Aspartame Causes Diabetics to Lose Control of Blood Sugar Levels

Aspartame Elevates Blood Sugar Levels in Humans

(published Letter to Editor Globe and Mail newspaper)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/can-artificial-sweeteners-raise-your-blood-sugar/article1817419/

As founder of the pioneer aspartame awareness campaign, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, in 1987, and having qualified in Court as a Medical Expert Witness, I've worked as an unpaid volunteer, collecting over 10,000 Aspartame Adverse Reaction Reports from all corners of the world. A hefty percentage of these Adverse Reactions were from diabetics who could not control their blood sugar levels while depending on aspartame sweeteners for their substitute sugar. When following our specific advice to cease all use of aspartame for 4 to 6 weeks, the blood sugar levels miraculously return to normal levels.

Our advice prompted one diabetic friend to test herself. When her blood sugar levels were well within normal range, according to the finger stick test, she proceeded to drink 3 Diet Sodas, one right after another. Upon repeating the finger stick test approximately 1 hr. after the 3rd Diet Drink, she found her blood sugar levels to be extremely elevated. This was in the late eighties or early nineties and this self testing method has been our recommendation for diabetics ever since that time. By the way, this is independent of a high carb meal, so carbs seemed to play no part in this particular test.

When my co-founder, Jas. Turner, Esq. and I gave testimony at the Senate Hearing in Washington, D.C., we met with Turner's ex-boss, Ralph Nader. after the Hearings. He told us at that time, aspartame served to heighten consumer's addiction to 'sweet taste,' attempting to 'trick the pancreas' in the process. He believed that to be the cause of loss of control of blood sugar levels in diabetics and non-diabetics alike. In the case of the new aspartame-clone, Neotame, the sweet taste is 13,000 times the power of sweetness of table sugar. 

If readers wish more information on the sweetener, I invite them to visit our official Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline website: www.aspartamesafety.com.

Thank you for your kind consideration of our 25 year research findings regarding all aspects of the harmful effects associated with use of aspartame/Neotame artificial sweeteners. We work with top researchers and scientists all over the globe to better understand the issue and to disseminate our combined findings, regarding the many reported Adverse Reactions to aspartame sweeteners.

Respectfully,

Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder

Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline [1987-present]

Dallas, Texas USA

FAA Won't Tell Pilots. Do You Think That's Fair?

A Pilot's Story: FIT TO FLY

ASPARTAME & DIET DRINKS

Article written by a Canadian Pilot, taken from Canadian General Aviation NewsPage, 28 March, 1990

Recently, a letter was sent to COPA in which a pilot expressed his concerns over questionable adverse effects from consumption of diet drinks containing aspartame. By 1986, the FDA and the Centre for Disease Control in the U.S. had evaluated 3,000 known complaints. Fellow pilots who may have had similar side effects may be interested in the information below:

The January, 1990, Plane and Pilot magazine featured an article on drugs and alcohol vis-a-vis safe flying practices that also talked about food additives. It explained that diet soft drinks are sweetened artificially by Aspartame (NutraSweet and Equal), and that Aspartame contains 10% methanol. That caught my attention! I know that methanol (wood alcohol) is a poisonous substance, which on ingestion causes blindness and death; two teaspoons full are considered lethal.

The article disclosed that methanol destroys the brain, albeit a little at a time, and that effects are cumulative. Depending on a person's physical state and tolerance level, immediate effects can either be severe (resulting in epileptic seizures, including grand mal, blindness, chest palpitations), or less noticeable (causing blurred vision, bright flashes, tunnel vision, ringing or buzzing in ears, migraine headaches, dizziness, loss of equilibrium, lip and mouth reactions); less noticeable effects might be passed off as temporary or caused by something else. But everyone is affected in one way or another, since methanol causes toxic reactions, not just allergic ones in a few unfortunates.

Here are some direct excerpts from the article:

"An Air Force pilot traced the patterns of tremors and seizures he suffered for two years directly to his patterns of NutraSweet consumption. When he traveled to areas where diet sodas were not available, he was free of the symptoms. But, when he resumed intake of the beverages, his tremors resumed, grew more severe and culminated in a grand mal seizure that ended his flying career. His medical problems ceased when he quit ingesting NutraSweet, but it was too late to restore his flying status."

"Another pilot suffered similar symptoms only when using Aspartame products. But FAA revoked his medical certificate when it was informed of the symptoms. After only two cups of artificially sweetened hot chocolate, a pilot experienced blurred vision so severe he was unable, in flight, to read the instruments and very narrowly avoided a tragic landing. Safely on the ground, he related his symptoms to the secretaries in his office. Both of them told of experiencing similar symptoms after ingesting Aspartame products."

I, too, had bad experiences with Aspartame. It replaced saccharin about 10 years ago. As a marathon runner in his 30s, I consumed litres of diet drinks daily at that time. When I first drank pop with Aspartame, it had immediate and severe effects upon my consciousness and vision. After a few scary incidents, pop consumption and problems seemed related.

I described symptoms and circumstances to my doctor. He ran tests, but never seriously listened to my concern of relating pop with the effects. He was a reasonably competent G.P., but not ready to distrust, let alone blame, an FDA approved sweetener. Eventually, I quit ingesting Aspartame and have not had incidents since. Employed in the professions and a post-graduate, I conduct research occasionally and am aware of the difficulty of matching cause and effect (and the danger of doing it improperly.) But, there is no doubt in my mind that "tests" with my body proved that Aspartame is bad (at least for me.)

When I spoke about this to a non-flying, weightlifting gym friend, he volunteered for a test. After drinking one can of diet pop, his ears started ringing within minutes and he got a pulsating sensation in his brain.

Apparently, the other main components of Aspartame, Phenylalanine [50%],Aspartic Acid [40%], combined with the Methanol [10%], create a witch's brew of 16 breakdown products after digestion that cause illness. Animal tests revealed brain tumors, some cancerous; holes in the brain, womb tumors, uterine tumors and reproductive dysfunctions. Studies on humans indicated that pregnant women and young children run especially high risks. There is evidence of birth defects in offspring's, including severe retardation, genetic damage, especially in women who carry the PKU (Phenylketonuria) gene, heart problems and emotional and psychiatric disorders.

If pilots want more information, I encourage them to call (or Email)
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network in Dallas, Texas U.S.A.
Talk to ACSN & Worldwide Pilot Hotline Founder, Mary Nash Stoddard
214.387.4001

ACSN promises confidentiality if asked, and will send an eye-opening information package.

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Pancreatic Cancer in Lab Tests

Facts They Don't want you to know about Artificial Sweeteners

Author, Mary Nash Stoddard

In the original lab tests, ASPARTAME caused 4 kinds of tumors: Brain Tumors / Breast Tumors / Pancreatic Tumors / Uterine Tumors.

