(See
our material on why Sugar
Can Ruin Your Health)
Millions
of Americans spend many billions of dollars on “diet” foods that contain toxic
sugar substitutes, and yet they still do NOT lose excess body fat. Sugar
substitutes do NOT encourage fat loss. It is baffling why consumers continue to
buy these ineffective diet products that do not help them lose weight. If
anything, powerful artificial sweeteners INCREASE the craving for sweet
carbohydrates. There are many studies that have documented weight loss
immediately after eliminating the consumption artificial sweeteners.
Although
sugar substitutes do not help consumers lose excess body fat, almost without
exception, their long-term use increases the risk of many serious health
problems (discussed below), whose cause-and-effect may be difficult for
uninformed consumers and board-certified medical doctors to understand.
Why
do people continue to use diet products that do NOT work, AND are known to
cause serious illness and even death?
One
answer is the power of misleading commercials. Diet food vendors spend billions
of dollars on commercials to get people to do things that intelligent people
would NOT do if it were not for the commercials. Mediocre mental midgets lack critical thinking skills.
Another
contributing answer is unwarranted reliance on the untrustworthy U.S. Food and
Drug Administration and organizations like the corrupted American Dietetic
Association to protect us from false and misleading advertising of dangerous
foods and drugs. After decades of well-documented evidence of the
cause-and-effect of the artificial sweetener / disease connection, the U.S.
Congress and FDA refuse to ban clearly-toxic sugar substitutes, or even
mandate better warning labels that are strongly recommend by some of the
world’s best medical research scientists and consumer advocate organizations.
There
were significant Congressional Hearings about large numbers of documented aspartame-caused
health problems two decades ago, when it was included in only 100 different
products. Since then, there have been two subsequent aspartame hearings where
far more solid scientific evidence was presented, but to no avail. Now there
are over 5,000 products containing aspartame, and the patent has expired. Its
usage should increase greatly in the future, unless action is taken. Profit-motivated
Monsanto (with little concern for the health of their consumers) has just won
approval of the much more powerful “neotame” (discussed below).
Senator
Howard Hetzenbaum submitted a bill that would have warned all pregnant mothers,
infants and children of the dangers of aspartame. The bill would have also
instituted INDEPENDENT studies (NOT funded by Monsanto) on the documented
health problems existing in the population (seizures, changes in brain
chemistry, changes in neurological and behavioral symptoms). This bill was sadly
killed by the powerful drug and chemical lobbies who “own” the votes of many U.S.
Senators. This extreme corruption unleashed “aspartame disease” and premature death
on an unsuspecting nation, and world.
There
are now at least 92 well-documented symptoms of aspartame disease, including
coma to death. The majority of them are neurological disorders, because aspartame
is neurotoxic. Aspartame disease is a cause behind some of the mystery of the “Dessert
Storm” military health problems. The burning tongue and other problems
discussed in over 60 cases can be directly related to the consumption of aspartame
products.
Several
thousand pallets of diet drinks were shipped to Dessert Storm troops. Diet
drinks sat in the 120 degree F. Arabian sun for weeks at a time on pallets. Aspartame
breaks down into its toxic components at 86 degrees. Thirsty, weight-conscious
service men and women drank these neurotoxins all day long. All of their
symptoms are identical to well-documented aspartame disease poisoning. The Dessert
Storm disease is now no longer a mystery. It is a disease of corporate profit
being much more important than the health of our nation, including our military
troops overseas.
The
creators of profitable deadly foods and food additives fund the American
Dietetic Association, American Diabetes Association, the campaigns of U.S.
Senators and Representatives, U.S. FDA product studies, and the Conference of
the American College of Physicians.
The
New York Times ran a powerful article on how the corrupt American Dietetic
Association receives significant funds from the worst food industry offenders (Monsanto,
etc.) to endorse their disease-and-death causing products.
Here
is one extremely sad example of what dishonest misinformation is still doing
today. A mother who was feeding her overweight child NutraSweet was told to stop
giving the child any form of aspartame by a licensed holist physician. The
child was having grand mal seizures every day. The mother called her old family
physician, who called the ADA, who told the doctor not to take the child off of
NutraSweet (because Monsanto had provided significant funding to the ADA to
promote NutraSweet).
This
example demonstrates the extreme power of those who continue to poison our
nation, despite clear documentation of the damage that their influence is doing
today. The mother was too intimidated by the uninformed older physician (who
had no training in such matters) that the mother had unwisely trusted
completely for many years. And where did the family physician get the sage
advice that he gave out from his pedestal to the naive mother? The ultimate
source was the message that Monsanto had paid the ADA to give out to everyone. The
doctor was too stupid and dependent on the corrupted ADA to suggest trying to
remove the NutraSweet for a while. What a blind, dumb and corrupt nation we have
become. We ignore the truth and trust the untrustworthy. We become addicted to
products that do the opposite of what we bought them for in the first place.
Our nation generally lacks fundamental critical
thinking skills.
Nothing
has been done by the government to protect consumers from the aspartame deadly scourge,
other than an oversimplified warning label for people with PKU. Today’s
politician-corrupting diet industry lobbyists are far more powerful than the
deadly tobacco industry lobbyists were for many decades. The similarities
and number of people killed are appalling and shameful to our nation.
The
pattern of how lobbyists with deep pockets influencing dishonest politicians is
VERY well documented throughout American history. Nowhere is this truer today than
inside the FDA, where the companies whose products are being evaluated fund
most of the studies of their own products (How biased is that?).
This
unforgivably corrupt FDA misbehavior has led directly to many millions of
unnecessary, avoidable, serious-and-painful diseases and untimely deaths. Part
of the problem is insufficient independent evaluation funding by the U.S.
Congress, but the largest problem is probably direct conflict of interest of politicians,
FDA employees and subcontractors.
Today’s
taste-bud-stimulating, unnatural, man-made laboratory chemical,
alternative-sweeteners seem to fall into two basic categories:
Do
NOT expect the U.S. government to protect you from them. The general rule
(which seems to consistently hold true) is that ALL sugar substitutes should
be avoided by all prudent people. All of these products appear to INCREASE
(not satisfy) one’s craving for sweet flavors and simple carbohydrates, (even
if the other damage that individual products do is not well documented, yet).
Many
products sold to people on “Low Carbohydrate” Diets and “Low Calorie” diets
(especially those labeled “diet,” “sugarless” or “no sugar added”) contain very
unsafe man-made, unnatural sugar substitutes or hazardous alternative
sweeteners. Many of these have been clearly shown to be potentially dangerous
to human health and well being. New scientific discoveries about their many
health hazards are being published almost every month, and dishonestly ignored
by the FDA.
One
problem is that very few of these products cause immediate damage to most
people. For most consumers, the decision of whether or not to consume a “diet”
product is its taste, without considering its effectiveness at helping to lose
weight, or its long-term health consequences. If it says “diet” and tastes
alright, that’s good enough for the majority. If months or years later they
notice that they have gained weight, the original decision to consume the diet
product is NOT reconsidered, since it has become a blind, dumb habit, just like
the ones that led to obesity in the first place.
The
lengthy cause-and-effect cycle of unhealthy products is difficult to perceive.
Many of the most negative impacts of sugar substitutes (which even include
unnecessary early death) take many years to accumulate and publish, and then
they are still ignored by the corrupt, slow-moving FDA. When a patent expires,
the vendor may announce a new patented product that solves the health problems
that the vendor denied that the previous produce had while the patent was in
effect. GAK ! Something similar is probably getting ready to happen with neotame
from Monsanto, the creators of aspartame.
The
cause-and-effect relationship of profitable-but-toxic food additives is often
not accurately documented or even recognized by the majority of those who
suffer from sugar substitute health damage, or by most medical doctors or
post-mortem medical examiners (who have very-little training in nutrition and
over-the-counter toxic products and food additives). The health damage caused
by sugar substitutes and diet foods or drinks is often thought to be age
related, when it was actually avoidable.
