Subject: Aspartame and Obesity, Clinical Effects Date: Oct 14, 1995 From: Betty Martini (Note:McDonald's sells Diet coke, yogart and possibly other products with aspartame DB) With regard to obesity (obesity report surpressed in England), I think this is due to aspartame sold as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and no telling what since the patent expired, and its now in 5000 products and climbing! In the Congressional Record, May 7, 1985 it says: "Aspartame has been demonstrated to inhibit the carbohydrate induced synthesis of the neurotransmitter 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." NutraSweet was never a diet product. It was discovered by a Searle chemist while testing a peptic ulcer drug and was intended to be a drug. Then the chemist got some on his finger and found out it was sweet. Dr. Wurtman is a brilliant doctor at MIT but he changed sides after writing about aspartame's hazards and became a consultant for NutraSweet. The National Soft Drink Association wrote a 30 page protest which is part of this congressional record stating they used the wrong test (would not pick up aspartic acid), used the wrong solution (tested in a buffered solution instead of beverage matrix, did not test for breakdown products (a witches brew - methanol converts to formaldehyde and then formic acid - ant sting poison, and phenylalanine breaks down to DKP, a brain tumor agent), and didn't test for temperature elevation (at 86 degrees aspartame liberates methanol in the can - methanol is a severe metabolic poison!) These are the devastations of aspartame (masquerading as a sweetener): 1. Devastation of the Nation's Health. There are 92 documented medical reactions including seizures, blindness and death. 2. Hazard to American Aviation. Pilots have reported grand mal seizures in the cockpits of airliners. Many have lost their medicals. Hazards reported in many aviation journals including those of the Navy and Air Force. This Russian Roulette with 400 passenger planeloads must stop. 3. Infertility, birth defects and mental retardation in children. Irreversible damage to the fetal brain and developing child. While the NutraSweet company puts out ads saying its safe for the pregnant woman to use aspartame, in reality she could lose her baby because fetal tissue does not tolerate methanol. Dr. Louis Elsas (Pediatric Professor at Emory University) said at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources (examining NutraSweet health and safety concerns 11/3/87) "I have spent 25 years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defects caused by excessive phenylalanine. And therein lies my basic concern that aspartame is in fact a well-known neurotoxin and teratogen (writer's note - something that causes birth defects), which in some as yet unidentified dose will both reversibly in adult and irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain produce adverse effects." He goes on to tell how phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta and causes mental retardation. 4. Epilepsy and other seizure disorders. In an original study by Searle, Dr. Harry Waisman was asked to study the effects of aspartame on primates. Seven infant monkeys were fed the chemical in milk. One died after 300 days. 5 others had Grand Mal Seizures. Searle deleted these findings when they submitted his study to the FDA. Monsanto bought Searle in 1985. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed 80 people who suffered brain seizures after eating or drinking products with Aspartame. Said the Community Nutrition Institute: "These 80 cases meets 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. It showed be noted that because Monsanto funds trade organizations like the American Dietetic Assn., and American Diabetic Assn., etc. physicians were never given the information on aspartame. They think its just a safe sweetener. So when people have seizures they don't associate it with aspartame. Dr. H. J. Roberts, author of books on aspartame and the world expert, attended the American College of Physicians Conference here in Atlanta and I went with him. In Neurology, one professor said: "Please can somebody tell us where all these seizures are coming from - no matter how off the wall it may be." As Dr. Roberts says, patients spend huge sums of money for diagnostic tests but get no results until they abstain from aspartame. 