Click here to read the article that began the debate Aspartame - Poisonous or Harmless? Jonathan Cainer's Thought for the Day Thursday January 21st Since I posted that little story about Aspartame, I have received several outraged e.mails. Don't I know that this is a classic piece of scaremail? Am I not aware that it has been floating round the internet for weeks? Why don't I go to urbanlegends.miningco.com where I can see it revealed for the scam that it is? OK OK. Well now I know - and I guess next week, I'll humbly and sheepishly take it down. But I tell you what I won't backtrack on. My prediction that within the next 3 years, there WILL be some genuine scientific evidence linking this particular form of artificial sweetener to some nasty ailment. Meanwhile, I'll leave the posting up for a day or two more, just in case someone wants to add to the debate. A big thank you to everyone that wrote in and here is just a small selection of replies that we received. More will be added later this week. We have split them into two sections: Sweet Nothings - Bitter Accusations Bitter Accusations Dear Jon, Thank you for printing the warning about Aspartame! I honestly thought I was having serious medical problems over a year ago which stopped after I stopped drinking diet soda. At the time I drank only two or three cans a day. I don't particularly like the taste of diet soda but chose to drink it in an attempt to loose a little weight after the birth of my child. After a few months I was having migraine headaches so bad that occasionally I couldn't get out of bed. Everyone told me the headaches were caused by my pregnancy and would eventually go away. Ha! Well, once I stopped drinking the diet soda the headaches stopped. After a little self experiment I know can create the headaches by drinking only one can a day for three days straight. Needless to say, I do not drink or eat anything containing the artificial sweeteners. After reading the warning I am glad that I didn't start drinking diet soda during my pregnancy. I hope your article reaches millions and helps to stop the dangerous chemicals from causing more harm. Thank you! K I write in response to your exciting new addition, Letters and Questions. Today you have piece: "Subject: Warning About: Diet Cokes - Aspartame - Nutrasweet Etc." The piece is noted to have been written by Nancy Markle. It was so challenging that I began a net search. For your reference you may wish to check: http://members.xoom.com/sol2000/aspartam.html This site publishes a memo from Betty Martini, author of the above, to Robin Finney and notes that the article "Subject: Warning......etc." was attributed to Nancy Markle, but in fact was written by Betty Martini. The text is longer and reflects more of the premises from the World Environmental Conference and the MSF. It also references the "dorway" and "holisticmed" sites. Each of these contain a cross section of information, documentation, references, and published papers from accredited sources. With your interest in this subject, I thought you might enjoy these. This is a fascinating consideration, and your interest and suggestion has caused me to take the 60 day NO ASPARTAME test. Thanks for the site, Jonathon, for your perception and for your interest in mankind. Best regards Gail Dear Jonathan I just read the article on Aspartane, Thanks for sharing!! Back in 1985 or so I was drinking many diet cokes a day, well one day I passed out at work, the doctors could not figure out what was wrong. I was seeing a chiropractor at the time for a neck injury, he was also a nutristionalist, I told him about me passing out at work and he started inquiring about my healthy, or not so healthy eating habits. He did a 7 hour gloucose tolarance test on me to find I had hypoglycemia, and my blood sugar level dropped to 16!! He immediately lectured me and scared me to death, and convienced me to get off of the diet cokes. It wasn't but a month later, I started having higher engery levels, I didn't seem so confused anymore, the dizzyness stopped, and my moodyness greatly improved and all I did was elimate diet cokes--- he said if I must drink coke drink the sugar kind--do not drink anything with nutra sweet--- well I still drink coke but NEVER THE DIET KIND and those symptoms have never returned!! I do believe that the study is accurate!!! Just my two cents worth. Ellen Dear Jonathan My sister sent me your website address, expressing concern about your posted letter re NutraSweet toxicity. I already received this letter from someone in my Fibromyalgia network, and I want to tell you my experience to date. I have been getting more and more ill in the last 10 or so years with symtoms of fibromyalgia, depression and severe memory loss and cognitive trouble. I finally quit my job as a computer analyst last summer because I became unable to concentrate and of course could no longer do my job. I read this NutraSweet warning letter two weeks ago, and became convinced when I read the mechanism by which free aspartame destroys brain cells (I majored in biochemistry in college). I went cold turkey off my diet drinks (I was up to eight to ten sodas a day) - no easy task because I was addicted to them and experienced physical and emotional withdrawal. However, in ten days I am already thinking much more clearly, have more energy and my carbohydrate cravings