Thursday, June 28, 2007

Aspartame may cause cancer

I already don't trust aspartame (found in EQUAL, yogurts, a bunch of "no-sugar" stuff, and in soft drinks) because Donald Rumsfeld used to be the CEO of Searle, the company that makes it. In fact, an article in Vanity Fair by Rich Cohen, which appears in the December 2005 Vanity Fair, Rumsfeld appears to have been the driving force behind FDA approval of aspartame. The FDA was reluctant to approve aspartame--because it seemed to be causing seizures in rats and people--but when Rumsfeld started working for the Reagan Administration, everything fell into place for the sugar substitute:

For two decades, aspartame had failed to win approval. Then Ronald Reagan was elected president, and Donald Rumsfeld, while keeping his position at Searle, worked on the president-elect's interim foreign-policy team. Soon after Reagan was inaugurated, Searle re-applied for approval of aspartame. Within a few months, Reagan had named a new head of the FDA and the chemical got the green light. Rumsfeld had correctly recognized that Searle's problem was not scientific; it was political.

If that ain't enough to get you to drop your Diet Coke, check this out from NewsTarget:

A new study on aspartame conducted by the Ramazzini Foundation reveals that aspartame causes a dose-dependent increase in cancers (lymphomas, leukemias and breast cancers) when consumed at levels approaching those consumed by humans in diet soft drinks. Specifically, the study shows (reprinted from the abstract):

a) a significant dose-related increase of malignant tumor-bearing animals in males, in particular in the group treated at 2000 ppm; b) a significant increase of the incidence in lymphomas/leukemias in males treated at 2000 ppm and a significant dose-related increase of the incidence of lymphomas/leukemias in females, in particular in the group treated at 2000 ppm; c) a significant dose-related increase of the incidence of mammary cancer in females, in particular in the group treated at 2000 ppm. Conclusions. The results of this carcinogenicity bioassay not only confirm, but also reinforce the first experimental demonstration of [aspartame's] multipotential carcinogenicity at a dose level close to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) for humans. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that when lifespan exposure to [aspartame] begins during fetal life, its carcinogenic effects are increased.

The study, entitled "Lifespan Exposure to Low Doses of Aspartame Beginning During Prenatal Life Increases Cancer Effects in Rats" has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), the most widely-read environmental science journal in the world.
If you're looking for weight loss (and there's no studies showing diet drinks do this) there's a better solution than cancer and/or imperiling the next generation (p.s. why doesn't the Pro-life movement jump on this?). Try some fresh water and lemon!

read more here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this useful piece of information.
Even with the results from researches regarding aspartame, I still doubt it because a lot of people are drinking soft drinks almost everyday and no reports regarding problems were reported.

Anonymous said...

Pat, plenty of people are reporting it. The media, however, does not. Plus our laws are designed so that it is nearly impossible to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that one product was the culprit for an illness. This is why it is so hard to sue companies for toxic pollution, for example. Just google aspartame + illness and you will have plenty of reading to do.

My daughter broke out into an instant case of hives all over her face and throat after just a few sips of diet lemonade at a Ruby Tuesdays. (She had never had anything "diet" before, but it was the only lemondade they carried so we made an exception.) We switched her drink to chocolate milk and it was gone within 20 minutes, but that was enough to convince us that we would never give artificial sweeteners to our children again!

Susan G said...

I understand that aspartame has a high level of complaints at the CDC. I talked to a woman who was treated for epilepsy, in a wheelchair, finally found to be reacting to aspartame. She recovered completely.
Check mercola.com for the use of aspartame (ta da!) as an ant killer. I believe that Splenda is taking over for NutraSweet commercially -- and that's another can of worms!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the info. Double yikes on the politics of this...

Anonymous said...

I agree with radical mama. Companies may be responsible for the results and effects of their products, but they can't risk their business' success. Some are even ready for desperate measures.

Rich Murray said...

recent research and news re aspartame and stevia: Murray 2007.07.24
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1454

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and positively act
upon the facts about healthy and safe food, drink,
and environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@comcast.net
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 78 members, 1,455 posts in a public,
searchable archive http://RMForAll.blogspot.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1395
Aspartame Controversy, in Wikipedia democratic
encyclopedia, 72 references (including AspartameNM # 864
and 1173 by Murray, brief fair summary of much more research:
Murray 2007.01.01

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1453
Souring on fake sugar (aspartame), Jennifer Couzin,
Science 2007.07.06: 4 page letter to FDA from 12 eminent
USA toxicologists re two Ramazzini Foundation
cancer studies 2007.06.25: Murray 2007.07.18