Results of these tests were criminally falsified - then submitted to FDA! When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees Fahrenheit [body temperature is: 98.6], the 10% methanol [wood alcohol] in ASPARTAME [aka NutraSweet/Equal] converts to formaldehyde [embalming fluid] and then to formic acid [toxin found in ant sting venom].

Aspartame may be the unidentified environmental trigger for: Brain Tumors - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Lyme Disease - PMS - Migraine - Mild to Severe Depression - Carpal Tunnel - Arthritis - Meniere's - MS [Multiple Sclerosis] - Epilepsy - Anxiety/Phobia Disorders - Alzheimer's - ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease - Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome [EMS] - Graves Disease - Tinnitus - Fibromyalgia - Stroke - Heart Disease - Lupus - Mental Illness - Attention Deficit Disorder - other "Difficult-to-Diagnose" Diseases.

Aspartame poisoning can trigger the following: Chronic Fatigue; Lupus; Graves Disease; Alzheimer's; Fibromyalgia; Multiple Sclerosis; Heart Attacks; Brain Tumors; Pancreatic Cancer; Breast Cancer; Uterine Cancers; Kidney Cancer; Leukemia, Lymphoma and Mental Disorders.

Three Senate Hearings have been conducted on the safety of aspartame - yet no official action has been taken by our government. Aspartame Consumer Safety Network's Mary Nash Stoddard, representing a constituency of over 10,000 individuals worldwide has provided formal testimony at the Senate Hearing in 1987 and has on numerous occasions since then, registered formal objections both in writing and in person to the FDA; FAA; EPA; USDA; Presidents Bush and Clinton; Secretary of Defense Cohen and various members of Congress.

When ACSN's founder, Food Safety Expert, Mary Nash Stoddard met with FDA and FAA officials in Washington [87-88] they claimed their hands were tied.

They were unwilling to undo the wrongs [including criminal actions taken on the part of those submitting aspartame for approval] that had been committed in allowing aspartame to remain illegally on the market. The Supreme Court refused to hear the petition regarding aspartame's illegal entry into the marketplace - filed in Washington D.C. by Consumer Attorney and ACSN co-founder, James Turner, Esq. Does MONSANTO have a "gatekeeper" on the U.S. Supreme Court in the form of former Monsanto attorney, Judge Clarence Thomas?

Law suits have been settled out of court. In 1992, G.D. Searle [wholly-owned subsidiary of Monsanto Chemical, St. Louis, MO since 1985] lost their exclusive patent on the pharmaceutical sweetener and now there are over 10,000 products containing aspartame as both active and inactive ingredient. [It is not always listed clearly on the ingredient label.] Diketopiperazine [DKP], a known brain tumor agent, is a breakdown product of aspartame.

Dr. John Olney of Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, shows a 10% rise in the two specific forms of brain tumors that showed up in lab tests: Astrocytomas and Glioblastomas [glial cell tumors], since aspartame came onto the market in the early eighty's. Formaldehyde [embalming fluid], a breakdown product of methanol [wood alcohol] in aspartame is found on the EPA's list of hazardous chemicals. Phenylalanine [50% of molecule] in aspartame can change the chemistry of the brain and lower the seizure threshold, according to studies done by Dr. Richard Wurtman, head of brain science at MIT. Phenylalanine also blocks production of a neurotransmitter - serotonin, which may result in mood swings; sleep disorders; mild to suicidal depressions and aberrant behaviors in some. Prozac and L-Tryptophan both increase serotonin levels.

A newsletter published by the Association of Birth Defect Children, shows Phenylalanine in aspartame can be responsible for both mild and severe birth defects - including permanent neurological damage. Aspartic Acid [40% of the molecule] in aspartame can change DNA, caused holes in the brains of lab animals and is classified as a neuroexcitatory amino acid.

Aspartame can sabotage weight loss attempts. Many report a paradoxical weight gain while using the products sweetened by aspartame. A study done at Leeds University in the U.K. showed weight gains by the men in the study on aspartame. Physicians and researchers know what damage may be caused by ingesting wood alcohol. Two teaspoons have been know to cause death.

[Every 12-oz can of diet soda which contains 200 mg. of aspartame may contain as much as 20 mg. of methanol.] The effect of methanol on the eye, liver, pancreas and other organs of the body are well documented in the scientific literature. In nature, ethanol, methanol's antidote is always present to neutralize the toxin. There is no ethanol in aspartame for protection. Aspartame can be especially hazardous to anyone with a preexisting medical condition such as diabetes.

Manufacturers of aspartame and makers of the thousands of products which contain the fake sweetener, generously fund in various ways, the following so-called independent organizations: American Diabetes Association, American Dietetic Association, members of Congress, prestigious medical schools and others. [The New York Times - 11/15/96 - reported the American Dietetic Association takes money from the food industry to endorse their products].

** "DEADLY DECEPTION - STORY OF ASPARTAME" [Toxicology Sourcebook] by Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder of the world's massive anti-aspartame movement with James Turner, Esq. ACSN's ANTI-ASPARTAME ACTION AGENDA: ** Take everything back to the store you may now have in your possession that contains aspartame!

** Print as many copies of this article as you can. Distribute and warn everyone you know. Send it out to the rest of the world by email. ** Take all aspartame out of your diet for 60 to 90 days and send us your adverse reaction report.

About the author of this article: Mary Nash Stoddard earned international recognition through public appearances and interviews in media as a pioneer of the burgeoning worldwide anti-aspartame movement.

As Aspartame Consumer Safety Network's founder and spokesperson since 1987, is acclaimed for her high profile stand against any unwarranted pollution of our food supply by irresponsible food and drug manufacturing practices. Stoddard defends her position with dozens of articles from peer-reviewed medical journals and over 10,000 adverse reactions to the artificial sugar sweetener in her files.

Retained frequently by media as an articulate Consumer Advocate and resource for numerous stories on national and international TV, Stoddard also provided eye opening testimony at Senate Hearings in Washington. Her important "Sixty Minutes" segments aired in both the U.S. and Australia. Stoddard's book, Deadly Deception - Story of Aspartame, is acclaimed globally as an invaluable resource. Certified Expert Witness on the subject of the dangerous food additive, aspartame and popular consultant to doctors, scientists, attorneys, airline pilots and health care professionals, Stoddard is often referred to as pilot's "Guardian Angel" for work done on their behalf.

SCIENTISTS CALL FOR URGENT REEVALUATION OF ASPARTAME

Eye Opening Scientific Research Study Worthy of Consideration
Posted by Mary Nash Stoddard

Aspartame Causes Cancer in Rats at Levels Currently Approved for Humans
23 Nov 2005

A statistically significant increase in the incidence of malignant tumors, lymphomas and leukemias in rats exposed to varying doses of aspartame appears to link the artificial sweetener to a high carcinogenicity rate, according to a study accepted for publication today by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP). The authors of the study, the first to demonstrate multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame administered to rats in feed, called for an "urgent reevaluation" of the current guidelines for the use and consumption of this compound.

