Aspartame

[cindyj]

Concerning finding Aspartame in the most unlikely foods, I just wanted to share a recent experience attempting to choose a healthy meal while traveling on a ferry.

Thanks to the Ultra Simple Diet and related information from this forum (you all have been very inspirational!) I've been off wheat/flour, sugar, dairy and caffeine for the last month. So I looked really carefully at the food available for purchase, and finally chose a packet of prepared sushi (California rolls). Unfortunately, I didn't even check the ingredients panel (I've made my own sushi before, so I must have thought it would be just fine!), and ate it all, including many of the pickled ginger slices.

THEN I read the ingredients label and was horrified that the sushi contained actually many things I have been trying to stay away from, including sugar, wheat starch, soybean oil, wheat flour, wheat gluten, corn protein, autolyzed yeast extract and sulfites, but the kicker was the presence of Aspartame among the ingredients in the pickled ginger! Who knew!!!!

Hope this reminds you all to READ THOSE LABELS. I learned my lesson!

 

[WhiteBear]

More about Aspartame, and an interesting response

_http://www.grist.org/scary-food/2011-02-14-just-how-bad-is-aspartame-the-leading-u.s.-fake-sweetener

This is actually a follow-up to the author's original article about aspartame, but he felt it was necessary to do a second article citing more definitive proof to back his initial statements after he got a response from a "debunker". The debunker's response was telling, though. His line of reasoning is along the lines of "worrying about it is worse for you than the actual chemical". I think that's being done a -lot- lately, especially on Facebook, with people saying that informative articles are "negative" and "fear-mongering".

And hence we come to the topic of this post. In response to Klein's tweet, Adam Ozimek of the Modeled Behavior blog quickly mounted a vigorous defense of aspartame, the artificial sweetener of choice for the soda industry. Ozimek denounced my post as hippie-addled conspiracy mongering. "Don't you put that soda down, Ezra!" Ozimek thunders. He continues:

You just calmly finish drinking that diet soda and don't concern yourself for one second. I know you're worried, because you fearfully tweeted earlier today about this Tom Philpott story at Grist about how diet soda causes cancer. But the best thing you can do for your health is not listen to Tom Philpott, because the unnecessary stress caused by worrying about the aspartame in your diet soda is far more dangerous for you than the aspartame in your soda.

 

[Laura]

Re: More about Aspartame, and an interesting response

Isn't there already a thread about aspartame where this post belongs?

 

[WhiteBear]

Re: More about Aspartame, and an interesting response

Isn't there already a thread about aspartame where this post belongs?

I'm sure there's a thread on Aspertame, but I thought this might be added as a SOTT article because it's linked with a story from Dr. Mercola, and currently being discussed. _http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/08/aspartame-toxic-sweetener.aspx

 

[Oxajil]

Thought this was kinda funny...

Here's a fun aside (you'll want to be sitting down for this):

The researchers who created aspartame and saccharine discovered their usability as sweeteners when, while doing research that had nothing to do with food or sweeteners, they decided to taste these chemicals and liked the sweet taste. No lie. (What were these boneheaded idiots thinking by tasting a laboratory experiment?) The researchers who developed sucralose, also known as Splenda, originally started out in an attempt to create an insecticide (Yes, you read that right.) An assistant (obviously a genius) was asked to test the compound mistakenly thought he was being asked to taste it (Coffey 2009). The rest, as they say, is food-industry history. You do the math with respect to how beneficial these substances are likely to be for your health.

 

[Yas]

Hey all!

I just had a lesson on labels concerning aspartame.

A month ago a friend gave me a tonic water which seemed inoffensive, I read the labels, it had no sugar, no carbs, it was sweetened with Stevia... So I started taking it every once in a while... Soon enough I started noticing that I craved for it more and more... I thought it might have been the Stevia that was making me crave for sweet... But I just lowered the consumption but kept drinking it. Then, I started noticing that I was feeling more anxious, my head seemed to be a little foggy and it was harder to concentrate. My eyes also got foggy and I started having strong migraines, which I didn't have for a long time after I changed my diet. I started feeling my allergies which is mostly manifested in sinus inflammation...

Silly me... I though that maybe I was doing something wrong in my diet but I couldn't find what could it be... I thought of eggs, because they are inflammatory, I tested... same symptoms...

Yesterday evening I was watching the documentary "Our Daily Poison" and it has a whole part dedicated to aspartame. I learned there that the code E951 is aspartame so I checked the Tonic Water label again.... and there it was... very small... E951... :O :/

I felt a angry with myself because I wasn't cautious enough... But lesson learned... DO NOT TRUST ANY product that comes from big industries and CHEK THE LABELS (even the small codes). Actually I had this attitude for a long time now, but I trusted this water because it comes from a company that appeared to be more concerned about health, and also, I know the owner of the company and he seamed to be more likely to pay attention to those details. I was wrong. And then again, I though of this small company owned by a woman who is all the time working for health and healthy food, yet, she has cookies with hydrogenated vegetable oil.... So... yes, there are some people that are nice people who are concerned about health and yet do not take care of details like this.

