel extremely fatigued and flu-like. This seemed odd to me because I was a healthy and active 27 year old woman with no health issues. Again, I went to my doctor and I was told it was simply a "viral infection."

This fatigue and dizziness quickly started to spawn out into a multitude of other symptoms including abdominal pain, headaches, tingling in my fingers and toes, muscle twitches, chronic muscle/nerve pain and insomnia. I went to several different doctors wanting second opinions. They tested me for things like MS, Lupus, Lymes Disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Finally, I was sent to a specialist and diagnosed with Fibromyalgia.

I was not convinced of that diagnosis being it seemed to come on so suddenly and out of the blue so I continued to search for answers. Over the next several months I would see more doctors and specialist yet find no answers. It felt like poison was flowing through my body. I thought my life was over and the vibrant, energetic woman was gone forever. My condition was so bad that I was forced to go on a medical leave from my place of employment while I got my health taken care of. Simply getting out of bed was a huge challenge for me.

Finally I demanded a referral to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. While being treated at Mayo I went through about 30 different tests and procedures again looking for serious conditions such as MS, Lupus, other autoimmune disorders and GI disorders. I also had several MRIs, CT scans, X-rays, endoscopy, colonoscopy and bone scans. The medical bills continue to mount up. Finally, the last doctor I would visit was a GI specialist. We talked about a few things and she really wasn't sure what the issue was either. She did mention something about if I chewed gum or drank diet sodas. I told her I chewed some gum but I blew off that as the cause of any issues.

Over the next few days I was thinking again on her odd question about gum and pop. I thought to myself why would she ask that question? Is there something in gum and pop that would cause such things? I looked at the nutritional information on the pack of gum and it contained something called "aspartame." In this great age of the internet I did some quick research and was astounded at the debilitating effects aspartame can have on someone's body and mind. Yet, I wasn't convinced that my gum could be practically killing me.

After some careful thought I decided I would remove all aspartame from my diet just for a few weeks and see what, if anything, happened. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical. As a side note, I would say that I was addicted to gum sometimes consuming more than a pack a day. So giving up this addiction was hard for me.

Well here I am having completed only a few weeks of eliminating aspartame and I can say I am shocked and in almost disbelief! The very next day I was feeling an improvement. My dizziness started to decrease, my muscle pain minimizing, the fatigue, abdominal pains and twitches all improving. I went through this experiment for several days before telling anyone I knew just so I wouldn't seem to jump the gun.

In all 14 months of my debilitating condition I had seen no improvement at all. I had seen dozens of doctors including chiropractors and natropathic doctors with no help and finally some relief was coming. It makes me passionately ill that our government allows this toxic substance to be added into things that we consume. If this substance is not taken out of items on the market it should at least include warnings or recommendations for consumption. I had no idea that what I was putting in my body was killing me. I spent thousands and thousands of dollars looking for answers when I could have just taken a few things out of my diet. What else is this substance doing to other people around the world without them knowing?

Response to Anita F from Brown Mills New Jersey. Get your thyroid checked, also Vit D. May play a part in your symptoms.

Aspartame

I found out about the side effects of artificial sweeteners about 24 years ago. When diet pop first came out I started drinking large amounts of it I was 13, by the time I was fifteen I was having Grand Mal seizures. On new years eve at age 16 I had areally big seizure ( body arched for fifteen minutes followed by convulsions and remained unconcious until the next day) It was absolutely terrible. Shortly following this incident my Aunt called me saying she had read an article in a health magazine all about the dangers of Aspartame. She informed me one of the things it could cause was seizures. I stopped injesting anything with aspartame in it and have not had a seizure since. I have had a couple of times where I have injested it by accident and felt like I was going to faint and have a seizure, so now I am extremely carefull to check every label. As other artificial sweeteners have come out I have avoided them as well and do not allow my children to injest anything with artificial sweeteners.

The effects of these poisons has been known for a very long time! Sadly our government seem to care more about the big corporations than they do for the health of the common people.

My X-Boyfriend had seizures from energy drinks. He used to drink about, (Not exagerating) 3 of the large ones a day, cuz he did alot of manual labor and it gave him energy. There are artificial sweeteners in those drinks. He had 2 Grand mal seizures at work, where blood was coming out of his ears and nose.

They stopped when he stopped consuming those drinks. There is a possibility it's the high caffeeine content that caused the seizures, OR the sweeteners??

