"Julie Bove" > wrote in message
...

> > I'm going to try to quit anything with aspertame in it. I did a
> > report on it and some of the problems and symptoms were pretty scary.
>
> They would be scary, if they were true. But they are not.
> >
> > My problem is that most no sugar added and diet products have
> > aspartame added. Any links or suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Here are a couple. Simply type in "Aspartame".
>
> http://snopes.com/
>
> http://urbanlegends.com/
>
> You'll see that the scary stuff is all a fairy tale.

Please visit www.dorway.com for excellent information on ASPARTAME and all
the evidence you need to know about to make an informed decision about what
you or your children are taking into your bodies.

Aspartame is very sweet. However roaches won't eat it, cats and dogs won't
eat it, ants won't eat it and flies won't eat it - but the FDA (Food and
Drug Administration) serves it to you with their approval and the approval
of the Monsanto Chemical Company.

Warnings

Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) surveyed 80
people who suffered brain seizures after eating or drinking products with
aspartame. The report stated "These 80 cases meet the FDA's own definition
of an imminent hazard to the public health, which requires the FDA to
expeditiously remove a product from the market." On July 28, 1983 the
National Soft Drink Association drafted a 30-page protest questioning the
safety of aspartame in soft drinks.

The American Diabetic Association, which receives megafunds from The
NutraSweet Company, ignored a 1987 abstract submitted by Dr. H.J. Roberts
(world expert on diabetes) summarizing 58 diabetic aspartame reactions. He
says: "I now advise all patients with diabetes and hypoglycemia to avoid
aspartame products."

The FDA and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) have received nearly 7,000
complaints, including five deaths, attributed to the use of aspartame in
food products since the FDA first permitted limited use in 1981. A number of
researchers and doctors around the country object not only to the product
itself, but to the questionable preliminary research that led the FDA to
approve it's use.

Why hasn't aspartame been banned? The answer could be that there are
thousands of companies using aspartame in diet sodas, powdered drinks,
gelatin, tea, cocoa, juices, frozen desserts, even vitamins and medications.
This translates to billions of dollars worldwide. Far more profits than
needed to provide agency officials with gratuities and/or very favorable
future employment, politicians with campaign funds, non-profit foundations
with endowments, scientists with research grants, and the media with lots of
advertising dollars.

History
Aspartame was the accidental discovery of chemist Jim Schlatter, who was
working for the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle on an anti-ulcer drug. It
was December 1965; Schlatter licked his finger and tasted the substance that
had spilled on his flask. It's sweetness stunned him, and he realized that
tiny amounts of the chemicals he'd been mixing were powerfully sweet. Searle
began testing the chemical mixture, aspartame, and it eventually gained FDA
approval.

Toxic Properties
Aspartame is a drug that breaks down into a witch's brew of toxins. It is a
molecule composed of three components: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and
methanol.

Free methanol begins to form in liquid aspartame-containing products at
temperatures above 86F. The human body runs around 98.6F. Once ingested the
free methanol is released into the small intestine and encounters the enzyme
chymotrypsin produced by the liver which breaks it down into formaldehyde.

Formaldehyde, also known as formalin, embalming fluid, or formol, is a
colorless gas with a pungent odor. Symptoms of formaldehyde exposure include
nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, or diarrhea. When the reaction is
allergic, symptoms may include minor respiratory irritation and watery eyes.
It is a known carcinogen.

The body has difficulty eliminating formaldehyde so it combines some of it
with water and stores it in the fat. What is not stored in the fat is
further converted to formic acid (AKA ant sting poison-also used as an
activator to strip epoxy and urethane coatings).

Phenylalanine and aspartic acid, 90% of aspartame, are amino acids normally
used in synthesis of protoplasm when supplied by the foods we eat. But when
unaccompanied by other amino acids they are neurotoxic. They can go past the
blood brain barrier and deteriorate the neurons of the brain. The
phenylalanine which is genetically engineered breaks down into
diketopiperazine, a known brain tumor agent and it is the reason for the FDA
mandated warning label that states "Phenylketonurics: Contains
phenylalanine". In other words: aspartame converts to dangerous byproducts
that have no natural countermeasures. A dieter's empty stomach accelerates
these conversions and amplifies the damage.

How bad is it?
There are 90 documented symptoms including: Headaches, Muscle spasms,
Irritability, Heart palpatations, Loss of taste, Joint pain, Dizziness,
Weight gain, Tachycardia (heart racing), Breathing difficulty, Tinnitus
(ringing in the ears), Blurred vision, Seizures, Rashes, Insomnia, Anxiety
attacks, Vertigo, Hearing loss, Nausea, Depression, Blindness, Slurred
Speech, Memory Loss, Fatigue, Numbness.

In l993, Swiss scientist S. E. Shephard exposed aspartame to nitrite in a
test tube, causing it to undergo nitration as it might do when it encounters
nitrite in the stomach. Shephard then demonstrated that the nitrated
aspartame molecule was able to cause mutations in cultured bacteria. This
test is commonly used to assess the cancer causing potential of chemicals.