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNMmessage/1451
Artificial sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose) and coloring
agents will be banned from use in newly-born and baby foods,
the European Parliament decided: Latvia ban in schools 2006:
Murray 2007.07.12

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNMmessage/1437
stevia to be approved and cyclamates limited by
Food Standards Australia New Zealand:
JMC Geuns critiques of two recent stevia studies by Nunes:
Murray 2007.05.29

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1427
more from The Independent, UK, Martin Hickman, re ASDA
(unit of Wal-Mart Stores) and Marks & Spencer ban of
aspartame, MSG, artificial chemical additives and dyes
to prevent ADHD in kids: urray 2007.05.16
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2548747.ece

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1426
ASDA (unit of Wal-Mart Stores WMT.N) and Marks & Spencer
will join Tesco and also Sainsbury to ban and limit
aspartame, MSG, artificial flavors dyes preservatives additives,
trans fats, salt "nasties" to protect kids from ADHD:
leading UK media: Murray 2007.05.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1438
Coca-Cola and Cargill Inc., after years of development,
with 24 patents, will soon sell rebiana (stevia)
in drinks and foods: Murray 2007.05.31

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1277
50% UK baby food is now organic - aspartame or MSG
with food dyes harm nerve cells, CV Howard 3 year study
funded by Lizzy Vann, CEO, Organix Brands,
Children's Food Advisory Service: Murray 2006.01.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1271
combining aspartame and quinoline yellow, or MSG and
brilliant blue, harms nerve cells, eminent
C. Vyvyan Howard et al, 2005 education.guardian.co.uk,
Felicity Lawrence: Murray 2005.12.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1417
formaldehyde as a potent unexamined cofactor in cancer research --
sources include methanol, dark wines and liquors,
aspartame, wood and tobacco smoke: IARC Monographs on the Evaluation
of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans implicate formaldehyde
in #88 and alcohol drinks in #96: some related abstracts:
Murray 2007.05.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1286
methanol products (formaldehyde and formic acid)
are main cause of alcohol hangover symptoms
[same as from similar amounts of methanol, the 11% part of aspartame]:
YS Woo et al, 2005 Dec: Murray 2006.01.20

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition:
Bouchard M et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources
are degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke:
Murray 2005.04.02

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1455
FEMA slow to safety test Katrina toxic trailers,
Charles Babington, Associated Press -- 1 ppm formaldehyde in air
is about half the daily dose from 3 cans aspartame diet soda
and ten times the 1999 EPA alarm level for drinking water:
Murray 2007.07.23

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNMmessage/1447
second study by expert Greek team of neurotoxicity
in infant rats by aspartame (or its parts, methanol,
phenylalanine, aspartic acid), KH Schulpis et al,
Toxicology 2007.05.18: Murray 2007.07.04

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNMmessage/1444
expert Greek group finds aspartame (or its parts,
methanol, phenylalanine, aspartic acid) harm infant rat
brain enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al,
Pharmacol. Res. 2007.05.13: Murray 2007.06.23

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1414
effect of aspartame on oncogene and suppressor gene
expressions in mice, Katalin Gambos, Istvan Ember, et al,
University of Pecs, Hungary, In Vivo 2007 Jan;
scores of their relevant past studies since 1977: Murray 2007.04.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1373
aspartame rat brain toxicity re cytochrome P450 enzymes,
especially CYP2E1, Vences-Mejia A, Espinosa-Aguirre JJ et al,
2006 Aug, Hum Exp Toxicol: relevant abstracts re formaldehyde
from methanol in alcohol drinks: Murray 2006.09.29

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1340
aspartame groups and books:
updated research review of 2004.07.16: Murray 2006.05.11

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame,
provide similar levels of methanol,
above 120 mg daily, for long-term heavy users,
2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Within hours, methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid -- the major causes
of the dreaded symptoms of "next morning" hangover.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda,
almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg methanol (wood alcohol).
If 30% of the methanol is turned into formaldehyde,
the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg, is 18.5 times the
USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in drinking water,
2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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Anonymous said...

Bills to Ban Aspartame Progress in Hawaii; Tactics and Consumer
Considerations

Greetings from New Mexico!

I am grateful for the broad Hawaiian support thus far for the bill to ban
aspartame, the neurotoxic artificial sweetener, from human consumption or
sale, which I hope will be heard soon and strongly support in the Senate
Health Committee and in the House Health, and Consumer Protection and
Commerce Committees. I was the main force behind this massive effort in the
NM legislature in 2006 and 2007, and I can share with readers a few insights
on the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that will be thrown at this legislation
by corporate lobbyists representing some very evil doing corporations in the
USA and in Japan which manufacture and use this poison to save a few bucks
on adding real sugar as a sweetener.