Then again, My current boyfriend, literally LIVES on diet drinks, (DIET EVERYTHING) and he doesn't have any health problems, so I don't know?

Personally I can't stand the taste of anything diet and I know right away when I taste something artificially sweetened.

Hello Gillian, Just read your posting on aspartame/Splenda(2/2009. With all due respect to Snopes, they are not infallible, as shown in their recent switch on President Obama's birthplace.

I strongly suggest you find a more reliable source for your medical information in the future. I also don't trust the FDA's "GRAS" rating for neurotoxins monosodium glutamate/ aspartame/sodium fluoride either.

Since you are a diabetic and in need of information for self care, there are two books that I recommend. One is "The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program" by Richard and Rachel Heller and Dr. Vagnini, cardiologist. The second one is "Excitotoxins:The Taste That Kills" by neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock. From the Heller's and Vagnini,you will learn a simpler and easier to understand way to eat to control your weight and your diabetes. No calorie counting or food exchanges to figure out. Just a healthy way of eating and eliminating a couple of offending toxins from your foods. (That toxin elimination is the hardest part because one of them is hidden under many different names in ingredient lists, so you will have to learn to recognize those names for monosodium glutamate. Fortunately, aspartame is usually listed as aspartame, NutraSweet or Equal.

In Blaylock's book he only writes about what the excitotoxins do to our brains and central nervous systems. Fortunately the two major excitotoxins are the same two toxins that the other book talks about making our bodies kick out excess insulin. Blaylock must have researched every study ever done on monosodium (MSG) and aspartame before he wrote his book and he tells you that every study that said they were safe were paid for by the manufacturers of these toxins that are making so many chronically ill. He names the studies and tells you how they were skewed to make the results what the manufacturers wanted the FDA to hear and pass onto the public. I believe Blaylock is right when he says that the only reason the people getting rich poisoning us,hasn't hauled him into court is because they know that he has been in contact with the people doing all these studies and that he knows how they were skewed to come out saying they were safe, and they know that if these facts were brought out in court, their game is up.

To better understand what excess insulin has to do with your diabetes, go online and type in "Metabolic Syndrome X" for a search and read it thoroughly. The doctor who came up with his theory that diabetes mellitus is not a disease itself, but only another development in a long line of symptoms beginning with increased insulin production, wt. gain, elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure (hypertension), diabetes mellitus and all the other cardiovascular problems that follow it. This dedicated doctor spent 25 years proving his theory and it has been on the internet for at least 10 to 15 years now. Orthodox medicine finally admitted he is right, but they decided to call it "Insulin Resistance". Ironically, orthodox medicine is still beginning initial treatment of diabetes type 2 with oral hypoglycemics whose purpose is to induce the pancreas to produce more insulin. Think about this and ask yourself a question: "If excessive production of insulin is what caused the problem, wouldn't eliminating what causes the excess production be a better way to treat it?" maybe even to get rid of it?

Our physiology instructor at Vanderbilt (l978) threw out the information that we don't know why but most over weight people have 8 times the normal amount of insulin circulating in their blood. I asked which came first, the excess insulin or the excess weight and was told "We don't know". The Hellers and Vagnini answer that question and the other one I didn't ask since they had no answer to the first one. That question is:
what makes us kick out excess insulin?

Blaylock tells us that MSG kills off one type of neuron and aspartame kills off another type of neuron. This is why he states that any hydrolyzed plant (corn, soy, pea, etc) protein is the most deadly form of MSG because it contains both MSG and aspartame, killing off both types of neuron.

You can quickly get an idea of whether you are on the right track for your health by testing your blood sugar while eating the Heller's way and compare that to how it runs by following your present diabetic diet. Give it an honest try and let Earth Clinic readers know how works. I can personally vouch for the Heller's instructions being easier to understand, that it works, you will lose excess weight without feeling starved and deprived all the time because the blood sugar doesn't bottom out due to excess insulin making you hungry all the time.

For all the defenders of a toxin like aspartame we could only wish they would conduct 'scientific test studies' on themselves and their own children and families before they take their profits or their paychecks.

My mom died a slow horrible death from a rare disease called Progressive supernuclear palsy (PSP) in 2006. PSP is a neurodegenerative brain disease that has no known cause, treatment or cure. It affects nerve cells that control walking, balance, mobility, vision, speech, and swallowing.