5. Connection with Persian Gulf Syndrome: A soldier told me they could drink water and diet soda which sat in the Arabian sun up to 8 weeks. Temperature inside the can was probably 150 degrees as it was 120 degrees there. He said the guys who drank the diet soda have the syndrome. Symptoms are identical to NutraSweet Disease: Memory loss, chronic fatigue (methanol breaks down the immune system), headaches, insomnia, joint pain, vision and equilibrium loss, etc., etc. On 60 Minutes a couple of weeks ago one soldier talked about the burning tongue. A woman on Internet (Brandi J.) had just emailed her story of how she had this burning, tingling reaction to drinking Diet Pepsi. She said Pepsi said it was the "sweetness" breaking down, and sent her a new case. Methanol (a human specific poison) is what gives it the sweetness and when it breaks down to formaldehyde it is bitter and burns the tongue. One lady I met made the caps for the Persian Gulf and they were told only to send things that were sugarfree and thousands and thousands of packets of Diet Kool-Aide were sent with the caps! These packets mixing chemicals and aspartame like this and Slimfast are some of the worst. They have caused a lot of bad reactions. 6. Criminal violence, manic depression, anxiety and suicide. Phenylalanine in aspartame lowers the seizure threshold in the brain and blocks serotonin production. Today our nation is swept by a rage of violence. Researchers attribute this in part to low brain serotonin levels inducing depression, rage and paranoia. This is what is causing all these panic attacks; they subside when we get the person off of aspartame. 7. The SIGHT of America. The methanol in aspartame converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye (ASPARTAME; METHANOL AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH, Dr. Woodrow Monte (Journal of Applied Nutrition, Volume 36, Number 1, 1984). Many people are going blind. In October, l986 Washington based Community Nutrition Institute filed a petition with the FDA to ban aspartame because of blindness. This was reported in the Chicago, Sun-Times, Friday, October 17, l986. One of victims in the article was Joyce Wilson. In April, l984 he wrote this article in a local Atlanta newspaper: "Aspartame killed my wife. No words can express the agony and horror sweet Joyce endured. This poison destroyed her brain, ravaged all her organs and blinded her. She died at age 46 in 1991. .. I'm a man without a wife because the NutraSweet Company is a business without a conscience." We are constantly getting people off aspartame and when we get them in time their vision does come back but many times by the time they are warned its too late like in this case. Dr. Roberts just wrote a paper on Aspartame and the Eye that I have available on email. 8. Sacrifice of the diabetics. How could anything be worse for a diabetic than wood alcohol. This is what killed or blinded thousands of skid row drunks during prohibition. Monsanto funds the American Diabetic Assn., and the American Dietetic Assn. who recommend NutraSweet for diabetics and pregnant women. What a crime. Physicians seeing diabetics lose their vision think it is normal diabetic retinopathy but in reality they are going blind. When the methanol converts to formaldehyde and then formic acid the patient has metabolic acidosis. Physicians think these are diabetic problems when in reality its because they are consuming a chemical poison. It is no wonder Dr. Roberts (diabetic specialist) calls this ASPARTAME DISEASE. The pattern and the symptoms are predictable and you can tell them what they are suffering from before you ask. Also, the American Diabetic Assn. knows - this is premeditated because they refused to publish Dr. Roberts' abstract of diabetic reactors to aspartame, and he's been a member of the ADA for almost 40 years. It was published in Clinical Research, Vol. 36, No. 3, 1988 489A. Last year on October 1 we exposed the ADA here in Atlanta by giving out medical documentation on aspartame and its effect on diabetics at their walk-a-thon (sponsored by NutraSweet, of course). We dedicated the day to Joyce Wilson whose son had married a week or so before and on her empty chair was one long stem rose. We gave our press packs with black lace for mourning and a single long stem yellow rose in her memory. This year the ADA did it again, Oct. 1, and we were there again giving out packets for the diabetic and their physician - but this time there was not as many people. We had gotten to so many last year. A few days before we did the same thing at the Juvenile Diabetic walk-a- thon where almost 2000 participated sponsored by Coca Cola. They had a NutraSweet Dessert! In the ADA event 10/1 I snapped a picture of such a toddler walking with a Diet Coke! 9. Connection to Alzheimer's: Dr. Roberts has been researching Alzheimers for 30 years and when aspartame was approved he noticed a difference in his diabetic patients - they presented with memory loss and confusion. He says the two amino acids in aspartame that are neurotoxic, aspartic acid and phenylalanine without the other amino acids in protein, and deteriorate the neurons of the brain. Alzheimers, a 20th century disease, is now the 4th leading cause of death, with 4 million victims, 250,000 new cases each year and 100,000 deaths. 