Dr. Mercola March 11 2008 266,866 views
Victoria Inness-Brown’s family was addicted to diet soda. After researching the effects of aspartame, she strongly believed the artificial sweetener might one day lead to their illness or even their early deaths.
So she decided to perform her own aspartame experiment -- with 108 rats for 2 years and 8 months. Daily, she fed some of the rats the equivalent, for their body weight, of two-thirds the aspartame contained in 8-oz of diet soda.
Eleven of the females who took aspartame -- 37 percent -- developed tumors, some of massive size.
For details of Inness-Brown’s amazing experiment, click the link below.
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and the photos taken by Mrs. Inness-Brown of her diseased and genetically deformed test rats truly speak for themselves.
The fact that aspartame is endorsed by the U.S. FDA as a safe product, and is recommended by many doctors as a good alternative sweetener in lieu of sugar is enough to make you go speechless with rage.
But I’m not known for being chocked and dismayed into silence. Instead I wrote the book Sweet Deception. If you or your loved ones drink diet beverages or eat diet foods, this book will explain how you've been deceived about the truth behind artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose -- for greed, for profits ... and at the expense of your own health.
The book took several years to write and I had five physicians work on it full time. It is the most comprehensive book on the market addressing this issue. I had to be very careful as the makers of Splenda had their NY law firm write me a 30-page long threatening letter telling me they would sue me if I published the book. It has been two years since the book was published and no lawsuits yet. I guess they realized when you tell the truth it is difficult to prevail in any litigation.
There is so much evidence showing aspartame to be a potentially deadly agent that several prominent, well-educated doctors and even judges have written books on the subject. H.J. Roberts three-pound tome Aspartame Disease -- An Ignored Epidemic is another must-read if you’re anywhere near the fence on this issue. Dr. Roberts' excellent article Aspartame Disease -- An FDA Approved Epidemic is also posted on my site.
Biochemical Warfare Agent in Your Food Supply
Does it make sense that what was once listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent is now an integral part of your modern diet?
That’s exactly what happened with aspartame – it’s the poster child for unconscionable greed coupled with political power that may run as deep as the CIA.
That aspartame is a profitable business should be no surprise. As an example, the Maryland-based biotech company Genex Corporation went from reporting $14.3 million in revenues in 1985, to a paltry $2.8 million in 1986 after they lost their aspartame business. Genex had been one of the main suppliers of aspartame up until October 1985, at which time the NutraSweet Company began manufacturing the chemical themselves.
Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure and Canderel, aspartame can be found in more than 6,000 products, including:
It’s even found in vitamins, as well as prescription and over the-counter drugs such as Alka Seltzer Plus, and some Tylenol medications.
Food For Thought
One 12 ounce diet soda contains about 180 mg of aspartame, or 15 mg of aspartame per ounce, which equals approximately 4.5 packets of NutraSweet.
According to the industry-run Aspartame Information Center website – a propaganda masterpiece, if I ever saw one -- the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI), as set by the FDA, is 50 mg/kg. That equates to about 20 cans of 12-ounce diet soda if you’re a 150 lb. adult, or six 12-ounce cans for a 50-pound child.
The ADI for tabletop sweeteners is 97 packets for adults, and 32 packets for children.
Based on the photos from Mrs. Inness-Brown’s experiment, using the equivalent of two-thirds of the aspartame contained in one 8 ounce can of soda per day, these ADI’s do not appear to be anywhere near “safe” limits.
The Aspartame Information Center’s “myth” section goes on to make this statement:
“Despite the overwhelming documentation of aspartame’s safety, unfounded allegations that aspartame is associated with a myriad of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and lupus, have continued to be spread via the Internet and the media by a few individuals who have no documented scientific or medical expertise. Recently, several governments and expert scientific committees (including the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency, the French Food Safety Agency and Health Canada) carefully evaluated the Internet allegations and found them to be false, reconfirming the safety of aspartame.”
“Despite the overwhelming documentation of aspartame’s safety, unfounded allegations that aspartame is associated with a myriad of ailments, including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and lupus, have continued to be spread via the Internet and the media by a few individuals who have no documented scientific or medical expertise.
Recently, several governments and expert scientific committees (including the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency, the French Food Safety Agency and Health Canada) carefully evaluated the Internet allegations and found them to be false, reconfirming the safety of aspartame.”
