AUSTRALIA: "NASTY ASPARTAME" IN RESPONSE TO YOUR ARTICLE

By Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Mission Possible International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
Telephone: 770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
Web Site: http://www.mpwhi.com



Posted: 17 June 2008


From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: editor-dtourmagazine.com.au
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008 3:14 pm
Subject: Australia: "Nasty Aspartame" In response to your article


Dear Editor:

Aspartame (Canderel,951/Equal/NutraSweet/Benevia/Spoonful) is simply poison. It's as nasty as a product can be. Dr. Bill Deagle in Nova Scotia said of the worst poisons is depleted uranium but he feels aspartame is even worse because it is ubiquitous in our food. The medical text: Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by diabetic specialist H. J. Roberts, M.D. is over 1000 pages of neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, drug interactions and the history of how this toxin was marketed through the political chicanery of Donald Rumsfeld. Today many times Aspartame Disease is referred to as Rumsfeld's Plague. http://www.sunsentpress.com

First it was never proven safe and the FDA revoked the petition for approval: http://www.mpwhi.com/fda_petition1.doc Here is the actual document, all 50 pages. So how did it get marketed?

Searle was very good at telling people that aspartame is the most studied product and 200 studies have been done showing safety. What Searle didn't say was that in these studies they couldn't prove safety so they committed fraud, and they got caught. Here is the Bressler Report or FDA audit which explained how Searle was filtering out neoplasms, and they were even excising brain tumors from the rats, putting them back in the study and then resurrecting them on paper. The report found that 98 of the 196 animals died during one of Searle's studies and weren't autopsied under later dates, in some cases over one year after they died. http://www.dorway.com/bressler.txt

Records for approximately 30 animals showed substantial differences between original observations on pathology sheets and the observations on pathology sheets submitted to the FDA. There were numerous other inconsistencies and errors noted. A mass, a uterine polyp and ovarian neoplasms were found in animals but not reported or diagnosed in Searle's reports. The FDA investigators found dose-related uterine polyps in 15% of 34 animals. Interestingly I called Jerome Bressler when he retired from the FDA and thanked him for being honest and telling the public the truth. He told me that it was a lot worse than what I had read in the FDA audit because the FDA had retyped his report and it was so damning, they left out the worst 20%, two mice studies. Doctors H. J. Roberts and Russell Blaylock also spoke with Jerome Bressler and were told the same thing so Dr. Roberts asked his Congressman to get the omitted part of the report. The FDA refused the congressman saying it was confidential. I recently wrote a FOIA report for it and was told it was confidential. When I said that this audit was a matter of public record all of a sudden it became destroyed. http://www.mpwhi.com/fda_gate.htm

On January 10, l977 in a 33 page letter, FDA Chief Counsel Richard Merrill recommended to US 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 Act 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. 355 (i), and for concealing material facts and making false statements in reports of animal studies conducted to establish the safety of aspartame." Instead of indicting Searle, Sam Skinner hired on with the defense team. So U.S. Prosecutor William Conlon was asked to take over. He, too, hired on with the defense team and the statute of limitations expired. http://www.mpwhi.com/drug_testing_falsified.htm

The FDA at that time had absolutely no intention of allowing aspartame on the market. Here are some remarks made at the FDA Task Force:

"At the heart of FDA's regulatory process is its ability to rely upon the integrity of the basic safety data submitted by sponsors of regulated products. Our investigation clearly demonstrates that, in the case of G D Searle Company, we have no basis for such reliance now."

"We have noted that Searle has not submitted all the facts of experiments to FDA, retaining unto itself the unpermitted option of filtering, interpreting, and not submitting information which we would consider material to the safety evaluation of the product .... Finally, we have found instance of irrelevant or unproductive animal research where experiments have been poorly conceived, carelessly executed, or inaccurately analyzed or reported."

"Some of our findings suggest an attitude of disregard for FDA's mission of protection of the public health by selectively reporting the results of studies in a manner which allay the concerns of question of an FDA reviewer." "Unreliability in Searle's animal research does not imply, however, that its animal studies have provided no useful information on the safety of its products. Poorly controlled experiments containing random errors blur the differences between treated and control animals and increase the difficulty of discriminating between the two populations to detect a product induced effect. A positive finding of toxicity in the test animals in a poorly controlled study provides a reasonable lower bound on the true toxicity of the substance. The agency must be tree to conclude that the results from such a study, while admittedly imprecise as to incidence or severity of the untoward effect, cannot be overlooked in arriving at a decision concerning the toxic potential of the product."

