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 As a result, the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the group at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose group began occurring.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
I went to regulations.gov and submitted a comment on the following proposed rule: Flavored Milk: Petition to Amend the Std. of ID for Milk, etc. After I filled in the form, it wouldn’t accept it unless I filled in an “Association”. I put “American Consumer” – because that’s what I am – it went through. I guess they really don’t want to hear from individuals, only from organizations! Amazing, isn’t it? Carol
Sarah, please do read the actual proposal 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
Especially misleading is your photo of plain milk by the gallon at the top of the post, when such milk is not even related to the subject of the proposal.
Please amend your post to reflect the facts. When a prominent natural-food blogger like you sends thousands of readers on a freak-out spree with misinformation, it makes all of us look like nuts. It took me three clicks from your article to find the actual proposal you’re talking about. How are the skeptics supposed to take you seriously if you can’t be bothered with the most basic fact-checking?
Thank You for clarifying Tony. Yes, the photo was VERY misleading and I panicked when I thought this affected plain white milk. How about a picture and a description of the products this would potentially affect, as well as a DIRECT link instead???
Is there anyway for US, the people, to fight this??? Any petitions going that anyone knows of??
IT’S ALL ABOUT GREED! and has been the way of the USA for decades! being a born citizen of this country, I love this country, but am no longer proud of it! I am embrassed of it’s GREED! It’s all about more money. these big companies can never make enough. and repeat customers. they put DANGEROUS ADDICTING CHEMICALS AND GMO’S in our foods and drinks. and the cheaper sweetener HFCS is in everything and no one knows about this til they have unknowingly been injesting the stuff for years. that’s why they don’t want it on the labels of products. because people are reading labels and making better choices and they would then sell less products. so they pay off these people that decide what gets in and what doesn’t. What about humanity?? Is it HUMAN to poison us?! With the GMO’S, HFCS, ASPARTAME, PESTICIDES ETC.(and that’s just a drop in the bucket) This is not a free country,when we have no choice in what we DO NOT WANT to put in our bodies. It’s like were lab rats,(or monkeys) in some surreal sci-fi movie. you get to watch but are helpless to do anything! you ever think alot of other countries do not do this to the publics food supply. so why the USA? It really scares me what this country allows to go in to our food supply. There making us DEATHLY ILL and than complains about the medical costs Iam.frustrated and feel totally helpless. as I’m sure many do. I agree with what Deanna Munson has said. I think there playing GOD and trying to lower the population it looks to be. allowing all these harmful things in our food,water,air. If and when is it going to END?!
Take a course in biochemistry!
ya all know theyre already fluoridating milk right? http://www.fluorideresearch.org/281/files/FJ1995_v28_n1_p010-016.pdf , and salt , and we realize already monsanto owns the food chain,and that in the USA monsanto is called Cargill and that cargill is responsible for 75% of water fluoridation in the USA https://www.fluoridealert.org/news/public-health-community-upset-by-questions-about-fluosilicic-acid/ and that these companies are directly related to nazi concentration camps,IG Farben and Aushwitz …right? http://farmwars.info/?p=3613 ,http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Monsanto ,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saeFpUd3L-s
and how the FDA, who everyone believes is protecting us by providing critical oversight ,actually came to be
My question is – In the US do you have to warn people with phenylketonuria about the aspartame?? I just know that over here there are warnings on products that have aspartame because of this… and therefore even if a product doesn’t SAY it’s got aspartame, you’d think there would have to be some sort of other warning? I just find it astonishing that you could allow the addition of an artificial sweetener without SOME sort of labelling!!
Fiona, the proposal would not remove aspartame from the ingredient list, so it’s really nothing to worry about. It doesn’t have a thing to do with adding aspartame to plain milk, but if you’re into eating artificially-flavored milk products, you’ll still be able to find aspartame on the ingredient list as always.
You can read the actual proposal 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
Yes, by law, there must be a warning for phenylketonurics (like myself) on anything that contains aspartame. In the US, it says PHENYLKETONURICS: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE.
(employed by makers of SweetLeaf Stevia and born with PKU variant ;D)
This is why I only drink raw milk, and why the FDA continues to crackdown on Raw Milk Farmers. They want everyone drinking the poison.
How are they getting around this?
This would be an outrageous step, and just proves the need to by local from people you know and trust. Thank you for continuing to share such valuable information.
SO glad we made the switch to raw milk… Ridiculous!!!