Humans
are creatures of many good and bad habits that are often repeated for decades
and generations. People lacking critical
thinking skills do what they have always done, without questioning
pervasive traditions. Uninformed consumers look at the fancy packaging on
prepared foods and ignore (or do not fully understand) mandated food labels.
False
and misleading billion dollar advertising and clever marketing slogans are
designed to deceive in a way that maximizes product sales, NOT consumer health.
Once a gullible consumer makes the decision to buy an unhealthy diet product
for the first time, the new bad habit may be repeated for a long time, until
another commercial message overwhelms the mediocre mind.
Our
ancestors, parents, friends and caregivers did us a great disservice by
rewarding good behavior with candy, feeding us unhealthy caffeinated sugar
water, or even fruit juice with most meals, and “lovingly” preparing unhealthy
sweet desserts for us (as their own mothers had incorrectly done for them). The
massive social impact is an American epidemic of morbid obesity and many other
health and quality of life problems. Artificial sweeteners take our sweet teeth
to a new high of unhealthy nutrition bad habits.
Humans
do NOT need refined sugars or sugar substitutes – They only make the underlying
obesity problem much worse, while generating trillions of dollars for their
profit-motivated unscrouplous vendors.
We
MUST retrain our mental images and our knowledge of “good” versus “bad”
nutrition. We MUST understand that the “icky sweet” flavor (of sugar and sugar
substitutes) is NOT good for us, or for our offspring. With few exceptions, anything
that tastes particularly sweet should be avoided like the plague that it really
is:
Saccharin,
Sodium Saccharin (Sweet 'N Low – the pink packs) – Shown to increase the risk of
certain cancers, decades ago. The health risk is slow but cumulative, based on
quantity and length of use. In the 1970s, the FDA was going to ban saccharin
based on the reports of a Canadian study that showed that saccharin was causing
bladder cancer in rats. Powerful political lobbyists corrupted the FDA (as
happens very frequently) and saccharin was left on the shelves with a mandated
label: "Use of this product may be hazardous to your health. This
product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in
laboratory animals."
Aspartame
– Product names like NutraSweet, Spoonful and Equal (many common diet foods,
drinks, and the pervasive blue table sweetener packs) – A huge industry with a
powerful multi-billion dollar political lobby against those scientists that know
that it should be banned. These politician-corrupting sugar substitute
lobbyists are far more powerful than the equally unscrupulous tobacco was for
many decades. Their fiduciary career responsibility is to make more money for
their stockholders, regardless of how it damages the health of, or kills, their
hundreds of millions of customers.
The
U.S. FDA receives more complaints of symptoms caused by aspartame than any
other drug.
Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, the corrupt FDA refuses to ban or
mandate aspartame warning labels!
In a
recent presentation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they
announced that there was a rapidly rising epidemic of multiple sclerosis and
systemic lupus running rampant across the United States.
When
the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F (inside our 98.6 degree body,
or during cooking), the methanol (wood alcohol) that makes up 10% of aspartame is
converted into toxic formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes
“metabolic acidosis.” Formic acid is the poison found in the painful sting of
fire ants. Formaldehyde stores in the body fat cells, particularly in the hips
and thighs. When body fat is burned (long after aspartame is consumed) it is
release into the system to be converted into disease-causing formic acid.
Aspartame
is especially deadly for diabetics (Who consume it in a futile attempt to lose
weight). Physicians know how devastating methanol is for everyone, especially diabetics.
Some physicians incorrectly believe some of their diabetic patients retinopathy,
when in fact, their loss of vision is caused directly by aspartame. Aspartame
keeps blood sugar (serum glucose) level out of control, causing many patients
to suffer acute memory loss, go into a diabetic coma and die.
Aspartame-caused
methanol toxicity exactly mimics multiple sclerosis (nerve death). Many people continue
to be incorrectly diagnosed with MS. As it turns out, MS is not a death
sentence, but methanol toxicity is. Once a nerve is dead, no medication can
bring it back to life. The progress of this misdiagnose MS can be stopped by
avoiding aspartame (and the new more-powerful version called neotame), but the nerve
damage previously done is irreversible.
Systemic
lupus is almost as prevalent in America as MS, especially among frequent Diet
Coke and Diet Pepsi drinkers. The unsuspecting victims usually drink three to
four 12 oz. servings per day. The naive victims usually do not suspect that diet
foods and drinks are gradually killing their central nervous systems, with
cumulative devastating effects. Continued used of aspartame is seriously life
threatening.
Since
aspartame’s adverse health risks have been shown to be so significant,
widespread, serious and even deadly, we will devote more text explaining the
important reasons to avoid aspartame products altogether. Your body does not “need”
refined white sugar, and it certainly does not “need” (or know what to do with)
artificial sweeteners like toxic aspartame, neotame, sucralose, sugar alcohols,
etc. that are made in unnatural chemical laboratories.
“Phenylalanine”
is one of the two amino acids in aspartame. According to Monsanto’s NutraSweet
website:
“Aspartame
is made from aspartic acid and phenylalanine, as the methyl ester.
Upon
digestion, aspartame breaks down into its components - the amino acids, aspartic
acid and phenylalanine, and methanol.”
This
statement is damning enough all by itself, since methanol (wood alcohol) is
well known for its powerful neurotoxic characteristic, especially in diabetics
(who consume aspartame, often mixed with other toxic artificial sweeteners).
Monsanto claims that the health impact of aspartame is small, since the
quantity consumed is small, but how much rat poison do you think it is safe for
you to consume each day? What happens if a person consumes more than one diet
food or beverage each day?
There
is an inherited genetic condition known as phenylkenoturia (PKU), which is a
disorder of amino acid metabolism. Metabolic problems similar to PKU can also
be consistently demonstrated by consumption of certain food and drug
combinations. Aspartame package labels have an oversimplified warning for
people with PKU to avoid aspartame, for good reason – it causes serious disease
and even death (despite the fact that Monsanto still claims that it poses no
health risk at all).
What
if you have PKU but it has not been accurately diagnosed yet? What if a
pregnant woman is carrying a child with PKU, but does not realize it? Should
she consume aspartame in an ineffective vain attempt to look slimmer? Is
raising a retarded child worth the non-benefit provided by aspartame?
What
if something in your diet affects your metabolism of amino acids? Common foods
like grapefruit impact metabolism for three days after consuming just one
serving. Grapefruit alone has been shown to interact negatively with over 200 different
over-the-counter and prescription medications. Other foods and drugs
dramatically effect metabolic processes and are likely to interact with phenylalanine
in complex ways that are difficult for consumers AND untrained medical
professionals to understand.
The
important point is that artificial sweetener metabolism and health risks are
most certainly dependent on complex individual genetic, nutrition and
medication issues. The newer a product is, the less time there has been to
accumulate specific knowledge about is risks. The 17-year span of a U.S. patent
may not be enough time to fully explain long-term cause-and-effect. Aspartame
has been widely prompted by Monsanto (who is very familiar with its many health
risks and consumer complaints) for two decades. Many millions of naive Americans
have documented aspartames many adverse effects, but it remains on the market
with only minimal mandated warning on its label.
It
has been clearly and conclusively shown that aspartame causes mental
retardation as well as many neurological, behavioral, and dermatological
diseases in people with certain amino acid metabolism problems! Women
who are, or may become, pregnant should absolutely avoid unnatural “diet” foods
and beverages. Aspartame-caused retardation begins at the moment of conception.
The
U.S. should mandate a label on all products that contain aspartame that says: “This
product contains aspartame, which has been shown to cause mental retardation as
well as neurological, behavioral, and dermatological problems in people who are
sensitive to it.” However, the powerful aspartame industry lobby has corrupted
the U.S. Congress, the FDA and other public health agencies, and blocked
mandatory publication of the factual truth.
Aspartame
breaks down with time, temperature and moisture, either on the shelf or in the
body. As it breaks down, aspartame releases methanol, which is highly toxic to
the liver and brain, and can cause vascular failures that lead to micro
strokes, total blindness, irreversible optic nerve damage, dementia, tumors,
etc.