It would be very easy to give you another 50 pages of the horrors of original aspartame studies. You simply can't take a deadly chemical poison and have it show safety. It can't be done. Searle got caught constantly.

For instance in the aspartame (DKP) 115 week rat study the written observations of the pathology report was changed by the supervising pathologist, Dr. Rudolph Stejskal even though he was not physically present during the autopsies and could not have verified the observations of the pathology who did perform the autopsies. The pathologist who did perform some of the autopsies had no formal training for such procedures. (Gross l985, page S10837 of Congressional Record l985b). You could go from study to study and show the fraud. For instance in the aspartame 46 week hamster study, blood samples reported in the submission to FDA as 26 week values (for certain specified animals) were found by investigators as being, in fact, values for different animals which were bled at the 38th week. Many of the animals for which these values were reported (to the FDA) were dead at the 38th week." (Gross 1985, page S10838 of congressional record l985b).

There were "clerical or arithmetic errors which resulted in reports of few tumors." (Schmidt 1976c, page 27 of US Senate l976b). G. D. Searle "delayed the reporting of alarming findings." (Schmidt 1976c, page 27 of US Senate 1976b).

Dr. Adrian Gross, FDA toxicologist who was on site really summed it up when he said:

"They ( G.. D. Searle) lied and they didn't submit the real nature of their observations because had they done that it is more than likely that a great number of these studies would have been rejected simply for adequacy. What Searle did, they took great pains to camouflage these shortcomings of the study. As I say filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know and they did other terrible things for instance animals would develop tumors while they were under study. Well they would remove these tumors from the animals." Wilson l985

FDA lead investigator and Task Force Team Leader, Phillip Brodsky described the 1975 FDA Task Force members as some of the most experienced drug investigators. He went on to state that he had never seen anything as bas as G. D. Searle's studies (Graves 1984, page S5499 of Congressional Record l985a).

Dr. Marvin Legator, professor and director of environmental toxicology at the University of Texas and the pioneer of mutagenicity testing at the FDA from 1962 to 1972 was asked by Common Cause Magazine to review the FDA investigation results of G. D. Searle's tests (Graves 1984, page S5498 of Congressional Record 1985a):

"All tests were scientifically irresponsible and disgraceful. I'm just shocked that that kind of sloppy work would even be sent to FDA, and that the FDA administrators accepted it. There is no reason why these tests couldn't have been carried out correctly. It's not that we are talking about some great scientific breakthrough in methodology."

Senator Edward Kennedy at the April 8, 1976 hearings before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor and Public Welfare stated (Kennedy l976): "The extensive nature of the almost unbelievable range of abuses discovered by the FDA on several major Searle products is profoundly disturbing." Aspartame is admitted to be in 6000 products but probably more and often hidden in artificial and natural flavors. Did Senator Kennedy eventually use aspartame? He now has a brain tumor and aspartame breaks down to diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent. Brain tumors are rampant.

This is what we know: no doubt a lot was hidden. In fact, Dr. Adrian Gross said the deliberate misconduct and lies invalidated all their experiments for these reasons:

No matter what the aspartame industry says, about aspartame being the most tested additive in history and showing safety, the public record shows aspartame never showed safety at all. What it did show was massive fraud, and they got out of it by buying the U.S. Prosecutors who were never investigated for not doing their job and instead going to work for the defense team.

So FDA revoked the petition for approval. Here is that report. http://www.mpwhi.com/fda_petition1.doc

Before the FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jere Goyan could sign this into law, the next day Searle filed suit. Don Rumsfeld was CEO of Searle, hired to get them out of trouble. He said he would call in his markers and get aspartame on the market anyway. What were those markers? President Reagan had told Rumsfeld he would nominate him for Vice President but instead nominated Bush. Rumsfeld said Reagan owed him a favor and Reagan paid it. Rumsfeld was on Reagan's transition team and the day after President Reagan took office he appointed Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes as FDA Commissioner to over-rule the Board of Inquiry. Knowing it would take 30 days to get him there he wrote an executive order making the FDA powerless to do anything about aspartame. This executive order is suppose to be a matter of public record but today has been stricken. Someone from the Reagan Transition Team called FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jere Goyan at 3:00 AM in the morning and fired him. Here is the actual letter from Dr. Goyan's wife who at the time was with him when he received the call. Notice she mentions that executive order. http://www.mpwhi.com/letter_about_goyan.pdf

Dr. Goyan died just a few months ago.

