Sample Newsletter February 2005

An update on Aspartame

Elizabeth Gay reveals further information in connection with this chemical sweetener

Since writing about this dangerous chemical sweetener in the Newsletter of March 2002 I have uncovered more interesting facts.  Dr. H.J.Roberts, M.D., F.A.C.P.,    F.C.C.P., an internationally respected medical consultant in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a diabetes specialist.  He has published several books on the inherent risks of taking Aspartame, the latest being, “Aspartame Disease: an ignored epidemic”.  Dr. Roberts claims, “Aspartame can precipitate diabetes, keeps blood sugar out of control, destroys the optic nerve, causes diabetics to go into convulsions and even interacts with insulin.”  He goes on to say, “Aspartame also damages the cardiac conduction system and can cause sudden death.” 

Aspartame is commonly used as a sweetener in cola drinks, iced tea and soft fruit drinks as well as a tabletop sweetener.  It is marketed as, Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, Canderel and E.951.  One of its three components is methanol or wood alcohol which converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye.  Both formaldehyde and methanol are known neurotoxins.

I was baffled as to how a chemical sweetener such as this could ever have been granted approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) in the first place, and then my attention was drawn to an article which appeared in the “Nouvel Observateur” on May 27th 2004 and which is accessible to anyone on the Internet.  The article describes how the U.S. Secretary for Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, was invited to become President of the Searle Group, then a major U.S. Pharmaceutical manufacturer.  The company was in a bit of a fix: for ten years, the F.D.A. had been refusing to licence the use of a product called Aspartame that Searle was hoping to introduce as a sugar substitute.  The F.D.A. had even begun legal proceedings in the dispute.  However, Rumsfeld’s arrival began a series of fortunate events for the company.  First, the Federal Prosecutor in charge of the legal case quit his job, switched sides and joined the Searle team of lawyers.  The case  was abandoned.  Then in 1981 President Reagan appointed an obscure one-time Pentagon researcher as head of the F.D.A. 

According to a Searle sales representative at the time, Rumsfeld told his sales force in January 1981 that he could promise that Aspartame would be approved before the end of the year.  By July 1981 the F.D.A. had indeed approved the product over the heads of its own scientific committee, anxious because the chemical had been found to produce brain tumours in rats in conducted trials.

By June 1983 the F.D.A. authorisation was extended to allow Aspartame to be included in soft drinks and sodas.  Sales of Aspartame boomed and in 1985 the giant Monsanto bought out Searle for 2.7 billion dollars.  Rumsfeld’s share of that capital value amounted to about 5 million dollars – at which point he left the company.

The F.D.A. received thousands of complaints about Aspartame but the manufacturers hit back at any criticism by claiming that the adverse publicity was all a hoax.  At the same time there was an immediate reaction in support of Aspartame from various medical foundations in the U.S.A. but when these same foundations were questioned it was found that they were being funded by the producers of Aspartame.

Dr. Roberts, who has hundreds of documented case histories to support his fears,  has declared what he calls Aspartame Disease, to be a global plague and says, “It remains my professional opinion that Aspartame products ought to be removed from the market as an imminent public health threat”.