have just about disappeared. And guess when I started drinking diet cokes? About 10 years ago!! This would explain why more women than men have fibromyalgia - more women consume diet foods, at least from what I've seen. I will wait and see how I progress without Nutrasweet, but so far I know I have improved and I am extremely angry that this poison, with the FDA's blessing, may have caused me to lose my job, my health and my brain. Thank you for this forum and your time, Patricia Hi Jonathan I was very interested to read your email on your web site concerning aspartame. I remember that you brought this subject up before a few months ago, and I emailed you then about it. I used to work as a Secretary at Board level for an international corn refining company about ten years ago, and we were involved with aspartame. It was known even then that aspartame may well be dangerous to human health, although it was thoroughly hushed up by the big companies involved. Whilst admitting that these new discoveries about aspartame were not available at the time, there was certainly a huge doubt about it, and in my view it should have been taken off the market until more testing had been done. But that would have affected profits wouldn't it?! What I read at the time however was more than enough to convince me to stop using aspartame and switch to a few granules of unrefined sugar instead. Having worked in that industry - and left it because I did not like what was going on over various matters like aspartame and E150 food colouring - I would always now be very very wary of additives in food and avoid them as much as possible. Best wishes C. H. Dear Jonathan A good discussion of the pros and cons of this Nutrasweet email thats going around is at : http://snopes.simplenet.com/ He dismisses it, but the research papers her referes to are not so clear cut. Nigel Dear Jon This site give more info on this subject--as of today, I will not drink any diet drinks! http://www.tiac.net/users/mgold/aspartame/aspartame.html Thank You, Mary Dear Jonathan I would like to add to the commentary about asparatame. I know from personal experience that aspartame toxicity is not a falsehood. I had numerous physical symptoms that have stopped after I terminated consumption of aspartame. I realized that aspartame may have been the cause of my problems after looking into the evididence for toxicity due to aspartame and am now convinced that some people may suffer acute reactions like migraines or seizures immediately after consumption but that long term chronic toxic reactions are also occuring. I was a daily consummer for numerous years and being an employee of the pharmaceutical industry myself, felt that aspartame should be safe because I know what typically is required to demonstrate safety of a drug. However, I know realize that long term consumption would entail very rigourous demonstration of safety and from what I have read the many scientisits questioned the thouroughness and appropriateness of the toxicity studies that were done in order for aspartame to be approved. The fact that aspartmaes approval was controversial suggests that safety of the product is not assured. I would reccommend that anyone suffering from unexplainable physical/psychological symptoms who is conumming aspartame (Nutrasweet) i.e. diet sodas, Equal in coffee, etc stop and see what happens. It took only a few days for me to see improvements. I site for more information is www.holisticmed.com\aspartame. Thanks for keeping the depate open. I think this will become a more recognized health problem before long. E Sweet Nothings Dear Jon, You're a great astrologer but perhaps too credulous. You have been taken in by a hoax and are spreading panic with your website. Here's a rebuttal of the article about aspartame. This is put out by the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. Dr. W. J. Here is my email to the MSF: Dear MSF This looks to me like a hoax. Can you confirm? It's been circulating on the internet for at least a few weeks and several friends of mine believe it. 1. The rebuttal: The Inappropriate and Unsubstantiated Alarm Over Aspartame Senior Medical Advisor, Multiple Sclerosis Foundation January 12, 1999 In the 1960's, before the advent of satellite communications, gold workers in the interior of South America knew the closing price of gold on the London market within an hour of the closing. The final leg of the communication was over jungle drums. Before the Internet, information moved through the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) community in a similarly informal, but high fidelity, fashion. Now, within minutes of a breaking story or rumor, the first question appears on the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation (MSF) Internet forum. Such is the case with the recent alarm over aspartame (NutraSweet and similar dietary sweetening agents). In a recent article by Nancy Markle, allegedly based on talks at the "World Environmental Conference", wild and inaccurate information about aspartame is being spread. I have no problem with information dissemination, even when it is wrong, but Ms. Markle has crossed the line. The MSF has asked me to look into the allegations raised and report on them. 1. There is no connection between the MSF and Ms. Markle. The MSF has no knowledge of Ms. Markle's professional credentials (none are cited), and a MEDLINE search shows no contributions to the world medical literature by her. 2. The MSF has/had no connection with the "World Environmental Conference". 