THE SWEET LIE

The controversy around aspartame - the artificial sweetener - never ends. Though the consumer will notice none of that in the supermarket. A growing assortment of food and drinks that contains aspartame even indicates it's a safe and accepted additive. The media writes divided about it: the scaremongers versus the smooth-talkers. Can it be that black and white?

A HISTORIC REVIEW

The history of the sweetener however, is a classic example of bribery, corruption and fraud. At the end of 1965 aspartame was a coincidental discovery of James Schlatter, a scientist working for the American chemical company G.D. Searle. But not until 1969 aspartame - which consists out of 40% aspartic acid, 50% phenylalanine and 10% methanol - was announced publicly as the sweetener that was 200 times sweeter than ordinary sugar. Searle's eyes changed into dollar signs.

In the US it's the FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) who decides which food, medicine or cosmetic can be sold. G.D. Searle's internal memo revealed the attitude they had during those times:

"At this meeting [with FDA officials], the basic philosophy of our approach to food and drugs should be to try to get them to say 'yes,' to rank the things that we are going to ask for so we are putting first those questions we would like to get a 'yes' to, even if we have to throw some in that have no significance to us, other than putting them in a yes saying habit."
     
"We must create an affirmative atmosphere in our dealing with them. It would help if we can get them or get their people involved to do us any such favors. This would also help bring them into subconscious spirit of participation."

G.D. Searle hired the biochemist Dr. Harry Waisman in 1970 to do research on monkeys. One monkey died after 300 days, 5 others suffered from severe epileptic seizures from drinking milk with aspartame. (Dr. Waisman was never able to finish his study since he unexpectedly passed away in March 1971.) Neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr. John W. Olney informed G.D. Searle that aspartic acid caused holes in the brains of mice. Especially the combination with the food additive Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) made the risk for brain tumors bigger with children. Searle removed these results from their presentation of 150 test reports to the FDA. Dr. Martha Freeman of the FDA concluded that the presented data wasn't sufficient to be able to examine aspartame well enough for potential symptoms of poisoning. She criticized especially those studies that had been carried out with one dose. (Since 1973 G.D. Searle has flooded the scientific community with single-dose studies.) She advised the FDA-committee that as long Searle couldn't guarantee the safety, it had to be withheld from the market. Her advice was ignored.

From July 26, 1974 the FDA allowed a limited use of aspartame despite the fact that several FDA-officials had found serious deficiencies. Before aspartame could be sold in August, Olney and consumer-attorney James Turner filed a formal objection, as they were convinced that aspartame could cause brain damage.

In July 1975, FDA Commissioner Dr. Alexander Schmidt appointed a special Task Force to have a closer look at 25 key studies for the drugs Flagyl, Aldactone, Norpace, and the food additive aspartame. The special Task Force was headed by the FDA's Lead Investigator Philip Brodsky and assisted by FDA Toxicologist Dr. Adrian Gross. The results of their research were alarming. Brodsky claimed that he had never seen anything as bad as the studies of G.D. Searle and added that some of the members of the Taskforce were the most experienced researchers. He was embarrassed that such work had been sent to the FDA.

On December 5, 1975, the FDA had put a hold on the approval of aspartame due to the preliminary findings of the FDA Task Force. By that time G.D. Searle had already invested 19.7 million dollars together with an aspartame inventory of 9.2 million in an unfinished factory in Augusta, Georgia.

In March 1976, The FDA Taskforce handed in the complete 500-page report with 15,000 pages of exhibits. The FDA decided in July to further investigate 15 aspartame studies in which the Taskforce had found problems. A 5-member Task Force headed by FDA veteran Inspector, Jerome Bressler, examined three of them. G.D. Searle managed to convince the FDA to have the remaining 12 studies examined by a private company, University Associated for Education in Pathology (UAREP) and received from the FDA 500,000 dollar.

On January 10, 1977, the new FDA Chief Council Richard Merril recommended to U.S. Attorney Samuel Skinner that a grand jury be set up to investigate G.D. Searle. The accusations were deliberately forging and hiding study results regarding the safety of aspartame. At the end of January, Skinner and Searle's law firm Sidley & Austin had a meeting before a jury was set up. In a confidential memo of March 8, he informed his aides that he had begun preliminary employment discussions with Sidley & Austin. Four months later that had become a reality. (In 1991, Skinner became Chief of Staff in Bush's White House after he was appointed as head of the Department of Transportation.) His successor Thomas Sullivan and his assistant William Conlon had let the Statute of Limitations run out on the aspartame charges. Conlon accepted in 1979 a job with Sidley & Austin.