I have been discussing this at length with Dr. Adrian Chang of Honolulu, the
nuclear engineer and force behind the very brilliant and ultimately
successful effort to stop fluoride being added to municipal water supplies,
thanks to the Oahu County government's decision to not add fluoride.

I am sure that these Hawaii bills to ban Aspartame can be passed, despite
blatantly corporate-serving and corporate-lobbyist-advanced theories that
all of these concerns are entirely pre-empted by the federal authorities, or
that Hawaii state government would automatically be sued by manufacturers.
About the worst to legislators in Hawaii that could happen if one of these
bills passes and is signed by Gov. Lingle is that the FDA Commissioner, Dr.
Von Eschenbach, would be forced to revoke the approval for aspartame, which
should rightly have been done long ago.

This legislative passage could occur with the right help from the Medical
community in Hawaii, particularly the experts in toxicology, internal
medicine, pediatrics, oncology and biochemistry at the University of Hawaii
School of Medicine. I encourage Hawaiians to contact whomever you consider
as both ally and as impeccable and unimpeachable sources of testimony at the
Medical school and in the Medical community, who can come and testify and/or
write a strong letter to the Committee members.

We will generate strong letters of support from the three top mainland
physicians in this regard, who are really the top leaders in the world on
aspartame's proven medical and neurodegenerative harm, and all readers of
this would do well to easily google and read their articles:

HJ Roberts,Internist; Russell Blaylock, Neurosurgeon; and Ralph Walton,
Psychiatry. All wrote great letters to the entire New Mexico Legislature
members, and readers should take the time to google and read their articles.

The New Mexico bills were overwhelmed and eviscerated by the most vicious
corporate lobbyists I have ever encountered, representing Ajinomoto of
Japan, the world's largest manufacturer of both aspartame and MSG, as well
as their duped American corporate henchmen/partners-in-poisoning who use
massive amounts of Aspartame, like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Altria/Kraft Corporate
Services, and others. The same corporations and even more will show up in
Honolulu, make no mistake, probably to include Wrigley's Gum, all of whose
products contain aspartame, which is metabolized as methanol and
formaldehyde, and even more dangerous since gum releases poisons absorbed
under the tongue, which go directly to the brain.

In Santa Fe in 2006 and 2007, there was a regrettable and probably
avoidable strong partisan context (which we hope will prove irrelevant in
Hawaii) since so much criticism was leveled at Donald Rumsfeld, aspartame
progenitor when he was CEO of G.D. Searle, the patent holder, back in 1981
in one of the darkest and dirtiest chapters of the checkered history of
failures at the FDA, when Rummy as part of the Reagan Transition Team,
forced the appointment of a crony, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, as FDA
Commissioner, in exchange for agreeing to approve aspartame, despite 16
years of the FDA saying no, based on the obvious and rudimentary toxic
biochemistry of its metabolized components.

The first salvos against ignorance and for true consumer protection in
Hawaii have very recently been fired in the news report on KHON-2, a rather
conservative station and Fox Affiliate in which the predicatble professor
from the Medical school basically said "a little bit doesn't or won't hurt
you." Of course, this is absurd: a whole lot of little bits of poison are
cumulative and end up killing you, whether through cancer, heart disease,
Multiple Sclerosis, etc.

We hope to see a Hawaii Capitol Press conference with the bills' sponsors
(Kalani English, Suzanne Chun Oakland, Mele Carroll, and Calvin Say) to
illuminate the press about the medical harm done by aspartame!

I have communicated a basic letter to the editor to all of the press and all
of the radio stations in Hawaii, but few have responded thus far. Nothing
will really take shape, I fear, without massive press coverage, and we were
able to achieve that in New Mexico, which included all of the main
television stations in New Mexico.

Readers should watch the online posting of the brilliant documentary, SWEET
MISERY, the DVD by a recovered victim of aspartame poisoning in Tucson, Cori
Brackett, the most convincing possible communique on this subject, according
to the New Mexico Senate sponsor, Jerry Ortiz y Pino.

Please let me hear from you if you have questions or want to contact your
friends, family, or colleagues in Hawaii to get this done....

Thank you, and Mahalo,

Stephen Fox
Managing Editor of Santa Fe Sun News
Founder, New Millennium Fine Art

217 W. Water St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505 983-2002
stephen@santafefineart.com

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