"Our study has shown that aspartame is a multipotential carcinogenic compound whose carcinogenic effects are also evident at a daily dose of 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg), notably less than the current acceptable daily intake for humans," the authors write. Currently, the acceptable daily intake for humans is set at 50 mg/kg in the United States and 40 mg/kg in Europe.

Aspartame [aka NutraSweet/Equal], is the second most widely used artificial sweetener in the world. It is found in more than 6,000 products including carbonated [diet soda] and powdered beverages, fruity drinks, hot chocolate, gelatin desserts, chewing gum, candy, frozen desserts, breath mints/strips, yogurt, and tabletop sweeteners, as well as numerous pharmaceutical products like children's antibiotics, vitamins, antacids, and sugar-free cough drops. More than 200 million people worldwide consume it. The sweetener has been used for more than 23 years, having been approved by the USFDA in 1982. Studies of the carcinogenicity of aspartame performed by its producers have been negative.

Researchers administered aspartame to Sprague-Dawley rats by adding it to a standard diet. They began studying the rats at 8 weeks of age and continued until the spontaneous death of each rat. Treatment groups received feed that contained concentrations of aspartame at dosages simulating human daily intakes of 5,000, 2,500, 500, 100, 20, and 4 mg/kg body weight. Groups consisted of 100 males and 100 females at each of the three highest dosages and 150 males and 150 females at all lower dosages and controls.

The experiment ended after the death of the last animal at 159 weeks. At spontaneous death, each animal underwent examination for microscopic changes in all organs and tissues, a process different from the aspartame studies conducted 30 years ago and one that was designed to allow aspartame to fully express any carcinogenic potential.

The treated animals showed extensive evidence of malignant cancers including lymphomas, leukemias, and tumors at multiple organ sites in both males and females. The authors speculate the increase in lymphomas and leukemias may be related to one of the metabolites in aspartame, namely methanol, which is metabolized in both rats and humans to formaldehyde. Both methanol and formaldehyde have shown links to lymphomas and leukemias in other long-term experiments by the same authors.

The current study included more animals over a longer period than earlier studies. "In our opinion, previous studies did not comply with today's basic requirements for testing the carcinogenic potential of a physical or chemical agent, in particular concerning the number of rodents for each experimental group (40-86, compared to 100-150 in the current study) and the termination of previous studies at only 110 weeks of age of the animals," the study authors wrote.

The authors of the study were Morando Soffritti, Fiorella Belpoggi, Davide Degli Esposti, Luca Lambertini, Eva Tibaldi, and Anna Rigano of the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center, European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. Funding for the research was provided by the European Ramazzini Foundation of Oncology and Environmental Sciences, Bologna, Italy. The article is available free of charge.

EHP is published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. EHP is an Open Access journal.

Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

ASPARTAME USE DURING PREGNANCY-PREMATURE BIRTHS STUDY

Downing diet soda tied to risk of premature birth

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK | Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:30pm EDT

(Reuters Health) - New research suggests that drinking lots of artificially sweetened beverages may be linked with an increased risk of premature births.

"It may be non-optional for pregnant women to have high consumption of these types of products," Dr. Thorhallur I. Halldorsson of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, one of the researchers on the study, told Reuters Health.

"Diet" drinks are widely promoted as a healthy alternative to sugary sodas and juices, but Halldorsson and his colleagues note that there's been little research on the safety of regular consumption of artificial sweeteners in humans.

Soft drinks -- both artificially sweetened and sugar sweetened -- were recently linked to high blood pressure, the researchers add, which increases the risk of premature delivery. To investigate whether there might be a direct link, the researchers looked at nearly 60,000 Danish women who reported on their diet, including how many soft drinks they had each day, at around 25 weeks of pregnancy.

Around 5 percent of women delivered their babies before 37 weeks.

Women who had at least one serving of artificially sweetened soda a day while they were pregnant were 38 percent more likely to deliver preterm than women who drank no diet soda at all, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Women who had at least four diet sodas a day were nearly 80 percent more likely to deliver preterm. The association was the same for normal-weight and overweight women.

The researchers did not report the actual risk of premature babies in each group. However, according to the March of Dimes, one in eight babies -- or around 13 percent -- is born too soon. This means that if drinking diet soda does indeed increase risk - which must first be confirmed by other research teams -- a woman who drank at least one diet soda daily would have a 17 percent risk, while her risk would be around 22 percent if she drank four or more diet sodas.


Because only diet soda was linked to preterm delivery, not sugar-sweetened soda, the findings suggest that the artificial sweetener itself, not soda drinking, could account for the relationship, the researchers say. However, they add, other possible causes for the link can't be ruled out.

The researchers didn't look at specific artificial sweeteners, and Halldorsson noted that many beverages contain more than one of these chemicals. However, he and his colleagues say, there is indirect evidence linking the sweetener aspartame to preterm delivery in animals.

Aspartame breaks down into methanol and other substances in the body, which can in turn be converted to toxic substances such as formaldehyde and formic acid, the researchers explain. And studies in non-human primates have linked even very low exposure to methanol to shortened pregnancy and labor complications.

SOURCE: link.reuters.com/vep98m American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online June 30, 2010.

Top Psychiatrist Research on Aspartame/Neotame Safety

SURVEY OF ASPARTAME STUDIES:
CORRELATION OF OUTCOME
AND FUNDING SOURCES

Ralph G. Walton, M.D.
Chairman
The Center for Behavioral Medicine
Forum Health
Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry
Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine

Please address all correspondence to the author at:
The Center for Behavioral Medicine
Northside Medical Center
500 Gypsy Lane
Youngstown, Ohio 44501
Dr. Walton RWalton193@aol.com

ABSTRACT

Studies of aspartame in the peer reviewed medical literature were surveyed for funding source and study outcome. Of the 166 studies felt to have relevance for questions of human safety, 74 had Nutrasweet® industry related funding and 92 were independently funded. One hundred percent of the industry funded research attested to aspartame's safety, whereas 92% of the independently funded research identified a problem. A bibliography supplied by the Nutrasweet® Company included many studies of questionable validity and relevance, with multiple instances of the same study being cited up to 6 times. Questions are raised both about aspartame's safety and the broader issue of the appropriateness of industry sponsorship of medical research.