In August 1977 the 'Bressler report' was released. Again the conclusion was that gross mistakes had been made. Bressler himself stated: 'the study is highly questionable. Why didn't Searle closely evaluate this, knowing fully well that the whole society will have access to this product.' Some examples of shortcomings from the report mentioned that in one of Searle's studies 98 of 196 animals had deceased while the autopsy option sometimes was postponed for more than a year. There was no documentation of the age or origin of the animals. Other studies were full of mistakes and contradictions. Apparently animals had been dead for a while and then miraculous brought back to life. In one experiment 15 fetus had disappeared.

Director of the FDA's Bureau of Foods, Howard R. Roberts, immediately created a task force of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) to review the Bressler Report. (Roberts left the FDA in 1978 to become vice president of the National Soft Drink Association in 1978.) FDA Toxicologist Jacqueline Verrett led the Task Force. On September 28, 1977, Roberts received the final report, which claimed that Bressler's report was authentic, even though the results were minimized. After leaving the FDA, Verrett expressed her frustrations: 'it seemed pretty obvious that somewhere along that line they (bureau officials) were working up to a whitewash. I seriously thought of just walking off of that task force'.

In the meantime G.D. Searle appointed a new president, Donald Rumsfeld, a former member of the U.S. Congress and the Chief of Staff in the Gerald Ford Administration. Attorney James Turner alleged that G.D. Searle hired Rumsfeld to handle the aspartame approval difficulties as a "legal problem rather than a scientific problem." (Rumsfeld is now Minister of Defense in the Bush administration, a position he occupied earlier under president Ford. He was also leading Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996.)

At the end of 1978, UAREP submitted its analysis of the 12 remaining studies. They found no discrepancies in the original data. (The director of UAREP pointed out later in an interview that their pathologists did not conduct a comprehensive review of the studies, they only looked at slides of the animal tissues.) FDA Toxicologist Adrian Gross discovered that UAREP pathologists had missed or left out negative findings. Some slides had disappeared even though the FDA had sealed them.

In March 1979 the FDA somehow accepted Searle's studies and decided to call in the 'Public Board of Inquiry' (PBOI), which was applied for by Dr. John Olney and Attorney James Turner more than four years earlier. Dr. John Olney, G.D. Searle, and the FDA's Bureau of Foods were allowed to nominate three scientists each. Acting FDA Commissioner Sherwin Gardner (who later that year became vice-president of Grocery manufacturers of America, Inc.) selected one from each group for the PBOI panel. The FDA told them only to focus on aspartame in dry foods. Eventually the panel voted unanimously to reject the use of aspartame until additional studies on aspartame's potential cause for brain tumors could be done. The PBOI was particularly concerned about experiment E33/34 where 320 rats received aspartame and a much higher percentage of animals in the aspartame group developed tumors than in the control group. The PBOI was also concerned about experiment E70 where 80 rats received aspartame. Both the aspartame group and the control group had an unusually high number of tumors, leading one to suspect that both groups were actually given aspartame.

On January 21, 1981, one day after Ronald Reagan took office as U.S. President, G.D. Searle reapplied for the approval of aspartame. This time with several new studies.

In March of 1981, a 5-member panel of scientists was established by the FDA Commissioner Jere Goyan to review the issues raised by the PBOI.

In April 1981, Ronald Reagan replaced Goyan with Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr., who dealt with the development of chemical weapons during the 1960's.

On May 18, 1981, three of the scientists in the 5-member panel sent a letter to the panel lawyer, Joseph Levitt, discussing their concerns about aspartame. One panelist thought that the brain tumor data was so 'worrisome' in one study that he could not recommend approval of aspartame. In another study, he said that key data appeared to have been altered. Three of the five members of the panel opposed approval of aspartame and Hayes brought a sixth man in, Barry Rosloff. Levitt felt he had to make a decision about the 3-3 split and signed approval while three others objected. On July 18, 1981 FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes, Jr. overruling the Public Board of Inquiry, approved aspartame for use in dry foods.