I sincerely believe that it was caused by aspartame, especially the diet Jell-O she loved that required adding boiling water to dissolve it. I had tried to warn her about it but her doctor told her I was wrong. Dudley Moore died of the same disease-I wonder if he was an aspartame user.

When you know it's a fact that most millionaires and billionaires have been traditionally made by turning whole populations into drug addicts, it becomes easier to understand why so many people are destroyed by drugs, alcohol, tobacco and now the sweetest drug of all-sugar. Starbucks has done very well financially pushing addictive caffeine too. Refined sugar has exactly the same effect on our bodies as heroin and in my opinion, it's carboncopy aspartame is just one more profitable sneaky killer.

FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN DRINKING MUSCLE MILK , SUCROLOSE AND ACESUFLAME POTASSIUM IN IT. LISTERENE WHITENING PRE RINSE HAS SUCRALOSE IN IT , COFFEE MATE HAS SUCRALOSE IN IT ECT ECT . I WISH THEY WOULD GET RID OF THOSE TOXINS I WISH THERE WAS SOME JUSTICE I COULD GET OUT OF THIS I HAVE TO REBUILD MY HEALTH ALL OVER AGAIN.

WARNING!

Aspartame is POISON. 19 years ago i started getting a rash when i was in the sun for any extended period. I went to the doctors and he was not able t figure out what was causing this. then my hair started falling out. i was sent to a dermatologist and after much lab work and other test it came back that i had developed Lupus. I was taking a number of different medications. In 2002 a friend emailed me an artical on aspartame and how it can affect lupus, MS, MD patients. I stopped using that poison that day. Over the next few months my test were showing signs of improvement. After a little more than a year i was off of all medication. i just had my yearly check up and everything is still great. STAY AWAY FROM THAT POISON

Hello, just responding to the problems caused by splenda. i have been using splenda for about a year and 1/2 and have been healthly all my life. I only suffer from acid reflux, yet i had 2 seizures last year and in March of this year had a ruptured anuresum and i beleive it is from result of the splenda, but can not prove it. this should be taken off the market i am considering contacting a lawyer.

ALLERGY ALERT! SUCRALOSE

I called Memphis, Tenn. today where the bakery offices are of this wonderful chain restaurant. Why? to confirm the no sugar wild berry pie had artificial sweetners. We quit buying this pie because everytime I ate it-I simply felt terrible i.e. head fuzzy weird taste in my mouth...the nice people at the bakery portion of the restaurant told us there was no sugar and no artificial sweetners as far as they knew in the wild berry pie. Last night I got a craving for the wild berry pie. After 3 pieces (dinner and lunch)I started to have heart palpatations which prompted my call to Perkins..And indeed-there is artificial sweetner-not confirmed sucralose..in any case FAKE CHEMICALS bodies don't like.

Hello Gillian from Portland, Oregon:

May I suggest that you rely more or your own brain, while you still have it, because no one or no organization is infallible, including your revered Snopes. Do your own search. I just now typed in scientific reports on aspartame in EC's search window and clicked on search web. Guess what? The first scholarly reports, were from aspartame itself, and their opinion apparently was based on studies bought & paid for by aspartame. The next ones I clicked on were not paid for by the aspartame manufacturers and had very different opinions than aspartame had. May I suggest that you read a book titled "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills" by Russell L. Blaylock. I have read it and have great respect for this neurosurgeon's intelligence and opinion, because he obviously has done his homework before writing the book. That neurosurgeon who stuck his neck out trying to save our lives had to have researched every study done on both monosodium glutamate and aspartame. The fact that the most recent anticonvulsants are monosodium glutamate blockers says volumes to me. Dr. Blaylock cites they are saying backs up their claims of safety on MSG and aspartame. He also corresponded with those who performed those studies and he tells us exactly how they skewed the studies to come out with the result they desired to retain the FDA's GRAS rating. In one study, they even used a placebo that had the same unwanted side effects (placebo's are supposed to be sugar pills) and in their study reported results "at least as safe as the placebo". In my opinion, this is scientific horse manure and lies. Read his book to find out how some of the other studies were skewed just as badly. Dr. Blaylock states that aspartame kills off one type neuron in our brains and nervous system and aspartame kills off another type of neuron and that the most deadly form of MSG of all is any hydrolyzed plant (corn, soy, pea, etc) protein because hydrolyzed plant protein contains both MSG and aspartame. I have looked up a few of the studies he cites and found that he is telling it like it is. Dr. Blaylock states that no matter what kind of brain it is, chicken, dog, cat, rat, etc., if the study is continued for l3 weeks the brain has the same damage as the Alzheimer's patients. The latest thing I have read on Alzheimer's is that it is hitting people much younger than before and those with no family history of it. The latest report on the age of onset was then down in the 30's. That is a big drop in age of onset from the prior 60's and 70's. Wonder how long it will be before it starts in the teens or younger?

