The Legal Drug Lords - Holding World Health Hostage
Aspartame, found in NutraSweet/Equal, could be hurting us all.
By Mary Nash Stoddard

Who are the real villains in today's society? The chemical and pharmaceutical companies who pollute our children's food supply for profit and those in government who protect them. Aspartame, also known as NutraSweet & Equal, is arguably the most toxic substance in our food supply today. Aspartame disease has become an epidemic in our world that must be recognized and addressed.

How did we get to this point and what do we do about it?
The one constant in the lives of people around the world is food. We all have to eat. The Legal Drug Lords (Pharmaceutical and Chemical companies) capitalize on this and have gradually assumed control of our food supply, with the active participation of their consorts at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), leaving the poor consumer unprotected and at great risk.

It's all about politics--not at all about science.
The artificial sweetener Aspartame was approved through fraudulent means. Deaths of lab animals were covered up. Brain tumors, mammary tumors, pancreatic tumors, and uterine tumors went unreported. Discovered as a drug for peptic ulcers in the sixties, it was first approved in 1974. That approval was rescinded before it could get to market, because of the brain tumor issue.
At the time, the National Soft Drink Association lodged formal objections with the U.S. Senate, because of the brain tumor issue. The makers of Aspartame, G.D. Searle were being investigated by U.S. prosecutors, but at the last minute, the lawsuit was dropped because the U.S. Attorney, Samuel Skinner recused himself at the last minute and defected to the NutraSweet law firm of Sidley & Austin. Skinner then went on to become head of the Department of Transportation and eventually Chief of Staff in President Bush's white house. Meanwhile, President Regan's FDA Director, Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., approved Aspartame for tabletop use in 1981 and when it won final approval for aquaeous solution in 1983, Hayes quit the FDA and went to work for the NutraSweet Public Relations firm of Burson Marsteller, for $1,000 a day.
What is it and what is it in?
Aspartame is a toxin whose effects are cumulative and may currently be found in over 5,000 products including diet soft drinks, sports drinks, gum, coffees, teas, kool aid type drinks, children's vitamins, antibiotics, frozen dairy desserts such as ice cream and yogurts, and much more. It is very difficult to live without consuming aspartame.
Aspartame is an extremely complex molecule. It is 50 percent Phenylalanine, 40 percent aspartic acid, and 10 percent methanol. Each of these substances can be dangerous by themselves and even more dangerous as they work together.
Phenylalanine
Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid. Individuals with phenylketoneuria or PKU lack an enzyme necessary for breaking down and eliminating excess amounts of phenylalanine. Approximately 20 million carriers of the PKU gene are also at risk and do not know it. In children with this disorder, phenylalanine accumulates to toxic levels (20 or 30 times normal) which gradually causes more and more damage to the developing brain. Those with PKU should be aware of all sources of phenylalanine in their diets. It was shown in human testing that phenylalanine levels of the blood were increased significantly in human subjects who chronically used aspartame. (Wurtman and Walker, "Dietary Phenylalanine and Brain Function," Proceedings of the First International Meeting on Dietary Phenylalanine and Brain Function, Washington, D.C., May 8, 1987)
According to Dr. Louis Elsas, head of Genetics at Emory University in Atlanta, the phenylalanine in aspartame can quadruple on the side of the placenta during pregnancy, thereby causing a possible 10 percent drop in I.Q. scores of the child born under these conditions.
Most importantly, Phenylalanine can also lead to a lowering of the seizure threshold. Dr. Richard Wurtman, professor of Neuroendocrine Regulation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has presented the FDA with data that indicates that aspartame effects brain phenylalanine and tyrosine levels. This could effect the synthesis of neurotransmitters and bodily functions. Aspartame acts as a "mind altering" drug in disturbing the chemical balance of the brain. Serotonin production is obstructed by the presence of Aspartame. Serotonin is a key neurotransmitter that keeps moods level, sleep patterns normal, and controls the menstrual cycle in women.
Aspartic Acid
Aspartic Acid is also a neuroexcitatory amino acid. It caused "silent" lesions in the brains of the lab animals, which are often called "holes in the brain." It also changed the lab animals' DNA-the third generation of pups were born morbidly obese and sexually dysfunctional.
Dr Russell L. Blaylock, a professor of Neurosurgery at the Medical University of Mississippi, writing in Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, details the damage that is caused by the ingestion of excessive aspartic acid from aspartame. According to Blaylock, excess free excitatory amino acids such as aspartic acid are causing serious chronic neurological disorders and a myriad of other acute symptoms.
Methanol (Wood Alcohol)
Methanol is used as the bond that holds the phenylalanine and aspartic acid together and is perhaps the most dangerous component of aspartame. It is released within ten minutes of consumption.
Very simply, methanol is wood alcohol and toxic. It is well known in the literature for doing damage to the eye, liver, brain, and other organs of the body. Any product that contains methanol should send up a red flag in our minds.
The absorption of methanol into the body is hastened when free methanol is ingested, and free methanol is created from Aspartame when it is heated to above 86 F (30 C). This would occur when an aspartame-containing product is improperly stored or is heated.
Methanol breaks down into formaldehyde (embalming fluid), formic acid (ant sting venom) and diketopiperazine (DKP). All are highly toxic. DKP may just be the most problematic of all, because it caused brain tumors in the lab tests.
John W. Olney, a professor in the department of psychiatry, School of Medicine, Washington University, a neuroscientist and researcher, noticed that DKP, when nitrosated in the gut, produced a compound similar to a powerful brain tumor causing chemical.
Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen, causes retinal damage, interferes with DNA replication, causes birth defects. Aspartame can exceed the EPA standards for safe levels of formaldehyde ingestion.
One of the arguments that the sweetener industry uses to refute much of these is that the amino acids found in aspartame are natural and are broken down by the body. However, phenylalanine and aspartic acid when produced synthetically in the lab do not behave in the same manner as when found in nature. They have been shown to cross the brain's blood barrier. In their natural state, these amino acids are found in perfect balance with all the other ameliorating amino acids. Methanol, when found in nature, is always accompanied by ethanol, which neutralizes the toxic effect. There is no ethanol in Aspartame, only Methanol. So, right there you have a prescription for disaster.

December 22, 1997, Monsanto (manufacturers of Aspartame and Artificial Bovine Growth Hormone) applied for a patent to market a new sweetener, based on the Aspartame formula, called Neotame, which will be 7,800 times sweeter than Aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Mary Nash Stoddard is a founder of the burgeoning international anti-aspartame movement, with her Aspartame Consumer Safety Network. She is recognized as the foremost aspartame authority (qualifying in courtroom proceedings as an expert witness) and her work has been featured on thousands of radio and television news and talk shows around the world, including Nightline and 60 Minutes.