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News :: Miscellaneous |
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nutrapoison - aspartame and the FDA |
Current rating: 0 |
by brian
(No verified email address) |
05 Aug 2002
Modified: 06 Aug 2002 |
for those unaware
The FDA is ever mindful to refer to aspartame, widely known as NutraSweet, as a "food additive"-never a "drug." A "drug" on the label of a Diet Coke might discourage the consumer. And because aspartame is classified a food additive, adverse reactions are not reported to a federal agency, nor is continued safety monitoring required by law.1 NutraSweet is a non-nutritive sweetener. The brand name is misnomer. Try Non-NutraSweet. |
Food additives seldom cause brain lesions, headaches, mood alterations, skin polyps, blindness, brain tumors, insomnia and depression, or erode intelligence and short-term memory. Aspartame, according to some of the most capable scientists in the country, does. In 1991 the National Institutes of Health, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, published a bibliography, *Adverse Effects of Aspartame*, listing not less than 167 reasons to avoid it.2
Aspartame is an rDNA derivative, a combination of two amino acids (long supplied by a pair of Maryland biotechnology firms: Genex Corp. of Rockville and Purification Engineering in Baltimore.)3 The Pentagon once listed it in an inventory of prospective biochemical warfare weapons submitted to Congress.4 But instead of poisoning enemy populations, the "food additive" is currently marketed as a sweetening agent in some 1200 food products.
In light of the chemo-warfare implications, the pasts of G.D. Searle and aspartame are ominous. Established in 1888 on the north side of Chicago, G.D. Searle has long been a fixture of the medical establishment. The company manufactures everything from prescription drugs to nuclear imaging optical equipment.5 |
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however, |
by JF
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
06 Aug 2002
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Of course, there are several very common food additives that cause medical problems. For instance, salt has been linked in countless studies to heart disease. Caffeine is addictive and has been found to cause mood alterations, anxiety, insomnia, and disturbances of heart rate and rhythm.
The fact that a substance is classified as a food additive does not prevent adverse reactions from being reported to a federal agency. In fact, the FDA has an Office of Toxicological Sciences at their Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition which conducts studies on the safety of food additives. The FDA conducted clinical trials of aspartame before it was approved as a food additive and has conducted several studies since then. In addition to the NIH, the Center for Disease Control has also done research on aspartame safety.
All this doesn't mean aspartame is safe, but simply that there has been federal oversight and multiple, independent federal agencies have done studies. It is notable that the FDA study did find a significant link between aspartame and brain damage associated with phenylalannie for a people with phenylketonuria, and each product with aspartame in it carries a warning associated with this adverse effect.
Being in an inventory of *prospective* biochemcial warfare weapons is a red herring. After all, pepper spray is a non-prospective biological warfare agent, and it's made from cayenne peppers, one of my favorite food additives. I'm not equating the safety of aspartame with cayenne peppers, I'm just raising the rhetorical bar above gulit by association. Even if aspartame was in this inventory for a good reason, that doesn't necessarily mean it's unsafe to be added for foods, unless the means of delivering it as a biological warfare agent was essentially no different than adding it to your enemies' diet. |
