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 As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.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
If a product requires the intervention of or investigation by the FDA then it is automatically put on my do not touch list. They should take the “F” out of their name.
I read the petition, and it looks to me like the petitioners are actually just asking to have the right to avoid saying “reduced calorie” or “less sugar” or some such in a visible label on the product. In other words, if my reading is correct, they’d still have to include aspartame, etc. in the ingredients. Frankly this doesn’t set of my alarms, particularly. If you’re particularly worried about aspartame and other fake sweeteners — and you probably should be — you should be reading the ingredients list anyway.
The petitioner’s contend that kids will deliberately avoid foods marked as “reduced calorie” or “less sugar”, which may be true for some kids, but those kids need decent parenting; changing aspartame labeling won’t help them.
Apostrophe fail. Should have said “The petitioners contend”… my apologies to those of you that are as fastidious about grammar as I am 🙂
Thanks guido, that’s the way I read it too.
thing is,there is no logical reason for it.none.other than to make people chronicly ill .its not even like they need to “sell” their product,they have this crap in everything already.people need to start questioning the dangerous reality we live in.before its too late.everything being done covertly AND out in the open have no purpose other than to poison.even profit and greed no longer make sense when these corps already own everything and everyone including most positions in government.it can no longer be seen as mere lack of oversight,or even negligence at this point.we already have proof regarding the imminent dagers of fluoride,aspartame,microwave telecomunications and wifi in every single school.we know injecting our children 25-40 times before school age with formaldehyde,the active ingredient inradiator fluid,preservatives,benzene,mercury and or aluminum cause permanent damage to the brain and immune system.we have alternatives,natural ones,beneficial ones.we as a society are becoming unable to think critically.what happens when those sitting in their ivory towers making these decisions for the entire country are the only ones left?
Thanks for writing this article Sarah! People need to stay informed.
Can’t you just not give your kid flavored milk to avoid this? That and only buy organic ?
Kerry, you may be interested in this!
There is no way this would ever pass. They would face thousands of law suits.
So glad I don’t drink it
But not in Organic milk right??
Not good at all!@