Chapter 10

Killing Me Sweetly: The Truth About Aspartame

"If we choose we can live in a world of comforting illusion."
- Noam Chomsky

"The safety of all ingredients used in the products of the Coca-Cola Company-including aspartame-has been established."
- from Coca-Cola India's website

"Aspartame is a crime against humanity."
- Woodrow Monte (Director of the Arizona State Food Science and Nutrition Laboratories)

I think it's fair to say that since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, most people have experienced heightened feelings of anxiety at the prospect of flying. If you're Middle Eastern, of Mediterranean descent, or just about anything other than the spitting image of a Nazi poster child, your has nervousness likely leaped off the charts at times, especially if your flight plans involved the United States of America. Take for example Toronto-area resident Sami Kahil and his wife. I'm certain they didn't anticipate that their Mexican beach vacation in late 2005 would include mug shots being taken of their two young sons, who - at the tender ages of six and eight - apparently posed a credible threat to the security of the U.S.A.1 Since 9/11 citizens living in Western democracies have been warned that there would be cases like Kahil's, where the need to protect national security would occasionally override individual rights. We've been made to believe that this is an unfortunate consequence of the new, post-9/11 reality in which we live. We've also been assured that our government's top priority is the safety and security of its citizens. Surely then, with Western governments pouring millions of tax dollars into high-tech airport security, flight safety must be better than ever, right?

Wrong! These same governments who claim that the safety and security of their citizens is a primary concern are actually protecting and promoting a substance so toxic it puts your life at risk each and every time you fasten your seatbelt for takeoff.

Imagine you're sitting back, chewing a piece of sugar-free gum as the plane taxis down the runway. Once the seatbelt sign is switched off, you relax and order a Diet Coke to sip whilst enjoying the in-flight entertainment. The pilot comes on and gives a brief synopsis of the flight: a bit of turbulence is expected, the temperature at your destination is a comfortable eighteen degrees Celsius. Everything seems normal, relaxed. In fact, up in the cockpit the pilot is also enjoying a refreshing Diet Coke and casually chewing on a stick of sugar-free gum.

Suddenly, the pilot begins to experience strange sensations, perhaps a bit of vertigo, or blurred vision, or- worst case scenario- begins to seizure uncontrollably. The lives of three hundred plus passengers, including your own, now hang in the balance. Sounds like a scene out of a Hollywood blockbuster, doesn't it? Unfortunately, this isn't fiction. The cause of your pilot's illness is poisoning from a substance that millions of people around the world consume in one form or another on a daily basis.

What's the name of this poison, you ask?

The scientific term for the lethal cocktail is 1-aspartyl 1-phenylalanine methyl ester.2 In layman's terms, it has been given the name aspartame. Aspartame is found in a plethora of foods and can be found in the form of a number of easily-recognized aliases, including: Equal, NutraSweet, Spoonful and Canderel.

That's right. Aspartame, the low calorie, sugar-free, miracle sweetener that arrived on the scene about the same time as Jane Fonda and her fitness videos is responsible for a host of health problems, including grand mal seizures. In October 1992, the dangers associated with aspartame consumption and flying were exposed by the television program, Hard Copy, in which pilots who'd experienced aspartame toxicity were interviewed. Due to their aspartame consumption, the pilots had experienced a myriad of life-threatening symptoms, including seizures in mid-flight.3 Warnings about the detrimental effects of aspartame consumption on pilots had already been advertised in numerous aviation-related magazines and periodicals, including: Canadian Aviation News (1990), Plane and Pilot (1990) and Aviation Safety Digest (1989).4 Scores of pilots have lost their license to fly due to aspartame-related health concerns and five American Airline pilots who were "heavy users" of aspartame have died, one in mid-flight.5 As Dr. Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible International, states: "Aspartame is the biggest hazard there is to aviation."6 Move over, Bin Laden!

And it doesn't stop there. I'd love to tell you that a freakish combination of altitude, air pressure and aspartame mix to create some physiological anomaly that occurs only in pilots or those working in the airline industry. However, nothing could be further from the truth. As the global consumption of synthetic sweeteners continues to increase, the devastating consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. Aspartame is a neurotoxin and consumption of it has been linked to everything from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and obesity to Gulf War Syndrome and breast cancer. Dr. H.J. Roberts has treated people afflicted by "aspartame disease" for over twenty years and refers to the current health crisis as an "ignored epidemic."7

By now you've probably put down your poison-laced cup of NutraSweet coffee and are wondering how your government could possibly allow a neurotoxin like aspartame to be aggressively marketed and added to such a wide-range of food, whilst Stevia is prevented from even reaching supermarket shelves. Believe me, I understand your frustration! Diabetics, people struggling with obesity and other weight-related disorders and the health-conscious have been sold for decades on the idea of aspartame as a healthy alternative to sugar. We might as well have been sipping on a bottle of nail polish remover! However, as explained in earlier chapters, sweetness is a lucrative business. In 2000, sales of aspartame sweeteners were estimated to be worth more than 625 million pounds sterling a year.8 It's easy to patent a chemical compound, not so with a simple plant such as Stevia rebaudiana. At the end of the day, the bottom line is what matters and, like so many other controversial issues, when money is at stake, human lives become dispensable. Yet, this is no small comfort when one looks around at a grocery store or corner shop and notices just how much aspartame dominates our food supply. Let me take you on a little journey tracing the history of aspartame from its discovery to the present situation.