INTRODUCTION

Serious questions have been raised about the reliability of industry sponsored studies of the safety of synthetic chemicals.1 Aspartame, in particular, has been the focus of significant ongoing controversy.2

As early as 1970, eleven years prior to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) granting approval for the use of aspartame in dry foods, Olney raised the question of the chemical's potential neurotoxicity. 3,4,5 and recently suggested a linkage to increasing brain tumor rates.6 Wurtman has demonstrated that aspartame can significantly increase brain phenylalanine and tyrosine levels, and can suppress the usual increase in tryptophan that follows a carbohydrate rich meal.7 These neurochemical changes have been linked to numerous adverse clinical events including seizures, 8,9,10 mood disorders, 9, 11,12 headaches, 13 and paradoxical effects on appetite.14

Despite these studies suggesting adverse reactions there is extensive literature attesting to aspartame's safety. Allegations have been made that many of the studies supporting the product's safety have been funded by the Nutrasweet® industry, with consequent questions of appropriateness.15 To date, however, there has been no study correlating outcome with funding source in aspartame related research.

A search of the peer reviewed medical literature, utilizing multiple databases, including Medline, yielded 527 citations on aspartame. Of this number, 165 were felt to have relevance for questions of human safety. The accompanying chart (Table 1) lists these 166 studies, designates the funding source and whether or not an adverse reaction to aspartame was identified.

Seventy-four studies had aspartame related industry sponsorship (Searle, the Nutrasweet® Company, Ajinomoto, or the International Life Sciences Institute Nutrition Foundation) and 91 had non-industry related funding. Some of the studies have multiple funding sources. If an aspartame related industry was one of the sources, the study was considered industry-sponsored.
###

Dr. Walton, James Turner, Sen. Metzenbaum and Mary Nash Stoddard appeared on the panel of the Brain Tumor Press Conference in Washington, where Dr. John Olney unveiled the results of his study on Aspartame and Brain Tumors.

Washington-based Reporter's Aspartame Exposé

Aspartame Information

By GREG GORDON

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

WASHINGTON -- Aspartame, the popular artificial sweetener sold most often as NutraSweet, is a leading suspect in an upsurge of deadly brain tumors in the United States, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have concluded.

Their analysis of National Cancer Institute data, to be published this week in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology, found that the number of brain tumors jumped by 10 percent in 1984, a year after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sweetener for widespread use in food and soft drinks. Similar increases in brain tumors occurred in Europe, the researchers said.

The U.S. increase -- about 1,310 cases per year -- was marked by rising diagnoses of the same type of highly malignant tumor found in laboratory rats in an aspartame study in the 1970s, the scientists said.

Dr. John Olney, lead author of the paper, is a noted neuropathologist and psychiatrist who has challenged aspartame's safety since the 1970s.

``Compared to other environmental factors, aspartame appears to be a promising candidate for explaining the surge in brain tumors in the mid-1980s,''
Olney and three colleagues said, emphasizing that they were not asserting a causal link but rather urging further research here and abroad.

The FDA and aspartame's top manufacturer disputed the paper's hypothesis.

Dr. Michael Friedman, the FDA's deputy commissioner for operations, said there are ``serious methodological questions about Dr. Olney's conclusions.''

Neither epidemiologists at the National Cancer Institute nor the FDA's own scientists who reviewed the data ``find even a weak association between aspartame and brain tumor incidence in the United States,'' he said, saying no further study is needed.

A spokesman for the Illinois-based NutraSweet Kelco Co., which sells close to $1 billion of aspartame annually, said the researchers ``manipulated the data to make their point.''

``Aspartame is likely the most tested food additive in history,'' the company said. ``There is no evidence that aspartame is a carcinogen, let alone that it causes brain tumors.''

The firm, a unit of the Monsanto Corp., sells aspartame as the tabletop sweetener Equal, and supplies it for a smorgasbord of products, including soft drinks, Crystal Lite, puddings, gelatins and chewing gum, for use by more than 100 million people worldwide.

While a highly profitable product, aspartame has been enmeshed in controversy ever since the Chicago-based G.D. Searle & Co. won FDA approval -- first in 1981, for use in dry foods, and then in 1983, for soft drinks and other foods. At the time, Donald Rumsfeld, now chairman of Bob Dole's presidential campaign, was G.D. Searle's chairman.

Thousands of consumers have filed adverse-reaction reports with the FDA blaming NutraSweet for migraine headaches, vision problems, epileptic seizures and other maladies -- links the company says have never been clinically proved.

While the vast majority of industry-sponsored studies have said aspartame causes no health problems, a number of independent studies have raised serious questions.

Cancer concerns date back two decades. In the mid-1970s, 12 of 320 aspartame-fed rats in a company-sponsored study developed brain tumors, compared with none in a control group. The company provided other research to discount that finding, but in 1986, FDA commissioner Alexander Schmidt told a Senate Committee that Searle's research could ``at best be characterized as sloppy'' and that its scientists had made decisions that ``tended to minimize the chances of discovering toxicity.''

In 1981, acting on a petition from Olney and consumer attorney James Turner, an FDA Public Board of Inquiry voted unanimously to keep aspartame off the market because of concerns about brain tumors. But shortly after assuming the FDA commissioner's job that year, Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. overruled the board and approved NutraSweet for limited use, citing a late-arriving study sponsored by Searle's Japanese partner; that study's statistical validity also has been questioned.

Olney, who recently was elected to the Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences, established himself as a pioneer in the field of food additive research in the 1970s. His discovery that monosodium glutamate killed nerve cells in immature animals caused the food industry to remove MSG from baby food.

ACSN Founder's Personal Story

AUTUMN, 2000 issue THE PATIENTS’ VOICE
PfAM RESEARCH LINKS ASPARTAME TO SUICIDAL DEPRESSION
by Mary Nash Stoddard

Fifteen (now 25) years ago, I was experiencing suicidal depression, extreme mood swings, memory loss and confusion, linked with other somewhat “bizarre” behavioral patterns . I saw a neurologist and five other “specialists” to no avail. The onset of my symptoms coincided with the start of a 1985 weight-loss program using lots of aspartame, and ceased after I stopped using anything with artificial sweeteners. I no longer suffer severe suicidal depressions.

In 1987, after many months of researching the medical literature, at the request of my friend, Washington Consumer Advocate, James Turner, Esq., I provided sworn, expert testimony at the Senate Hearings and founded an international grassroots organization, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline. In 1992, I qualified as an Expert Medical Witness in Judge Holiday’s courtroom in Lansing, Michigan and in 1997, I was a paid visiting professor at one of the top medical schools in the country - University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas. I have lectured at many science symposiums and university events, in several countries, since that time and am a member of the President's Select Council on Food Safety.

My purpose is this: to educate those users who may be suffering severe adverse reactions without knowing the cause and to create increasing awareness on the part of an unsuspecting public. My allegations are supported by literally dozens of studies and articles published in the peer-reviewed medical journals showing the risk factors associated with ingestion of aspartame. At the risk of hurtful personal ridicule and disbelief by some, if my words of caution help others to find relief from troubling symptoms, I have done my job.