Back during those days the FDA was the hero. A former Searle employee once wrote an article titled: "What Happened To the Old FDA?" Her question was answered by the Philadelphia Inquirer on 11/22/87: The New FDA: Good Medicine for Drug Firms: http://www.mpwhi.com/the_new_fda.htm This is when as the article points out the FDA stopped operating in an adversary role and became a friend of the drug industry. This is the FDA under Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes who was put there specifically to put one of the most deadly drugs on the market to mass poison the American Public and today over 100 countries of the world. Rumors fly on what they had on Hayes to get him to do this deadly deed. When he over-ruled the Board of Inquiry and put aspartame on the market he has refused to speak to the press ever since.

In l983 the National Soft Drink Association protested that aspartame not be approved in carbonated beverages even mentioning the law that makes it illegal to market a product that is adulterated. They had concluded that aspartame is not safe in carbonated beverages. http://www.mpwhi.com/open_letter_dick_adamson.htm Aspartame breaks down at 86 degrees or moderate temperature, and it breaks down into a witches brew of toxins including formaldehyde and even diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent.

On July 8, l983 Acting Commissioner of the FDA, Mark Novitch, approved NutraSweet for use in carbonated beverages and carbonated beverage syrup bases, even though levels of aspartame remaining in beverages stored eight weeks at 68 degrees F were between 84% and 89% of the original amount. "Lost" aspartame degrades to DKP (a brain tumor agent), methanol, a severe metabolic poison, aspartic acid, an excitotoxin, and phenylalanine, as an isolate a neurotoxin that lowers the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems. Aspartame interacts with all antidepressants.

I personally called Mark Novitch recently and asked him about what he did. It seems Mr. Novitch, who did this under the direction of Arthur Hull Hayes, had a bad case of amnesia. He said it was so long ago he just couldn't remember anything on the issue. That was certainly a convenient loss of memory. Memory loss is #9 on the FDA list of 92 documented symptoms from aspartame from four types of seizures to coma and death.

Amid allegations of using General Foods jet and other things, Dr. Hayes resigned and went to work for the PR Agency of the manufacturer on a ten year contract for $1000.00 a day. What does an FDA Commissioner do for a PR agency? Send postcards home from Bermuda. One article said he was there about 15 days. Quite a reward for putting a deadly poison on the market and mass poisoning the world so Searle could get rich. Immediately people started complaining and Senator Howard Metzenbaum tried for congressional hearings. They were not heard until 1985 because of Senator Orrin Hatch who was given money from Monsanto who bought Searle that year.

There were actually three congressional hearings because of the outrage of the public on being poisoned. It was triggering seizures, MS and all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases. One pilot who testified said his plane started going down when he passed out over the sea on aspartame, but woke up in time to land it. Mission Possible Aviation was started when a plane crashed on aspartame, and the pilot came to Atlanta and asked me for help. Here is Dr. Blaylock's pilot alert: http://www.mpwhi.com/pilot_aspartame_alert.htm Notice he mentions again this problem of sudden death. Six American Airline pilots died who used aspartame including one in flight, who passed out and never woke up.

Many scientists as well as victims testified and it was admitted that the FDA was so overcome with complaints they were sending them to the AIDS Hotline. Senator Metzenbaum wrote a bill to do independent studies by the National Institute of Health having to do with the problems being seen in the population. This included seizures, drug interaction, behavioral problems and what it does to the fetus.,p> Dr. Louis Elsas testified and said: .... I am a pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory, and have spent 25 years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defects caused by excess phenylalanine. And therein lies my basic concern, that aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet undefined dose, will both reversibly in the adult and irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects. You remember those sloppy studies by Searle. So what about reproduction studies in teratology to find out what aspartame would do to the fetus? Here is what was discussed in Congress.