50% of all patients in nursing homes are Alzheimer patients including baby boomers. When Joyce Wilson died she was just like an Alzheimer patient - with no memory. Dr. Roberts new book: DEFENSE AGAINST ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE; A RATIONAL BLUEPRINT FOR PREVENTION has already been nominated for a Pulitzer. (1 800 -814-- 9800 - you can also get his tapes on aspartame at this number). Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon, in his book EXCITOTOXINS: THE TASTE THAT KILLS 1 800-814--9800, tells you that the ingredients in NutraSweet literally stimulate the neurons of the brain to death. 10. Multiple Sclerosis. People are being diagnosed with MS when in reality it is methanol toxicity from aspartame. It does reverse if you get them in time and we have seen some cases of vision return. We at OPERATION MISSION POSSIBLE are a volunteer force in 50 states distributing a warning flyer on NutraSweet worldwide. We hope that this network can help us by getting the warning. This is the greatest atrocity ever committed in the history of the FDA. A Board of Inquiry convened by the FDA said not to approve aspartame because of the seizures and the brain tumors it caused in lab animals. Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, head of the FDA, over-ruled his own Board of Inquiry and approved aspartame. Then he went to work for Searle's Public RElations firm and refused to speak to the press for 10 years. The FDA abuse email number is fdaabuse@hr.house.gov We hope you'll take advantage of it and report all cases. We also ask all people to take the "no aspartame test" and send us their case history by email or snail mail: MISSION POSSIBLE P. O. BOX 28098 Atlanta, Georgia 30358 We also ask all people to take anything with NutraSweet back to the store. Remember they cannot sell it if its open. Also, they approved this poison in baked goods even though aspartame cannot be heated because of the breakdown products. You will run into this excuse from NutraSweet and the FDA: "But there is more methanol in oranges than in aspartame". Don't be fooled because in oranges there is always ethanol which is the classic antidote to methanol toxicity. It is in the same journal: ASPARTAME; METHANOL AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH: "Ethanol, the classic antidote for methanol toxicity, is found in natural food sources of methanol at concentrations 5 to 500,000 times that of the toxin. Ethanol inhibits metabolism of methanol and allows the body time for clearance of the toxin through the lungs and kidneys." I was contacted by the National Academy of Child Development and told that learning disabilities are at 50%. Aspartame is frying their brain. They said they would make 10,000 copies of a packet I sent them to send to their l0,000 offices. A physician this last week told me that only in America do you see the Attention Deficit Disorder and Learning Disabilities. That's because there is so much aspartame here in this country including over the counter drugs, bakery products at the grocery and even antibiotics and prescription drugs like Questran. As Dr. Roberts says: the aspartame is causing what the drug is suppose to prevent. I have the doctors address. I believe in other countries parents are probably more concerned about their children not getting these products. Here its in too many things to avoid. McDonalds sells Diet coke, yogart with aspartame and who knows what else. We must save the children from whats happening. We hope McLibel Network can help. Betty Martini Operation Mission Possible P.S. Please take it back to the store! Betty Martini Domain: betty@pd.org UUCP: ...!emory!pd.org!betty ----------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. McLibel Support Campaign Press Office PO Box 62 Phone/Fax 802-586-9628 Craftsbury VT 05826-0062 Email dbriars@world.std.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to the "mclibel" listserve, send email To: majordomo@world.std.com Subject: Body: subscribe mclibel To unsubscribe, change the body to "unsubscribe mclibel"