Monday, April 22, 2013

Why Blog about Aspartame


For years, MSG has been the focus of The Truth in Labeling Campaign.  MSG: the toxic cousin of toxic aspartame.  But when the greedy dairy industry proposed to hide aspartame in milk, it was more than we could stomach. 

If you’ve been following the Truth in Labeling Campaign, you know that Jack Samuels had a life-threatening sensitivity of processed free glutamic acid (MSG).  As you might imagine, being highly motivated to find out all he could about the substance, he found that the glutamic acid portion of monosodium glutamate kills brain cells in the area of the hypothalamus and causes subsequent endocrine disorders;[1] and he found that aspartic acid, a second neurotoxic amino acid, does exactly the same.[1] 

Over time, Jack found out a good deal more about the aspartic acid in aspartame.  Glutamic acid and aspartic acid are structural analogs: they cause the same brain damage in the same regions of the brain, and both are endocrine disruptors.  Subsequently he found that with a single exception[2], MSG and aspartame cause the same adverse reactions.[3],[4] 

There is something else you need to know about the relationship between glutamic acid and aspartic acid.  Early on, researchers realized that what they found to be true of glutamic acid was also true of aspartic acid – that they load on the same receptors in the brain and nervous system and cause the same adverse reactions; and since glutamic acid was easier to work with,[5] relatively little research on the toxic effects of aspartic acid, or aspartame, was done.  Thus when you hear from the aspartame industry (which in my thinking includes the FDA) that there is very little research pointing to the toxic potential of aspartic acid or aspartame, you need to realize that the abundance of research that points to the toxic potential of glutamic acid also points to the toxic potential of aspartic acid and aspartame. 

In the blogs that follow, you will find the proposal of the dairy industry to change the standard of identify for “milk” to include aspartame. 

We present data that demonstrate that the aspartic acid in aspartame, and aspartame itself, have toxic potential; and we take the opportunity to tell you how Ajinomoto’s International Glutamate Technical Committee used aspartame-laced placebos in its double-blind studies on the safety of monosodium glutamate. 

We outline the sordid history of aspartame’s approval for use in food. 

We provide a copy of the Industry Petition to the FDA to change the Standard of Identify for Milk to include aspartame. 

We tell you how to comment on the industry petition to use aspartame in milk. 

REFERENCES


[2] One eyed blindness, likely caused by the methanol in aspartame
[3] Adverse reactions to MSG:  www.truthinlabeling.org/FDA_ARMS_MSG.1997.html
[4] Adverse reactions to aspartame: www.truthinlabeling.org/FDA_ARMS_Asp.1997.html
[5] The food ingredient monosodium glutamate, purchased in grocery stores, could be used as a source of free glutamic acid, and was less expensive than pharmaceutical grade glutamic acid or aspartic acid.

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