"It is significant to note that the Searle employee responsible for reviewing most of the reproduction studies had only one year of prior experience, working on population dynamics of cotton trial rabbits while employed by Illinois Wildlife Service. In order to prepare him for this title of 'Senior Research Assistant in Teratology' (fetal damage) Searle bought him books to read on the subject and also sent him to a meeting of the Teratology Society. This qualified him to submit 18 of the initial tests to the FDA, in addition to training an assistant and 2 technicians. He certainly must have kept them busy because Searle claimed that 329 teratology examinations were conducted in just 2 days. He estimated that he himself examined about 30 fetuses a day, but officials for the Center for Food and Applied Nutrition could never determine how that was possible." Graves 1984, page S5500 of Congressional Record l985a).

Since aspartame was approved autism has gone through the roof. One woman who used Diet Coke with aspartame through 3 pregnancies has 3 autistic children. Another woman said she stopped using aspartame once pregnant but said her physician at Emory said it built up in her system.

On the MS issue: http://www.mpwhi.com/new_report_at_neurology_conference.htm These are reports from H. J. Roberts, M.D., who wrote the 1000 page medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, http://www.sunsentpress.com and Russell Blaylock, M.D., neurosurgeon, who wrote Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. It includes information on Cori Brackett who had a huge lesion, an aspartame victim diagnosed with MS who walked out of her wheelchair where she could hardly talk or walk after abstaining from aspartame, and went on to make the aspartame documentary being talked about the world over: Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, http://www.soundandfury.tv Eight months after getting off aspartame her huge lesion all but disappeared. Kim Evans case is also included in this report who was diagnosed with MS, and went back on the poison to convince her neurologist it was due to aspartame. He now warms all patients off aspartame. MS is world epidemic because of aspartame and is discussed in the experts medical texts.

Aspartame has caused an epidemic of diabetes. Dr. H. J. Roberts is a diabetic specialist who wrote the medical text and testified before Congress. He says it can precipitate diabetes, aggravates and simulates diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy, destroys the optic nerve from the free methyl alcohol, causes diabetics to go into convulsions and even interacts with insulin. Diabetics are losing their limbs from the methanol. In 2004 the American Diabetes Assn had suit filed against them for racketeering because they know all this. In fact, Dr. Roberts was a member for 35 years and they even refused to publish his paper on aspartame diabetic reactors. It seems the ADA couldn't receive funding from the manufacturers and also warn diabetics off the poison. So what they did is sacrifice the diabetics. When those responsible to solve the problem ARE THE PROBLEM, it is an abomination. While they got out of the suit they will go down in history for this crime. Consider how many diabetics have perished because of pushing a poison.

Aspartame is addictive, the free methyl alcohol, classified as a narcotic causes chronic methanol poisoning. This affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes addiction. I happened to ask Dr. Bill Deagle one day why addicts on aspartame were not rational. He said because aspartame affects the frontal lobe so it's like talking to someone who has had a lobotomy.

Aspartame changes brain chemistry and users many times can look at the documents that show the devastating studies and the horrors aspartame caused, and insist its safe. It goes beyond dumbing down the public. I've heard many of the experts say today the mental hospitals are full of patients who are simply aspartame victims.

How nasty can aspartame get? Dr. Bill Deagle explains how its made: "Most people when asked how Aspartame is made do not have the first step of understanding. While an E.R. doctor and primary care physician in Augusta, GA in 1987 and 1988, I was told a number of interesting facts about the adjacent Aspartame factory. Bacteria with genes inserted generate a sludge which is centrifuged to remove the aspartame and many hundreds of contaminant organic and amino acids are present. We were told not to report illness or worker's compensation issues for fear of being fired by the hospital, now the Augusta Regional Medical Center. Many of their employees presented with psychiatric, neuropathy conditions, chronic fatigue and organic cases of loss of cognitive function. This powder from the dried sludge was then transported for packaging in factories elsewhere in the US, before sale as Equal and now the myriad of names of this neurotoxin." Bill Deagle, M.D., 888-212-8871

This explains a conversation I had with a victim who worked at the Augusta plant here in Georgia. I said, "Well you work there, what is aspartame made out of?" His answer was "I don't know lady, all we have here is toxic sludge!" Page Kaiser also called from Augusta. She complained that the NutraSweet factory was using their waste product to spray crops and it smelled nasty. She asked me why they would do such a thing. I said, "NutraSweet is a systemic neurotoxin and it will kill the bugs just like it kills humans, and make the fruit sweet." Aspartame like Dr. Deagle said is genetically engineered and they use E. coli. You'll find it in your toilet! Nasty nasty!