For the record, we have received, through the Freedom of Information Act, as a Journalist, 92 cases of aspartame-related symptoms -- including 5 deaths which have been reported to the Food and Drug Administration. Because one aspartame component, phenylalanine [50%of the molecule] has been shown in the laboratory to block production of a necessary neurotransmitter, serotonin, which controls sleep patterns and moods, many daily users of products containing the sweetener such as diet drinks, gums, etc. report both manic and suicidal depressions among other symptoms. Aspartame also breaks down in heat and in the body to methanol [10% wood alcohol], formaldehyde, formic acid [venom in ant and spider bites] and diketopiperazine [a brain tumor agent.] In the lab, aspartame caused four kinds of tumors: brain, pancreatic, breast and uterine. [Also kidney cancers, leukemia and lymphoma in the more recent Ramizzini study in Italy.]

Even subtle alterations of brain patterns in aspartame users may be deemed significant, according to these prominent brain researchers:

Richard Wurtman, M.D., head of Brain Science at MIT says, “There is evidence that levels of serotonin or 5-HIAA are subnormal in CSF [cerebrospinal fluid] samples from violent psychiatric patients and in brains of people who died by suicide.”1

“In rats, the administration of glucose and aspartame by gavage increased brain levels of tyrosine and phenylalanine and decreased brain serotonin concentration. It has been argued that these changes in brain amino acid and biogenic amine levels in rats may have important behavioral implications for humans.”2

About the Author:

With a background in Broadcast Journalism and Law, Mary Nash Stoddard searched for the cause of her youngest child’s reaction and her own life threatening blood disorder (Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome) as an investigative reporter might on the trail of a baffling story. With the help of a close friend -- a neuropharmacologist researcher at a foremost medical school -- and Shannon Roth, another friend in Ocala, Florida who provided moral support and substantial evidence that aspartame had caused Roth’s blindness and symptoms mimicking Multiple Sclerosis, Stoddard was well on her way to finding answers and reporting the story.

For the past fifteen [now 25] years - with virtually no outside funding and at great personal risk and sacrifice _ she has taken her fight around the world and was a member of the President’s Select Council on Food Safety. Last year [1999] she was a keynote speaker at the invitation of the Mexican Government,accompanied by her interpreter and friend, Ms.Connie Soto of Tampa, Florida. Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder and President Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline [1987-present] Mary Nash Stoddard, author of Deadly Deception Story of Aspartame, [Odenwald 1998], can be reached at: P.O. Box 2001, Frisco, TX 75034, phone: 214-387-4001, email: marystod@airmail.net, www.mary.blogspot.com; www.aspartamesafety.com/.

Endnotes
1 Wurtman, Richard J. ,M.D.; “Effects of Dietary Amino Acids, Carbohydrates, and Choline on Neurotransmitter
Synthesis; The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine; Vol. 55, No. 1, January 1988. From the Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and The Clinical Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.]

2 JAMA, July 19,1985-Vol 254, No.3, p.402

3 “Adverse Reactions to Aspartame: Double-Blind Challenge in Patients from a Vulnerable Population,” the Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 1993

4 Lane Lenard, Phd as reported in the January 1998 issue of Life Enhancement

5 Blaylock, Russel M.D., Excitotoxins-The Taste That Kills
###

Permission granted to re-post/re-publish - giving full attribution to Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline Founder, Mary Nash Stoddard - and link to the following URL:

FDA Corrupted Beyond Repair? You Decide . . .

In public speaking engagements and on our Adverse Reaction Reporting Hotline, the question I am most often asked is, "Why is aspartame still on the market?" Even more troubling, "Why did FDA approve a controversial, super version of aspartame 13,000 times sweeter than sucrose?" You heard correctly, "Thirteen thousands times the sweetening properties of sugar!" FDA continues to irrationally support the artificial sweeteners: aspartame/Neotame [aka AminoSweet/Sweetos/NutraSweet/Equal] based solely on highly-disputed, industry-sponsored tests showing safety. So, what's wrong with this picture?

We lay the blame and responsibility fully at the doorstep of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in Washington DC. At the same time, our Aspartame Consumer Safety Network does recommend that consumers shun products containing these non-food sweeteners. Leave them to expire on the retail shelves. They contain almost zero calories, because they are NOT Food! Therefore, they trick the body into thinking real food is on the way. By the time the body figures it out, it is too late. The sweetener does not accumulate in the body, but the damage done to the body most certainly does accumulate.

In the now-famous Jerome Bressler Report to FDA, this honorable FDA toxicologist shows how aspartame fed lab animals suffered deaths, cancers, severe organ damage, etc. Recent tests by independent researchers all over the world, confirmed the Bressler Report findings - adding leukemia, lymphoma to the long list of maladies caused by aspartame-type sweeteners in tests and reports to our Hotline.

FDA’s official position? Absolutely nothing is wrong or harmful about aspartame/Neotame/AminoSweet/Sweetos/Equal/NutraSweet, despite the undisputed fact that approximately 80% of all adverse reaction complaints to FDA are aspartame related. Unlike pharmaceuticals - serious adverse reactions to a food additive are not required by law to be reported by physicians. FDA lists over 92 symptoms consumers have tied to aspartame consumption - including deaths. Reports show that when individuals cease ingesting aspartame, their symptoms usually go away.

“Junk Science” and worse was used by G.D. Searle CEO, Donald Rumsfeld, to gain approval for aspartame in the first place as a tabletop sweetener and in 1981 and in 1983 for aqueous solution [soft drinks]. Some concerned FDA toxicologists even went as far as to show the tests were “falsified” to get aspartame approved in the first place. Why wasn't the substance immediately re-called and re-tested as a drug, which is how it was discovered?

Aspartame was first FDA-approved in 1974, but that approval was rescinded before it could get to market because of serious questions about one of the breakdown products, DKP , which caused brain tumors in the laboratory animals. At a Washington D.C. News Conference, November 1997, John Olney, M.D., noted brain researcher, presented his compelling findings of a 10% increase in brain tumors since the advent of aspartame on the market.

Further troubling to many independent scientists is the fact that virtually all the studies showing harm are “corporate neutral” as one aspartame researcher put it. Many studies are available to show harm caused by aspartame’s phenylalanine, aspartic acid and toxic breakdown products: methanol - formaldehyde - formic acid and diketopiperazine. Tens of thousands of consumers and others have reported serious adverse reactions to the FDA and consumer advocacy organizations collecting reports, such as the international Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline.

Woodrow Monte, R.D., Ph.D., a former director of the Arizona State University Food Sciences and Nutrition Laboratory, is uncomfortable with the methanol content of aspartame. In an 1986 interview, Monte called aspartame "a crime against humanity." "Humans are 100 times more sensitive to methanol than animals. When you ingest aspartame, it breaks down into methanol within one hour of ingestion. Methanol forms as soon as aspartame goes into solution and increases the longer it is in solution." according to Monte. Because heat speeds the breakdown of aspartame into methanol. This raises serious concern about aspartame's 1993 approval for use in baked goods and other heated products, like hot cocoa and tea. Although aspartame came about as the result of a search for a drug, and its compounds were the basis for a potential prescription medication, the petition for approval of NutraSweet was based on the premise that it was a food additive. The FDA followed its precedent of permitting manufacturers to conduct their own product safety research.