10%
of aspartame is deadly methanol (extremely toxic wood alcohol). If methanol is consumed in
a significant quantity (e.g., drinking a few ounces of “denatured” rubbing
alcohol), it will cause blindness very quickly. Consumed in small amounts (as
in one daily serving of diet soda), partial blindness and other nerve damage
can take a year or a decade to become noticeable, but nerve death happens to a
small degree each time aspartame is consumed. The methanol in aspartame is
neurotoxic to EVERYONE.
The
nerve death caused by aspartame is permanent and irreversible. By the time you
notice the permanent nerve damage (e.g., retardation, partial loss of a field
of vision, sensory or control function loss, etc.), you cannot reverse the
nerve death. You can only stop its progression by eliminating intake of the
neurotoxin that caused it.
The
more aspartame you consume, the longer you consume it, the more irreversible
damage is done to your entire central nervous system, and other tissues and
organs. Some people are more susceptible to the damage caused by aspartame than
others (e.g. those with amino acid metabolic problems or those consuming
certain food or drugs). These individual variations make the cumulative damage
rate vary by individual, but aspartame’s methanol is neurotoxic to
EVERYONE to some degree and conditions like phenylkenoturia may be undiagnosed
in those who have it.
When
a nerve dies, it is dead forever, and in almost all cases irreplaceable. Thus,
the neurotoxic damage cause by aspartame is irreversible – no drug can bring a
dead neuron back to life. The partial or total blindness (can’t tell day from
night) that can be caused directly by aspartame in many individuals will last
the rest of your life, as will mental retardation, dementia, etc.
Vision
effects, headaches and central nervous system problems are a large percentage
of the very real continual ongoing FDA complaints from aspartame-users. Optic
nerve damage has little to do with the need for glasses. The damage commonly
caused by aspartame is to the sensory portion of the back or the eye (not to the
lens), which glasses cannot correct.
Methanol
causes hemorrhages to the micro capillaries that supply the extremely small
retina optical nerves (and the entire brain). \When one nerve literally starves
to death as the result of a methanol-caused hemorrhage, a histamine swelling
response occurs, causing inflammation in a desperate futile attempt to increase
the blood supply. The visual symptom while this is happening is multi-color
flashing speckles that can be seen when the eye lids are closed. This will
eventually become a permanent blind spot causing a loss of vision in the same
area for the rest of your life.
The
best retinologists and optic neurologists do not have a clue how to stop or
prevent the progression of this devastating disease, since they have no
training in the deadly effects of American food additives, and Monsanto has
spent a lot of money making sure that this critical information does NOT become
widespread. If you know anyone with these symptoms, PLEASE demand that they
immediately stop consuming artificial sweeteners and see if the progress of
their blindness does not permanently subside.
Since
the problem that is caused by the methanol in aspartame is vascular failure hemorrhages,
in addition to eliminating artificial sweeteners they need to strengthen and
protect the blood vessel walls. Grape seed extract is a powerful antioxidant (readily available at low cost) that
has the unique characteristic of adhering to connective tissue, which is what
blood vessels are made of. It has been prescribed by European physicians for vascular
problems for over four decades, but the many benefits of grape seed extract are
essentially unknown by American board-certified medical doctors.
When
one nerve swells, it pinches off the blood supply to adjacent nerves, causing
multiple nerves to starve to death over a short period of time (hours or days).
The cumulative damage process will continue over time. Ischemic optic nerve
death can sometimes be photographed when the retinal hemorrhages are large and
visible blood leakage occur. A “fluorescein angiogram” clearly documents the
retinal hemorrhages (A dye is injected and the back of the eye is photographed
showing blood vessel leakage caused by aspartame’s methanol.)
Dangerous
mega doses of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs (requiring hospitalization and
close monitoring) is sometimes administered by uninformed medical professionals
in desperation, but the benefit of this treatment of acute inflammation symptoms
is only temporary. It ignores the root cause: methanol. The cumulative
degradation process will continue when the short-term treatment is over,
especially if the consumer returns to unhealthy “diet” foods and beverages.
The
extremely sad thing is that inept hospital “registered dietitians” often serve
foods containing aspartame, or the blue “Equal” sweetener packets, to their
patients. This common practice should be considered a felony requiring a
mandatory federal prison sentence! It surely would be highly regulated, except
for the money that Monsanto has spent to protect their profitable product.
Even
though specialists can easily monitor the progress of ischemic optic
neuropathy, most doctors who do not extensively study research journals have no
idea about its underlying cause-and-effect. The source of the problem is almost
never understood by the consumer who goes blind (while foolishly trying to lose
weight by consuming FDA-approved artificial sweeteners).
Medical
doctors, optometrists, ophthalmologists (even neuro-ophthalmology specialists)
and retinologists are generally NOT trained to recognize the cause-and-effect
relationship of excitotoxins like aspartame and MSG on ischemic optic
neuropathy. Dietitians, agency officials and legislators also ignore the
documented studies about the damage caused directly by aspartame.
Many
well-informed medical research scientists who have studied aspartame have
lobbied the Federal Government to not only label products containing aspartame
(with the documented health hazards), but to go beyond warning labels and ban
aspartame altogether. But, the many-billion-dollar industry that is based on
this well-documented nerve killer now has a political lobby that is much
stronger than the tobacco companies once did. These large corporations have
effectively blocked all legislation and education of the general public, even
though the Internet has many privately funded web sites (like this one) trying
to inform the public about the real issues.
The
result of a government that has been completely corrupted by the aspartame
profit-motivated lobby is that vendors can now freely sell their known poisons
to ever-increasing numbers of innocent, uninformed, hungry victims, with
devastating social, emotional and economic consequences among the uninformed.
There
is no scientific evidence that anyone has ever lost weight by using aspartame. In fact, the exact
opposite is true: There are many examples of weight reduction by people
when they STOP using aspartame (and their aspartame-conditioned
cravings for sweet carbohydrates subside). Average weight loss is one study was
19 pounds after eliminating aspartame. (Dr. H.J. Roberts, diabetic
specialist and world-renowned expert on aspartame poisoning, Defense
Against Alzheimer's Disease)
Dr.
Roberts also states "consuming aspartame at the time of conception can
cause birth defects." The phenylalanine concentrates in the placenta,
causing mental retardation, according to Dr. Louis Elsas, Pediatrician
Professor - Genetics, at Emory University in his testimony before Congress. In
the original lab tests, animals developed brain tumors (phenylalanine breaks
down into DXP, a known brain tumor trigger).
See
our Joyful Aging material on Excitotoxins
Aspartame
is a dipeptide (methyl ester of l-aspartic acid and l-phenylalanine). (Also see
the discussion of Neotame below, which is a more powerful new form of
Aspartame). Aspartame excites the sweet-sensing taste buds 160 to 220 times
more than does sucrose (table sugar).
Since
the late 1960’s it has been well documented that intestinal esterases hydrolyze
aspartame to aspartic acid, methanol (highly neurotoxic; causes:
blindness, vascular hemorrhages, dementia, mental retardation, etc.), and phenylalanine.
The
above statement is biologically true, but the biased ADA/FDA conclusion, which
ignores the serious cumulative hazard of daily methanol and phenylalanine ingestion,
is completely wrong:
In
1981, FDA first approved aspartame as a sweetener for a number of dry uses (eg,
tabletop sweetener, cold breakfast cereal, gelatins, puddings) and in chewing
gum and carbonated beverages. Demand for aspartame in the United States rose
from 8.4 million lb in 1986 to 17.5 million lb in 1992, a figure that
represented more than 80% of the world demand. (Coincidently, most of the
world’s aspartame-related medical problems occur in the U.S.) Although soft
drinks account for more than 70% of today’s aspartame consumption, this
sweetener is added to more than 6,000 foods, personal care products, and
pharmaceuticals. Aspartame is available in liquid, granular, encapsulated, and
powder forms to extend its use in food and beverage products.