Dr. James Bowen points out that "aspartame is a known destroyer of DNA. The mitocondrial DNA (MtDNA) is especially damaged, yielding the present epidemic of diseases aspartame consuming mothers pass on to figure generations. Aspartame also directly damages the mitochondria, thus having a "double whammy" effect on mitochondrial function! The summation of these many known severe toxicities and its immune, genetic, mitochondrial, and metabolic damages, show that aspartame will not only cause many diseases, which the FDA and CDC have already noted but it has pathways of approach to interact adversely with every conceivable pharmaceutical." Dr. James Bowen, who is not only diabetic has Lou Gehrigs from aspartame. Twenty years ago he told the FDA it was mass poisoning of the American public and over 70 countries of the world: http://www.wnho.net/letter_to_senator_goyp_concerning_aspartame.htm Poisoning the publication is extremely nasty.

Another recent article by Dr. Bowen goes into other nasty things it does like turning the tissues to plastic and embalming the body. http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_turns_tissues_to_plastic.htm The Trocho Study in Barcelona has proven the fact that aspartame embalms living tissue and damages DNA. When you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. Here is the entire Trocho Study: http://www.mpwhi.com/formaldhyde_from_aspartame.pdf

Continuing with the "nasty" aspects of aspartame. According to the prestigious Ecologist aspartame started out as a biochemical warfare weapon, listed with the pentagon and submitted to Congress: http://www.mpwhi.com/ecologist_september_2005.pdf Do you really want this chemical poison in Australia. This 17 page cover story has a complete time line.

Why is it necessary to have operations all over the world to warn the public against aspartame? Because it's not an additive but a deadly addictive excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug that interacts with drugs and vaccines. It's an abortifacient and a teratogen and has damaged a generation of children with autism, ADD, ADHD, and all sorts of behavioral and psychiatric problems. The experts have written articles to explain how it destroys their brains called Report for Schools: http://www.mpwhi.com/report_on_aspartame_and_children.htm There is not even a warning on the label for pregnant women. Some women never get to have families because its also an endocrine disrupting drug, stimulates prolactin and change the menses causing infertility. In this Report For Schools is the article, Aspartame Makes You Fatter by Dr. Sandra Cabot, Mission Possible Australia who treats aspartame victims there in her clinic and lectures about it all over the world. Sometimes called "the flying doctor" because she is a pilot she also warns all pilots off the toxin. Mission Possible Aviation was started when a pilot crashed his plane on aspartame and asked me to help pilots. Remember when you fly your life is in the hands of the pilot. Crashing planes and killing pilots is another nasty aspects of aspartame. Captain Fred Fox retired from American gave me the cases of 6 pilots on aspartame who died, one in flight drinking Diet Coke.

Pilots are known to have grand mal seizures in the cockpits of commercial airliners. Aspartame is not only a seizure triggering drug and 4 types of seizures are listed on the FDA list of 92 documented symptoms from coma to death, but interacts with all anti-seizure medication. Actually it interacts with virtually all drugs and vaccines because of damage to the mitochondria but it is particularly nasty in regards to seizures because no anti-seizure drug will work. So if the doctor doesn't know to ask the patient if they use aspartame they can get no help. Recently an epileptic organization said they did a study on aspartame and seizures and found it not only triggered seizures but also epilepsy. It also proved no anti-seizure medication would work. This goes along with what a neurologist recently told me. He said in one case they used every anti-seizure medication on the market without helping the patient. When he found out she was using Diet Coke he got her off of it but she went crazy. He put her in a mental hospital and after two weeks she was released. No more aspartame, no more seizures.

As you see, everything is a matter of public record and proven. I flew to New Zealand this past summer when Abby Cormack almost died on Wrigley's aspartame gum. http://www.mpwhi.com/abby_cormack_story.htm Here is what the experts had to say about Abby's case, and be sure to read about the Ramazzini Studies which confirmed FDA's original records that aspartame violates the Delaney Amendment because it causes cancer: http://www.mpwhi.com/experts_on_aspartame_and_abby_cormack.htm The best article written in New Zealand was by Chris Wheeler, Dying For A Diet Coke: http://www.rense.com/general78/dying.htm With all the publicity, TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, etc. many had the same symptoms of Abby Cormack, got off aspartame and got well. I regret I didn't have time to also lecture in Australia but the news did reach newspapers there.