Step 1: Birth of a Monster

Just as Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein had the best intentions and a big case of the "God-complex," I'm sure Dr. James Schlatter had no idea what evils his own sweet discovery would unleash. In 1965, Schlatter stumbled upon aspartame while working at G. D. Searle and Company, a corporation focused on pharmaceutical and agricultural-based research.9 At the time Searle was involved in research with amino-acids in the hope of creating an anti-ulcer drug. When a compound he was working with spilled, Searle happened to lick one of his fingers, which had become tainted with the chemical compound. What he tasted was a substance 180-200 times sweeter than sugar. Thus, with the flick of a tongue, aspartame was born.10

Step 2: Just What is Aspartame or How Does Aunt Sally Stay Looking So Young?

It's pretty difficult to deny that police officers have a tough job. They often see some horrible things. And some of the worst calls they get have got to be the ones from concerned neighbours who've noticed a bad odour coming from the apartment down the hall and mail piling up. Usually these calls aren't your Jeffrey Dahmer type scenarios, but rather turn out to be a case in which an elderly person has passed away unnoticed and decomposition has set in, hence the less-than-pleasing smell. A few years ago a conversation with a sergeant on the Toronto Police Force revealed that these sorts of cases had begun to take on a strange twist.

"The thing is," he confided, "for the past couple of years, we've been noticing something strange happening when we investigate these types of deaths."

"What kind of strange things?" his friend asked, likely fearing scenes resembling something out of a George Romero zombie film.

"It's the bodies. They're not decomposing....Well, not at the rate they should be," he replied.

It was incredible. Either the secret to eternal life was close at hand or something very odd was happening. What the good sergeant was also noticing was that rigor mortis, a condition which usually sets in during the first day of death and then lessens as the proteins in the muscles begin to decompose, was not happening at the rate it used to.11

What's the link between this morbid observation by the police sergeant and aspartame? It seems that the sergeant isn't alone in noticing a marked difference in the decomposition rates of people who consumed aspartame as a regular part of their daily diet. This is due to the nature of aspartame's three components: phenylanine, aspartic acid and methanol. The most alarming of these three is methanol, more commonly known as wood alcohol. When exposed to temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, methanol breaks down and is converted to formaldehyde, in other words, embalming fluid. A Spanish study done by C. Trocho et. al. on laboratory rats decisively found that aspartame is converted into formaldehyde by the body when consumed.12 This problem is compounded by the fact that the formaldehyde gets stored in the fat cells of the body, thus making the toxicity cumulative. There's no arguing the fact that formaldehyde is a poison and a carcinogen. It seems that aspartame is doing the work of undertakers before we're even dead! Not only do some of the component parts of aspartame get stored in body tissue, aspartate, which is released during the digestion of aspartame, is a neurotransmitter and can cross the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a membrane which protects the blood vessels of the central nervous system. As I will discuss later in this chapter, the invasion of excessive neurotransmitters into the blood-brain barrier can have profound consequences for people who consume aspartame, especially children.13 It's difficult to believe that governments would allow a substance like this to ever reach the public. However, not only have governments legalized the widespread sale of aspartame, some have profited from the substance immensely.

Step 3: So Tell Us Donald, What Exactly Were the Outcomes of Those Tests?

By now I'm sure you're beating your head against the wall, asking yourself just how a toxic substance like aspartame could be legalized without any restrictions while Stevia, which has been used for centuries without any negative side-effects, is so tightly and ruthlessly regulated. Aren't there government institutions that oversee the safety of our food supply? Well, I'm happy to answer that yes, there are. Let me tell you a little bit about the most powerful food regulatory body of them all- The Food and Drugs Administration of the United States of America, or the FDA.

In earlier chapters I explained the FDA's aggressive involvement in the suppression and destruction of market-bound information about, and shipments of, Stevia. Like a demented jigsaw puzzle, with each new piece of information, it becomes clearer why certain Western countries oppose the open sale of Stevia.

As our journey continues, we find ourselves back at pharmaceutical manufacturer G.D. Searle and Company. The year is 1967, two years after scientist James Schlatter's accidental discovery of the non-caloric sweetener aspartame. What a year! The summer of '67 sees the Beatles 'All You Need is Love' top the American music charts, Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming and a charismatic Justice Minister named Pierre Trudeau proposes reforms to legalize homosexuality in Canada.14 Most importantly for our purposes, G.D. Searle and Company begins testing the safety aspartame. This is the first step toward applying for FDA approval of the synthetic sweetener.

Now considering the fact that the Pentagon once listed aspartame as a "biochemical warfare agent", it should come as no surprise that Searle's first round of tests on primates resulted in six out of seven monkeys experiencing adverse reactions to milk mixed with the sweetener. One of the monkeys died, while the other five experienced grand mal seizures.15 Subsequent research into the safety of aspartic acid conclusively revealed that the consumption of this component of aspartame caused holes to form in the brains of baby mice.16 Despite these glaring red flags, Searle applied for FDA approval of aspartame in 1974, stating that no "health problems" had been detected in tests of the substance. Based upon the fact that Searle's tests results negated to mention the animal seizures and deaths which took place when researching the safety of aspartame, the FDA (under commissioner Dr. Alexander Schmidt) granted the sweetener approval to be used in dry foods.17

Before you lose all hope in humanity, professor of neuropathology and psychiatry, Dr. John Olney, of Washington University along with several other opponents of aspartame, file an objection against the FDA's ruling on the safety of the sweetener.18 Schmidt immediately halted Searle from marketing aspartame and an FDA task force was called to investigate the validity of the company's test results. The task force found aberrations in many of the studies conducted by scientists in the Searle laboratories, including one in which animals died and were then resurrected during the course of the study. The task force's report stated that, "Observation records indicated animal A23LM was alive at week 88, dead from week 92 through week 104, alive at week 108, and dead at week 112."19 The FDA's final report was over 500 pages long and found, not surprisingly, that Searle was guilty of tampering with test results and reporting fabricated and misleading information about the safety of their product. The findings were almost unbelievable, demonstrating a blatant perversion of scientific inquiry, including animals in which tumors were surgically removed so that they could be put back into the study and deemed having no adverse effects to aspartame consumption. Schmidt called the revelations about Searle's data and studies "reprehensible."20

