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 As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.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
hey doctor idiot,what excuse is there for using this so called “safe” chemical in all of these products.does it have health benefits? does it protect or preserve the nutritional properties? what is the reasoning to increase the usage of this product where most will not be able to avoid it? was i included in these idiot studies? do you believe as a doctor that we are homogenous and all will react the same? are you aware that the rockefeller foundation controls all the medical information you were indoctinated with to become a “health care “provider?are you aware that it is nutrition and chemical avoidance that makes us healthy and not chemical saturation ? are you aware that there is no such thing as being synthetic chemical deficient ? are you aware that chemical toxicity tests,and heavy metal tests,are not being conducted anywhere and that most if not all chronic disease is caused by nutritional deficiency and chemical exposure? do you have any room in your indoctrinated beliefs for critical thought?are you aware that your entire field of “expertise” does not make you an authority nor were you intended to be an authority to make decisions that affect the biology of the whole of public health ,your career was intended to be focused on promoting “health” and “care” not poisoning the already poisoned with indoctrinating well paid positions that you feel you have “earned” .the pharmaceutical industry funds the cherry picked science you refer to endlessly..”professionals”like you are the hugest part of the problem in “health care” these days.but,im sure you have a nice house and car or 2 earned by your “humanitarian” efforts,eh?
Follow up to Mr. Garst’s comments; It took approx. 30 seconds for me to pull up a negative research article concerning aspartame
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/01/07/aspartame-disease-part-two.aspx. The ecosystem here on our planet is extremely intricately designed,
all microorganisms and natural molecules have a place and a part to play in the system. I cannot tell you how much time I have put into researching what works with the planet’s life systems and what does not work with the planet’s life systems. Man made molecules do not work, they subvert the system and thereby destroy life on the planet and no evidence to the contrary can be found. You could give rebuttal on my last statement instead of restating your outdated research on aspartame? The E. Coli OH 157, the cancer cell, the botulinum, the mosquito, the plague, the locust-they all have a reason for being, it all really is math and science as I said previously. I am becoming encouraged by the large number of people who are now knowing that they do not want man made molecules or interference with the natural ways. The truth is our food supply is laden with poisons.Now that we are knowing who is poisoning who with what, we must find solution to the control that money has over our lives in the form of our overbearing and corrupt government engines. We should start a ground roots movement peacefully according to the constitution;our esteemed congressmen/senators will serve 3 year terms, if the elected officials do not do what they said they would do-we vote them out, no more lobbying, no more FDA, USDA, and the county Sheriff’s (read Sheriff Mack) , who are sworn to uphold our constitutional rights will help us and support out right to petition and change the government from the ground up. The states will regain their sovereignty, if the states are all different in their laws so be it, it makes more choices for we the people. What do you think?
Nikki, perhaps you should have taken longer to do a bit more thorough search?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercola
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/mercola.html
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Joseph_Mercola
As to the others often cited as aspartame sources,consider this post, http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2005/06/dr-jim-bowen-on-nutra-sweet-politricks.html
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)
I heard that too,thanks for sharing.
Amen!
“5. Search costs include the time and energy it would take an average consumer to read a label and determine whether the product contained the nutritive sweetener or the artificial sweetener.”
That’s what it says at the very end of the petition on the federal register. So at least those with a brain will be able to decipher ingredients by turning the product around and reading the fine print therefore preserving said brain. It’s going to be even more of a pain though. Now on top of avoiding milk with hormones, it’s going to be aspartame, too. Luckily I can taste it…and it gives me migraines…so I’ll know regardless…
Do they want to put this stuff in ALL DAIRY products (cheese, yogurt,cream cheese,cottage cheese etc.? or just the flavored milk products that they want our children to consume! I just do not trust any more. I will be buying even less at grocery stores.
… scary ! These guys are also the ones assuring everyone that vaccines are safe – scary !
it’s time to begin to believe this and to make the changes in what you consume…. before your health is in ruins.