On October 15, 1982, G.D. Searle petitioned the FDA for approval to use aspartame in soft drinks and children's vitamins. After close co-operation with Hayes, acting FDA commissioner Mark Novitch approved aspartame for carbonated beverages in 1983 and raised the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of aspartame from 20 mg/kg to 50 mg/kg. Shortly after, Hayes left the FDA under charges of improprieties and was hired as a consultant with G.D. Searle's public relations firm, Burston Marsteller for a lucrative fee of $1000 per day.

In Arizona, USA, Dr. Woodrow Monte, Director of the Science and Nutrition Laboratory at Arizona State University, filed a petition on July 8, 1983 with the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS), as well as the FDA, to prohibit aspartame. Dr. Monte was especially concerned about the chronic intake of methanol. Research by the DHS showed that aspartame in carbonated beverages could break down into free methanol. It concerned the DHS enough that a ban of aspartame was discussed. Also James Turner filed a petition with the FDA objecting to the approval of aspartame. The FDA denied a request to put the approval on hold 'because public interest did not require it.'

On February 17, 1984, the FDA denied Dr. Monte and James Turner the opportunity to hold a safety hearing on questions raised in their petition. G.D. Searle then sent a number of lobbyists to the State of Arizona including Andrew Herwitz, Arizona Governor's former Chief of Staff. Between August 23, 1984 and September 21, 1984, G.D. Searle officials contributed to the campaign of Arizona House Majority Leader Burton Barr. The Committee to Reelect Barr then gave campaign contributions to a number of state representatives (Don Aldridge, Karen Miills, Jan Breuer) who all eventually voted on the side of G.D. Searle. Dr. Monte's petition for a hearing regarding to ban aspartame in Arizona was rejected.

In 1984, about 3.1 million kilos of aspartame were consumed in the US.

In April 1985, the Arizona legislature was changed, which made it impossible to regulate food additives, which were already approved by the FDA. Dr. Monte's new petition for a hearing was hereby put down.

After suffering a $28 million dollar loss in the previous year, selling off 30 subsidiaries, and having a suit filed by 780 women claiming that G.D. Searle's intrauterine device caused them pelvic inflammatory disease, led to the sale of G.D. Searle to the chemical multinational Monsanto. Monsanto then created the NutraSweet Company as a subsidiary separate from G.D. Searle. Nowadays Monsanto is the largest GM (genetic manipulated/modified) food manufacturer in the world.

In May 1985, Senator Metzenbaum put forth an amendment requiring the quantity of aspartame to be labeled. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah led the resistance (along with G.D. Searle) and the amendment was eventually defeated. Al Gore sided with his conservative opponents and voted against labeling of aspartame. Could this be because the cousin of his wife, Mike Taylor, was once an advisor of Monsanto? During the Clinton administration, Taylor was also acting Commissioner of the FDA. The same FDA where he represented the PBOI as a lawyer in the FDA's Bureau of Foods in the beginning of the 1980's. He is now director of a Monsanto department in Washington DC.

A coalition of consumer organizations was told that same year by the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the FDA had followed the proper procedure for approval of aspartame for beverages. A year later, the Washington Post reported that the federal court refused again to revise the case despite a growing number of critics who claimed aspartame could cause brain tumors

More than 6.5 million kilo's of aspartame were consumed within the US in 1985.

In July 1986, the FDA had to deal with a complaint of the Community Nutrition Institute (CNI) who accused them of not having followed the proper procedure during the approval of aspartame in beverages and demanded a public hearing. The FDA dismissed the complaint, as well as the demand for a hearing.

The consumption of aspartame in the US increased to more than 7.1 million kilo's in 1986.

On November 3, 1987 a hearing was held in a U.S. Senate Committee to address the issue of aspartame safety.

In 1987, Mary Nash Stoddard and James Turner are founding the Aspartame Consumer safety Network (ACSN). They want removal of aspartame from the market and to be tested as a drug.

An estimated amount of 7.7 million kilo's of aspartame is being consumed in 1987 in the US. (After this year NutraSweet stopped providing consumption data of aspartame to the public.)

In 1991 NutraSweet started a cooperation with the Japanese Ajinomoto Co. Inc. to build an aspartame factory in Gravelines, France, which started production two years later.

The American Department of Health published in 1991 a list of Adverse Effects of Aspartame, with 167 reasons to avoid it.

In 1992 NutraSweet signed a contract with Coca-Cola and Pepsi, which stipulated the NutraSweet Company as their preferred supplier of aspartame and replaced saccharin in Diet Cola.