3. Neither the MSF nor myself have any connection with Monsanto (producer of NutraSweet). We do not support any of the inflammatory allegations about NutraSweet made at this conference, but neither do we in any way formally endorse or condemn the product. I ran a number of MEDLINE searches on aspartame. 1. There are 377 citations in the world medical literature (all languages) from 1966-1998. 2. There is no information whatsoever about deleterious effects of aspartame on MS, systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE or lupus), or fibromyalgia. 3. There is no evidence that aspartame in any way causes, provokes, mimics or worsens MS. 4. There is no evidence of any "aspartame disease". 5. Repeated studies in peer reviewed journals show no adverse effects of aspartame on seizures (rats, children, adults), weight gain, body temperature, cognitive/behavioral/neuropsychiatric/neurophysiologic function, brain/intestinal/liver hormones or enzymes, brain tumors, cancer, birth defects (rats and humans), Parkinson's disease, allergic responses, blood pressure, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, etc. 6. It has not been shown to be dangerous to diabetics in any way. 7. One small study (which has not been repeated) did find some worsening of depression when depressed patients took large doses of aspartame. 8. Several small reports have appeared showing that there may be a subset of migraine patients who worsen with aspartame. Other studies show no connection in patients who have claimed to have aspartame-related headaches. Ms. Markle's claims regarding the metabolism of aspartame are wildly inaccurate. Her understanding of pharmacology and metabolism is largely incorrect. 1. Aspartame does cause the production of small amounts of methanol, but no more than normal consumption of fruits and vegetables. 2. There are about 200 mg of aspartame in 12 ounces of most diet drinks. Even with greater than 2000 mg of aspartame, there is no change in the levels of methanol in normal adults. Normal volunteers have taken 600 mg/hour of aspartame for 8 hours without significant increases in serum methanol. Normal men have taken 10,000 mg of aspartame without any side effects. 3. Infants who have received equivalently enormous doses of aspartame show no increase in serum methanol levels. 4. Methanol itself is not the problem in "methanol poisoning". It is the generation of formic acid when the methanol is very high that causes the dangerous acidosis and the blindness. Normal volunteers have taken 14,000 mg of aspartame. Even though their methanol levels rose, the formic acid did not. The methanol levels returned to normal within 8 hours. 5. When aspartame-containing beverages are left at high storage temperatures, the aspartame can degrade and form small amounts of methanol. 6. Diketopiperazine (DKP) is another breakdown product of aspartame. It has not been show to be carcinogenic (causes cancers). 7. There is no connection between "Desert Storm Syndrome" and aspartame. Ms. Markle cites the work of Dr. H.J. Roberts. I do not know if she is citing Dr. Roberts with or without his knowledge. Dr. Roberts is apparently an Australian physician who has 77 citations in MEDLINE. He is a prodigious letter writer and most of his citations are letters to the editors. He has published a number of case reviews in second and third tier journals, and in addition has produced a few articles on clotting problems and diabetic complications. He has produced no original research that I can find on aspartame. In summary, this series of allegations by MS. Markle are almost totally without foundation. They are rabidly inaccurate and scandalously misinformative. I have found no basis for alarm about aspartame, but would recommend (based on one study) those patients who are being treated for depression let their physicians know that they are using aspartame. Patients who have a documented, evaluated adverse reaction to aspartame should avoid its use. There is no connection between the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and Ms. Markle or her writings. 2. How I found it: Dear Dr W.J. There is no connection between the MSF and Ms. Markle or the World Environmental Conference. Please go to our homepage(www.msfacts.org), go to ASK THE DOCTOR'S page, click on to questions & answers. Dr.Squillacote has reply to this article, also by Friday our homepage will have Dr. Squillacote's answer on aspartame . I hope this has answered your question. Take Care MSF Dear Jon Perhaps you should research some of your messages in the future. The letter you posted on your website concerning artificial sweetners is a well known hoax. Try this sight in the future http://urbanlegends.tqn.com/library/blasp.htm to see if the stories you receive are valid or not. It contains the letter you posted. Thought I would help you out. M. W. Dear Jonathan Oh no! Jonathan, please check these types of letters out thoroughly! This is a fake one! I am not saying that these sweeteners are good for you (I personally avoid them). But an almost identical letter and its debunking is found at the Urban Legend web site -- for example, there is no World Environmental Conference, and