Really, now…
Well, certain parts are partially true. For example, the Scientific Committee on Food of the European Commission did come out with a report named Update on the Safety of Aspartame in December of 2002, concluding aspartame was safe.
Whether or not the Committee could get an A for accuracy, attention and impartiality is debatable, however. This Independent Analysis of the EU report in question states:
“This response will demonstrate that: 1. Members of the European Commission Scientific Committee on Food have ethical and financial conflicts of interest with the food industry that should have disqualified them from participation on the Committee. 2. Members of the Scientific Committee on Food did not read some or most of the research papers they cited. 3. The report ignored independent research related to aspartame and instead relied heavily on and frequently cited articles in books and reviews put together by employees or consultants of the aspartame manufacturers (Monsanto and Ajinomoto). 4. Persons ingesting aspartame are being exposed to significant amounts of formaldehyde that has been shown by independent research to accumulate throughout the body. 5. Aspartame manufacturer-sponsored studies are designed in a way as to avoid the possibility of finding adverse effects, yet the Committee accepted these studies without any question. In contrast, nearly all independent research on aspartame in humans and animals has found that it can cause problems. 6. Human studies and clinical reports published in the medical literature linking aspartame use to fibromyalgia, seizures, panic attacks, mania, brain cancer, migraines / headaches, vertigo, symptoms related to depression, memory loss, hives, irregular heart beats, and numerous other symptoms were largely ignored by the Committee.”
“This response will demonstrate that:
1. Members of the European Commission Scientific Committee on Food have ethical and financial conflicts of interest with the food industry that should have disqualified them from participation on the Committee.
2. Members of the Scientific Committee on Food did not read some or most of the research papers they cited.
3. The report ignored independent research related to aspartame and instead relied heavily on and frequently cited articles in books and reviews put together by employees or consultants of the aspartame manufacturers (Monsanto and Ajinomoto).
4. Persons ingesting aspartame are being exposed to significant amounts of formaldehyde that has been shown by independent research to accumulate throughout the body.
5. Aspartame manufacturer-sponsored studies are designed in a way as to avoid the possibility of finding adverse effects, yet the Committee accepted these studies without any question. In contrast, nearly all independent research on aspartame in humans and animals has found that it can cause problems.
6. Human studies and clinical reports published in the medical literature linking aspartame use to fibromyalgia, seizures, panic attacks, mania, brain cancer, migraines / headaches, vertigo, symptoms related to depression, memory loss, hives, irregular heart beats, and numerous other symptoms were largely ignored by the Committee.”
The Aspartame Danger is NO MYTH!
Contrary to what the PR machine says, there is overwhelming scientific evidence that aspartame is exactly as dangerous as we say it is, and whenever you root around to see who gave aspartame its latest “clean bill of health,” invariably you will find ties to the industry.
By the Aspartame Information Center’s statement above, you’d be led to believe that Dr. Morando Soffritti of the European Foundation of Oncology in Bologna, Italy is a home schooled scientist with “no documented scientific or medical expertise” either.
But as Mrs. Inness-Brown details in her article, Dr. Soffritti’s 8-year mega-experiment with 1,800 rats, completed in 2005, is perhaps one of the most telling studies performed to date.
The results of his experiment also showed a dose-related increase of lymphomas and leukemias in female rats, observable at the dose level of 20 mg/Kg of body weight – just 40 percent of the accepted daily intake permitted by current regulations.
And what about the photos? Do they lie?
They show the visual manifestation of many of the common symptoms associated with aspartame, according to FDA’s own records, including:
I have a large assortment of information about aspartame -- its chemical makeup and biological impact – posted on my site. A good place to start is by reading the Related Articles listed below, or simply enter “aspartame” in the search box on my home page for more information.
How to Kick the Artificial Sweetener HabitIf you consume a lot of diet foods and beverages, it’s likely because you have sweet cravings (yet you think you are making a healthy choice by avoiding sugar).Your body, however, is craving sweets because you are not giving it the fuel it needs. Finding out your nutritional type will tell you exactly which foods you need to eat to feel full and satisfied. It may sound hard to believe right now, but once you start eating right for your nutritional type, your sweet cravings will disappear.Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of the emotional component of your food cravings. I recommend using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). More than any traditional or alternative method I have used or researched, EFT works to overcome food cravings and helps you reach dietary success.And, if diet soda is the culprit for you, be sure to check out Turbo Tapping, which is an extremely effective and simple tool to get rid of your soda addiction in a short period of time.