When it comes to safe levels, to really get an idea of how much of these toxins you are ingesting, find a site on line giving names they hide MSG under, make a written list of these and then go to your kitchen and start reading ingredient labels on everything to eat or drink. So far you only have to look for aspartame, NutraSweet or Equal because I don't think they have started bogus names for it, but I won't be surprised to learn that have since more people are getting wise to what it causes. Start reading ingredient labels. I have found a can of canned turnip green and the same brand's can of black eyed peas, both of which listed monosodium glutamate, natural flavors, and hydrolyzed plant proteins.

I have seen books on excitotoxins written by other doctors recently but Dr. Blaylock has covered this subject thoroughly and convinced me I can do without excitotoxins.

While you are on line, search Metabolic Syndrome X, which orthodox medicine now calls insulin resistance. You will find that insulin begins with hyperinsulinism, progresses (in most cases) with weight gain, hyper cholesterol, hypertension, to diabetes mellitus, type 2. They changed the juvenile onset and adult onset to type 1 and type 2 because we even have toddlers developing type 2 now. I am sure that you already know all the cardiovascular problems, blindness and others that come along as complications of diabetes, type 2.

There is another book titled "The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program" by Richard & Rachel Heller, and cardiologists Dr. Vagnini. It shouldn't take you long to learn that both of the above toxins cause us to produce excess insulin which starts you down the trail to diabetes type 2. Try eating their way and see if their opinions make the grade. I can vouch for the fact you will lose weight without being hungry all the time. The best way to prove or disprove something is to try it for yourself whenever you can. This is your mouth, your brain, your body and no one else can do it for you.

The fact that the MSG and aspartame manufacturers haven't hauled Dr. Blaylock into court says volumes. The know the truth will out if they do! Have fun researching and eating nutritiously, Gillian.

By the way, Gillian, I notice you didn't mention the wood alcohol in aspartame, which became well known for causing blindness during prohibition/bootlegging days. One of those scientific studies you can look up is the effect that aspartame had on the eyes of the mice or rats. Personally I prefer to stick with natural sweeteners until independent studies declare them safe.

I had tried Stevia but found it a bit bitter and also it altered the flavor of my tea slightly. I have just tried Truvia, which I understand to be based on Stevia, and it's great. As sweet as sugar, but calorie-free and no aftertaste/bitterness.

Non-artificial=better.

My opinion of your opinion is take what you need and leave the rest. This site is to share experiences, not for bashing.

Never mind the aspartame, splenda, saccharin...take a chill pill :)

I happen to have very bad reactions to artificial sweeteners, aspartame being one of them. I believe all the nonsense and think that any thing that has a chlorine atom forcibly attached to a sugar molecule (aka splenda), or something that for the love of God wasn't even allowed to be sold to the public until an insider worked at the FDA and pushed the approval through. Maybe you should look at the CDC information about it, or how about the FDA report of side effects. They used to have them online. They have all of the not so believable evidence in them, just look for it.

Why would aspartame be approved/sold if it was harmful? The short answer is profits and politics. A more detailed and disturbing (and very long) answer, with extensive verifiable references and sources, can be read here: (a link supplied by wikipedia)
http://dorway.com/dorwblog/?page_id=24

There is still much controversy about the safety aspects of artifical sweeteners, but in this case I think I'd rather err on the side of caution. But perhaps it's just because I am biased and view all frankenfoods with grave suspicion. As a pretty basic biological life form, I'm convinced I'm not evolved enough to benefit from manipulated 'food' like margarine, hydrogenated oils, MSG etc etc and am rather concerned about how pervasive it is in our 'food chain'.

Gillian, Perhaps Earthclinic is not the site for you. You believe everything you read on Snopes.com and question hundreds of strangers giving personal accounts of the devastating effects of artificial sweetners? Do you really believe with all the government has invested in the development and sales of such products, you are going to find they will post anything negative about them whether or not it is true? My friend is a nurse at Westchester Medical Center. She works with a doctor who worked on the team to develop Splenda and told her never to consume it. I don't know about you but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Gillian, if you want further information about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, you may want to check out a bona fide doctor's site - Dr. Joseph Mercola (mercola.com). Just search for artificial sweeteners. He's a medical doctor who did extensive research on how harmful these concoctions are. Since you are diabetic and are looking for an alternative to sugar, have you tried stevia as a sweetener? Good luck!

