Please take the time to read information I came across today written by Michelle Schoffro Cook re Aspartame. Michelle has obviously done her homework and has lots of good points to consider. It really makes me angry that they are trying to bring this back but hide it under another name - AminoSweet. Please avoid Aspartame/AminoSweet at all costs and share this info with others. Knowledge and sharing is our power.
First developed in 1974, by 1980, an
FDA Board of Inquiry voted unanimously AGAINST approving aspartame for human consumption, but the vote was overruled by the FDA commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. by 1983. Only one year after the approval, an FDA task force learned that some of the original data showcasing aspartame s safety had been falsified to hide results showing
animals fed aspartame had developed seizures and brain tumors; however, the FDA maintained its approval of this product.
In 1983, the same year aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages, a neuroscientist published reports in
The New England Journal of Medicine that aspartame may increase body weight by stimulating a craving for calorie-laden carbohydrates.
By 1991, the
National Institutes of Health catalogued 167 adverse effects linked to aspartame use. In 1992, the U.S. Air Force issued a warning to pilots not to fly after ingesting aspartame. And by 1994, the US Department of Health and Human Services had linked the artificial sweetener aspartame to the risk of 88 symptoms of toxicity.
Research confirms that aspartame is an excitotoxin. An excitotoxin is a substance that literally
excites brain or nervous system cells until they die.
According to Lynne Melcombe, author of
Health Hazards of White Sugar, research links aspartame to the following health conditions: anxiety attacks; appetite problems such as binge-eating and sugar cravings; birth defects; blindness and vision problems such as blurred vision, bright flashes, and tunnel vision; brain tumors; chest pain; depression and emotional problems; dizziness and vertigo; edema; epilepsy and seizures; fatigue; headaches and migraines; hearing loss and tinnitus; heart palpitations and arrhythmia; hyperactivity; insomnia; joint pain; learning disabilities; memory loss; menstrual irregularities and PMS (premenstrual syndrome); muscle cramps; nausea; numbness of extremities; psychiatric disorders; reproductive problems; skin lesions; slurred speech; and uterine tumors. Research even links aspartame to death. Aspartames effects can be mistaken for Alzheimers disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, epilepsy, Epstein-Barr virus, Huntingtons chorea, hypothyroidism, Lou Gehrigs disease; Lyme disease, Manieres disease, multiple sclerosis, and postpolio syndrome.
According to Randall Fitzgerald, author of
The Hundred-Year Lie, some of the
cancers linked to aspartame include: brain, liver, lung, kidney, and lymphoreticular cancer.
Aspartame is found in many diet products, including soft drinks, as well as a wide variety of prepared foods. Shockingly, it is also found in some multivitamins, supplements, and pharmaceutical drugs.
And, here is a shocker. According to the authors of the book
Hard to Swallow: When a diet drink containing aspartame is stored at 85 degrees Fahrenheit for a week or longer, There is no aspartame left in the soft drinks, just the components it breaks down into, like formaldehyde, formic acid, and diketopiperazine, a chemical which can cause brain tumours.
All of these substances are known to be toxic to humans.