Last, but not least, neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D. also has a great web page describing what to do if you have used aspartame, with tips and directions for detoxing safely.
aspartame is ugly but this is even worse cause you cant avoid it see this
www.organicconsumers.org/.../article_10711.cfm
feel sorry for you Californians
dariusz,
That is a GREAT website.
Thank you.
Some towns are being sprayed already. In Wyoming, they are worried about West Nile Virus. In the town of Saratoga, EVERY EVENING a truck drives up and down the streets spraying pesticide. And if that's not bad enough, EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT, weather permitting, a crop duster sprays the whole town.
To sobber: Thank you for posting the very informative link. OUTRAGEOUS!
Nice...and I mean that in a good way! I essentially quit drinking diet soda about 3 years ago. I have still had one once in a while, however now I will avoid them like the plague along with other foods that have this **** in them.
I'm so sick of being constantly seeing sucralose on the ingredient label. Just recently 4 things went past my attention. One was Gatorade, the new "G2". Next, a glucosamine supplement (liquid), then DanActive, the light version, didn't notice the fine print, but last but not least was a "green kitty chews" - yeah, had sucralose. I'm so mad at this. There should be a bold stamp on the front of every product that uses Sucralose, NutraSweet, even MSG. I'm so sick of reading the fine printed ingredient labels.
I'm so mad, I thought I'd post here for the first time, just to vent!
Thankyou!
I was going to purchase "lite juice" the other day at the grocery store.
I almost did not see the big(read tiny) artificial sweetener logo on the botle.
Every lite juice on the shelf had it. I was just trying to cut out some sugar.
I ended up buying "no sugar added juice."
Just buy juice. The more they do to it, the worse it is; the less they do to it, the better it is. Actual juice (not Hawaiian Punch, not Hi C, not Sunny D) do NOT have HFCS or other sugars added to them.
Just buy juice.
Hi Trixie,
I agree with you. I have to read all the fine on everything before I buy it. I got the Dan Active Light once and took it home and found out it had artificial sweetner in it. I took it back to the store and got my money back. I used to drink Slimfast. Then I found out the same about it. One shocker was Airborne, a supposedly supplement to stop colds fast, has Splenda in it. I took some on advice of a friend, and it did work. Then I found out the truth and quit taking it. Walgreens has one similar. Some, maybe all, of Marie Callender's pot pies and dinners have MSG in them. I called their customer service number and complained and she said they were trying to phase it out. She sent me a coupon for a free product, tho. Some of my friends make fun of me when I refuse to eat certain things and say, "Oh, don't worry so much, we all have to die sometime." Well, I want to live and live healthy as long as God has work for me to do here on earth. God bless all of you on the site for giving your input.
Basically, you need to stop buying anything in a container. My wife and I hardly buy anything from the center of the grocery store. Stick to the front where all the veggies and fruits are.
Yeah, buying yogurt is fun for my mom and I, who are allergic to aspartame, since it's in nearly all brands anymore. We have to carefully scour the ingredient labels, with the exception of 1-2 brands.
I completely agree. One thing that drives me bonkers is trying to find some chewable Vitamin C's for my kids - they almost ALL contain aspartame or sucralose or something else.... if any knows of a good Vit C alternative, I'd love to hear it.
That's because aspartame in the brain decomposes into formaldehyde and rat poison.
And people wonder why I don't use the stuff and diligently avoid all excitotoxins, especially MSG!
I have a few carpenter ants. I will try it!!
now THAT is funny
Maybe you should call PETA. I realize that aspartame is horrible, along with the rest of the sweetners, but this test of this womans means nothing to me. I have had many pet rats, 10 at one time,(bought one, got a bonus of eight in two weeks :-). 5 females and five males and many females before them. Almost all my female rats got tumors, some were very young yet so we had them removed just so we could keep them longer. Most we put down when they got older and the tumors grew again, because surgury wasn't and option then. They were not fed any sweetners, and none of the male rats got tumors. You ask any rat breeder and they will tell you, females rats are very prone to tumors. It is sometimes halted if you spay them. So I don't believe any of these tumors tests on rats.