The patent for aspartame expired on December 14, 1992 opening up the market to other companies such as Holland Sweetener Company (a joint venture of DSM and the Japanese firm Tosoh).

In February 1994, the American Health Department released a list on which adverse effects of food are being reported. Aspartame takes a 75 percent share.

From June 27, 1996, the FDA removed all restrictions of aspartame allowing it to be used in everything, including all heated and baked goods, without public notice.

Dr. Olney examined a 10 percent increase of brain tumors in the US since the middle of the 1980's and discovered it was the exact same type of brain tumor, which he found in his earlier research on rats. A discovery he was immediately being scrutinized and criticized for by the scientific community. Especially because such a relation is difficult to prove.

On November 15 The New York Times published an article saying that the American Dietetic Association is taking money from the food industry to endorse their products. NutraSweet gave them a fee of $75,000 in 1993.

In Sweden, cancer specialist Lennart Hardell started in 1997 a long-term study of a possible relation between aspartame consumption and cancer. Hardell already warns for a risk with a large consumption. He hopes to finish the study at the end of 2001.

In February 1998, Monsanto registered its new sweetener Neotame, a synthetic variation of aspartame, which is 8000 times sweeter than ordinary sugar. Long term, independent research is missing.

In 1998, the Food Commission in England discovered that aspartame not only appears in light beverages but also in ordinary drinks, because it's three times cheaper than ordinary sugar. Also the absence of labeling aspartame in sweetened products, was reported. David Briars of McLibel News Network suspects that even regular Coca-Cola contains aspartame in specific test regions.

In May 2000, Monsanto felt the increasing pressure - not in the least by the worldwide resistance of genetic manipulated food and ongoing lawsuits - and sold its aspartame companies to J.W. Childs Equity Partners Ii, L.P., a group of investors, which among former Monsanto managers belong to, for 440 million Dollars. Monsanto sold its equity interest in two European sweetener joint ventures, NutraSweet AG and Euro-Aspartame SA, to Tokyo-based food and chemical maker Ajinomoto Co. for $67 million. A merge with Pharmacia-Upjohn took place and continued under the name Pharmacia Corp.

THE RESEARCH

G.D. Searle/Monsanto defends its tests with the argument that the sweetener is approved in foreign governmental agencies and the World Health Organization. In Europe the basis of approval of aspartame lies with the JECFA (Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives) in 1981. Medical specialist H.J. Roberts from Florida examined foreign research and concluded that the majority accepted money from the industry without ever having done independent research. Dr. Ralph Walton stated on American CBS '60 Minutes' of December 29, 1996, that 83 of 90 independent studies, which were not financed by the industry, showed problems with aspartame. Studies that showed aspartame caused brain damage, headache, rashes, brain tumors, insomnia, worsening of Alzheimer's disease, severe disorientation, depression and an abnormal weight loss or increase. Practically all studies, which were done by the aspartame industry, gave it a clean bill of health.

Research done by the American neuropsychologist Paul Spiers in 1988, showed alarming results, where aspartame even depressed intelligence and damaged memory. Spiers worked with five persons, which he daily administered the maximum amount of aspartame (50 mg/kg) and who drank in the past two to three cans of diet soda every day. In addition he had a control group of five persons, which he gave placebos. After twelve days a large difference was noticed between the two groups in tests like word reading and 'think fast'. The aspartame consumers didn't even show improvement. Later Spiers did research on healthy persons, which didn't show anything unusual. That research however was sponsored by the industry, even though Spiers denied that.

In 1998, high school student Susie Morris of Price, Utah finished an award-winning study with rats in a maze, which were fed with aspartame (62,5 mg/kg). It destroyed the elderly rats' ability to learn. Older rats that were given the same diet without aspartame mastered the maze after about 34 times. The aspartame group however never learned and were engaged in 'repetition of a meaningless behavior.'

But also in Sweden - where aspartame entered the market in the same year as in the US - the food-inspection department is extremely supportive of aspartame. It almost looks like promotion of the product.

Monsanto knows exactly what they are doing when they have their aspartame examined. Providing dry capsules when it's about solutions; using obsolete test methods which have been superseded; canceling funds with scientists showing negative findings. As has happened with Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards, who examined the relation between aspartame and births. Her conclusions weren't shared by Monsanto and her funds were canceled. Neither Monsanto, nor the FDA accepted the results.

The American pediatrician and genetic Dr. Reubon Matalon described the research in aspartame: "Let us say cigarettes were invented today, and you give 20 people two packs a day and after six weeks, no one has cancer, would you say that it was safe? That's what they did with aspartame."