Detailed
studies have been conducted to determine how ingestion influences plasma levels
of aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol (or the
by-product formate). Plasma phenylalanine response to aspartame varies
genetically. Persons with phenylketonuria, (a homozygous recessive
inborn metabolism problem which is undiagnosed in many who have it), are unable
to metabolize phenylalanine. These persons have much higher plasma levels and
altered synthesis of monoamine neurotransmitters (Maher T, Wurtman R. Possible
neurological effects of aspartame, a widely used food additive. Environ Health
Perspect. 1987;75:53-57.) and adverse effects (Wolf-Novak L, Stegink L, Brummel
M, Person TJ, Filer LT Jr, Bell EF, Ziegler EE, Krause WL. Aspartame ingestion
with and without carbohydrate in phenylketonuric and normal subjects: effect on
plasma concentrations of amino acids, glucose, and insulin. Metabolism.
1990;39:391-396.).
When
properly diagnosed, the medical nutrition therapy for its many serious adverse
effects involves eliminating aspartame. The analogy is that some people are
genetically more sensitive to air pollutants, smoking, etc. You may not
know until it is too late to avoid serious health problems that you have a
metabolic defect, which increases your risk of getting lung cancer, etc. If you
knew that you had such a genetic defect, you certainly should not smoke, but
even if you don’t have a genetic characteristic that increases your risk of
respiratory disease, you are still better off to NEVER SMOKE. This concept can
be generalized to ALL potential consumers of products that impact different
individuals in varying degrees.
This
is true of aspartame. IF you have a genetic defect (which thousands of
Americans do have), then large quantities of aspartame can cause headaches,
seizures, irreversible permanent blindness, neurodegenerative diseases, or
worse. Even if you do not have such a genetic defect, you will probably weigh
less and be healthier if you do NOT ever consume aspartame (or other risky
sugar substitutes).
The
FDA requires foods containing aspartame to have a label indicating that they
contain phenylalanine (but the label fails to educate the public about what the
adverse medical effects are, and why aspartame should be avoided – resulting in
thousands of readily-avoidable serious medical problems).
Aspartame
breaks down to diketopiperazine based on time and temperature, and loses it
sweetness. When aspartame is used in foods prepared with heat (baked goods,
etc.), much larger amounts are normally used, which further increases dangerous
diketopiperazine.
Some
persons report almost immediate allergic reactions to aspartame, including headaches
(similar to “hangovers” after consuming neurotoxic alcohol), edema of the lips,
tongue, and throat (as in aspartame-caused Dessert Storm disease); dermatologic
reactions; and serious respiratory problems (Health Hazard Evaluation.
Summary of Adverse Reactions Attributed to Aspartame. Washington, DC: US
Dept of Health and Human Services; 1995.). Even so, the government still requires
no adequate warning label to protect at-risk individuals, despite the
significant effort of many highly-qualified medical research scientists.
Aspartame
is classified in medical terms as an “excitotoxin” –
it excites and permanently kills non-replaceable essential neurons throughout
the central nervous system. It does not stop doing what it does after it passes
beyond the tongue. Excitotoxins can damage and destroy neurons located anywhere
throughout the entire body in varying degrees, from the brain to the toes.
Excitotoxins
often produce progressive symptoms in long-term, high-quantity consumers that
are similar to neurodegenerative diseases such as: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s,
Multiple Sclerosis, etc. Excitotoxins increase the rate of aging and death
throughout the entire central nervous system. (Monosodium Glutamate/MSG is also
a pervasive excitotoxin, with adverse short-and-long-term reactions that are
similar to aspartame.)
Adverse
reactions increase as the volume of excitotoxin intake increases. FDA
(unwisely) increased acceptable maximum daily intake for aspartame (in healthy
persons without hidden genetic defects like PKU) to the current dangerously
high level of 50 mg/kg body weight, when aspartame was approved for use in
carbonated beverages. Many people now consume far more than the FDA maximum.
Mixing
a variety of different artificial sweeteners (which is common among naive dieters),
with foods that are known to significantly impact metabolism (like grapefruit,
etc.), over-the-counter and prescription drugs is chaotically difficult to
predict in different individuals. But, even a rudimentary understanding of
metabolic biochemistry and well known cause-and-effect relationships with aspartame-caused
diseases suggests that the product should be immediately and totally banned
from the market (despite the fact that those who profit from it the most
claim that it has no ill health effects, just as powerful tobacco lobbyists did
for many decades, before the truth was forced into the light, and 22% of
Americans still stupidly smoke).
Food
labels can help intelligent consumers identify unnatural products
that contain aspartame, although the amount of this neurotoxic substance is NOT
part of the required label. Consumers must contact the companies (which very
few do) to determine the amount of aspartame in each product. The amount in
some common products can be: 225 mg in a 12-oz diet soda, 100 mg in an 8-oz
drink made from powder, 80 mg in an 8-oz yogurt or a 4-oz gelatin dessert, 32
mg in 3/4 cup of sweetened cereal, and 47 mg in 1/2 cup of frozen dairy dessert.
As a tabletop sweetener, blue packets of Equal contain 37 mg of dangerous
aspartame.
Aspartame
Toxicity – Overview of adverse effects from short-or-long-term use: (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/)
Seizures,
convulsions, dizziness, tremors, migraines, severe headaches, memory loss, mental
retardation, dementia, slurring of speech, confusion, tingling of extremities,
numbness / loss of sensation, loss of motor control, chronic fatigue,
depression, insomnia, irritability, panic attacks, marked personality changes,
phobias, rapid heart beat / tachycardia, asthma, chest pains, hypertension
(high blood pressure), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, swallowing
pain, itching, hives, urticaria, other allergic reactions of the tongue, lips
and respiratory system, blood sugar control problems (hypoglycemia or
hyperglycemia), menstrual cramps and other problems or changes, impotency and
sexual problems, food cravings (especially for simple carbohydrates, weight
gain!, hair loss / baldness / thinning of hair, burning urination & other
urination problems, excessive thirst, excessive hunger, bloating, edema
(vascular water leakage and fluid retention), infection susceptibility, joint pain and brain cancer (based on studies
in animals and a statistical increase in the number of American brain tumors
after aspartame was introduced and became more popular).
Included
in these formal complaints are "hundreds of pilots who have reported life
threatening adverse reactions due to aspartame," according to Aspartame
Consumer Safety Network, in an article from General Aviation News. Commercial
pilots have documented epileptic seizures shortly after consuming aspartame while
piloting passenger flights.
Michael
Collins, former commercial pilot, suffered from seizures whenever he drank diet
soda. The cause-and-effect reaction became clear. When he stopped using
aspartame products, he remained seizure-free. Unfortunately, he lost his pilot’s
medical certification and can no longer fly. This immediately ended the career
that he had spent his life preparing for and earning seniority – An extremely
high price to pay for his naive consumption of ineffective, hazardous
excitotoxins – the taste that kills but does not help anyone lose weight.
Monsanto’s marketing effort and political corruption did this to him and damaged
the health of millions of other Americans. You might ask “How?”
The
phenylalanine in aspartame breaks down the epileptic seizure threshold and
depletes the neurotransmitter “serotonin”, which also causes manic depression,
panic attacks, rage and violence. EpilepsyFoundation.org now posts specific
warnings to avoid aspartame, but the corrupt FDA STILL ignores all of the overwhelming
scientific evidence about why aspartame and similar products should be banned
altogether.
Alzheimer's
disease, anxiety attacks, arthritis, attention deficit disorder (ADD and ADHD),
birth defects, blurred vision, chronic fatigue syndrome, cramps, depression and
other psychological and personality disorders, depression, diabetes, diabetic
complications (feet, kidneys, heart, etc.), dizziness, epilepsy, fibromyalgiam,
headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, joint pain, lyme disease, lymphoma, memory
loss, mental retardation, migraine headaches, multiple chemical sensitivities
(MCS), multiple sclerosis (MS), neuropathy, numbness (especially in the legs), palsy,
panic disorder, Parkinson's disease, lupus, seizures, shooting pains, slurred
speech, spasms, tinnitus, vertigo, vision field loss and other nervous system
diseases.