Now I will start another detox process to try to get rid of all the aspartame I've been drinking lately, and see how the symptoms develop. I think that they are due to it, but it could also be some other elements in diet...

I just wanted to share this with you... :)

Best wishes!

 

[QuantumLogic]

Aspartame in Milk Without a Label? Big Dairy Petitions FDA For Approval

Boy, they really are moving fast now in their human poisoning campaign. This is so ridiculous words can hardly express what I feel right now. Warning- the comments at the bottom of the article are very "colorful" in the language being used, so I posted the full text after the link for those who do not wish to see that kind of language.

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/02/aspartame-in-milk-without-label-big.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ActivistPost+%28Activist+Post%29

Two powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.

The FDA currently allows the dairy industry to use "nutritive sweeteners" including sugar and high fructose corn syrup in many of their products. Nutritive sweeteners are defined as sweeteners with calories.

This petition officially seeks to amend the standard of identification for milk, cream, and 17 other dairy products like yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and others to provide for the use of any "safe and suitable sweetener" on the market.

They claim that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners would promote healthy eating and is good for school children.

According to the FDA notice issued this week:

IDFA and NMPF state that the proposed amendments would promote more healthful eating practices and reduce childhood obesity by providing for lower-calorie flavored milk products. They state that lower-calorie flavored milk would particularly benefit school children who, according to IDFA and NMPF, are more inclined to drink flavored milk than unflavored milk at school.


Although the FDA considers aspartame to be a "safe and suitable" sweetener, a recent Yale University study appears to directly challenge the claim that aspartame would reduce obesity. In fact, the study concluded just the opposite, that artificial sweeteners actually contributed to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

The IDFA and NMPF argue "that the proposed amendments to the milk standard of identity would promote honesty and fair dealing in the marketplace" yet they don't want changes to the labels on dairy products.

Accordingly, the petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can “more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”

It's unclear how consumers can more easily identify the overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners without labels.

Quoting Section 130.10 of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, the dairy giants claim a new label is not required because sugar is added to milk without labeling it, and "the modified food is not inferior in performance" and "'reduced calorie' (labels) are not attractive to children" so marketing as such is of no benefit or detriment.

The FDA has opened public comments until May 21 for anyone interested to "submit comments, data, and information concerning the need for, and the appropriateness of, amending the standard of identity for milk and the additional dairy standards."

To submit a formal comment or send data to the FDA concerning adding aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to milk products CLICK HERE.

This may not be the best thing to say but....bring on the comets!

 

[Nook]

Re: Aspartame in Milk Without a Label? Big Dairy Petitions FDA For Approval

This may not be the best thing to say but....bring on the comets!

I think there's nothing else to say but this. Let the 'veil be lifted' already...

They claim that aspartame and other artificial sweeteners would promote healthy eating and is good for school children.

I just don't get why they would even go there. I mean, don't most people get enough poisons already as it is?? This is insane.

And it's one thing that they lie about Aspartame being safe but now they're saying it would actually 'promote healthy eating and is good for school children'??

For crying out loud...

 

[Xerxes]

Re: Aspartame in Milk Without a Label? Big Dairy Petitions FDA For Approval

It is ridiculous. Adding aspartame and corn syrup makes the product addictive. Nature News reports:

"Can aspartame be addictive?
Yes, according to Dr. Betty Martini, popular anti-aspartame advocate. She explains that it is an "addictive, excitoneurotic, carcinogenic, genetically engineered drug and adjuvant that damages the mitochondria." Moreover, Dr. Janet Hall, another famous advocate against aspartame, shares on her website that all artificial sweeteners create an artificial need for more sweetness. She goes on to add that forced sweetness, being a class of altered food, is a trap that cause people to become addicted to sweeter tasting food with no nutritional value."

http://www.naturalnews.com/035126_aspartame_side_effects_withdrawal.html#ixzz2M1nGVJ9f

Sadly, its just a way to sell more milk and have kids (and adults) get hooked without them knowing. In reality, the big food and drug corporations are nothing but drug pushers on the street corner, looking for any way to make a buck--at any cost.

 

[Gaby]

This is from a very mainstream publication.

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2012) 66, 972; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2012.47; published online 16 May 2012

GUT bacteria and aspartame: why are we surprised?

E Pretorius

The artificial sweetener aspartame (APM; L-aspartyl-L-phenylanaline methyl ester) has been the subject of many debates since its initial approval for human consumption in 1974. However, these sweeteners are frequently used as part of a weight control regime, despite research indicating the negative effects on the body. In a Science article late in 2011, Wu et al.1 discussed the fact that various dietary factors have an impact on gut bacteria, including the controversial dietary sweetener, APM. Recently, in the October 2011 Science Perspective Section, Uri Gophna2 commented on this observation, stating that it is surprising that even minor concentrations of the artificial sweetener APM, can modify bacterial communities. The observations by Wu et al., however, should not be ‘surprising’, as APM has, over the past 20 years, frequently been under vigorous scientific discussion. Currently, it is still approved by the FDA, as well as the EFSA; even though on consumption, each molecule of APM releases a molecule of methanol, which metabolizes into a molecule of formaldehyde.3 Formaldehyde (which is a highly reactive substance) is classified as a known human carcinogen, with no safe level of consumption. Therefore, it is not unexpected that very small amounts of the sweetener can modify bacterial communities, as these bacteria acts as the first line of intestinal defense and are therefore in direct contact with the sweetener and its metabolic compounds. During obesity or periods of weight management regimes, where patients might use APM (as part of their management program), it is perhaps more crucial to have optimum bacterial community functioning in the intestines. The observations of Wu et al., as well as a renewed interest in the APM debacle, spurred on by a new prepublication book released by Woodrow Monte4, entitled ‘While Science Sleeps: A Sweetener that Kills’ might urge scientists and regulatory bodies to look at APM again.