NEPOTISM

The past of Monsanto reveals how ethics aren't a high priority in their agenda. During the 1950's and 1960's they were the largest manufacturer of 'Agent Orange', the poison responsible for the defoliation of the forests in Vietnam where consequently many developed cancer.

In 1995, a Monsanto representative was caught with an attempt to bribe the Canadian 'Health Bureau of Veterinary Drugs'. Monsanto offered one to two million dollars if the bureau would approve rBGH (a dangerous synthetic hormone for cows) and stop further research.

In September GeneWatch UK received a confidential internal report revealing that Monsanto is involved in a global campaign to promote GM foods by influencing the choice of experts on international scientific committees, promoting their views through supposedly independent scientists and gaining influence with key decision makers in government departments (the JECFA) in developing countries. The report gives a hint how a large influential firm tries to have it all its own way. Some examples of the report are: 'a meeting was held with Prof. David Khayat, an internationally well known cancer specialist, to collaborate on an article demonstrating the absence of links between GM food and cancers...' 'The Scientific Outreach network and the Technology Issues Team averted attacks on recently emerging biotechnology issues. The team developed rapid responses to avoid over-reaction to claims regarding unapproved corn events were detected in animal feeds, gene transfer by honey bees and the characterization of additional non-functional DNA in Roundup Ready soybeans.' '[In Belgium] authorities are considering labeling silthiopham as a category 3 carcinogen, an unwarranted classification given the molecules toxicology profile. The product approval date is likely to be delayed as we challenge the agency's classification. We will make every effort to obtain approval in time for the 2000 season.'

The Board of Directors of Monsanto had until its merge with Pharmacia-Upjohn a number of remarkable members: William Ruckelhaus who was in 1974 deputy director of the FBI and afterwards chief administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Stansfield Turner, the former Director of the CIA (1977 to 1981); Earle H. Harbison, a CIA information specialist for nineteen years; Michael Kantor, former Secretary of the United States Department of Commerce; Linda J. Fisher, former Assistant Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pollution Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, now Vice President of Government and Public Affairs for Monsanto Corporation. The acting Commissioner of the FDA Michael Friedman changed job and is since June 1999 vice-president at. G.D. Searle & Co at a handsome salary of half a million dollars a year. Monsanto always had a strong relationship with politicians and other governmental representatives. Even Clarence Thomas, one of the US Supreme Court judges, was once an attorney for Monsanto (1977-1979). The current American Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, was on the board of directors of Calgene Pharmaceuticals, another Monsanto affiliate.

THE INDEPENDENT ONES

During the past years scientists and medical doctors with high reputations have shown a growing and convincing amount of evidence concerning aspartame-related damage. Evidence, which Monsanto consistently tries to minimize by confusing the consumer with incorrect and incomplete information. According to journalist Gregory Gordon, NutraSweet Company has paid up to three million dollars per year to the largest PR company in the world, Burson-Marsteller, for publicity campaigns. A former employee claimed Burson-Marsteller had hired several scientists and doctors to defend aspartame in the media. Journalists play an important role in that as well. There are known cases where so-called independent journalists almost literally cited Monsanto's statements without further investigation and without mentioning its source. Government officials, journalists and scientists who claim aspartame is a hundred percent safe additive, ignore the independent research and ignore the many flaws of the original approval.

They also ignore thousands of cases where people's lives were more or less afflicted by the consumption of aspartame. Diseases of which the symptoms (ranging from stomach- and headache to epileptic seizures) usually disappeared after stopping the intake of aspartame. More and more physicians - who were in the beginning utterly distrustful to aspartame as the cause - couldn't deny that and confirm the relation. That has provided the strongest piece of evidence for the global resistance against the distribution of aspartame.

Dr. H.J. Roberts noticed in his own practice how diabetics showed serious complications that were traced back to aspartame consumption. Avoiding it led to dramatic improvements while using it again - knowingly or inadvertently - caused the same symptoms to emerge.

The anti-aspartame activist Betty Martini has a large web site (www.dorway.com) where hundreds of personal histories of (former) aspartame users can be found. People who often refused to believe their symptoms were related to their aspartame consumption. After going through different medical examinations, medication and other alternative options, there was usually no or very little improvement. Until they removed aspartame from their diet.