Note:
It often takes at least sixty days without ANY aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal,
Spoonful, or other artificial sweeteners) to see a significant improvement in symptoms.
Improvement in health is also often accompanied by weight loss. (Stop using
aspartame and lose weight!). Some of the above symptoms that are related to
aspartame-caused permanent nerve death (neuropathy) are irreversible.
Check
all labels very carefully (including vitamins, pharmaceuticals, tooth paste,
breath fresheners, etc.). Look for the word "aspartame" (or other toxic
artificial sweeteners like sucralose or polyols) on the label and fanatically avoid
all such products. Finally, avoid getting nutrition information from junk food
industry PR organizations such as IFIC or organizations (including the inept,
often-obsolete, slow-to-change, corrupt American Dietetic Association). Such
organizations and the U.S. FDA often accept large sums of money from the junk
and chemical food industry.
Neotame is a new sweetener
developed by Monsanto Chemical Corporation – the people who created deadly Aspartame
and Agent Orange in the Viet Nam war era. Extremely powerful Neotame is
approximately 8,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar, which is 40 to 60 times
sweeter than toxic Aspartame.
The
precise chemical formula for Neotame was published in the February 10, 1998
Federal Register. It is very similar in structure to neurotoxic Aspartame.
(Neotame is a derivative of the Aspartame dipeptide composed of, aspartic acid
and phenylalanine – well know for causing serious health problems discussed extensively
above).
Neotame
is merely a much stronger form of Aspartame (whose Monsanto patent has now expired).
There were no legitimate, independent, long-term human studies of Neotame
before it was approved by the fraudulent FDA in February 2005, despite
strong protests from many medical research scientists and consumer advocacy
groups who understand aspartame biochemistry.
Due
to its chemical similarity to Aspartame, many well-informed scientists have
strong reason to believe that Neotame’s long-term excitotoxic health impact
will be similar or worse than that of Aspartame, but that the (clearly corrupt)
U.S. FDA will be just as hesitant to ban Neotame, or require well-informed caution
labels, as they still are with Aspartame, which DOES have significant
scientific documentation of its many serious disease-causing effects.
If
you are concerned about aspartame, you should be even more concerned about Neotame
being added to pervasive food products worldwide. When a consumer mixes aspartame
or the stronger neotame products with other toxic diet foods containing
sucralose, sugar alcohols, etc. the combination could be very toxic to many
individuals, and yet not well documented for decades.
The
following is one representative formal letter to the FDA about Neotame.
Open
Letter to Dr. Jane Henney, FDA Commissioner
From
Betty Martini, Founder Mission Possible International
Dear
Dr. Henney: As Founder of Mission Possible International and on behalf of the
Mission Possible operations in the United State and other countries, I ask
that you deny for approval, Neotame. We are a worldwide volunteer force
warning the consumer public in 100 countries of the world off the deadly toxin,
aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc. Neotame is nothing
more than a more potent aspartame, and H. J. Roberts, M.D., has declared
Aspartame Disease to be a world epidemic and is in the process of publishing a
medical text on the world plague. His material was distributed at the First
International Conference on Emerging Diseases in Atlanta to doctors and
scientists in 91 countries of the world.
Monsanto
Communications Director Nancy Nevin said of neotame: "Compositionally it
begins with ASPARTAME, but a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base of
aspartame uniquely and marketedly changes its sweetness. It is 40 times sweeter
than ASPARTAME,"
The
formulation has been investigated by many physicians. Dr. Roberts said on
3/3/98 to Dockets Management of the Neotame petition: "The timing and
self-serving corporate interests of this petition are suggested by the fact
that the patent on aspartame expired several years ago." He also said
"The fundamental issue is that Neotame, a synthetic variation of
aspartame, requires extensive evaluation before the FDA should accept a
superficial opinion about its purported safety based largely on limited
short-term data involving potentially flawed protocols that were almost totally
funded by corporate contracts."
The
world's health is hostage to the covert, devious cynical sellout of public
interests to corporate gold. On another issue, Phil Angell, Monsanto's director
of corporate communications, told the New York Times: "Monsanto should not
have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as
much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
So
who would take the blame for Neotame approval? You would, Dr. Henney!! You are
an oncologist and according to the FDA's own audit on aspartame, the Bressler
Report, on www.dorway.com, aspartame triggered brain tumors, mammary tumors,
pancreatic tumors, ovarian tumors, pituitary adenomas, uterine tumors, etc. A
senior FDA toxicologist, the late Dr. Adrian Gross, who tried to prevent the
approval of aspartame, told Congress that it violated the Delaney Amendment
because it triggered brain tumors, and that "If the FDA violates its own
laws who is left to protect the public?"
(Congressional
Record SID835:131 - 8/1/85). Expect a new report soon on escalating cancer cases
linked with aspartame!
Famed
researcher, Dr. John Olney made world news in l996 on the aspartame/brain tumor
issue as unwarned consumers suffer the same consequences of the rats in the
original studies that approved this toxin. Yet, Dr. Friedman of the FDA went to
the defense of Monsanto on 60 Minutes, and this is after the FDA themselves
kept aspartame off the market for 16 years because aspartame triggered brain
tumors. And secret trade information by the original manufacturer (as posted at
www.DORway.com and released to Congress) admits they have to consider
"complete conversion to DKP", the brain tumor agent. And yet, they
wanted to market it anyway. Profit was more important than life!! And I weep
for every consumer that dies from these brain tumors, so many leaving young
children to grow up without a parent.
Dr.
Jeffrey Bada, a peptide chemist, at the University of California at San Diego,
warned against heating aspartame and the resultant internal rearrangement of
its chemical structure. The FDA themselves said for years you could not heat
aspartame and then in l993 turned right around and approved it for baking. Then
in l996 Dr. David Kessler gave blanket approval for this deadly drug that
interacts with other drugs including monoamine oxidase inhibitors,
alpha-methyldopa and L-dihydroxphenylalanine. Complete irresponsibility! Even
in the secret trade information Herbert Helling said "I think that it's
vital to point out to the Food and Drug people at this meeting that the
sweetener is not suitable for all applications for artificial sweeteners and at
best would only be functional in part of the market"... Yet, Dr. Kessler
saw fit for this drug to be used like sugar and even for pregnant women to use
without a warning.
Dr.
Louis Elsas (Emory University Pediatric Professor, genetics) testified before
congress that aspartame is a neurotoxin and teratogen (triggers birth defects).
If the baby even survived, and were PKU, it would be mentally retarded. And
neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock says if the baby survives you could even see
problems at the age of puberty when more complex parts of the brain are
utilized, and that it also is triggering ADD. Dr. Roberts in his position paper
on pregnancy and aspartame says even a man using aspartame at the time of
conception can cause birth defects in his own child. I told Dr. Friedman at the
time my own daughter got pregnant that the food supply was no longer safe and
that aspartame is now unlabeled in many things because of this blanket
approval. Last week my own daughter lost her baby and was told that 50% of
first pregnancies are now ending in miscarriage. An OB-GYN specialist told me
yesterday this was not normal. Some women have told me they have lost as many
as 7 babies on aspartame. I call it first degree murder! Monsanto funded a
study on birth defects which was disastrous, so they withdrew their funding and
Dr. Diana Dow-Edwards had to pay it herself. Then neither Monsanto or the FDA
would accept it. Quite a message to the world - if a researcher will not say it
is safe, the study will not be accepted. Do you want to inflict more of this on
the world with Neotame???
I
called Dr. Bada about Neotame and asked him to look over the formula. He told
me they scrambled the formula but yes , it was the same deadly breakdown
products! Biochemist Dr. Madelon Price who works with the famed Dr. John Olney
agrees.