Aspartame/Splenda:

I originally found earthclinic.com when I was googling for natural remedies and came upon the cider vinegar cures for -- well, pretty much everything, it seems! That was helpful, and felt like the site was pretty reliable.

But then I came upon a link to your page about artificial sweeteners, given when someone told about mixing their ACV with Splenda. I followed the link and was very surprised to find a lot of very dubious information, some of it so ludicrous-sounding as to make me question the integrity of your entire site.

For example, the very first article about aspartame was one that I had just encountered on snopes.com a couple of weeks ago when I was researching claims made about Splenda. According to Snopes (a site that I trust implicitly when it comes to information about hoaxes and discredited urban legends), these claims about aspartame's dangerous toxicity and connections to the chemistry of fire ants, etc., are completely unsubstantiated, despite all sorts of true-sounding statistics and credits included in the scare stories. Snopes tried to track down the studies and scientists referenced in these articles and could not find them even after considerable time and effort was expended in their search.

And some of these articles stretch the imagination so far that it's hard not to laugh at the absolute absurdity of some of their anecdotal claims, such as the following, quoted on your site in an article by "Dr. Jim Bowen", who is also apparently a cab driver:

'Upon hearing this, one of my fares screamed out: "Doc! You are sure right! Within a year of the time we started drinking Aspartame pop, three of my immediate family members experienced brain tumors, even though there had never before even been a single brain tumor in our entire known family tree. Moreover, all three then were dead within the year following, in spite of all which medicine, surgery, and radiation had to offer them!"' So what he's saying is that one day this man's healthy family started drinking Diet Coke for the first time in their lives, and within a year, aspartame brain tumors had killed three of them? Do you blame me for not placing a lot of faith in Dr. Jim Bowen after he's used this story from a "cab fare" as evidence of the evils of Splenda? Not only is this story purely anecdotal, but it's given by a cab driver who may or may not be a doctor, and the quote given is supposedly "screamed out", word for word, by a passenger in this man's taxi, just as he's written it. Who "screams out" things like "moreover" and "in spite of all which medicine, surgery, and radiation had to offer them"? Sorry, I just don't buy it.

These recycled claims about Splenda have been circulating on the internet for years now, but I have never seen any of the actual studies they purport to draw from, and I have also never read any of this information in a newspaper or magazine that I would trust. On the other hand, whenever I am handed some new sensational claim or story in email or by word of mouth, I look it up on Snopes.com, a highly respected source of verification. Snopes does the research so that people don't have to get taken in by hoaxes or other disinformation campaigns. This is all very important for me, because I am a diabetic, and have to watch my carbs. Artificial sweeteners (and Splenda in particular, given its non-chemical taste) have been a great boon to my diet, allowing me to keep to a healthy regimen without having to sacrifice taste, and many diabetics depend on such sweeteners in moderation to help satisfy their cravings while maintaining their health. Please consider re-examining the information you're dispensing about aspartame. There may be down-sides to it, but I think that the hysterical claims you've reprinted here are gross exaggerations, and in some cases, complete fabrications.

Sincerely,
Gillian Nance

Aspartic acid is a well known excitotoxin and so is monosodium glutamate or MSG. In the long run it's going to destroy the immune system through a neurodegenerative disorder. Once the excitotoxins is destroyed the immune system is down. Now in a pharamaceutical formulation adding this results in the need to take that since you get sicker and so you might feel some relief, the long term is it's going to make a person sicker, which result in greater sales for product with excitotoxins added. Now imagine a child who is a borderline autism, ADHD, these can result in many other neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic acidosis. As for me decades ago I took accidentally soft drinks with aspartame resulting in deafness, but also a permanent partial macular degeneration of the eyes. So the systematic destruction is almost wholesale if given long term use. Luckily Emergen C is not sold in Thailand, although some friends of mind given me this, I don't take it. I prefer to buy bulk vitamin C and mix them myself. There are other excitotoxins, but aspartic acid, aspartame, monosodium glutamate, and glutamic acid are the most well known.

