Fun with Diet sodas

" Aspartame ( an ingredient commonly found in diet sodas and other sugar-free foods) has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer's, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes. When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carinogenic (cancer-causing). Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant of preservative. They don't drink it. The FDA has received more complaints about aspartame than any other ingredient to date. Want more bad news? When aspartame is paired with carbs, it causes your brain to slow down its production of serotonin. A healthy level of serotonin is needed to be happy and well balanced. So drinking soda can make you fat, sick, and unhappy ............ When aspartame was put before the FDA for approval, it was denied 8 times. G.D. Searle, founder of aspartame, tried to get in FDA approval in 1973. Clearly, he wasn't bothered by reports form neuroscientist Dr. John Olney and researcher Ann Reynolds (Hired by Searle himself) that aspartame was dangerous. Dr. Martha Freeman, a scientist from the FDA Division fo Metabolic and Endocrine Drug Products, declared, " The information submitted to review is inadequate to permi a scientific evaluation of clinical safety." Freeman recommended that untill the safety of aspartame was proven, marketing the product should not be permitted. Alas, her rocommendations were ignored. Somehow, in 1974, Searle got approval to use aspartame in dry foods. However, it wasn't smooth sailing from there. In 1975, the FDA put together a task force to review Searle's testing methods. Task force team leader Phillip Brodsky said he "had never seen anything as bad as Searle's testing" and called test results "manipulated." Before aspartame actually made it into dry foods, Olney and attorney and consumer advocate Jim Turner filed objections against the approval.
In 1077, The FDA asked the U.S. attorney's office to start grand jury proceedings against Searle for "Knowingly misrepresenting findings and concealing material facts and making false statements in aspartame saftety tests." Shortyly after, the U.S. attorney leading the investigation against Searle was offered a job by the law firm that was representing Searle. Later that same year, he resigned as U.S. attorneyand withdrew from the case, delaying the grand jury's investigation. This caused the statute of limitations on the charges to run out, and the investigation was dropped. AND he accepted the job with Searle's law firm. Stunning.
In 1980, a review by the Public Board of Inquiry set up by the FDA determined that aspartame should not be approved. The board said it had "not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive." In 1981, new FDA Commissioner Arthur Hull Hayes was appointed. Despite the fact that three out of six scientist advised against approval, Hayes decided to overrule the scientific review panel and allow aspartame into limited fdry goods. In 1983, he got it approved for beverages, even though the National Soft Drink Association urged the FDA to delay approval untill further testing could be done. That same year, Hayes left the FDA amid charges of impropriety. The Internal Department of Health and Human Services was investigating Hayes work as a consultant for Searle's public relations firm. Interesting. The FDA finally urged congress to prosecute Searle for giving the government false or incomplete test results on aspartame. However, the two government attorneys assigned to the case decided not to prosecute. Later, they went to work for the law firm that represented Searle. Fascinating. Despite recognizing 92 different symptoms that result form ingetsing aspartame, the FDA approved it for use, without restriction in 1996.
....... NutraSweet and Equal contain aspartame. When ingested, one of aspartame's ingredients , methyl alcohol, converts into formaldehyde, a deadly neurotoxin. In addition to aspartame, Equal contains the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine occurs naturally in the brain. But high levels can increase the chance of seizures and lead to depression and schizophrenia. There is no lesser of the two evils. Nutrasweet and Equal are both evil. Sweet and Low is no saint, either. It is an artificial sweetner that contains saccharin, a coal - tar compound. Stay Away!!

- chapter three in SKINNT ***** by Rory Freedman and Km Barnouin