The
Material Safety Data Sheet on Aspartame (CAS# 22839-47-0 says that to work with
aspartame one should wear chemical goggles, protective gloves to prevent skin
exposure, a chemical apron and a NIOS/MSHA approved air purifying dust or mist
respirator. And Dr. Henney, this toxin is in children's vitamins and
medications. Are you not horrified?! It lists the hazardous decomposition
products as methanol, formaldehyde and DKP (tumor agent), carbon monoxide,
oxides of nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. Do you understand that we do not want
this toxin in our food. Dr. Blaylock in a lecture on www.dorway.com explains
that the reactions to aspartame are not allergic but toxic in nature like
arsenic and cyanide!! Do you want to approve more of the same and can you
imagine the synergistic effects with other excitotoxins like MSG??
In
l986, the Community Nutrition Institute petitioned the FDA to ban aspartame
because people were going blind -- but the FDA refused! Cases continue to pour
in on this issue as aspartame destroys also the optic nerve. Focus RP Magazine
in November wrote an article on aspartame titled: "What's Blinding the
World?" (http://www.focusnewsletter.org/aspartame.htm) Would you dare to
approve neotame and increase this problem? The aspartame ADI was set for rats,
not humans and 26 questions to the FDA have gone unanswered for years (on www.dorway.com)
Monsanto
is the largest manufacturer of poisons in the world responsible for aspartame,
agent orange, RBGH and genetic engineering. An article titled "Monsanto in
Parliament" quoted speaker Norman Baker saying Monsanto has made itself
Public Enemy No. 1. He says they have bulldozed elected governments across the
world and forced its wretched products on to the world's population, whether we
want them or not. Further Monsanto has been condemned by the Advertising
Standards Authority, which found it guilty of making "wrong ... unproven,
misleading and confusing claims". He further says it has used the
revolving door policy and makes sure that personnel from Monsanto and
government agency advisory bodies frequently switch positions. "Marcia
Hale, the former adviser to the US President is now the director of
international government affairs of the Monsanto corporation. Michael Kantnor,
the former Secretary to the US Department of Commerce is now a member of the
Monsanto corporation board. Josh King, the former director of production for
White House events, is now the Director of Global Communications for the
Monsanto corporation. Margaret Miller, the former chemical laboratory
supervisor for Monsanto, is now the deputy director of the new animal drug
evaluation office in the US Union documents that have been passed to Monsanto
by Dr. Nick Weber of the FDA, and a former Monsanto analyst." Also he
says: "It is getting the Food and Drug Administration on board"...
The
public has to know if you are on board with Monsanto and willing to approve
this toxin or there for the protection of the consumer's health against unsafe
food and drugs. Action speaks louder than words. Dr. James Bowen told the FDA
many years ago that aspartame was mass-poisoning of the American public and
more than 70 countries of the world. He ought to know as a victim that now
suffers with Lou Gehrigs Disease. Aspartame destroys the brain, the central
nervous system and the optic nerve and ravages every organ in the body. A
recent study by Trocho, Pardo and co-workers, has demonstrated that following
aspartame ingestion, significant amounts of formaldehyde accumulate in the
tissues. Formaldehyde is known to bind strongly to proteins and nucleic acids,
forming adducts that are extremely difficult to eliminate through normal
metabolic pathways. Dr. Blaylock says in this study, they demonstrated that
labeled methanol (as formaldehyde) accumulated in high concentrations in the
liver (50%) and in lower, but substantial, concentrations in the kidney, adipose
tissue, brain and retina. within the cell, they found large amounts located
within the DNA.
The
largest study on aspartame is being conducted on the consumer public and as we
tally the results, this may end up being one of the largest epidemics in world
history! In May 1992, the official U.S. Air Force Magazine, FLYING SAFETY
explained: .."People have suffered aspartame related disorders with doses
as small as that carried in a single stick of chewing gum. This could mean a
pilot who drinks diet sodas is more susceptible to flicker vertigo or to
flicker-induced epileptic activity. It also means that all pilots are potential
victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight and gradual
loss of vision." (Three American Airline pilots who were heavy users of
aspartame died within the last year and a half and the FAA says they can't do
anything until the FDA does!) Indeed, Dr. Roberts said that aspartame laced gum
works like nitroglycerin, small molecules, goes through saliva straight to the
brain. We have sent case histories to FDA where consumers have suffered grand
mal seizures on a stick of this gum. I'll quote a copy of a letter sent to you
on 3/14/99 by Chelsea Tallman, 491 Westerly Rd, #102, Bellingham, Wa 98226, a
24 year old in whom aspartame shattered half of her life.
"For
the past 12 years I have been plagued by the following symptoms: Severe
headaches, digestive problems, asthma, breathing problems, chronic fatigue,
depression, suicidal tendencies, dizziness, ringing in ears, pressure in ears,
loss of equilibrium, numbness in arms and legs, shooting pains in legs, blurred
vision, floaters, watering eyes, dry eyes, fibromyalgia symptoms, hormonal
problems, menstrual irregularities, pre-menopause, confusion, heart
palpitations, spasms, nausea, personality changes, rashes, Lyme's disease
symptoms, sleeping disorders, speech difficulties, swaying and staggering when
walking, swollen optic nerves, racing heart, change of taste, uncoordinated
walk, vertigo, weakness, weight gain in hips and thighs, and loss of 12 normal
functioning years of my life. The worst part is that I am only 24 years
old!"
Dr.
Henney, she goes on to say that her parents spent thousands of their
hard-earned money to try and find the culprit, and that her illness was so much
of a part of her life that it was written about in her marriage vows. She also
said: "After the total elimination of this substance from my diet, the
symptoms listed above have either disappeared, or are greatly diminished. I
have, however, accidentally ingested aspartame on 3 occasions, within minutes I
started suffering all over again. My suffering would last anywhere from days to
weeks depending on how much aspartame I ingested. Most of my original suffering
was from CHEWING 1 SINGLE STICK OF ASPARTAME-FILLED GUM A DAY." Chelsea
said you would never want to see any of your own family suffer the way hers
has. "Imagine having your daughter always in such severe pain that it
moved her to tears and unneeded torture every single day. Imagine always being
in fear that you would get a phone call telling you your child had killed
themselves just to stop the pain they endured." Recently an aspartame
victim did commit suicide!
In
Dr. Roberts letter about Neotame on March 3, l998 he said: "As a physician
and citizen, I am appalled at the thought of American consumers being again
subjected to an anticipated repeat of the aspartame fiasco"..
Another
senior FDA toxicologist, Dr. Verrett told Congress that the studies that
approved aspartame were built on a foundation of sand and should have been
thrown out. These studies that were the target of an indictment for fraud that
was not carried out when two U.S. Prosecutors went to work for the law firm
defending the case and let the statute of limitations expire, actually approved
aspartame.
A
petition for recall is now being signed at
http://www.e-thepeople.com/petition.cfm?PETID=109862
At
Dr. Roberts first press conference he said unless something is done about
aspartame we would end up with a world plague, and that we have. This time,
listen to demands for recall by an outraged consumer public that has been
screaming about this toxin since it was approved. Dr. Ralph Walton on 60
Minutes said only 90 independent studies are valid on aspartame, and of these
83 showed problems!
As
aspartame destroys the CNS it is mimicking MS, as it hardens the synovial
fluids victims are being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia and consumers are
getting brain tumors and going blind. Babies are being murdered in their mother's
womb and young people with their whole life ahead of them are dying of brain
tumors. It is escalating Alzheimers according to Dr. Roberts. It precipitates
diabetes, Graves Disease, epilepsy, chronic fatigue, Parkinson's and ALS. A
pivotal study (SC18862) submitted was done on 7 infant monkeys: 5 had grand mal
seizures and 1 died. The FDA report shows 92 symptoms from coma to death. It
triggers an irregular heart rhythm and interacts with drugs. Dr. Henney, don't
let further disability and death be your legacy. Recall aspartame and refuse to
approve Neotame.