There are other things people need to know that also accelerates aging process besides excitotoxins, well known in research circles, they are ketones and aldehydes. In one study, 36 out of 37 perfumes contain ketones, commonly in the form of musk ketones. Aldhydes are perfumes used in many cometic products, such as Chanel No. 5, but also in many consumer products, such as detergents and soap. The third common one is the bisphenol A, which acts like estrogen found in nearly all canned products that have plastic linings, and benzene, a degradation of sodium benzoate is found in most soft drinks.

I remember a newsreporter who uncovered U.S> black ops, that appeared on "What's My Line", a close friend of Marilyn Monroe, before both are dead mysteriously and the drinking water were heavily added using fluoride and LSD. Thus fluoridation and chlorination, if some of these are used in assassinations, I doubt I want to use them in my drinking water supply.

Therefore most effervescent products sometimes they are not labeled so I ended up calling the factory sometimes. One easy way to measure excitotoxin poisoning is tthat the urinary pH suddenly become very acid, such as pH 5.5 or lower and even taking more baking soda barely raise the pH long enough to be satisfactory. Such as it can't raise the pH for the entire day. It also takes weeks for the pH to be near normal after taking b complex and baking soda for a week or two. A long term taking of this can also resulted in higher urinary sugar and damaged pancreas, besides damaging the brain. One of the worse advertisement I have seen is Michael J. Fox supporting Diet Pepsi, which contains aspartame, and he himself has Parkinson's disease, which will make such conditions much worse. The remedy is not to take aspartame for Parkinson's disease or to undergo stem cells, since it's not yet legal at the moment and stem cell research has been blocked for at least 8 years. Methylene blue taken at 2 drops at 0.1% concentration might reverse some of the effects of excitotoxins as it is one of my remedies for Parkinson's disease also.

Taking excitotoxins is a long term damage that may lead to degenerative disorders, metabolic acidosis, and lowered immune system. Therefore I would avoid them as best as I can.

Ted

I was fighting a sinus infection last week after landing in California and went to a Whole Foods to get some Vitamin C. I decided to get Emergen-C to add to water because it had a really tempting fruity flavor. Immediately after taking my first packet (which was delicious), I felt a weird sensation in my head and then I got really edgy (as in bad mood edgy). I read the ingredients on the box and sure enough, the vitamin C used in this brand is Aspartic acid, an excitotoxin. The Emergen-C also contained "natural flavors", aka MSG. I waited 24 hours and tried again to see if I would have the same side effects. Again, within a minute of drinking the packet, I got the same sensation in my head. My question is, are you doing more good or harm to the body when you take this form of vitamin c?!! Also, does Whole Foods know what they're selling? I thought they had stricter standards than most health food stores about supplements! I now need to check the ingredients on the dissolvable vitamin c from Trader Joe's that I have at home to see if it's the same stuff. GRRRR!!!

I write blogs and one of the issues that I am writing about is the study of Stevia (a natural sweetener) vs. Aspartame. I already knew from years ago that aspartame was bad for you, and personally avoided using it or other man made sweeteners, but wow, I never realized just how bad it is. I would think that 92 bad side effects of aspartame and some deadly would be enough to scare anybody away from it.

There are so many areas in the field of wellness that it is endless. Our FDA has really done a number on us in regard to trying to shut us up. It's time to clean up that operation of our government.

Along with this I would like to mention the topic of Vitamin C and the work that Dr. Linus Pauling did in the study of Vitamin C. If somebody want's to make a study of their health, Vitamin C is the place to start in connection to what Dr. Pauling published. He left us a fantastic legacy in regard to using Vitamin C. You can find him on the internet. He died a few years ago at the age of 93. What a fantasstic life.

I have so many issues to write about, but I'm afraid I'm running out of time.

Thank you. Brad Vigansky

I did an enormous amount of research on sweeteners due to my sweet tooth. According to Dr. Janet Starr Hull writer of "sweet Poison" the only widely used safe artificial sweetener is Saccharin (Sweet N Low), that does come from a natural source. No confirmed cases of cancer in humans in over 50 years of use. The reported "cancer" in rats came from a push by sugar companies that were losing sales. Yes it causes cancer in rats in insanely large amounts (few hundred diet sodas daily). Nearly any substance in those large amounts will cause tumors to grow. I also use the sugar alcohols in small amounts. Another great lower calorie sweetener is Whey Low. Tastes exactly like sugar, since its actually made from sugar with 70% less calories and safe for diabetics.