Customer Reviews

Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is it Safe?

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A MUST READ BOOK.

I read this book many years ago, long before they had to start putting all the warning labels on every product now containing Aspartame.

Donald Rumsfeld, left government to become CEO of Searle and his job was to put Aspartame in just about every food and drink on the planet.

Now, Searle is no longer the company that is listed on NutraSweet and Equal packets, but now the company on those products is listed as MONSANTO. Yes that IS the same company responsible for producing "agent orange"

The reason there are so many new illnesses and diseases that we never had before the early 80s when Aspartame was first put into all our drinks and food, is because of Aspartame.

As this book is several years old, it does not mention the dangers of Acesulfame-K or Sucralose, the NEW stuff they are putting in food and drinks as people are becoming aware of the dangers of Aspartame and trying to avoid it!

Even the name Sucralose (brand name is Splenda) is deceptively close in spelling to "sucrose" which is just natural sugar. This way, when you read through the ingredients at the store, you might confuse Sucralose for Sucrose. Clever, huh?

Even regular products that are NOT labeled as "sugar free" now contain one or all of these chemicals! Look at REGULAR SUGAR gum and see how Aspartame, Sucralose and Ace-K are in them now!

It is getting ridiculous.

If you want a SAFE NATURAL alternative to sugar, then try STEVIA.

I was warned by my OB not to use aspartame when we were trying to conceive; fortunately I'd already read this book and have done everything I can to avoid aspartame since. I have a friend would black out and was eventually diagnosed with "panic attacks" at Scripps; it turned out to be aspartame poisoning. Since she's steered clear of this, the attacks disappeared. Read the book and heed the doctor's advice! You wouldn't drink wood alcohol, would you? It's part of the aspartame molecule.

I found this book a couple of years ago at the campus library where I live. I found it very informative, especially since I know many people with the symptoms described in the book. Not long after I found it at te libary it disappeared. Since I discovered it here, I made sure I bought a copy. It is definately a must-read for anyone.

I was lucky enough to find this book at a discount store and ended up not being able to put it down. If anyone you love is having health problems and is ingesting aspartame, please read this book. It will save your life. If you have any other books or articles on this topic please send me info at andelin.tanya@mailcity.com.

I felt the book was very well written and easy to understand. This is a topic that is very serious and I expect that we will continue to hear more about Aspartame down the road.

Arthur R. Rolla, M.D. of Harvard Medical School was so frustrated by the claims of H.J. Roberts that he published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine to debunk the aspartame rumors. Rolla immediately considers the professional background of Roberts- an internist from West Palm Beach, Florida. This information already places Rolla of Harvard University at a much higher standing than Roberts. Rolla reveals Roberts became suspicious of his patient's complaints and began to associate them with aspartame due to simple correlation. With this theory in mind, Roberts prepared a questionnaire for his patients which was later distributed to people across the country. Roberts received reports of headache, dizziness, fatigue, memory loss, mood swings, insomnia, and personality reports. Instead of looking for other possible explanations, Roberts immediately assumed such health problems were caused by aspartame. Rolla states that when frequent symptoms are matched with the use of a widely consumed product, a chance association is likely. However, this chance correlation does not imply causation. In order to gain any certifiable evidence, Roberts should have sent out questionnaires to a control group not taking aspartame and compared their complaints to the aspartame groups. Rolla also criticizes Roberts for asking patients who were already convinced aspartame was the cause of their illness to halt aspartame intake. The results of the symptom cessation occurring with the halting of aspartame use are merely due to a counterplacebo effect. Rolla's premier complaint against Roberts' research is that Roberts disregarded the scientific method in testing his hypothesis, but presented it as scientific fact despite lacking previous peer review. Rolla regards Roberts' work as a clear abuse of the freedom of the press as it causes unnecessary public alarm and distrust of the government (FDA).
In the case of H.J. Roberts' work, his primary monetary motive is obvious. By looking at the many people who have purchased his work from Amazon.com, one can see the immediate profitability of the aspartame scare. Beyond books sales, it can be inferred that Roberts' secondary motive is recognition. Rolla reveals Roberts self-portrayal as a lone crusader against industry, government, and the medical establishment as entirely self-serving.

The Palm Beach Post says: Aspartame has been controversial, and a medical doctor in West Palm Beach, Dr. Hyman Roberts, has long campaigned against it. But while the clinic did conduct a study in 1997 linking aspartame to an increase in brain tumors, it now says officially the study only points to the need for more research and doesn't prove aspartame causes the tumors. Hmmm. An out-of-date book, by an out-of-date Doctor.

In this age of free press, email chain letters, and sensationalized media stories, people are willing to believe almost anything these days. If you do your own research on aspartame, you'll find that it is much more natural than you think. It is made up of two amino acids which naturally occur in protein, esterified with methanol (which by the way is found naturally in most fruits and vegetables - a cup of tomato juice contains more methanol than a cup of diet coke). The governments of Canada and the US have considered aspartame safe for years. Aspartame is endorsed by the American Diabetic Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Cancer Society, to name a few.

The so-called symptoms associated with "aspartame poisoning" mimic a multitude of other conditions, including most autoimmune conditions like thyroid disease, fibromyalgia, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc; as well as other conditions such as MVP. Many of these conditions are not widely diagnosed due to a lack of understanding by many physicians, not to mention the vagueness of symptoms.

On a personal note, I have been a long time headache sufferer. I stopped using aspartame for 6 months with absolutely no improvement in symptoms.

However, since Equal and Nutrasweet became widely available -- I recall the products coming on the market around 1984 -- it's practically been a food group for me. If I were going to drop dead, I think I'd have done it by now.

I notice that Splenda is being substituted for Nutrasweet in a lot of the products I've been buying for years. Twenty years down the road, I'll probably be reading about the ways Splenda kills people. Whatever.