The
above desperate letter was ignored by the FDA, which approved Neotame in
February 2005.
McNeil’s
misleading "made from sugar," slogan sounds a lot better to the cast
majority of irrational, indiscriminate mediocre minds than a true statement
like: "made from chlorinated hydrocarbons," or "a synthetic
chemical made in a laboratory with chlorine, just like DDT."
Splenda's
unhealthy artificial chemical composition may present a marketing challenge
(for good reason), but that's not a valid excuse to intentionally mislead
consumers and cause the majority to believe that Splenda is safe or in any way
related to natural sugar.
The
fact Sucralose is such a fantastic marketing success is clear evidence that
millions of people believe misleading marketing messages and do dumb things
without taking the time required to investigate the long-term impact of
important lifestyle changes. Commercials tell them to eat Splenda, and without
further study they do. This is particularly curious, since there is a long
history of a variety of serious healthy problems associated with various sugar
substitutes.
Somehow
they erroneously believe that a new patented product must be a better that
other alternatives. In drugs and food additives, this is frequently NOT TRUE.
So far, in almost all cases, a sugar substitute with no well known health
hazards is either (a) one that has not been studied well enough, (b) one where
the vendor has effectively hidden the truth, or (c) all of the above.
To
understand how consumers incorrectly perceive hazardous Splenda, CSPI
commissioned a national Internet survey of people who had used Splenda. Only 57
percent of Splenda users correctly believed that Splenda was an “artificial
sweetener.” 47 percent of Splenda users incorrectly believed it was a “natural
product.” Only 8 percent of the respondents correctly believed that it was
made from sugar and deadly toxic chlorine.
The
Atkins Foundation’s widespread use and support of chlorine-containing sucralose
is doing the public a great disservice. We agree with Atkins that some types
of carbohydrates should be greatly reduced in the American diet, BUT
Atkins’ extensive use of hazardous, improperly marketed, unsafe sugar
substitutes is the primary reason that JOYFUL AGING DOES
NOT SUPPORT OR AGREE WITH MANY PRODUCTS SOLD OR ENDORSED BY THE POPULAR ATKINS
FOUNDATION.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200502141.html
http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
Other
Dangerous Sugar Substitutes – This section is under construction
D-Tagatose (Sugaree)
Sorbitol
is a tissue toxin - Contributes to retinopathy, neuropathy, cataracts, kidney disease,
diarrhea, cramping and other digestive disorders.
Substituting
sugar with other simple carbohydrates is similar to eating plain white sugar. Examples of
sugar substitutes that increase human blood sugar include: sucrose, raw sugar,
turbinado, glucose, dextrose, corn syrup, fructose, honey, lactose, maltose and
alcohol sugars like erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol,
sorbitol, xybitol and xylitol.
When
profit-motivated unscrupulous food companies try to appeal to naive and
gullible “low-carbohydrate” dieters (with unreasonable products like low-carb
candy bars) they often replace the natural carbohydrates with unnatural
unhealthy substances such as sorbitol or maltitol, which act as irritating
laxatives and in large quantities can cause retinopathy (blindness),
neuropathy (dementia, loss of senses and control), cataracts (blurred vision),
kidney disease (death), diarrhea (dehydration, starvation), cramping and other
painful digestive disorders. As little as 50 grams of sugar alcohol (as
found in only a few pieces of sugar free candy) has been shown to cause
bloating and diarrhea. Larger amounts of sugar alcohol, over longer periods
of time, lead toward more serious illness and even death.
|
Sugar-free or low-sugar candy |
Serving |
Calories |
Sugar alcohol (grams) |
|
Mint patties |
6 pieces |
400 |
54 |
|
Toffee squares |
6 pieces |
360 |
50 |
|
Jelly beans |
4-6 ounces |
380 |
50 |
http://www.MAYOCLINIC.com/invoke.cfm?objectid=4AF2B97B-1E43-46EE-BF0C78C3FFC14581&MOTT=NU00279
Avoid
or drastically reduce consumption of all unhealthy foods with any products
containing sugar substitutes or alternative sweeteners on the label. The misleading marketing
terms: “low sugar,” “sugar free,” “sugarless,” “no sugar added” and “made from
sugar” almost always imply potentially serious health risks caused by
regular consumption of the product. A single serving in a lifetime will
probably not kill you, but the many health risks increase significantly with
the quantity consumed and the amount of time you consume them. Only a few
pieces of sugar-free candy can demonstrate unpleasant digestive problems, which
will eventually lead to more serious diseases. In general, sugar
substitutes accelerate aging and increase the risk of an untimely, painful
death.
For
more detailed information on any current or future sugar substitute, enter the
name of the product in your favorite search engine (like www.google.com), plus search words like:
“risk”, “warning”, “hazard”, “danger”, etc.
Be
especially skeptical of the newest products, which have not had at least a decade to
gather information about the long-term heath damage that they cause. Small
numbers of health problems in the early stages of product marketing may predict
large problems that will be discovered later.
Just
because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a product for sale,
absolutely does NOT mean that the product is safe – MANY FDA-approved products continue
to be recalled AFTER killing thousands of unsuspecting consumers. The FDA is
known to be extremely corrupt and heavily influenced by profit-motivated
lobbyists, who fund very biased, dishonest FDA product evaluations.
Read
mandated food product labels and be especially wary of anything that says
“diet”, “sugarless” or “no sugar added.” Even products labeled “healthy” or
“natural” frequently are not good for you, due to their naturally toxic nature,
or the use of man-made additives like chlorine.
Pay
close attention to food labels and know what dangerous chemicals you regularly
consume (like methanol and chlorine). Do NOT eat products that contain man-made
substances that you do not fully understand. If you eat one serving of a diet
product and it does not kill you that does NOT imply that it is safe for you to
consume on a regular basis. Often the cumulative damage takes years to become
noticeable, at which time its health damage (like blindness) may be
irreversible.
Sugar
Alcohol (Polyols)
Consider
the growing use of “sugar alcohol” (polyol) sugar substitutes, such as
erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol, xybitol and
xylitol. Profit motivated manufacturers falsely claim that sugar alcohols have
a negligible effect on blood sugar and should not be counted as part of total
carbohydrates.
The
truth is that alcohol is the chemical result of fermentation of sugar. As such,
it is only one basic metabolic step away from being transformed back into pure
sugar. In addition, alcohols (methanol, ethanol, polyols, etc.) are known to be
neurotoxic. When a nerve dies, it does not replace itself, so the effect is
cumulative, leading eventually to a variety of nervous system disorders,
particularly “alcohol-related dementia.”
“Net
Carbohydrates” is a partially true but misleading marketing term that is NOT
approved or defined by the FDA. It generally refers to a product’s Total
Carbohydrates minus dietary fiber, glycerin and sugar alcohols. It is used to
attract and deceive people who have limited understanding a low-carb nutrition.
The
partial truth that “Net Carbohydrate” misleading advertising and labeling is
based on is that fiber, glycerin and sugar alcohols do not raise blood sugar,
so they should not be tallied when counting carbs. But in reality, glycerin,
sugar alcohols and some types of complex carbohydrate fiber DO (eventually)
raise blood sugar, and these substances clearly do contribute to dietary
calories, especially sugar alcohols.
Part
of sugar alcohol polyols' unnatural chemical structure is similar to sugar, and
part of its structure is similar to alcohol. Scientists also call these
man-made products “polyhydric alcohols” and “polyalcohols” (if you want to
search the Internet for more detailed scientific information).
The
complex issues associated with polyols take a long time to explain, but let’s
briefly discuss “maltitol” as one specific example. Maltitol is produced by
catalytic hydrogenation of a high maltose corn syrup that transforms this
natural form of sugar into the unnatural polyol “maltitol”, a sugar alcohol.
(This is conceptually similar to the way partially hydrogenated deadly trans fats are made.)
