Nutrasweet: The Nutrapoison

Deep Politics ^ | Alex Constantine

[hardhead]

NutraSweet: The NutraPoison

by Alex Constantine

"I recognized my two selves: a crusading idealist and a cold, granitic believer in the law of the jungle." Edgar Monsanto Queeny, Monsanto chairman, 1943-63, The Spirit of Enterprise, 1934.

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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 Directors of G.D. Searle include such geopolitical heavy-hitters as Andre M. de Staercke, Reagan's ambassador to Belgium and Reuben Richards, an executive vice president at Citibank. Also Arthur Wood, the retired CEO of Sears, Roebuck & C disgorged by the clan of General Robert E. Wood, wartime chairman of the America First Committee.6 America Firsters, organized by native Nazis cloaked as isolationists, were quietly financed by the likes of Sullivan & Cromwell's Allen Dulles and Edwin Webster of Kidder, Peabody.7 Until the acquisition by Monsanto in 1985, the firm's chairman was William L. Searle, a Harvard graduate, Naval reservist and-a grim irony in view of aspartame's adverse effects-an officer in the Army Chemical Corps in the early 1950s, when the same division tested LSD on groups of human subjects in concert with the CIA.8 The chief of the Chemical Warfare Division at this time was Dr. Laurence Laird Layton, whose son Larry was convicted for the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan at Jonestown ("Come to the pavilion! What a legacy!"). Jonestown, of course, bore a remarkable likeness to a concentration camp, and kept a full store of pharmaceutical drugs. (The Jonestown pharmacy was stocked with a variety of behavior control drugs: qualudes, valium, morphine, demerol and 11,000 doses of thorazine-a better supply, in fact, than the Guyanese government's own, not to mention a surfeit of cyanide.9)

[hardhead]

A long conspiracy theory. I seem to remember some years ago that Pat Robertson did an 'expose' of this very subject on the 700 Club. Whether you believe or not, this is fun reading. If you want to make sure you are protected, get out the roll of aluminum foil. Regarding conspiracies, they are popular pastimes that get your bloo 'a boiling and the adrenalin pumping. They're fun - but like John Payne said at the end of Miracle on 34th Street, 'now I'm not so sure'. Where there is smoke, possibly there is a spark. All legends begin with some fact. The hard part is deciding or gleaning just what is fact or fiction. You be the judge.

[big bad easter bunny]

Try and find one double blind study that proves one single claim, or don't bother I already looked. I looked for 2 days, I have diabetes and wanted to know. I could not find one single double blind study that backed a single claim. The only proof these folks ever give are testimonials. Testimonials are ussually void of fact. They tested the **** out of the stuff. I believe it is safe.

[nuconvert]

Reynold's wrap to the rescue

[MEG33]

I'm not going to be long for this world if Diet Coke is bad for my health!

[Ole Okie]

This means, of course, that I have to give up my Co-Cola??

And anything that I eat is going to do irreparable harm to my old body?

Gee whiz. Does that mean I've got to give up some of my current 77 years?

But, giving it a little more thought, methinks I need a whole bunch of rolls of aluminum foil.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

laugh all you want. My oldest son has had two day-long, deblitating, hospitalized migraines, coupled with nausea and loss of equilibrium. Both times after ingesting this "food additive."

Not funny.

[hardhead]

Before I ever read this, I had no opinion one way or another. My spouse is a diabetic and her and I cannot stand using aspartame - not because of what this says but it leaves an aftertaste (perceived or not, I don't know). We switched to Splenda which is a natural diabetic sweetener made from sugar (yes, we checked with our doctor and pharmacist first). It tastes like - sugar but has no carbohydrates. We have been watching the dietic foods very closely and many of them are quietly switching to Splenda. Who knows!

[gitmo]

At one time, it was the most tested food additive to ever hit the market. May still be, for all I know.

And there is no evidence coming from the medical community that it is causing a problem.

[sinkspur]

There's nothing wrong with Nutrasweet, but it would be nice if Splenda were in wider usage.

It's sucralose, which doesn't spike insulin the way sugar and aspartame does.

[Doc On The Bay]

DIET COKE is bad for your health.

Doc

[SauronOfMordor]

All I know is that I seem to have an alergic reaction to it. If I consume something with asperteme for a while, I develop a persistent cough, which goes away when I take it out of my diet. I experimented with this for two cycles (take it, develop cough, discontinue, cough goes away) to confirm

[Bluntpoint]

Anecdotal equals data.

[Ole Okie]

Anecdotal equals data.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeee it does. (Wink, wink)

[Glenn]

DIET COKE is bad for your health.

That's not science, Doc. It's opinion or, worse, an edict.

[Doc On The Bay]

Just an exercise; TRY to get "Aspartame" though the FDA regulating process as a "Drug".

I bet it would be summarily rejected.

Pardon my cynicism, but I suspect "Money Changed Hands."

Doc

[xm177e2]

Anecdotal equals data.

The question is, how useful is the data? The anecdotal data you've got might be perfectly true, but it's hard to draw useful conclusions from a few isolated cases.

[Unassuaged]

I am not laughing, I also have (mild) reaction to nutrasweet.

[big bad easter bunny]

http://www.nutribase.com/homepage.shtml another alternative

[Petronski]

I don't know if I'll need tinfoil or not, but I have personally experienced headaches and disorientation associated with aspartame. I don't touch the stuff anymore.

[MEG33]

Some people have a dangerous allergy to peanuts or shellfish.