Monte feels that aspartame was mislabeled from the beginning. "aspartame is a drug, not a food additive," he said. "One hundred million people, from little babies to the elderly, are consuming this stuff in megadoses, more than they ever would if it were labeled a drug." [Informed Consent May/June ‘94]

Outspoken critics are suggesting - not that we rid ourselves of a Food and Drug Administration - only that we rid ourselves of the present “corrupted” Food and Drug Administration thus changing the current FDA focus of protecting the profits of the giants of industry to one of protecting the American public, which it is charged to serve.

The FDA seems to have everything “backwards” in its regulatory thinking. The herbal sweetener with centuries of no adverse reactions to its credit versus the artificial sweetener which has been surrounded by a storm of controversy since its flawed approval twenty nine years ago.

Conclusion: FDA’s ability to evaluate any substance objectively has been called into question by consumers and independent researchers alike. Senator Metzenbaum called FDA officials mere “Handmaidens to Industry” in the 1987 Senate Hearings on the Safety of aspartame. Corporate megabucks influence and determine the actions of that government agency created to protect the consumer from harm. In an unfortunate ripple effect, FDA's seal of approval is the standard used by agencies around the world to allow food additives into their countries, without doing their own investigations. Corporations routinely cover themselves by donating millions to organizations such as: American Dietetic Association, American Diabetic Foundation and others. FDA officials routinely hop with jumping-bean-like ease from government to private industry and back.

This is a major injustice forced upon the children of the world. Especially given the fact that a massive public relations campaign to 'demonize' natural sweeteners is gaining momentum, so that eventually all sweet foods and beverages will be sugarfree and artificially-sweetened with the controversial fake sweeteners, such as aspartame and Neotame, that trick the developing neurological system of our youth. Greed versus health, which will win? It’s up to us, the consuming public. I am optimistic about the future and the ability of our citizenry to wake up and swing into action - given both sides of the sweetener issue - Industry's side and the Corporate Neutral scientists and citizens who have absolutely nothing to gain monetarily with our position.

One person (you, the reader) can and must work to make a difference in the way the world looks at sweeteners. Won't you join us in getting the word out to everyone you know? Ask your doctor to enter into your medical records if you believe you are having a reaction to aspartame. Tell your pharmacist to enter into your data you want no prescription that contains aspartame or neotame as an active or inactive ingredient. Or, anything that contains phenylalanine (another name for aspartame.) Be a proactive consumer. Act as if your life depends on it!

Stoddard's POV: AminoSweet-'Cutesie' New Deceptive Name for Neurotoxin

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/aspartame-haunted-by-ugly-past.html

AminoSweet-'Cutesie' New Deceptive Name for Neurotoxin

AminoSweet: Calling a Toxic Chemical 'Food' is a Deadly Deception

Top neurologist/researcher, Dr. John Olney, first blew the whistle on this dangerous substance in the seventies. He was joined by James Turner, Esq. and in 1987, by Mary Nash Stoddard, who took the campaign to recall aspartame international. We believe aspartame, neotame, AminoSweet, Equal, NutraSweet, etc. are the most dangerous substances in our food supply today. Visit Stoddard's POV at Blogspot.com for scientific documentation too lengthy to present here.

A Major Legal Victory in the Fight for Hormone-Free Milk | Food | AlterNet

A Major Legal Victory in the Fight for Hormone-Free Milk | Food | AlterNet

Dr. John Olney and Jas. Turner, Esq. - Two Brave Unsung Heroes

Presenting: ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK'S CO-FOUNDER, James Turner, Esq.


James Turner, a long time Washington D.C. consumer crusader, began his public advocacy career as one of [Ralph] Nader's Raiders. Food safety and the regulatory process were subjects Turner knew a lot about. In the late sixties, he wrote the influential and best selling exposé of the food industry called "The Chemical Feast." Turner established his reputation as a regulatory pit bull when he fought to have cyclamate taken off the FDA's Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list.

Turner determined to vigorously fight aspartame's approval, going through the proper regulatory channels. He took this battle on, largely at his own expense, because he was convinced influence peddling in Washington was behind aspartame's gaining FDA approval.

This isn't the first time Turner and Dr. Olney have had conflicts with Searle. Turner and Olney first joined forces in the late sixties, during the Senate hearings about MSG in baby foods. A few years later, when Olney learned Searle was developing aspartame for use as an artificial sweetener, he became alarmed and contacted his friend, James Turner, immediately.

Olney was worried because aspartic acid (one of three components of aspartame) had very similar properties to glutamic acid (an ingredient of monosodium glutamate, aka MSG) and in his ground breaking research with glutamate, he had shown it to cause brain lesions in infant rats.

Olney met with Searle brass, in order to present his concerns to them, regarding aspartame. Searle supplied Olney with aspartame so he could conduct experiments on the sweetener's safety. Olney fed aspartame to infant rats and observed the same results as he did with glutamate. (Olney has stated that glutamic acid and aspartic acid are virtually interchangeable in their biological effects in humans.) Aspartame caused brain lesions in the experiments with laboratory rats. According to Olney, aspartame caused a loss of neurons, and was responsible for stunted and retarded growth of: pituitary glands, testes and ovaries in animal experiments. Turner says when he and Olney met with Searle officials before aspartame's approval to inform them about the results of Olney's studies, Searle officials "listened politely" and told them they would get back to them. Turner and Olney never heard anything more from Searle.

Olney, a conservative scientist, is adamant when he says "there is no margin of safety for aspartame in a child's diet."

Turner and Olney decided to fight aspartame's approval. Representing a Washington, D.C. public interest group, Consumer Nutrition Institute (CNI), Turner and Olney filed formal objections with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA.) They challenged the validity of some of the key aspartame safety tests, submitted to FDA by the applicant, G.D. Searle. They presented animal studies by Olney and others, showing evidence aspartame causes brain damage, brain tumors, seizures and definite changes in brain chemistry. Turner and Olney were especially concerned about the new sweetener's potential effects on fetuses and young children.

In April, 1975, the FDA scheduled a hearing body, specifically, a Public Board of Inquiry (PBOI), to review the objections to aspartame. While preparing for the PBOI, Dr. Olney examined the FDA files, which contained Searle's "Safety Data Studies."

What Olney discovered buried in those files would obsess him for years to come. He was shocked, when he found results of aspartame feeding experiments, conducted by Searle, which showed an unusually high incidence of brain tumors in rats that ingested the sweetener. There were absolutely no tumors in the control rats.