Clearly aspartame's progression to market should've been stopped dead in its tracks as soon as the FDA's study was revealed. It would appear fitting if Searle and Company had been relegated to the history books as well, or at least faced some very harsh punitive measures. Indeed, Searle and Company no longer exists in the same way it did when aspartame was a just fledgling threat to global health. In 1985, the Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis bought out Searle. If you've never heard of Monsanto Corporation, rest assured that you are most likely consuming some of their products on a daily basis. Monsanto is one of the world's largest producers and manufacturers of pesticides and PCB's, including Agent Orange, as well as a leading force in the development and marketing of genetically-modified seeds. You know- the kind of seeds that grow into crops which provide entire populations (especially in developing nations) with yummy Frankenfood? Delicious, genetically-modified soy, corn and tomatoes courtesy of Monsanto find their way onto millions of household dinner tables every day in foods such as cornflakes. Oh, and a small note- they also own a subsidiary named NutraSweet.21

What happened, you ask? How can Monsanto, and hence NutraSweet, possibly be allowed to sell billions of dollars of this stuff annually? How did a chemical compound proven to cause such adverse, toxic effects come to invade our food system so thoroughly?

Now this is where the aspartame story becomes very interesting! Enter some very recognizable names. In 1977, Donald Rumsfeld, the current US Secretary of Defense for the Bush administration, was the president and CEO of Searle. At the time of his appointment within Searle, Rumsfeld was already well-established in Washington, having served as defense secretary for former Republican President Gerald Ford. With the FDA report supplying irrefutable proof that Searle scientists doctored the results of their research pertaining to the safety of aspartame, the company should've been indicted by a grand jury. Yet US attorneys William Conlon and Thomas Sullivan took no action against Searle, allowing enough time to pass for the statute of limitations on grand jury investigations to run out. Then, in 1979, Conlon joined the law firm which represented Searle.22 That same year aspartame became available to the French population via a company called Merisant. Merisant marketed the sweetener under the name Canderel, which is a combination of the word candy and the French word for wild cherry, airelle.23 This was the first time aspartame was made available to the general public for consumption and subsequently it was marketed throughout Europe, with the exception of the United Kingdom. Its approval was yet to be secured in the United States.

As you can imagine, this situation did not sit well with the shareholders at Searle, including Rumsfeld. Other people were profiting from aspartame. They weren't. However, in January of 1981, several important events transpired to change the situation. The first occurred during a Searle sales meeting, when Rumsfeld announced his intention to use his political might and contacts in order to garner FDA approval of aspartame by the end of the year.24 Then, on January 20th, former Hollywood movie star, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. You can imagine the collective joy felt by Rumsfeld and his aspartame cronies at the news that a staunchly Republican president was back in office. It would now be easy for Rumsfeld to call in his political favours!

The wheel was set in motion to fast-track aspartame's approval for commercial sale and use. At the end of January, Rumsfeld joined the Reagan transition team and Searle immediately reapplied to the FDA for aspartame's approval as a food sweetener and additive. Finally, Reagan's transition team nominated Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. to the post of FDA commissioner.

Surprise, surprise-the aspartame issue is then miraculously resurrected within the FDA! In March, Hayes appointed a team of FDA scientists to again review the safety of aspartame. Three of the scientists- Dr. Robert Condon, Dr. Satya Dubey and Dr. Douglas- all recommend that the earlier FDA ban on aspartame be upheld, citing again the unreliable tests submitted by Searle and the evidence of a link between aspartame consumption and the development of tumours in laboratory animals.25 Hayes, seeing that there could be a problem with the vote becoming deadlocked, stepped in himself to ensure aspartame's approval as a safe food additive.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. In 1981, aspartame was approved for use as in a variety of foodstuffs, including: puddings, breakfast cereals, chewing gum, yoghurts, etc. That same year Equal (a Merisant product) arrives for sale in the U.S. The year after, the FDA acknowledges a petition by Searle for aspartame to be approved as a sweetener in beverages such as carbonated sodas.

Step 4: "Mummy, What's Wrong With Daddy Since He Came Back from Iraq?"

Now, aspartame in dry foodstuff is one thing. And don't get me wrong, it's one very bad thing. However, consuming liquid beverages or other products containing aspartame is worse. Don't believe me? Tricky little chemical compound that it is, aspartame becomes completely unstable as soon as it is dissolved in liquid. That's right, once that baby hits liquid form it begins to breakdown into its component parts: phenylananine, Aspartic acid and methanol (wood alcohol). When liquid products containing aspartame are stored for any length of time, a compound known as diketopiperazine can also be created. Diketopiperazine, or DKP, is created in the gut when a liquid containing aspartame is ingested. DKP is similar to N-nitrosourea, a chemical that causes brain tumours.26 In short, diketopiperazine is a known carcinogen.