As I was reading this, I was thinking the same thing as Debbi Zulaski. Anyone who is familiar with raising rats knows that the amount of tumors the rats had in this experiment is normal WITHOUT ingesting Aspartame.
Debbi, it's interesting to note that on the web site, myaspartameexperiment.com, Victoria found that the aspartame fed group of 30 males and 30 females had tumors, eye problems (missing at birth, protruding, retinal detachment, blindness or bleeding eyes), paralysis, torticollis, unstead gait, skin problems and lesions, obesity, genetic defects. 11 females and 1 male developed tumors. She also observed of the 24 males and 24 females in the control group that only 3 females developed small tumors, but had no other visible effects. Quite convincing.
It's without question the FDA and artificial sweetner manufacturers are misleading us. I'd love to see a similar experiment with Splenda/bleached sugar.
Great! I'm calling PETA too.
Pet rats may be prone to tumors because of the 'rat food'. Anyone who has pets and an interest in their health knows that cancer is the leading cause of pet death now and 10% higher than in human population. It's because of the POOR, and I repeat, POOR quality food that is offered. Pet food is a direct result of the byproducts of the human food production industry. It was devised to get rid of the things that were left-over from human food production and is mostly inedibles. I'm sure that the rat food producers take less care than the dog/cat food producers because there are less of you and less conplaints. Plus, (although I don't know for sure) rats may eat a wider variety(ie. lesser quality) of left-over products. Could it be possible that the food is a main cause of the tumors??
Thank you for your post, Debbie Zulaski. We had a pet rat several years ago and one day we wanted to find out more about our beloved Princess Clawdia. So I researched average life spans and found out that the average female rat lives approx. 2+ years and frequently developes cancerous tumors as a main cause of death. Around the age of 2 years 4 months, Princess Clawdia developed a huge tumor on her right hind quarter, it seemed like overnight! So I do think it is unfair to point to this woman's experiment with rats as proof of aspartame's health consequences. I personally don't touch the stuff but this experiment is useless as a reason to avoid it.
My family and I performed our own experiment with Splenda/sucralose some five years ago.
For many years, I suffered from a systemic candida infection. For those who don't know, that's a yeast infection everywhere. I had to be very careful what I consumed: nothing fermented, nothing with sugar (including malt), nothing aged, no bread, no mushrooms, no cheese, no alcohol, no vinegar, no roots, no peanuts, no coconut. limited fruit . . .it was rather difficult.
I drank some artificially sweetened sodas, and Splenda was just starting to be put in a couple. Then people started saying that it was invert sugar. Being a cook, my roommate pointed out that invert sugar was sugar that had been boiled, and therefore fermented faster. That, of course, would make it the last thing I should have. Furthermore, my son, who had been diagnosed with ADD, had eaten some jelly beans that turned out to have it and got so hyper that he actually left footprints on the walls. Worse even than his reaction to sugar.
To test our theories and their claims, we took four jars of water, put Splenda in one, Nutrasweet in one, Sweet & Low in one and sugar in the last. Then to each we added a packed of activated dry yeast.
The results were spectacular.
The sugar just bubbled along as we would all expect. The Nutrasweet and Sweet & Low did nothing, as we would expect.
The Splenda jar practically exploded. It immediately began to foam and bubble.
This implied, or I should say spoke loudly, that Splenda is at the least digestible by yeast (making absolutely the wrong thing for me to consume then) and most likely digestible by people, making it hardly a "non-nutrative" sweetener.
I knew then Splenda was a lie, just like I knew Nutrasweet and Sweet&Low were dangerous. It took me a couple more years of research to actually find out what Splenda was, and it turned out to be an even bigger lie than I already thought.
I love this! Thanks for actually doing some primitive science. Is it OK to pass this around?
Go ahead. Spread the word. I tell people about this experiment almost every time I go to the grocery store.
That jar of Splenda water foamed for two days, by the way.
I got rid of a systemic yeast infection in less than a week(I followed the protocol for 2 weeks, but had no symptoms after 5 days). I drank 1 oz of Braggs apple cider vinegar in water and 6 oz of kefir each day along with goldenseal tincture. My Dr was amazed!