Olney was even more concerned when he reviewed a long term study of baby monkeys, which Searle researchers were feeding aspartame and milk. Of the seven monkeys, one died and five others had grand mal seizures. Jim Turner, who also looked at the seizure tests, was astonished when Searle scientists claimed these monkey studies proved aspartame's safety - since only the monkeys who received high doses of aspartame had seizures. The monkeys ingesting low doses did not experience seizures. Therefore, the company (G.D. Searle) argued and the FDA agreed - aspartame was "safe."

Turner and Olney worried that when children used NutraSweet (aspartame) products there was no way to control how much NutraSweet they ingested. Searle had not tested aspartame on humans. Safe dosage data for children was not available. Turner and Olney insisted that if children ingested too many products containing NutraSweet, they could easily cross the threshold that would trigger seizures.
###
submitted by: Mary Nash Stoddard/author Deadly Deception Story of Aspartame. (Co-Founder, with Jas. Turner, of Aspartame Consumer Safety Network and Pilot Hotline since 1987) http://marystod.blogspot.com/
http://aspartamesafety.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/661834.Mary_Nash_Stoddard
Follow: marystod on Twitter

SENATE HEARING TESTIMONY FOUNDER ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK

PIONEER ASPARTAME WHISTLEBLOWER'S SWORN TESTIMONY TO U.S. SENATE IN WASHINGTON

Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources

"NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns"

November 3, 1987

STATEMENT BY HON. MARY NASH STODDARD, FOUNDER

ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK AND PILOT HOTLINE

My name is Mary Nash Stoddard. I live in Dallas, Texas and I am founder of the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network. Since going public with my story about the drastic reaction I had to aspartame in 1985-86, (see article Dallas Times Herald, 7/27/87), I have had an opportunity to reach thousands of people via TV interviews, guest appearances on radio talk shows, and personal experiences on behalf of the national Aspartame Consumer Safety Network. I have supported my endeavors strictly with my own limited private funds, because of my strong personal commitment.

One of my main concerns is that the number of people who are being affected by this chemical are not getting their reactions reported and officially tallied by the proper government agency, the Food and Drug Administration. Callers are being mislead or misinformed by individuals in the Regional FDA office in Dallas/Fort Worth. For example:

Debbie B. - Diagnosed this year with a brain tumor. Drank 8-10 cans of Diet Coke daily. She called the Dallas FDA. They told her NutraSweet could not possibly be her problem, although she believes it is.

Joye J. - Told by FDA representative that NutraSweet was very safe. She had a bad reaction to it and knew better.

Larry Taylor, CRNA - Anesthetist who has had seizures related to aspartame use. FDA in Dallas gave him the National AIDS Hotline number to call for more information. (see separate testimony transcript)

Gail F. - Experienced a drastic aspartame reaction. When she called the Dallas FDA in October, 1987, they told her it was safe and that Mary Stoddard was working for the Sugar Lobby! (a provable lie!)

Mary Nash Stoddard - My own personal experiences with the FDA are a virtual horror story. My first call to their Dallas office put me in touch with a Mrs. Hazel Wallace, their Consumer Affairs Officer. Her official line was that a very few people were 'sensitive' to aspartame, similarly to people who are 'allergic' to shellfish, etc. However, Wallace went on to relate to me the story of her own college-age daughter, who drank lots of Diet Coke and two years was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The daughter had two surgeries for it, after blacking out, having seizures, etc. This once-aspiring concert pianist is left with one hand that is useless and draws up to her shoulder at off times. The daughter was dieting heavily, using aspartame, to fit into her wedding dress. Off the record, she thought aspartame might be responsible for her medical problems. Mrs. Wallace promised to set up a public meeting between our group (ACSN) and the Regional FDA Director this fall. So far, nothing has come of that,  After the article was published in the Dallas Times Herald newspaper, July 27, 1987, I was invited to do a Dallas radio talk show, with Host David Gold and another guest, Dallas FDA Regional Director, D. Helton. During the course of that popular show, with thousands of listeners that day, FDA Director Helton lost his composure, calling me a 'liar' On the Air, accusing me of making serious libelous statements when I said, 'Arthur Hull Hays, Jr. went to work for Burson Marsteller, the NutraSweet public relations firm, mere months after approving aspartame for aqueous solution, in 1983.' This is a matter of public record, which Helton flatly denied.

In August of 1987, I decided, out of curiosity, to call the Dallas Regional FDA Office, to see what they were telling people at that time. Ramona Farchee told me 'don't worry''NutraSweet is perfectly safe - like bananas and milk - consisting of two amino acids, which are the Building Blocks of Life.' She could not remember getting more than a 'few' complaints in all her years with the FDA. She 'drinks it herself' and almost sounded like the TV commercial for the NutraSweet products.

My concern is that most individuals would never pursue registering a complaint after this sort of treatment during a call to the FDA office. 

How many patients with reactions are going to associate their reaction to something our government (FDA) has approved. Doctors, for the most part, certainly do not make the connection, so how then, could the patient? Most often it occurs from an accidental re-exposure to aspartame, and a distinct return of the symptoms, as happened in my case. 

Respectfully yours,

Mary Nash Stoddard

Aspartame Consumer Safety Network

Dallas Texas 75229

214-352-4268 ( New Number: 214-387-4001)

Senate Hearing 100-567, pg. 428-429

"NutraSweet - Health and Safety Concerns"

Hearing before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, U.S. Senate - One Hundredth Congress - First Session on: Examining The Health and Safety Concerns of NutraSweet (Aspartame). November 3, 1987

Printed for the use of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources

U.S. Government Printing Office - Washington: 1988 83-178

_________________________________________________________________

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND HUMAN RESOURCES

Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts, Chairman

Clairborne Pell, Rhode Island

Howard M. Metzenbaum, Ohio

Spark M. Matsunaga, Hawaii

Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut

Paul Simon, Illinois

Tom Harkin, Iowa

Brock Adams, Washington

Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland

Orrin G. Hatch, Utah

Robert T. Stafford, Vermont

Dan Quayle, Indiana

Strom Thurmond, South Carolina

Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., Connecticut

Thad Cochran, Mississippi

Gordon J. Humphrey, New Hampshire

NEOTAME/SWEETOS DANGER SURFACES

RESPONSE from ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK
http://aspartamesafety.com/web/articles/the-threat-of-neotame/
Dockets Management Branch (HFA A-305)
Food an Drug Administration 12420 Parklawn Drive
Room 1-23
Rockville,Maryland 20857

Subject: Docket No. 98F-0052 (Food Additive Petition for Neotame)
OFFICIAL OPPOSITION STATEMENT TO FDA
RE: APPROVAL OF MONSANTO’S NEW SWEETENER, NEOTAME
FROM: ASPARTAME CONSUMER SAFETY NETWORK

DALLAS, March 10, 1998 – (Aspartame Consumer Safety Network) – In response to FDA and Monsanto’s announcement that FDA has been petitioned for approval of their new sweetener, Neotame as a food additive, our Dallas-based international anti-aspartame organization, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, issues the following statement:

Seventy eight percent of all FDA complaints are regarding aspartame adverse reactions. ACSN has thousands of serious reactions in our files, including incidents of grand mal seizures, brain tumors and other health-related problems too numerous to mention.