What does this mean for the general consumer of diet beverages, energy drinks or the increasingly popular flavoured waters that use sweeteners in order to appeal to our weight-conscious population? Though the American Environmental Protection Agency limits safe consumption of aspartame to 7.8 milligrams a day, depending on the environment in which the beverage is consumed and the time the product has already spent on the shelf, a person can easily surpass their 7.8 milligram limit without even realizing it!27 Not only does heating aspartame above 86 degrees cause it to rapidly breakdown; the instability of the sweetener in liquid substances means that it has a limited shelf-life, a fact that most of the millions of consumers who devour aspartame daily are completely unaware of. In 1985, The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry carried an article detailing the results of tests done by Wing-Sum Tsang to determine the extent to which aspartame breaks down in liquid. Tsang found that the aspartame a one-litre bottle of Diet Coke stored at room temperature began to breakdown into its components within six months. The study noted that at the time of bottling, the aspartame content of the Diet Coke was 550.0 mg and there was no DKP (diketopiperazine) present. Six months later, the aspartame content of the beverage had decreased to 155.34 mg while DKP levels were measured at 135.66 mg.28 The results from testing done on the Diet Coke after a year of storage were even more frightening.

In her work, Sweet Delusion-How Safe is Your Artificial Sweetener?, Barbara Alexander Mullarkey quotes Woodrow Monte, RD, PhD and Director of the Arizona State University Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory as stating that, "Aspartame is a crime against humanity...when you ingest aspartame, it breaks down into methanol within one hour." When heated, Monte estimates such a conversion can take place in as little as ten minutes.29 The implications of this for people who enjoy a packet of NutraSweet in their morning coffee or tea is clear; however, it also demands that we question the safety of artificially-sweetened beverages- such as diet soft drinks- which have been stored at high temperatures for any length of time.

This brings us to the Gulf War in Iraq. The first Gulf War in 1991 saw troops from a variety of countries including the United States, Britain and Canada fighting in the deserts of Iraq. During that time troops were supplied with large quantities of diet soft drinks to keep them hydrated (which in itself seems odd as caffeine has the opposite effect on the body). Shortly after the troops returned from service overseas, an alarming number began to fall ill with a variety of physical and psychological ailments. The exact cause of these ailments baffled doctors. The various ailments experienced by the troops were classified under the umbrella term 'Gulf War Syndrome'. In October 2004, the BBC news reported findings from an investigation conducted jointly by the Ministry of Defense and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 40 000 former troops. The investigation into the Gulf War Syndrome phenomenon found that many of the troops reported several different symptoms, such as: dizziness, memory loss and chronic fatigue.30 Though no definitive cause of Gulf War Syndrome has been established by the international medical community, these are exactly the same sorts of complaints lodged to the FDA from people suffering from aspartame poisoning. There is a general consensus that the physical and psychological symptoms experienced by the former Gulf War troops are likely due to excessive toxic exposure. Some theories as to the root causes of the syndrome have been: exposure to depleted uranium, anthrax vaccinations, fumes from burning oil wells and aspartame poisoning due to high levels of consumption of diet soft drinks in desert temperatures.

Coca-Cola: The Real Thing?

It may surprise you, but despite the obvious money-making potential of diet soda, the National Soft Drink Association of America did demonstrate foresight when it came to aspartame. Seeing the potential health-risks, they originally protested the FDA's approval of the synthetic sweetener for use in carbonated beverages. In 1983, the association wrote to Dr. Arthur Hayes informing him that products containing aspartame were decomposing rapidly under warm temperature conditions, such as those that are found in many climates in the United States. There appeared to be a genuine concern about sustaining the integrity of their products if aspartame was used as a means of sweetening beverages. An excerpt of the written protest submitted by the National Soft Drinks Association to congress for review reads: "the extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products are safe in soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render those studies inadequate and unreliable."31

The National Soft Drinks Association later accepted the inclusion of aspartame as an alternate to sugar or corn syrup based sweeteners in their products. A few months afterward, Dr. Hayes quit his job as FDA chief and gained employment with a public relations firm who just happened to have a client on their roster named NutraSweet.32

As mentioned in previous chapters, carbonated beverages are big business at the moment. In 2003, the estimated consumption of soft drinks per person in the United States was thought to be about 600 twelve ounce servings per year. When children's consumption was examined, it was found that since 1978, there had been a three-fold increase in the amount of carbonated beverages consumed by boys and a doubling in the amount consumed by girls.33 No doubt the past few decades of aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at children and teens by soft drink giants such as Coke and Pepsi has contributed to this rise in soft drink consumption. One example of this is the use of celebrity clout to increase sales. In the eighties and nineties, Michael Jackson and supermodel Cindy Crawford touted Pepsi products to millions of television viewers. Canadian superstars Wayne Gretzky and Michael J. Fox, both of whom are well-known for their squeaky-clean reputations, have also endorsed Pepsi products.34 During the past couple of years Pepsi has launched new, flashier commercials using current music and sports superstars like Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham to promote their drinks. In Asia, well-known Bollywood actors are regularly seen on television commercials for Pepsi!

A global breakdown of drinking habits shows North Americans are responsible for 44% of the world's carbonated beverage consumption with Europe following closely at 31%. The Asian and South American markets are the fastest-growing.35 Though the Mexican and US markets continue to be the largest per capita consumers of soft drinks in the world, Canada seems to have bucked the North American trend. According to a report published in 2004 by Statistics Canada, Canadian soft drink consumption had fallen for the sixth year in a row.36 While the decrease in consumption of soft drinks in Canada is indisputably good news, the study doesn't mention the increasing popularity of flavoured waters, sports drinks and energy drinks (such as Red Bull) which are marketed as healthy alternatives to traditional soft drinks and are usually artificially sweetened with either aspartame or Surcalose. Again, marketing plays a huge role in the growing popularity of this niche market. Red Bull's sleek blue and silver cans appeal to the sophisticated, busy professional and have become a staple in bars and pubs, often being mixed with vodka in lieu of the more traditional soft drink combinations. Not wanting to miss out on the lucrative health-conscious market, Coca-Cola devised their Dansai bottled water while Pepsi introduced artificially-sweetened, flavoured water called Aquafina. Unfortunately for Coca-Cola, the media in Britain exposed the fact that the company was using Thames tap water and a "purification" process which actually produced bromate, which is a carcinogenic substance. This meant that Coca-Cola's expensive, rebottled tap water containing carcinogens needed to be immediately removed from hundreds of thousands of shops and food stores across the UK!37