WHAT ASPARTAME DOES

In fluids aspartame breaks down according to temperature, pH and time span. Research in 1985 (Tsang) showed that a bottle of Diet Cola containing 550 mg of aspartame, had only 155.34 mg left after six months at a temperature of 30°C. After three years it had dropped to 19.7 mg. The other breakdown chemicals were among others, phenylalanine and diketopiperazine (DKP). Products that contain aspartame are therefore chemically different from aspartame given to laboratories. DKP is a controversial chemical, which can cause cancer.

Raymond Schroeder, a former G.D. Searle employee informed the FDA that the particles of DKP (in experiments to test it for cancer) were so large that rats could discriminate between the DKP and their normal diet. After making his original statement regarding the DKP study, FDA Investigators went to interview him (he was by that time employed at a different company). When they got there, they noticed that a G.D. Searle company employee had signed in immediately before them. During the interview, Mr. Schroeder retracted his statements about the DKP study.

Aspartame (E951) is in products such as diet beverages, including diet Pepsi and diet Coke, but also ordinary cola like Tab, diet products such a yogurts and can be found in breakfast cereals, yogurt drinks, cough drops, chewing gum, soup, jam, different ice-creams, compote, cider, candy (for example the new Milky Way), sauces, mustard, different kinds of beer, cookies, children vitamins and medicine. Aspartame can also be used as a sugar replacement (NutraSweet, Canderel). A child of 20 kilo's easily passes the maximum amount (40mg/kg) by consuming during one day for example one liter (three glasses) of diet soda (600 mg aspartame), at breakfast one glass of yogurt drink (140 mg) and in the evening a bowl of fruit yoghurt (140 mg). (The manufacturers as well as the Department of Health confirm these numbers.) Researchers from NutraSweet claim it's impossible to reach more than 34 mg/kg on one day and often present the strange example of one product - 19 cans of diet soda - with a 70 kg man to illustrate the 50 mg/kg. Or four liters of yogurt for a 55 kg woman (for a European maximum of 40 mg/kg). According to NutraSweet the average use of aspartame with their consumers lies at 1-3 mg/kg. On a warm summer's day it's not impossible to consume two liters of diet soda, half a liter of fruit yogurt, chewing gum and a diet meal, which can also exceed the maximum limit with adults. Maybe the ADI worked at the time of the assessment when there were only a few hundred products at issue. Nowadays over 9000 products world-wide contain aspartame. In reality the Daily Maximum Intake of aspartame is a meaningless guideline, since almost every label that shows content shows no quantity. Not to mention a warning.

In Monsanto's press releases - disguised as scientific test reports - one often reads that methanol also appears in alcoholic beverages, fruit and vegetables. Nobody ever denied that. But what they never mention is that in alcoholic drinks the antibody ethanol is present, usually 200 times more than methanol. In aspartame products that antibody is not present. People are a hundred times more sensitive to methanol than animals are. In fruit and vegetables methanol is part of pectin and people do not have the enzymes to break down the pectin to release the methanol. NutraSweet claims that natural fruit juices contain 140 mg methanol per liter (information they took from an incomplete study from 1956), while the real amount depends on the type of fruit and the time of harvest. An average lies at barely 10 mg/liter (except fresh tomato-juice, which contains at least six times as much). Since fresh juice contains a much higher calorie percentage, it prevents the consumer from drinking large amounts every day. On the other hand there are people who consume 1-3 liters of diet soda a day, which can result in a daily intake of 270 mg methanol. Diet soda and other products containing aspartame seldom contain nutrients that may prevent damage by methanol. If NutraSweet claims higher amounts of methanol appear in natural foods, then why haven't they done tests that detect those large amounts in blood?

Methanol converts into formaldehyde and then formic acid. Scientists hired by the industry claim that in tests where 34 mg/kg of aspartame (according to NutraSweet the maximum consumption for 99 percent of the population) was administered to test subjects, no increase in the concentration of methanol/formic acid was found in the blood. However, in the method used - plasma methanol measuring test - there has to be a minimum of 4 mg/liter before one detects methanol. Independent scientists discovered an increase of methanol of 0.6 to 1 mg/liter blood.

The amount of free methanol, which appears at higher temperatures or heating of food with aspartame, contributes to a faster intake. In aspartame that ends up in coffee or tea with a temperature of 80°C, methanol breaks down within ten minutes to 50 percent.

