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 As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.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
There is already synthetic Vitamin A in skim milk and it’s not on the label because it is industry standard and everyone is required to do it (even the small local farmers in my state).
for raw milk info the best website in the world http://www.westonaprice.org.
Join a WAP chapter near you and find your milk that way.
WOW ! This article is amazing! I live in Michigan. It is illegal to sell raw milk. There is nowhere I can purchase it within a couple hundred miles (that I know of). I’ve been drinking soda drinks with Aspartame for years and now find out the awful side effects. I have most of the chronic conditions spoken of in your article/comments. AMAZING ! And now, for the milk producers to add Aspartame to milk and pass even more laws to restrict the production and sale of raw milk. I would like to buy into a farm that produces raw milk so I could have my own raw milk ! Do you know how I can do that? How would I go about doing that?
You don’t mention where in Michigan you live, but there are a lot of locations you can get a cow lease. Check online, go to farmer markets etc. After you buy into a cow lease, you can buy raw milk. Then you can also purchase grass fed beef and pastured chickens/eggs. Many farmers don’t require a cow lease for the later, however. Just for the milk. But start at a farmers mkt. They’re everywhere.
This is how it works where I live, but the milk is now up to 10 bucks a gallon and climbing. I just can’t afford that. I was happy to pay six, but this is jst too much for me and a larger than average family. So what to do now?
Kersten, I’m so sorry that it’s hard to buy natural for your children–as many concerned parents are finding out. Just don’t feed them milk, or maybe try almond milk, or an alternative. Or buy milk only once or twice a month. Your children will grow up just as healthy–especially with a health conscious parent like you–and they may be healthier without the milk. The propaganda is that, “We need milk for health,” but that’s a major lie.
I’ve been a vegetarian for about 25 years, and when people–especially teenagers find this out–they say in shock, “But how do you get your protein?” I’m in my sixties, and I sometimes think about that question when I run up and down the tall school stairs without breathing hard–past puffing and huffing sixteen-year-old kids who drink processed milk-food everyday in the cafeteria.
I buy raw milk and drink raw milk. But don’t be misinformed. If aspartame is in the milk, it HAS to be labeled. They are wanting to add aspartame to FLAVORED dairy products and not label it as “reduced-calorie” so as to trick the public into drinking more milk. Legally they have to label the aspartame as an ingredient….unfortunately we know that consumers don’t tend to read the list of ingredients.
Thanks Abigail. I posted several comments here pointing that out and linking to the actual proposal and Sarah simply deleted them.
Tony I don’t think your comments wre deleted- I’ve read several from you. Thanks for clarification, although I still don’t agree with what they are trying to push.
I don’t think they were deleted, Tony. Just saying.
And it is true that there MUST be a phenylketonuric warning on all food products containing aspartame.
(Employed by Wisdom Natural Brands, SweetLeaf Stevia)
We vote every time we open our wallets. It’s really useful to develop a repertoire of local, healthy food sources. I’ll trust Weston A Price Foundation long before I listen to the Feds.
support your local dairy farmers by going to their farm and buying it as fresh as possible. or health food store, co-op etc.
When I first read this a few days ago, I was horrified! How in the world can they even consider something this horrible? Then I look at the vaccine industry, and know why. Sigh.
My sons go ballistic when they get either aspartame or sucralose. I mean ballistic. If one gets angry over a minor thing, it’s blown out of proportion to the extent I wonder if I’m going to have to call the police to protect myself and the other children. When I come to the conclusion it is artifical sweeteners, I have them drink a lot of water until it clears out of their system and gain control of their minds again. Usually it comes from gum some “well-meaning” sharing person has to hand out. And they know to say no,, but they are young kids, so….they take it. The stuff scares me especially when you see all these angry people walking around and you have to wonder….
I did leave a comment on the FDA site about saying no to adding this toxic crap to milk. Hopefully you can find that and all comment about how bad this toxic poison is for your family. (I did it at work and don’t have it currently).
In the mean time, we are actively searching for a raw milk seller. So far no luck with anyone close enough to buy it. Most farmers are scared of the feds taking them to jail. 🙁
Look up the ‘Failsafe Diet’. An Austrialian doctor developed it and It addresses the very issue of behavior and food – turns around some of the most extreme cases.
I am so done with this, no aspartame in our food, this stuff is poison
unbelievable..
This is my question, if they are doing this with milk… what else has aspartame that people aren’t aware of?
And if other things contain aspartame and people haven’t known about it, wouldn’t that throw ALL of the research out that says people who didn’t drink aspartame sweetened drinks didn’t have higher rates of cancers and brain damage?