Indeed, the Thames water scandal was just one of the many challenges Coca-Cola has faced in the last few years. Their poor record on human rights, environmental standards (especially in developing nations such as India) and the growing controversy over aspartame consumption haunt the colossal corporation. It seems that the company has devised a way to deal with these challenges. According to an article by Sofia Jarrin-Thomas of ACTivist magazine, between 1998 and 2004 Coca-Cola's contributions to the Republican Party exceeded two million dollars, which was an overall 31% rise in the company's political donations.38 The interconnection between politics and our food supply is problematic as clearly demonstrated in the relationship between the Republican party, Searle corporation and the FDA when aspartame was originally being presented for approval. It's pretty clear that campaign contributions of this magnitude might compromise the objectivity of the Bush administration when it comes to matters concerning Coca-Cola's use of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, such as surcalose (Splenda), in its products.

Another example of the power of large conglomerates to sway political decisions was demonstrated in Brazil when that country lifted a nearly two-decade long ban on artificial sweeteners in 1988. Brazil's health minister at the time proposed that only diet drinks sweetened with stevia be allowed in the country. The problem was that Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Monsanto were eagerly awaiting the opening of the Brazilian market. Plans for the construction of a NutraSweet factory in San Paulo were already in the works at Monsanto. Considering the economic and political sway that Monsanto, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have, it should come as no surprise that the health minister's proposal was dropped and no further movement was made to investigate the potential for Stevia-sweetened drinks to share the diet beverage market in Brazil.39

It is interesting to note here that Stevia has been used in Japan to sweeten Diet Coke and is used in products manufactured in both Korea and Japan by US companies such as Sunkist, Nestle and Wrigley's.40 There has never been a health-related claim made in relation to the consumption of Stevia, despite the fact that it has been used for decades in these countries and makes up over 40% of the sweetener market there!

The Current Situation

Since the introduction of aspartame into our food supply, thousands of complaints concerning consumption of the sweetener have been lodged with the FDA. It is estimated that around one in fifteen people worldwide consume aspartame daily. The UK's Sunday Express newspaper ran a story in 2000, in response to dozens of stories received from people who'd suffered from aspartame-related health problems. Some of the adverse reactions reported included: chronic muscle and join pain, severe headaches, fatigue, depression and insomnia. One woman from Liverpool who regularly consumed aspartame-sweetened soft drinks stated her health became so bad that it got to the stage where she was ready to commit suicide.41 Though NutraSweet insisted that when investigated, every complaint lodged could not be directly connected to the consumption of their product, interestingly all the women interviewed by the Sunday Express's Lucy Johnson reported the complete cessation of their symptoms within a week of eliminating aspartame from their diet.42

You need only ask your own circle of friends, family and acquaintances to uncover firsthand accounts detailing the negative impact aspartame and other artificial sweeteners have had on their lives. There's the educational assistant working in downtown Toronto who fears that her husband is "addicted" to Listerine's wafer-thin breath strips, which are sweetened with aspartame. She describes how this otherwise laidback man reacts like an angry junkie when she suggests he cutback on his intake of the artificially-sweetened strips. And then there's the hairdresser who listens disconcertedly as a regular client explains that she can't live without her two packets of Sweet 'n Lo in coffee every morning. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact that nearly every family in the Western world seems affected to some degree by cancer, autoimmune disorders and other chronic health problems.

NutraSweet executives and other supporters and stakeholders in the artificial sweetener market such as Monsanto and Ajinomoto would have us believe that current concerns about their sweetener are being driven largely by unreliable crackpots using the internet to spread unsubstantiated, misinformation about aspartame, but nothing could be further from the truth. Incidents of cancers, autoimmune disorders such as MS (Multiple Sclerosis) and lupus, and chronic depression have all risen sharply in the past few decades.43 And a plethora of new medical disorders have become major health-concerns in the Western world. Some of these include: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Attention-Deficit Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and Gulf War Syndrome. Proponents of artificial sweeteners point to environmental factors such as increased air pollution as probable sources of our current health crisis. Of course conglomerates like Monsanto, one of the world's largest suppliers of genetically-altered seeds and aspartame, would point to factors other than our food supply, which they have irrevocably tampered with.

Perhaps the most damning evidence against aspartame came from a 2005 study headed by Morando Soffritti, the Director of the Ramizzini Cancer Research Centre in Bologna, Italy. The study was conducted on eight-week old Sprague-Dawley rats that were fed aspartame in their food supply until their natural deaths. The tissue, organs and lesions collected from all the animals involved in the experiment were routinely evaluated. The results are terrifying. The published results of the study state unequivocally that aspartame consumption at daily doses much less than the current acceptable daily limits caused "increased incident of malignant tumor-bearing animals" in both sexes. At a daily dosage of 20 mg per kg of body weight, or half of the accepted daily rate for humans, the rats being fed aspartame were developing tumours at an alarming rate. This was not the case with those rats that were fed the placebo. The study concluded that there is no doubt that aspartame is a carcinogenic agent and that, on the basis of the study's results, "a reevaluation of the present guidelines on the use and consumption of APM [aspartame] is urgent and cannot be delayed."44

This call to action cannot be ignored, especially in light of a study conducted at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto, Canada. The study investigated the daily intake of artificial sweeteners by children with Type 1 diabetes. The results found that, though none of the children were exceeding the acceptable daily intake for artificial sweeteners (which, in Canada and the UK, is 40 mg per kg of body weight, or approximately 10-14 cans of diet soda per day for the average adult), aspartame was the sweetener consumed in the largest quantities. Furthermore, children aged 2-5 were found to be the group with the highest daily consumption of artificial sweeteners when a cross-section of the population was studied. These findings are in line with an investigation by the European Commission which also found that children and diabetics had the highest daily intake of artificial sweeteners.45 However, Soffritti's study clearly indicates that aspartame consumption can be below the daily acceptable intake levels and still have dire health consequences. This means our children, the most vulnerable members of our society, are at the greatest risk of aspartame poisoning.

