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 As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.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
Grand mal seizures are horrific to witness. My best friend had one right in front of me once in college.
Agreed. I have not witnessed one myself, but my German shepherd had them (I believe as a reaction to anasthesia for neutering – couple of weeks after the procedure she was right as rain). She was about 75 lbs and it took 3 full grown men to restrain her when she did have a seizure.
This is just beyond sick. People better start waking up to what and why they are doing this to us. It’s terrible and should be a crime. This is why they don;t want you to have gardens and raw milk.
Correction: hormone supplement is rbST not rGBH
time to buy a cow and harvest my own milk
@Anna…there is a “health shake” company out there who does the same thing…only adds “a very small amount” of aspartame to their powder…my question has been, if it’s negligible, why use it at all? I can’t seem to get a straight answer. (I guess most of the “health shakes” have it in them)
Why would they NOT have to label? Is it because it’s such a small amount? What would be the point of adding it (save yogurt or other sweetened dairy products)??
They would still have to label it, they are just asking not to have to put designations like “reduced calorie” in the name of the product on the front of the package.
We need to figure out how to banish the FDA. I am serious. They are killing people and they
want to kill more..
Nikki- If we were on HuffPo, I would “fan” you!!
FDA, and other government departments while we’re at it…
My 13-month old grandson is now drinking whole milk. We already avoid milk from cows dosed with rGBH, but if aspartame is not required on the label then contacting the company directly seems to be the only way to purchase with confidence. Have others already done this, and with what success?
It would still be listed in the ingredients, and anything with aspartame in it would still be required to have a prominent warning on the label for PKU sufferers, so no worries about not being able to tell what’s in your milk. This is only about the “large print” requirement that dairy products with alternative sweeteners be labeled “reduced calorie” or something like that in the product name.
What can people do to try to stop this? Is there a comment period? What is the contact information?
according to the actual fda application,if i read it right,there is a link for comments :https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/20/2013-03835/flavored-milk-petition-to-amend-the-standard-of-identity-for-milk-and-17-additional-dairy-products
The petition is to call strawberry milk ‘milk’ rather than ‘dairy beverage’. Aspartame will be listed on ingredients. They will not allow a no listed ingredient.
Is this confirmed? I was looking through the comments specifically for someone to confirm this since this article and the linked ones all act like there will be absolutely no way to know what is in the product, but they’ll at least have to put something like “natural flavor” in the ingredient list, right? Then you know: milk, natural flavor = don’t buy. I hate artificial anything and sweeteners have always frightened me. This is horrid.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/aspartame-milk_n_2764729.html
There is a Huffington Post article that I cannot link to that notes this is a debate about the front label, not the ingredients label. If you read ingredients, you do not need to worry about this personally. You can already end up with Splenda if you don’t read ingredients, so you need to read ingredients. This will cause many an uneducated or hurried mother who wants to give their kid a treat (or isn’t concerned about excessive sugar all the time) to give their kid (more) artificial sweeteners. This is just another instance of the “no sugar added” trick. Sure, no sugar, but something is added!
Yes- the petition is to not label the front of flavored milks as reduced calorie and to just label it milk. And it’s to add any artificial sweetener not just aspartame. But the sweetener will be listed in the ingredients. By law in the US, aspartame has to be in the ingredients list. I read the actual petition, but unfortunately don’t have the link for it. The petition was issued in 2009.
The link is here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/20/2013-03835/flavored-milk-petition-to-amend-the-standard-of-identity-for-milk-and-17-additional-dairy-products#h-10