Unethical Conduct
The FDA is charged by Congress to protect the public health by prohibiting
the manufacture and distribution of unapproved drugs. The Department of
Justice has the responsibility for prosecution of criminal and civil cases
arising under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, Title 21, United States Code
Section 331. Cases are referred to the Department generally through the FDA'
s Chief counsel after the FDA has conducted an investigation.

The FDA approved aspartame under very suspect circumstances. By their own
admission it is the most complained about substance in their history, with
over 10,000 "official" complaints. The FDA, CDC and many others have proof
that aspartame does in fact cause tumors, and they have more than ample
proof that the toxic substances methanol, formaldehyde, and formic acid,
along with the action of aspartic acid cause a wide range of problems in
those who ingest aspartame-laced products.

Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, a former FDA toxicologist, and member of a FDA task
force that investigated the authenticity of research done by Searle to
establish the safety of aspartame, says she believes the original aspartame
studies were "built on a foundation of sand." She testified in front of an
U.S. Senate hearing in 1987 that flawed tests conducted by Searle, used as
the basis for 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. Verrett said 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. were also discounted."

On Jan 10, 1977; FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill recommended to U.S.
Attorney Sam Skinner, "We request that your office convene a Grand Jury
investigation into apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. 331(e), and the False Reports to the Government Act,
18 U.S.C. 1001, by G.D. Searle and Company and three of its responsible
officers for their willful and knowing failure to make reports to the Food a
nd Drug Administration required by the Act, 21 U.S.C. 355(i), and for
concealing material facts and making false statements in reports of animal
studies conducted to establish the safety of the drug Aldactone and the food
additive Aspartame."

Why was Searle not indicted? Searle's law firm met with Attorney Skinner on
January 26. A week later they offered him a job. On April 17 the Justice
Department advised Skinner to proceed immediately because of a looming
statute of limitations deadline. On July 1 Skinner switched sides to work
for Sidney and Austin, Searle's law firm. His successor Atty. William Conlon
after convening a grand jury let the Statute of Limitations run out on the
aspartame charges. Fifteen months later he too went to work for Sidney and
Austin. All in all ten ranking FDA or federal officials involved with the
investigation and regulation of aspartame had left government service for
employment by the sweetener industry.

No FDA Commissioner would approve aspartame and so it was kept off the
market for 16 years. In April 1981, Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr. was appointed FDA
Commissioner. On July 18, 1981 aspartame was approved for use in dry foods.
Arthur Hayes overruled a Public Board of Inquiry and ignored the law,
Section 409(c)(3) of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 348), which
says that a food additive should not be approved if tests are inconclusive.
The FDA did apply an "acceptable daily intake" or ADI to aspartame. This was
raised so that in 1983 Dr. Hayes could approve aspartame for use in
beverages... against the consensus of the National Soft Drink Association
that aspartame was too unstable for such use. Shortly after the FDA approval
for aspartame in carbonated beverages, Arthur Hayes left the FDA under
charges of improprieties, took a position as the Dean of New York Medical
Collage and was hired as a consultant ($1,000 per day) with G.D. Searle's
public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller.

Burson-Marsteller (B-M) is the world's largest PR firm, with 63 offices in
32 countries. On the human rights front, B-M has represented some of the
worst violators of our age. These include: The Nigerian government during
the Biafran war, to discredit reports of genocide; The fascist junta that
ruled Argentina during the 70's and early 80's, to attract foreign
investment; The totalitarian regime of South Korea, to whitewash the human
rights situation there during the 1988 Olympics; and the Indonesian
government, which got into power through a CIA-sponsored bloodbath.

So it's a possibility that B-M did a great job keeping aspartame on the
world market despite "red-handed" evidence of it's toxic capabilities. What
may have been another "aspartame" biased act by the FDA was its effort to
prevent the use of stevia. Stevia, a natural sweetener, is not a synthetic
chemical, nor has it been implicated in health problems, as has aspartame.
Stevia is 200 times sweeter than sugar, and in Japan it claims 41% of the
sweetener market. In the entire history of stevia use as a sweetener in
Japan, even in Diet CokeT, there has never been any complaints or concerns
about its safety. Celestial SeasoningsT, one of the largest herbal tea
companies in the world, used stevia as a flavoring and sweetener in many
teas. In 1986, without warning, FDA agents entered their warehouse, seized
their entire stock of stevia, and told them they could not use it in their
teas. In 1991, the FDA banned stevia, claiming that in spite of its use
worldwide as a sweetener additive with no reported side effects, it was an
"unsafe food additive." (Today stevia is finally approved and on the open
U.S. market.)

Dr. H.J. Roberts has declared aspartame disease to be a world epidemic.
Currently Monsanto reaps $1 billion/year from the aspartame toxic bonanza.
They have asked for a more potent version called NeotameE to be approved by
the FDA.

Those wishing detailed scientific documentation may choose to order a an
excellent book by Dr. Blaylock or something from Dr. H. J. Roberts. On the
internet go to http://www.dorway.com