Maltitol
is not a monosaccharide or disaccharide like common sugar. Polyols like
maltitol have some different physical properties than those of sugars. Just
like deadly hydrogenated trans fats, the human body does not recognize
hydrogenated sugars, or know how to digest them properly, and that is the
source of many complicated biochemical health hazards that are not fully
understood or predictable. Humans consuming polyols are part of a grand social
experiment, with a primary goal of profit, NOT the health of consumers.
Unlike
powerful nerve-killing excitotoxins like aspartame, the sweetness level of
maltitol to human taste buds is only about 90% as strong as common types of
natural sugar. Sugar alcohols are NOT zero calorie. In fact, Maltitol provides
3.0 calories per gram, compared to about 4.0 calories per gram for sugar. Replacing
all of the sugar in a product with maltitol powder results in a calorie
reduction of only about 12% (hardly worth doing, considering the potential
health risks of this man-made unnatural profitable product).
Polyols
do not help the consumer lose excess body fat. Their goal in a marketing trick
to generate revenue from naïve overweight consumers, whose health may be
seriously damaged as a result.
The
long-term negative impact to the central nervous system of the relatively new
polyol chemicals are not fully understood, but their biochemistry is highly
suspect. The ultimate health risk information may only come to light after many
human guinea pigs have reported symptoms, and the trend is documented over
decades. Even then, the cause and effect relationship may be difficult to trace
to the true source. Even when risks are very well documented, the corrupt FDA
will probably not ban it or mandate warning labels.
The
manufactures of polyols have strong economic to cover up any problems with
their products, but there are very-few organizations with the funding or
incentive to do expensive long-term studies of these products. By the time the
polyol sugar alcohol problems are well documented, their profit-oriented
manufactures and misleading marketing agencies will have moved on to another
unknown money-making product (or have gone bankrupt due to huge law suits).
Even
though the long-term risks of polyols are not documented, one of the well-known
short-term problems with products like maltitol is that they are digestive
irritants that are known to cause diarrhea. This can be especially bad for
children who need proper hydration and nutrition to avoid serious illness,
which is known to lead directly to death, especially in children. Caregivers
should NEVER give potentially-deadly sugar substitutes to children (or adults).
It
is likely that any widely-used product that causes dehydration and poor
nutrition through diarrhea has already killed some of its users, but the
consumers, parents and medical examiners may never realize the cause and effect
of the unnecessary, avoidable death of a loved one.
WHY
WOULD ANYONE EVER MAKE OR CONSUME A PRODUCT WITH SUCH A RISKY SUGAR SUBSTITUTE
IN IT ? ? ?
The
sad answer is simply: profit-oriented, poorly-regulated marketing practices.
Products using polyols like maltitol as their sole sweetener meet the inept FDA
legal definition of "no sugar added" or "sugarless".
Uninformed consumers who fail to study and understand food labels have been
intentionally misled into believing that “sugarless” and “no sugar added” are
good for an overweight person. The sad capitalist reality is that “sugarless”
and “no sugar added” almost always imply serious poorly-documented health
hazards.
Clearly,
sugar is bad for
overweight and diabetic people to consume (high glycemic
index foods like sugar and starches are the fastest way to ADD body fat), grain-fed
animals get fatter faster than free-ranging animals that eat grass.
The
important point that Joyful Aging is trying to make here is that NEARLY
ALL SUGAR SUBSTITUTES ARE NORMALLY WORSE THAN SUGAR FOR ALL PEOPLE TO CONSUME.
BOTTOM
LINE: OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE AND DIABETICS
SHOULD AVOID SUGAR and other high glycemic index foods unless exercising
heavily or severely underweight, and
Simple
sugars (like those found in mother’s milk) are excellent for infants whose
digestive systems are immature and they need to put on weight quickly.
Malnourished, severely underweight people may also need simple sugars to
temporarily help them gain weight, until they can consume more nutritious whole
foods.
Some
types of complex carbohydrates are valuable for young people and for those
doing high levels of physical activity. But, EVERYONE should always avoid
poorly understood made-made alternative sweeteners, since the sugar substitutes
that have been studied extensively by unbiased research scientists have
eventually been shown to be linked to various health risks, and even to
untimely, unnecessary death, (induced by the misleading marketing programs of
profit-motivated product vendors, and tolerated by corrupted legislators who
intentionally ignore solid scientific evidence).
Sugar
substitutes actually increase most people’s desire for simple carbohydrates. We
need to retrain our taste buds that the “icky sweet taste” is for infants only,
NOT for intelligent adults who are concerned about their own health, and the
health of those around them that they influence for a lifetime. It is a
major lifetime error to teach a child that sweet things (like candy and soda -
with sugar or sugar substitutes) are a reward for being good.
Once
you learn to avoid refined sugar and artificial sweeteners, you will discover
the sweetness of healthy carbohydrates like broccoli, cauliflower and squash.
If you still have an infantile addiction to “icky sweets”, the previous
sentence seems ridiculous.
Dangerous
sugar substitutes are a vice, or a crutch, for those immature individuals who
were raised incorrectly and have not had the personal responsibility to retrain
themselves that sweet foods and drinks are a bad thing for adults to consume.
Teach
your family that sweet foods and drinks are only for babies. Wean you
children from sweet foods (ESPECIALLY those kids that are overweight), just as
you must eventually wean infants from mother’s milk. Just like teaching
children to wear seat belts, teaching them that sugar is for babies is MUCh
easier to do if you start very early (before they start school). NEVER “reward”
children with candy or sweet deserts. Do not allow unscrupulous marketing of
happy kids meals with toys to addict your children to bad foods like sweets,
sodas, diet drinks or trans fats.
Reducing
consumption of sweet foods helps a little bit, but as long as you or your
children consume sugar or sugar substitutes you will always crave more bad
carbohydrates, UNTIL you retrain your sense of taste and honestly believe that
sweet flavors are bad for many children and almost all adults (with few
exceptions).
There
is absolutely NO reason to consume artificial sweeteners. They are NOT DIET
PRODUCTS. No studies have shown that artificial sweeteners promote weight loss.
The U.S. Congressional record states that an artificial sweetener "… makes
you crave carbohydrates and will make you FAT." Many studies have
demonstrated that people who STOP consuming artificial sweeteners have lost weight.
If you have been using them for very long, you already know this, so why risk
you life on something that does NOT work for you? To lose excess body fat, you
must improve your nutrition and increase your exercise. This requires
retraining you’re your taste buds for the long term, and permanently improving
your long-held lifestyle habits. When you eliminate refined sugar and
artificial sweeteners, even broccoli will begin to taste sweet to you. STOP
OVERWHELMING YOUR TASTE BUDS WITH DEADLY EXCITOTOXINS.
Do
not buy, consume or serve refined sugar or sugar substitutes. Do not keep them
in the house. Do not order them in restaurants. Avoid them when offered to you
for free. A doughnut, desert, sweet fruit juice, or diet soda offered for
“free” at work, or at a friend’s house, should be avoided altogether. (Give
preference to purified water or a tart (not excessively sweet) fruit with a
lower glycemic index value, high fiber, and high antioxidant
nutritive value.)
Bring
up your children in the way they should go,
and when they mature they will not depart from it.
Lifelong learning in an
ever-expanding universe of endless possibilities
If
you were raised by people who did not understand good nutrition, or the hazards
of modern sugar substitutes, then take the personal responsibility that is
necessary to study, learn and correct your misconceptions, so you do not pass
them on, and damage the long-term health of your offspring and their children.
NEVER feed artificially sweetened “diet” food to children (or adults).
Do
not believe any single source (not even this one). Seek multiple sources of
intelligent information and convince yourself that changing a lifetime of bad
habits is well worth the ongoing effort. Grow up. Be mature. Take control of
your own future. You are NOT just the product of your environment. You have
a brain and the capacity to learn new things. Cultivate your ability to learn
and improve yourself and those you care for.
After
your good lifestyle choices become your regular habits, your quality of life
will be greatly improved, as will that of those you influence during your
lifetime.