Please retract your article so this misinformation will not stumble the people of Australia. I'm sure if you contact Dr. Sandra Cabot there: doctorcabot@ozemail.com.au she will confirm this letter as well and give you case after case. One of our flyers is in one of her excellent books. Please also publish this article if you want to help the people of Australia. Already ASDA (Walmart in the UK) as well as other large chains have removed aspartame from their personal products. I might mention we have other operations in Australia and many victims who are on our six aspartame lists.

Also consumers should be warned not to use Splenda which is a chlorocarbon poison and James Turner, Atty, and Citizens for Health have petitioned the FDA to have it banned. http://www.wnho.net/splenda_chlorocarbon.htm There is now a billion dollar suit going on in California against them. They lost the last two. There is a safe sweetener called Just Like Sugar which I am happy to report is now in Australia. You can get more information at http://www.justlikesugarinc.com It is made from chicory which has been used for 70 years to help improve the health of diabetics and orange peel, Vitamin C from organic oranges and Calcium. All my best,

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame


Are Artificial Sweeteners hazardous?

I recently read an article about someone who was diagnosed with MS but was actually affected adversely from an artificial sweetener. The sweetener caused her to display similar symptoms to MS including leg spasms resulting in her being placed in a wheelchair. The sweetener which was blamed was aspartame According to the article, it was causing a rise in MS and lupus diagnosis, and is especially dangerous for people with diabetes causing possible memory loss, brain damage, seizure, depression, rage and more. Are these artificial sweeteners a real concern for us?

Editors Reply

Information concerning a supposed link between a number of health problems and Aspartame (NutraSweet EqualTM and SpoonfulTM) has been widely circulated throughout Australia via e-mail, the internet and some local newspapers. The articles suggest that heating beverages that contain Aspartame may cause more methanol to be produced. However, methanol is not created new from aspartame, it is a part of the molecule, and is released into the blood stream when it is digested. Therefore, even if it did break down with heating, you would not get any more methanol in total. Additionally, when Aspartame breaks down with heating it loses its sweetness. Any regular consumer of products containing Aspartame would immediately notice the difference the beverage would develop a very unpleasant taste! The articles state that the methanol released into the bloodstream when Aspartame is digested is converted to formic acid, which causes both MS and blindness, amongst other things. When digested, 1 litre of a typical Aspartame sweetened beverage will produce approximately 60 mg of methanol. In contrast, an equivalent quantity of fruit juice contributes more than 120 mg of methanol, and alcoholic beverages contribute between 200300 mg of methanol. Therefore, Aspartame is not unique in producing methanol in the human body, nor is it the major source of methanol in the average Australian diet. The cause of MS is currently unknown, however a virus or autoimmune mechanism is suspected. One case of an MS-like syndrome has been reported in an individual with a history of chronic excessive alcohol consumption, but symptoms disappeared when alcohol consumption ceased and an autopsy showed no physical changes characteristic of MS. Blindness can occur with severe diabetic acidosis, or acidosis caused by ebronic excessive alcohol consumption (hence the saying blind drunk!). This is usually, but not always, reversible. Research has shown that consumption of very large doses of Aspartame does not cause acidosis. Aspartame is the most studied food additive in the world. It has been approved throughout the world by the various health authorities because of the weight of evidence that it is safe for human consumption, unless you suffer from phenylketonuria (a rare genetic disease that requires a special diet from birth). In view of this, the Australian and New Zealand Food Authority has given approval for Aspartame to be used in foods and beverages in Australia. Diabetes Australia has always recommended that people use a variety of sweeteners including Aspartame (951), Sucralose (955), Acesulphame K (950), and Saccharin (954), so that the likelihood of excessive consumption of any one sweetener is reduced. Studies in Australia, however, have shown that even the heaviest users of Aspartame-sweetened products consume less than 1/3 of the recommended maximum level of Aspartame each day. Aspartame is used in many products where the sugar-sweetened product may not be appropriate for people with diabetes to consume in large amounts, like soft drinks and cordials. The use of Aspartome in foods can also help reduce the number of kiloloules (Calories) in a food and this may be helpful in losing weight. However, research into the Glycaemic Index of foods has determined that people with diabetes can consume a moderate amount of sugar in their daily diet, if desired. The use of moderate quantities of sugar in high fibre, low fat foods will not cause a rapid rise in blood glucose levels.

Dtour MAGAZINE Autumn 2008 Page 23