Considering the recent storm of media attention focused on aspartame safety after the publication of the Ramizzini study's results, I decided it was only fair to allow some of the biggest names in the manufacturing and sale of the sweetener to have the chance to express their opinions in this book. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Robert G. Bursey, the Director of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Ajinomoto in Washington, D.C. When asked what he thought motivated the plethora of anti-aspartame activists and groups, he replied, "I honestly have no idea." He then laughed and added, "Sensationalism."46 He pointed out that the US government funded National Toxicity Program just completed three studies unequivocally confirming aspartame's safety. When I asked how he explained the results of the Ramizzini studies, Bursey stated that the study was flawed as the Italian laboratory did not follow the recognized standard protocol for carcinogenic study. The major flaw, he said, was the fact that the rats were allowed to live until their natural deaths, instead of the FDA standard protocol which called for laboratory rats to be killed at 130 weeks.47 Like an aging adult population, the rats would be increasingly prone to develop cancer. He also stated that it would take at least one hundred cans of diet soda to effect blood levels of phenylalanine. I found this interesting as the UK and Canadian accepted daily intake generally averages out to approximately ten cans of diet soda per day. I agreed that his scientific jargon and statistics sounded very convincing, but again asked him why then, would so many individuals make it their life-long mission to advocate for the complete elimination of aspartame from our food supply. Why, I inquired, would anyone waste their time if there was no financial or material gain in it for them? Why would there be any controversy over aspartame if it was, as he argued, completely and inarguably safe? Bursey explained that any suggestion of problems with aspartame or the original FDA studies done by Searle into the sweetener's safety was because those studies were conducted using outdated and flawed methods. He concluded our conversation by stating that the science of aspartame ingestion is a simple one and that he invites challenges from anyone who believes that the sweetener is not safe for human consumption.48 I was left feeling that I'd just had a conversation that was so illogical, it was unbelievable. For a member of the scientific community to dismiss the mountain of anti-aspartame activism and the scientific studies pointing to the sweetener's carcinogenic properties as basically nothing more than sensationalism of the Jerry Springer variety was incredible. Mr. Bursey may find that not everyone is easily convinced by his assertions.

In fact, in light of recent research, many governments and media institutions are beginning to speak out about the possible dangers associated with aspartame consumption. At the very end of 2005, British MP Roger Williams called for immediate action to be taken against the sweetener, urging a complete ban on aspartame in the United Kingdom. Referring to the Ramizzini study, Williams stated that there was "compelling and reliable evidence for this carcinogenic substance to be banned from the UK good and drinks market altogether."49 Though the UK's Food Standards Agency dismissed Williams by reasserting that aspartame was completely safe for consumption, the European Safety Authority has declared their intention to immediately review the safety of aspartame due to the findings of the Ramizzini study. In the American state of New Mexico, Senator Gerald Oritz y Pino is sponsoring a bill to ban the sale and distribution of any products containing aspartame. If successful, New Mexico will be the first state in the U.S. to impose a complete ban on the sweetener.50 And in 2004, the National Justice League (a U.S. consumer group) filed a class action suit worth 350 million dollars against Monsanto, NutraSweet and the American Diabetes Association.51

Good news! Just as aspartame seems to be heading the way 'Big Tobacco' did after some ethically-minded people within the industry decided to leak documentation demonstrating the industry's knowledge of the devastating health problems created by tobacco products, a new, miracle low-calorie sweetener bursts upon the artificial-sweetener scene! Welcome sucralose, more commonly known by its trademark Splenda.

"Think sugar, say Splenda," is the catchy marketing phrase that is used to promote this sweetener.52 Touted as being healthy because it is 'made from sugar', Splenda has plowed its way onto the scene, capturing over half of the US artificial sweetener market in just four years.53 Indeed, Splenda appears to have some advantages over aspartame as it does not cross the blood-brain barrier, retains its taste when heated and is endorsed by Diabetes UK. Even Oprah Winfrey promotes its use on her website!54 However, as Dr. Janet Star Hull explains, "The same patterns with aspartame are repeating with sucralose. The individuals who stand to profit the most have immense influence."55 And just who are these people? Splenda in the US is owned by a subsidiary of the massive Johnson & Johnson company and the sweetener was developed by Tate and Lyle, a UK-based multinational food manufacturer.

It seems that some stakeholders in the sweetener market are less than impressed by Splenda's claim to be derived directly from sugar. Lawsuits have been filed by Merisant (makers of NutraSweet and Equal) and by the Sugar Association, claiming that Splenda is not natural, but "a highly-processed chemical sweetener, created with chlorine and other compounds."56 The only concern of the claimants is the loss of money their companies are incurring due to Splenda's emergence on the sweetener market. The safety of Splenda for human consumption is not mentioned. Wonder why!

