The big health news from this past week is the petitioning of the FDA by two very powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.
Aspartame, also known by the brand name Nutrasweet, is made up of three components: 50% phenylalanine (a chemical that affects human brain activity by transmitting impulses), 40% aspartic acid and 10% methanol (poisonous wood alcohol).
Based on the FDA’s track record in handling the aspartame issue, things are not looking good to stop approval of this outrageous measure.
For one, back in 1996 when aspartame was first approved for use in thousands of food products, the FDA used 15 “pivotal” studies as the basis for its decision.
One of these pivotal studies involved oral dosage of aspartame to infant Rhesus monkeys for 52 weeks. The research was conducted by the University of Wisconsin Medical Center in Madison, Wisconsin.
The monkeys were divided into three groups. A low dose group which received 1.0 g of aspartame/kg of body weight per day, a medium dose group receiving 3.0g/kg per day and a high dose group receiving 4-6 g/kg per day.
The high dose group ended up ingesting about the same amount as the medium dose group as the high dose monkeys would not consume intended levels of aspartame possibly because it was too sweet at that amount. There was no control group.
The monkeys in this study were served their aspartame in an orally consumed milk based formula.
Starting about 7 months (218 days) into the experiment, ALL the medium and high dose monkeys began having brain seizures.
“All animals in the medium and high dosage groups exhibited seizure activity. Seizures were observed for the first time following 218 days of treatment… The seizures were of the grand mal type… One monkey, m38, of the high dose group, died after 300 days of treatment. The cause of death was not determined…”
Grand mal seizures also known as tonic clonic seizures are horrific – a very dangerous seizure which affects the entire brain.
The low dose monkeys might have started to have seizures as well, but the death of one of the researchers, H. A. Waisman, caused a lack of staffing for the study. As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.
As soon as the aspartame was withdrawn from the monkey’s diets, the seizures stopped.
How the FDA could call a study “pivotal” for approving aspartame’s use in thousands of products where every single monkey suffered from grand mal seizures and one died while consuming milk based formula containing this artificial sweetener is incomprehensible.
According to Robert Cohen of Oradell, New Jersey, who rediscovered this study which was reported in 1972, the dairy formula/aspartame milk which the monkeys ingested would have been a key reason for the brain seizures.
Cohen, who holds a degree in brain chemistry, suggests that the ingestion of dairy has the effect of elevating the pH of the stomach. He contends that drinking a single 12 oz. glass of milk would have the effect of buffering the pH of the human stomach from 2 to 6.
When the stomach pH is 6, Cohen explains that the simple proteins that comprise aspartame would pass through undigested and hence move into the blood intact.
Testing of the monkeys in this study showed that there was in fact phenylalanine (which comprises 50% of aspartame) in their blood which proves that it is absorbed. Phenylalanine affects human brain activity by transmitting impulses and the brain seizures started occurring after this compound was detected in the monkey’s blood.
With aspartame, aka Nutrasweet, already used but still included on the label of many dairy products, it’s not a big leap for the FDA to take it to unlabeled status based on the petition from Big Dairy.
This is especially probable given the FDA’s backward interpretation of the Rhesus monkey study which it called “pivotal” in proving human safety and yet all the monkeys suffered from grand mal seizures while ingesting aspartame laced dairy formula.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Aspartame in Milk Without a Label? Big Dairy Petitions FDA for Approval
FDA Pivotal Safety Study: Aspartame Caused Brain Seizures
to J. R. Garst; I see that you have studied long and much on the subject at hand. If you are given more time on this planet in this time space reality, perhaps you will come to the simple conclusion that I have reached, you are making it far too complicated, when you break it down, only math and science. Man made molecule-bad. Nature made molecule-good. For myself, after many years of research in the field of natural health, I believe that one can find no evidence to the contrary. For the life on this planet; man made molecule-bad……….who can’t get this? .I repeat what I said earlier, the FDA needs to be banished, what if we all pushed for a 3 year term for the congress and the senate so we could take back some control of our lives here?
Nikki:
Your naivete is noted. Nature is full of toxins. When people get infections what do you think is the real culprit–mostly chemical toxins, botulina toxins. Aflatoxin (see Wikipedia) is a class of completely natural proven carcinogens. Just because something is man-made doesn’t condemn it one bit.
FYI, everything (natural or man-made) is toxic. But everything also has a dose that is perfectly safe; it is that dose that determines whether a substance can be used as a drug, be it natural or man-made. Hence the use of botulina toxin in cosmetic procedures.
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)
Okay, seriously, Sarah is being attacked here, and the more persistent and vehement the attack, the closer to the truth she must be (methinks they doth protest too much). It seems that the “opposition” is attempting to stray from the premise: it is NOT okay to put aspartame in products without labeling (and truly, do people really want it in any milk at all, flavored or otherwise?). And the argument that “it makes it more attractive to kids?” Hello? #1, I am the one who goes shopping and buys the milk, and #2 it’s admittedly luring kids to something that “appears” healthy. Teaching them to compromise on their nutrition. Real nice. This has my bloomers in a bunch. Hang in there Sarah, and keep putting the truth where they have to trip over it!
Im sure if you looked into this guys affiliations there are some pretty shady connections to the Big Boys!
I don’t really understand this at all. Firstly, why are they putting aspartame in milk? Is it only in milk, i.e. chocolate milk where they want some sweetening. Secondly, why do they want to hide the fact that it is in the milk, i.e. no labeling? What is the advantage to the big dairy for doing this?
“Plummeting sales drive UP milk costs !!!! Education of “foodists” must end !!!!”
Yes of course he is smart…he knows where his new house and yacht and vacation is coming from…..why the aspartame companies of course…what is not smart about this? It should be a question of ethics…which he definitely does not have…
It’s reasons like this we bought land, moved and invested in goats and a family cow. I refuse to be a slave to the FDA and will not risk the lives of my children for crap like this.
OMG, I can’t believe this!!!
Preach it Sarah!
Someone has been playing with too many chemicals.