The body tries to eliminate the formaldehyde with water and stores it in fat. Weight gain is therefore no exception with a regular consumption of diet products. Adding the fact it hardly contains calories, the diet aware consumer will try to compensate his hunger with other food products. His or her gain in weight will undoubtedly contribute to a larger consumption of diet products.

A study done by the university in Barcelona in 1998 (Trocho) even showed that one single dose of 10 mg/kg of aspartame led to an accumulation of formaldehyde in the body (liver, kidneys and brain) and in cell tissue where it damaged DNA.

The body treats phenylalaline in natural food differently than in aspartame. Usually proteins (for example in meat) only consist out of 4-5 percent phenylalaline, not 50 percent like with aspartame.

The earlier mentioned internal memo in 1970 from G.D. Searle which surfaced during a senate hearing in 1987 ended with: '... we have no way of estimating maximum likely abuse and hence need to utilize data based on almost complete conversion to DKP. If we include this use in the original report, we stand a good chance of ending up with nothing in the short run and nothing in the long run whereas the other approach would give us something in the short run and quite likely as much as we would ever get in the long run. I think it becomes very important for us to start to get our sweetener into commercial channels as soon as possible to minimize the incentive that people now have to work on other sweeteners. Actions in the U.S. will tend to influence the actions in other countries as well.'

After three Congressional Hearings in the US about aspartame, the struggle and confusion continues. How much doubt in one product is allowed before a government takes it off the market? How big do we let multinationals become? So big that even governmental agencies and the larger media are in their control?

The British Government's 'Food Standards Agency' however has ordered a top-level investigation into the safety of Britain's best-selling sweetener amid fears tha the low calorie chemical is a health risk. More than 500 research papers on the chemical were sent to the Brussels based Scientific Committee on Food. If it finds it a health risk, a European ban on aspartame will be advised. Almost twenty years later than its original approval.

© 2001 Dennis Rodie

The original Dutch version of this article appeared in Kleintje Muurkrant nr. 359 and 360, August 31, September 28, 2001

Sources

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- Constantine, Alex, 1995. "NutraSweet-, the NutraPoison," Prevailing Winds Magazine (P.O. Box 23511, Santa Barbara, CA 93121), Premier Issue, No. 1, page 40-49. See also: http://alexconstantine.50megs.com
- Davoli, E., et al., 1986. "Serum Methanol Concentrations in Rats and in Men After a Single Dose of Aspartame," Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 24, No. 3, page 187-189.
- Frey, Gunther H., 1976. "Use of Aspartame By Apparently Healthy Children and Adolescents," Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Volume 2, page 401-415.
- Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Toxicological Evaluation of Certain Food Additives. WHO Food Additives Series 1982; 16:28-32.
- Roberts HJ. Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is it safe? Philadelphia, The Charles Press, 1989
- Stoddard, Mary Nash, 1995a. "The Deadly Deception" Compiled by the Aspartame Consumer Safety Network for volumes of available published information, ACSN, P.O. Box 780634, Dallas, Texas 75378, (800) 969-6050.
- Trocho, C., et al., 1998. "Formaldehyde Derived From Dietary Aspartame Vinds to Tissue Components in vivo," Life Sciences, Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 337+, 1998
- Tsang, Wing-Sum, et al., 1985. "Determination of Aspartame and Its Breakdown Products in Soft Drinks by Reverse-Phase Chromatography with UV Detection," Journal Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Vol. 33, No. 4 blz. 734-738.
- Verrett, Jacqueline, 1987. Statement of Dr. Jacqueline Verrett, Former Toxicologist, U.S. Food and Drug Administration before U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, November 3, 1987 regarding "NutraSweet Health and Safety Concerns." Document # Y 4.L 11/4:S.HR6.100, page 383-390.
- Walton, Ralph G., et al., 1993. "Adverse Reactions to Aspartame: Double-Blind Challenge in Patients From a Vulnerable Population," Biological Psychiatry, Volume 34, page 13-17.

WEB SITES:

http://web2.airmail.net/marystod (Aspartame Consumer Safety Network)
http://www.dorway.com (Mission Possible International)
http://www.genewatch.org
http://www.purefood.org
http://www.nutrasweet.com
http://www.swankin-turner.com (James Turner)
http://www.aspartamekills.com
http://www.holisticmed.com
http://www.thelancet.com
http://www.slv.se (Livsmedelsverket - The Swedish FDA - aspartam)
http://www.minvws.nl (Dutch Department of Health)