However, Splenda is not a natural derivative of sugar in the sense that Stevia is a natural derivative of the Stevia rebaudiana plant. Splenda or sucralose is created when three hydrogen oxygen groups in a sugar molecule are replaced by three chlorine atoms. That's right! Chlorine atoms! The creators of Splenda protest that their product is safe as chlorine is a naturally-occurring chemical. Well, so is methanol. Do these arguments sound familiar? A little pool water with your skinny mocha latte, anyone?

Recently I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Dr. David Suzuki, the internationally-renowned Canadian scientist and environmentalist. He stressed the notion that we are currently living on a "shattered" planet, a place where people have no idea of the origins of their food, especially urban dwellers. He pointed out the toxins found in farm-fed fish as an example of this and urged us to begin to care about what is put in our bodies. Perhaps most importantly, he highlighted the fact that the nature of our current food supply is unsustainable, that for thousands of years it was nothing like this.57 This sentiment is echoed by British journalist and author Felicity Lawrence, who puts it succinctly by saying, "The way we eat is not just ecologically unsustainable, but also morally and even biologically unsustainable."58 When we look at the choice between using a natural sweetener derived directly from a tiny, easily-cultivated South American plant used for centuries without harm versus artificial sweeteners that have, amongst a plethora of other things, been reported by parents to cause our children to turn aggressive, how can any government with a shred of moral fiber continue to prevent their citizens from easily obtaining Stevia?


