Dear Jody: I'm delighted to forward to you instructions to the
auto-responder. You can read the history of aspartame and even read case
histories. For instance, you'll see that people diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis who are on NutraSweet usually reverse because in actuality it
is methanol toxicity. These are classic cases we see day in and day out.
The double=blind study by Dr. Walton is, indeed, a study. However, the
frequency and severity of psychiatric, neurologic, eye and other side
effects caused the institutional Review Board to terminate the project
prematurely. With this revelation, Dr. H. J. Roberts, suggested
corporate neutral examiners should analyze the nature of the aspartame
furnished by previous double-blind studies.
Jody, if you read about these flawed studies in one book or read about
them in one paper you might wonder. There are so many books written on
the original aspartame studies and, in fact, if you access our warning
flyer you'll see some of them listed on the reverse of our warning flyer.
Also, these flawed studies are written about in the Congressional Record,
in newspaper articles, in magazine articles and previously in the U.S.
Attorney's office!!!! In a 33 page letter FDA Chief Counsel Richard
Merrill recommended to U.S. Attorney Sam Skinner that a grand jury
investigate Searle for "apparent violations of the FEderal Food, Drug and
Cosmetic Act, 21, USC 331(e), and the False Reports to the Government
Acts 18 USC 1001 for "their willful and knowing failure to make reports
to the Food and Drug Administration required by the Act 21 U.S.C. 335(i)
and for concealing material facts and making false statements in reports
of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of aspartame. The
FDA called special attention to studies investigating the effect of
NutraSweet on monkeys and hamsters.
Jody, Sam Skinner instead went to work for Searle's law firm, Sidley &
Austin defending the case, as did the U.S. Attorney that came after him
(Conlon) - until the statue of limitations gave out!
The studies never became safe, Searle just wasn't indicted. So why did
they approve it. Well, the FDA convened a Board of Inquiry there was so
much opposition because of constant flawed studies, as I told you. The
Board said not to approve it because of the brain tumors and seizures.
Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes who was head of the FDA at the time over-ruled his
own Board of Inquiry that "they convened" and approved it. Then he went
to work for Searle's public relations firm and refused to speak to the
press for 10 years!
No Jody, the tests were never proven safe - they were proven unsafe.
They use these "flawed" tests on Medline and in papers but if you read
the history you know very well what really happened. Further, what
happened to the lab animals is now happening to the public!
serotonin (Wurtman affidavit). Serotonin blunts the sensation of craving
carbohydrates and thus is part of the body's feedback system that helps
limit consumption to appropriate levels. Its inhibition by aspartame
could lead to the anomalous result of a diet product causing increased
consumption of carbohydrates."
Translation: Use aspartame and get fat! Dr. H. J. Roberts, diabetic
specialist, in getting people off aspartame found that the average weight
loss was about 15 lbs.
It was discovered when a Searle chemist was testing a peptic ulcer drug.
It just happened to be sweet.
Jody, the National Soft Drink Assn wrote a 30 page protest against
putting this stuff in carbonated beverage. They used the wrong test when
the right one was available so it wouldn't detect aspartic acid. Here it
is in the Congressional Record:
"Only in the cases of aspartame and DKP did Searle use high pressure
liquid chromotograph (HPLC). For the other four known principal
breakdown products, Searle used thin layer chromatograph (TLC).
HPLC is a far superior analytical method relative to TLC (cites) and
numerous HPLC methods exist for the detection and quantification of amino
acids (cites). Searle's choice of TLC over HPLC adversely affected the
quality and type of analytical data generated on aspartame and its
decomposition products in soft drinks. The unfortunate and inexplicable
choice of an inferior analytical technique, when superior and recognized
methods are available, has resulted in inadequate characterization of
APM's decomposition products."
"S 5508 HPLC is a practical, well accepted analytical method which is
commonly employed by FDA. When the safety and suitability for use of a
food additive such as aspartame with an acknowledged degradation problem
(and anticipated high consumption) is under evaluation HPLC is clearly
the analytical method of choice."
"The inappropriateness of using TLC as a principal analytical method is
compounded by the fact that the values of APM degradation products being
measured are close to the limits of detection of the method (cite).
Thus, the values, purportedly obtained by the TLC method cannot be
considered to be very precise. Finally, an important decomposition
product of aspartame, aspartic acid (AA) cannot be detected at all using
Then Jody, the used the wrong solution: "S 5508 The standards for use of
HPLC to detect APM and DKP were prepared in buffered aqueous solutions.
A far better technique would have been to prepare the standards using
beverage matrices. The use of beverage matrices would have reduced the
danger of interfering compounds coeluting with the compound of interest."
And it keeps getting worse, they didn't test for breakdown products (a
witches brew of formaldehyde and formic acid, and DKP (brain tumor agent)
and they didn't test for temperature elevation. At 86 degrees aspartame
liberates methanol in the can! Think of all these diet soda pop cans
stacked in front of an Arizona gas station, and what they are drinking.
Better still consider what happened in the Persian Gulf when the pop
companies sent over diet pop that one soldier said sat in the 120 degree
Arabian sun for as long as 8 weeks while they drank them all day! Do you
wonder why Desert Storm Syndrome symptoms are identical to aspartame
disease - chronic fatigue syndrome (methanol breaks down the immune
system), headaches, depression (phenylalanine breaks down the seizure
threshold and depletes serotonin production), memory loss, confusion,
joint pain, vision problems, etc. The CFIDS Network (Chronic Fatigue and
Immunologic Disease Syndrome) said 6000 perished!
Dr. Roberts was in Atlanta July 29 giving a seminar on Alzheimers
Disease, a 20th century disease and told how the two amino acids in
aspartame (aspartic acid and phenylalanine, both neurotoxic) without the
other amino acids in protein, go past the blood brain barrier and
deteriorate the neurons of the brain! It is escalating Alzheimers which
is now the 4th leading cause of death, 4 million have it, 250,000 get it
each year and 100,000 die. 50% of all nursing home patients are
Alzheimer victims including baby boomers!
I'm telling you, Jody, aspartame is a chemical poison and if you really
research it - you have to read the history and what went on, you'll
understand. The tests never changed but the National Soft Drink Assn did
- they turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet. Doesn't that tell you
something! The politics of aspartame are costing a lot of lives and
we're even getting pleas of help from other countries!
On 10 Aug 1995, Jody K. Hirsh wrote:
> Dear Betty,
> I would be glad to see the info you mentioned. However, the study that you
> mentioned sounded like it was an abstract from a conference. To
> scientists, this is still not acceptable. One needs to have an article
> published in a refereed journal. I suppose you could then claim that there
> was some sort of political conspiracy keeping it from getting published. I
> just don't see or hear much about this until your posts here. (However I
> have not looked). Scientists are naturally very skeptical and need a lot of
> convincing. I want to see the data before I jump to conclusions.
> I sincerely doubt the story about doing the "brain surgery" on the rats. They
> would have been sacrificed instead before something like that was done.
> As an aside, my own suspicion is that there are many people who have
> some sort of serious problems, related to depression, and are looking
> instead for external causes to blame them on. I think nutrasweet and the
> like may be convenient scapegoats.
> I Remain Unconvinced,