Monsanto’s Nick Rosa stated that Neotame is “based on the aspartame formula.” Since we believe this to be true, Aspartame Consumer Safety Network vigorously opposes its approval. The aspartame formula is comprised of Phenylalanine, which caused seizures in lab animals and Aspartic Acid, which caused “holes in the brains” of lab animals – bonded by Methyl Alcohol, or Methanol which is capable of causing blindness, liver damage and death. Methanol, or wood alcohol in aspartame breaks down further in heat and in the body, into Formaldehyde (embalming fluid), Formic Acid (venom in ant stings) and the most deadly of all – Diketopiperazine (DKP), a brain tumor agent. Our files contain close to 10,000 responses from the public, including thousands of serious adverse reactions to Monsanto’s aspartame.

As a founder of the world’s burgeoning anti-aspartame movement, I was the first non-M.D. invited to lecture at a major Medical School on the topic of Aspartame (Jan. 1997). I recently concluded a multi-city lecture tour and find interest in this topic to be extremely high – here and all over the world. Recently, a story appeared in London’s Sunday Mirror, featuring an adverse reaction of a child whose parents are members of A.C.S.N. (Aspartame Consumer Safety Network). Aspartame has been identified and denounced as a major risk factor by consumers in over a dozen countries.

According to FDA Toxicologists who gave testimony with me in 1987 at a Senate Hearing on the subject – the tests to get aspartame approved were falsified. Deaths of lab animals were covered up and went unreported.

Based on over a decade of epidemiological research and work with consumers and health care professionals, we urgently implore the FDA to unequivocally deny any form of approval of Neotame.

Signed:

Mary Nash Stoddard, Founder
Aspartame Consumer Safety Network
and Worldwide Pilots Hotline (Division of ACSN)

enclosure: ACSN Newsletter
cc: Blondell Anderson
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (HFS-206)
FDA, 200 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20204

U.S. Congressman, Dick Armey
Attention: Bryndan Wright
301 Cannon Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Ms. Laura M. Tavantino
Office of Premarket Approval
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (HFS-206)
FDA, 200 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20204

Representative Newt Gingrich, M.C.
Attn: Patrick Burns
3823 Roswell Road, Suite 206
Marietta, Georgia 30062


DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Food and Drug Administration
[Docket No. 98F-0052]
Monsanto Co.; Filing a Food Additive Petition
AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing that Monsanto Co. has filed a petition proposing that the food additive regulations be amended to provide for the safe use of L- Phenylanlanine,N-[N-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)-L--aspartyl]-,1-methyl ester for use as a tabletop sweetener. Monsanto Co. also proposes that this additive be identified as neotame.

DATES: Written comments on the petitioner’s environmental assessment by March 12, 1998.
ADDRESSES: Submit written comments to the Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 12420 Parklawn Dr., rm. 1-23, Rockville, MD 20857.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Blondell Anderson, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (HFS-206), Food and Drug Administration, 200 C St. SW., Washington, DC 20204, 202-418-3106.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (sec. 409(b)(5) (21 U.S.C. 348(b)(5))), notice is given that a food additive petition (FAP 8A4580) has been filed by Monsanto Co., 5200 Old Orchard Rd., Skokie, IL 60077. The petition proposes to amend the food additive regulations in 21 CFR part 172 to provide for the safe use of L-Phenylanlanine,N-[N-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)-L- -aspartyl]-,1- methyl ester as a tabletop sweetener and for the additive to be identified as neotame.The potential environmental impact of this action is being reviewed. To encourage public participation consistent with regulations promulgated under the National Environmental Policy Act (40 CFR 1501.4(b)), the agency is placing the environmental assessment submitted with the petition that is the subject of this notice on display at the Dockets Management Branch (address above) for public review and comment. Interested persons may, on or before March 12, 1998, submit to the Dockets Management Branch (address above) written comments. Two copies of any comments are to be submitted, except that individuals may submit one copy. Comments are to be identified with the docket number found in brackets in the heading of this document. Received comments may be seen in the office above between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. FDA will also place on public display any amendments to, or comments on, the petitioner’s environmental assessment without further announcement in the Federal Register. If, based on its review, the agency finds that an environmental impact statement is not required and this petition results in a regulation, the notice of availability of the agency’s finding of no significant impact and the evidence supporting that finding will be published with the regulation in the Federal Register in accordance with 21 CFR 25.40(c).

Dated: January 23, 1998.

Laura M. Tarantino,
Acting Director, Office of Premarket Approval, Center for Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition.
[FR Doc. 98-3296 Filed 2-9-98; 8:45 am
] BILLING CODE 4160-01-F
Word Matches: NEOTAME
Archive-Name: gov/us/fed/nara/fed-register/1998/feb/10/63FR6762
Posting-number: Volume 63, Issue 27, Page 6762
[Federal Register: February 10, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 27)]
[Notices]
[Page 6762]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10fe98-107]
___________________________________________________________
What is it used in?
Beverages, tabletop sweeteners, frozen desserts, ice cream, yogurt, chewing gum, candy, bakery products, toppings, fillings, fruit spreads, cereal
http://www.sugarfreezone.com.au/faq.html#NEOTAME

New products that have recently come to the market that contain neotame include,Kroger's fruit juice and certain powdered ice-teas. Neotame is also now used in some Detour energy bars and certain confectionary products, such as Wrigley Chewing Gum in Australia, Roman Meal Bread line and Herr's pretzels in the US.
____________________________________________________________
Many food products bound for the US are Made in China. What are the permitted sweeteners in Hong Kong?

According to the Schedule to the Sweeteners in Food Regulations (Cap. 132U), permitted sweeteners include the followings:

(1) Acesulfame Potassium
(2) Alitame
(3) Aspartame (aka Equal/AminoSweet/Canderel, etc.)
(4) Aspartame - acesulfame Salt
(5) Cyclamic Acid (and Sodium, Potassium, Calcium salts)
(6) Saccharin (and Sodium, Potassium, Calcium Salts)
(7) Sucralose
(8) Thaumatin.
(9) Neotame (aka Sweetos)
(10) Steviol Glycosides

8. What are the maximum permissible levels for the permitted sweeteners in foods?

There are no maximum permissible levels set for those permitted sweeteners as prescribed in the Schedule to the Sweeteners in Food Regulation (Cap. 132U). The quantity of the permitted sweeteners to be used in foods shall be in accordance with the good manufacturing practice.(?????)