1 - Karen Howlett, "No-Fly List Ends Beach Vacation," Globe and Mail, Jan. 8, 2006. Sami Kahil and his family were immediately detained upon arriving in Mexico for a vacation in late 2005. It seems that Kahil's name came up on a "no-fly" list banning individuals on the list from entering the US. Kahil, who is originally from Lebanon, has lived in Toronto, Canada, for over 20 years without incident. The name Sami Kahil is common in the Middle East.
2 - Christine Lydon, MD, "Could There Be Evils Lurking In Aspartame Consumption?" http://www.aspartame.com/lydon.htm. This article originally appeared in Oxygen magazine.
3 - "Hard Copy Expose," Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, http://www.aspartamesafety.com/Article10.htm. The investigative program, Hard Copy, first televised their expose on the impact of Aspartame on the aviation industry on October 26th, 1996. The program was also broadcast on Australian television.
4 - Ibid; Dr. Joseph Mercola, "Aspartame: What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," http://www.mercola.com/article/aspartame/hidden__dangers.htm
5 - Bill Strubbe, "Killing Me Sweetly," Metroactive, Aug. 28, 2000, http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/09.28.00/aspartame-0039.html
6 - Dr. Betty Martini, "EU to Reexamine Safety of Aspartame Artificial Sweetener," http://www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/aspartame04.703.cfm
7 - ibid – Dr. H. J.Roberts is a diabetic specialist who first suspected aspartame's toxicity when many of his patients began to go blind. He has published a medical text on aspartame disease and poisoning entitled Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic.
8 - Lucy Johnson, "Hunter Aspartame Case," Sunday Express, London, UK, Jan. 16, 2000, http://www.lineone.net/express/index.html
9 - http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asapartame
10 - History of Canderel, http://www.canderel.co.co.za: The discovery of aspartame narrated in a very positive light on the South African site belonging to the French sweetener company, Canderel.
11 - Conversation between Martin Lister and Sgt. Tom Warner of the Toronto Police Force, March 2005. It was during this conversation that Sgt. Warner told Lister about the way in which aspartame breaks down into its components, one of which is methanol (wood alcohol) which then turns into formaldehyde and accumulates in the body tissue of people who consume the sweetener, essentially "embalming" them upon death.
12 - "The Barcelona Report: Aspartame Converts to Formaldehyde In Vivo in the Bodies of Laboratory Rats," http://www.dorway.com/invivo.txt: This is an informative website outlining a study by C. Trocho et. Al. performed in the biology department at the University of Barcelona. The study conclusively demonstrated that aspartame is converted into formaldehyde in the tissue of living specimens and then spreads to vital organs.
13 - "Aspartame: A Bitter Sweetener," Complementary Health, http://www.naturodoc.com/library/nutrition/aspartame.htm
14 - http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967
15 - Pat Thomas, "The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener," The Ecologist, http://www.thailandesl.chazzsongs.net/hl_aspartame.htm
16 - Mark J. Occhipinti, M.S., Ph.D, N.D.c, "Sugar Substitutes: White Poison in the Pink and Blue Packets," from the American Fitness Professionals and Associates website: http://www.apafitness.com/articles/NUTRA.HTM
17 - Pat Thomas, "The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener," The Ecologist, http://www.thailandesl.chazzsongs.net/hl_aspartame.htm
18 - ibid
19 - Dr. Erik Millstone, "Increasing Brain Tumor Rates: Is There a Link to Aspartame?" University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, October 1996: from the American Fitness Professionals and Associates website: http://www.apafitness.com/articles/NUTRA.HTM
20 - Pat Thomas, "The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener," The Ecologist, http://www.thailandesl.chazzsongs.net/hl_aspartame.htm
21 - "Millions Against Monsanto," Organic Consumers website, http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink. This site includes an online petition against the pesticide giant.
22 - Mark J. Occhipinti, M.S., Ph.D, N.D.c, "Sugar Substitutes: White Poison in the Pink and Blue Packets," from the American Fitness Professionals and Associates website: http://www.apafitness.com/articles/NUTRA.HTM
23 - http://www.canderel.co.za
24 - Pat Thomas, "The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener," The Ecologist, http://www.thailandesl.chazzsongs.net/hl_aspartame.htm
25 - James Turner, Director of the National Institute of Science, Law and Public Policy, "Aspartame/NutraSweet: The History of the Aspartame Controversy," http://www.swankin-turner.com/aspartame.html
26 - "A Guide to Additives In and On Our Food," from The UK Food Guide (online), http://www.ukfoodguide.net/e951.htm
27 - Christine Lyndon, M.D., "Could There Be Evils Lurking in Aspartame Consumption?" http://www.aspartame.com/lydon.htm. Reprinted online from Oxygen magazine.
28 - Wing-Sum Tsang et. al., "Determination of Aspartame and Its Breakdown Products in Soft Drinks by Reverse-Phase Chromotography with UV Detection," Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, 1985, Vol.33, No.4, pp.734-8. A good summary of some of Tsang's study can be found online at: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame2/aspart.P4
29 - Barbara Alexander Mullarky with Adel Newman, "Sweet Delusion- How Sweet is Your Artificial Sweetener?" Informed Consent- The Magazine of Health, Prevention and Environmental News (online), May/June 1994, Volume 1, Issue 4, http://eagle.westnet.gr/~aesdep/ic1.htm
30 - "Gulf War Syndrome Does Exist," BBC World News (online), http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3748844.stm
31 - Mark J. Occhipinti, M.S., Ph.D, N.D.c, "Sugar Substitutes: White Poison in the Pink and Blue Packets," from the American Fitness Professionals and Associates website: http://www.apafitness.com/articles/NUTRA.HTM
32 - ibid
33 - Judith Valentine PhD, C.N.A, C.N.C, "Soft Drinks-America's Other Drinking Problem...," http://www.ghchealth.com/soft-drinks-america.html
34 - Betty Martini, "Michael J. Fox, Parkinson's and Aspartame," http://www.jcrows.com/aspartame.html In this article Martini suggests that Fox's Parkinson's is actually due to his excessive Diet Pepsi consumption. She quotes Dr. James Bowen who states that "many NutraSweet victims report Parkinsonian symptoms." Martini also points out that Parkinson's is usually a disease associated with "old men." Though there are rare cases of early-age onset Parkinson's, as the Parkinson's Disease Society of the UK states, "usually symptoms appear after age 50." For more information go to: http://www.parkinsons.org/uk/
35 - "Soft Drink Markets in 174 Countries Worldwide," news release by The Beverage Marketing Corporation of New York, June 15, 2001, http://www.beveragemarketing.com/news2p.htm
36 - "Food Consumption in Canada 2004", Statistics Canada website, http://www.statcan.ca/english/ads/23F0001XCB/highlight.htm
37 - Sofia Jarrin-Thomas, "Coca-Cola Benefits from Contributions to the Bush Administration," ACTtivist Magazine, March 25, 2005.
38 - ibid
39 - Linda Bonvie, Bill Bonvie and Donna Gates, "Stevia: The Natural Sweetener that Frightens NutraSweet," Earth Island Journal, Winter '97-'98, Vol. 13, No.1, http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/win98/wr_win98stevia.html
40 - "Nirvana Stevia," Alternative Health Supplies (Australia), http://www.alternativehealth.com.au
41 - Lucy Johnson, "Hunter Aspartame Case," Sunday Express, London, UK, Jan. 16, 2000, http://www.lineone.net/express/index.html
42 - ibid
43 - "Study Suggests Link Between Aspartame and Breast Cancer," CNN News (interactive), http:www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9611/18/aspartame. In this article Dr. John Onley points out that brain cancer rates in the United States rose by ten percent shortly after the FDA's approval of NutraSweet in 1983.
44 - Morando Soffritti et. al., "First Experimental Demonstration of the Multipotential Carcinogenic Effects of Aspartame Administered in the Feed to Sprague-Dawley Rats," Nov. 17, 2005, Maltoni Cancer Research Centre, Bologna, Italy, http:www.eph.niehs.nin.gov/members/2005/8711/8711.pdf; Environmental Health Perspectives, http://www.dx.doi.org/
45 - Lisa Devit, Denis Daneman and Jennifer Buccino, "Assessment of Intakes of Artificial Sweeteners in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus," Endocrine Program, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 2004; 28(2):00-00, http://www.diabetes.ca/files/SweetenerBuccinoJune04.pdf
46 - From a conversation with Robert G Bursey Ph.D, Director, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, Ajinomoto, Washington, D.C, February 14, 2006.
47 - ibid
48 - ibid
49 - Felicity Lawrence, "MP Calls for Ban on 'Unsafe' Sweetener," The Guardian Unlimited (online), December 15, 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0..1667734.00.html
50 - Diana Heil, "Aspartame: Bill Would Ban Food Containing Sweetener," The New Mexican, January 14, 2006, http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/37758.html
51 - Pat Thomas, "The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener," The Ecologist, http://www.thailandesl.chazzsongs.net/hl_aspartame.htm
52 - Gogoi Pallavi, "How Far From Sugar is Splenda?" Business Weekly (online), Feb.2, 2005, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc2005022_7832_tc024.html
53 - ibid
54 - On Oprah Winfrey's website, she advocates using Splenda on food as a way of maintaining weight while enjoying sweet snacks, http://www.oprah.com
55 - Dr. Janet Star Hull, "Making Life Sweet-Splenda: Is it Safe or Not?" http://www.splendaexposed.com
56 - Gogoi Pallavi, "How Far From Sugar is Splenda?" Business Weekly (online), Feb.2, 2005, http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc2005022_7832_tc024.html
57 - From David Suzuki's lecture to the Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario at Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto, Canada on February 18, 2006.
58 - Felicity Lawrence, "This Food Racket Just Can't Go On," The Guardian Unlimited (online), Thursday, December 2, 2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0..1364242,00.html