 

[loreta]

Part of my healing of my migraines that I had since 12 years old, was to cut anything that contains Aspartame. I took some homeopathic medication but the base was get rid of Aspartame. I was drinking a lot of Soda. It is when I started to read about Aspartame that I started to put dots together. Aspartame and MSG. So now I am going always with my magnifying glasses when I go shopping. I thank Aspartame because it is Aspartame and the realization of his existence that stopped in part my chronic migraine.

I try to tell people about this poison. Aspartame is a scandal, something that wake me up because I started to see this world differently. Aspartame was the door that one day, in 2009, I opened and then started to see things with more awareness. I was shocked.

Thanks Psyche for this article.

 

[Laura]

Excerpt from Mercola article:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/11/09/podesta-aspartame-dangers.aspx

Newly Leaked Emails Discuss Rumsfeld's Involvement in Aspartame Approval

John Podesta's leaked emails have turned up a number of damning pieces confirming the collusion between the soda industry and high level officials within the U.S. government, including Hillary Clinton.

In a recent batch of leaked emails, Donald Rumsfeld's involvement in the approval of aspartame is discussed.10 Rumsfeld served as White House chief of staff from 1974 to 1975. He was also secretary of defense from 1975 to 1977, and again from 2001 to 2006.

In 1976, Rumsfeld became CEO of the drug company G.D. Searle & Company, which was trying to get aspartame approved by the FDA.

To put the email chain into context, in 2013 the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting the agency "amend the standard of identity" for milk and other dairy products.

This change would allow them to add aspartame to chocolate milk, which is a primary milk product served with school lunches, without labeling it as a low-calorie drink. I wrote about this in my article, "Big Dairy Petitions FDA to Allow Unlabeled Use of Aspartame in Dairy Products."
Former Head of FDA Reveals His Concerns About Aspartame

At that time, Wendy Abrams, founder of Cool Globes Inc., an organization dedicated to raising awareness of climate change, forwarded correspondence to Podesta that she'd received from Don Kennedy.

Kennedy is a former head of the FDA and current editor-in-chief of Science Magazine. In his email correspondence with her, he shares his concerns about aspartame's potential toxicity:

"The whole sweeteners issue has interested me since my early time at FDA … A little later, still during my time as Commissioner I was called on by Don Rumsfeld, who introduced himself as the CEO of Searle …

[W]e told him that we would look carefully at the evidence and rely on our expert committee structure as usual.

Aspartame continued to attract concerned critics, and we at FDA saw no resumption of Searle's effort to get it approved. I looked up one piece on that history, which I append below. Not a very nice story.

'In 1985 Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet.

Monsanto was apparently untroubled by aspartame's clouded past, including a 1980 FDA Board of Inquiry, comprised of three independent scientists, which confirmed that it 'might induce brain tumors.'

The FDA had actually banned aspartame based on this finding, only to have Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld … vow to 'call in his markers,' to get it approved' … "

Aspartame 'Blew Holes in Their Brains'

In her correspondence with Kennedy, Abrams also noted her own adverse reactions to NutraSweet, noting that:

"… I think it is poison … Doctors will swear to me it is fine, and I will tell them, maybe I'm the only person in the world who reacts like this, but clearly it affects me, and then they'll tell me again, it is fine. They are so brainwashed by the propaganda, they refuse to believe anything contrary.

I also have a friend who worked for the researchers at University of Chicago (which has a top rated neurology dept [sic]) and the doctors there said when they gave NutraSweet to lab mice, it literally blew holes in their brains."

In a subsequent email, Kennedy tells Abrams that: "Rumsfeld has a lot to answer for in his next life."

 

[Joe]

There's a fairly old documentary called 'Sweet Misery' that goes into the whole business, including Rumsfeld.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wu66sGw2dQ

 

[Uperios]

Junk Food Shills: Why FDA-Approved Food Can Be Poison​

Story at a glance:

• The FDA and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) are beholden to industry and put the interests of junk food giants over public health
• WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” but WHO’s expert JECFA committee still says it can be safely consumed
• At least six out of 13 JECFA panel members have ties to ILSI, a longtime Coca-Cola front group
• A symbiotic relationship exists between AND, the AND Foundation and junk food corporations like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills and Kraft
• Trade group American Beverage launched a coordinated campaign to downplay WHO’s aspartame-cancer finding by paying registered dietitians and other health professionals to promote aspartame on social media