no keynote address by the EPA at any conference of this type. People may rightfully be concerned about these sweeteners, but please don't be fooled by a fake letter. I am so disappointed! (Also -- what's this "Dessert Storm" that the author writes about? A shower of artificially-sweetened goodies?) I refer you to this site for more information on this letter -- I hope you are able to access it. http://www.snope.com To whom it may concern: The email you have posted concerning the warning about Nutrasweet has been circulating throughout the internet for over a month now. After doing a bit of research on deja news today, I found this information : http://www.nutrasweet.com/html/lib_rumors.html I hear you when you say that you have predicted a health scare - and that may be all this is. There are a lot of people talking about this issue via the internet, and I encourage you to read Nutrasweet's response which explains how the product is metabolized. Perhaps posting the link to their information on your site would be beneficial. --S Dear Jonathan I have some misgivings about the long letter posted recently (it came to my attention 1/19/99 in the US) about: ASPARTAME marketed as 'NutraSweet', 'Equal', and 'Spoonful'" Astrology is already under such a cloud of misunderstanding and misinterpretation that I am sorry to see additive components. Some aspect of the posted message are suspect. I would like to see more independent literature search before your site posts messages like this. More than one finding; more than one assertion; more than one method. -- pc Hi Jonathan, I am a faithful reader of your site, and would like to respond to the letter submitted regarding the hazards of Aspartame. I stopped eating foods & beverages that used Aspartame a few years ago, simply because I just wasn't confident that it was healthy. I do know several friends that have averse reactions to foods that use it as a sweetner, but before I jumped to conclusions, I wanted to consult someone who knew more about it than I did. I asked an old friend of mine, who happens to be a PhD candidate in Nutrition, what her opinion on the topic was, and she forwarded this article to me. It appeared in the June '97 issue of a respected health & fitness American publication called Musle & Fitness. Thanks! from L. L. Aspartame safety revisited--the methanol connection The artificial sweetener aspartame is found in many products used by the average consumer and bodybuilder alike. As with any food additive, the safety of aspartame is frequently questioned. This dipeptide, or short protein chain, is composed of one aspartate, one phenylalanine and an attached methyl group. That may sound like a complicated test tube-type of chemical, but consider that a related dipeptide, aspartyl-phenylalanine, is formed during protein digestion every time you eat. Nothing unnatural, just unique. The biggest concern about aspartame is the methyl group which, during digestion, is converted to methanol. You read right -- methanol, AKA wood alcohol, the same stuff in bad moonshine that made people go blind. The facts about aspartame and methanol have been wellestablished. In one study, human subjects were administered doses of 34, 100, 150 and 200 mg of aspartame per 2.2 pounds of bodyweight. For a 220-pound bodybuilder, the high dose would equal 20 grams and the low dose would equal 3.4 grams, still a large amount. At the low doses given to the study subjects, no methanol was detectable in their blood at any time after eating aspartame by itself. Higher doses led to elevations in blood methanol, up to 4 mg per 100 ml for the high dose. Methanol toxicity is actually the result of a methanol byproduct called formate, however, and study subjects' blood formate levels were unchanged even with the highest dose of aspartame. This suggests that even after eating a meal consisting of 20 grams of aspartame, no harmful formate would be produced. Let's put these facts into perspective. Like it or not, methanol is everywhere. You get about 55 mg of methanol from a can of diet soda or 100-500 mg from typical servings of bodybuilding drinks and mixes. The average methanol content of fruit juices is 140 mg per liter, even more than diet sodas. All these amounts are well below the lowest dose tested (3,400 mg) that didn't elevate methanol or formate levels. The risk of getting too much methanol from aspartame-flavored drinks or other products appears low. How much aspartame is too much? If you completely substituted naturally flavored foods and drinks with aspartame-flavored ones, you might reach a maximum of 34 mg of aspartame per 2.2 pounds of bodyweight (3.4 grams per day for a 220-pound person). Yet methanol isn't increased even at these difficult-to-obtain amounts of aspartame. Only if you eat extraordinarily huge quantities of aspartame (10-20 grams at a time) would your blood methanol and formate levels increase. Based on the results of this study, the aspartame/ methanol scare would appear moot. Besides, you actually get more methanol from the natural foods you eat than from aspartame-flavored drinks, and your body removes methanol and formate efficiently. In fact, one form of the essential B vitamin,folic acid, uses formate (folinic acid) during normal metabolism. One thing's for sure: Unlike moonshine, drinking aspartame-flavored beverages won't cause blindness.