A Poisoned World
Site
A close examination into what many consider to be a “hoax”: aspartame toxicity. This documentary attempts to look at what is ‘definitively’ known about aspartame and discovers that the label “hoax” in this case is a dangerous misconception. In a journey through interviews with varous doctors, lawers, activists and victims, narrator Cori Brackett discovers symptoms to a much larger problem:
Our institutions design to protect the public from harmful substances have failed us.
In a poisoned world, victims are found throughout the country and are finally given a voice. A close examination of the process for approving aspartame by the FDA leads to earllier examples of revolving door activity and how powerful corporations are influencing once trusted institutions. Today, resistance to aspartame continues, as a portrait of this poisoned world also offers hope and remedy.
Filed under: Conspiracy, Education, Environment, Health, Media_Alternate, Video
Playtoh 
Aspartame is perfectly safe used as directed in healthy people. This Sweet Misery site is garbage, has always been garbage and will always be garbage.
Note that most of the crap they cite is 20-30 years old. Check out the real facts here in the full text lastest review of the substance, http://www.fte.ugent.be/vlaz/Magnuson2007.pdf
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology)
John, thanks for your comment. Just a couple questions, if you care to answer. Do you work for any of the companies that have financed the study you sent me? Diet Coke, Equal, NutraSweet, or is it Ajinomoto? It’s not that I don’t think you have the best intentions, maybe you are like all the other realists who think that bombarding humans cells with radiation can cure illness. I wish I could trust you and Magnuson et al, just as much as I wish I could trust the war profiteer war mongering Rumsfeld. The good intentions of the FDA would have had aspartame banned, had not Rumsfeld used his influence in Washington to have the substance approved.
Does Aspartame liberate the methyl alcohol to cause addiction and poisoning, or not ?
John E. Garst has also left a comment on my blog http://dccandc.blogspot.com/. I’d like to ask him the same question.
His comment: “BS. If you want the true facts about aspartame visit snopes.com, aspartame.net, or better yet the full text 2007 Magnuson review
http://www.fte.ugent.be/vlaz/Magnuson2007.pdf.
The latter is conducte by 10 experts in the field.
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Toxicology”
Which is lovely – it’s a report saying aspartame is safe.
At the end of the 01 September 2007 report it says:
“The identity of the sponsor of this review
was also unknown to peer reviewers and the editor until
acceptance of manuscript. The sponsor was Ajinomoto Company,
Inc.”
Who are Ajinomoto Company?
“Ajinomoto of Japan, the world’s largest manufacturer of both aspartame and MSG”
http://media.www.dailylobo.com/media/storage/paper344/news/2008/01/24/Opinion/Hawaiian.Aspartame.Bills.Challenge.Corporate.Clout-3166777.shtml
This is where it gets slightly bladerunner
Check out their president:
http://www.ajinomoto.com/message/index.html
Ajinomoto is active in 23 countries and regions worldwide, employing around 24,861 people as of 2004. Yearly revenue stands at US$9.84 billion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajinomoto
CR – wouldn’t it be great if people were more aware of the links between the so called objective research and their well paid impartial scientists. The question of selling out was debated in last century, now everything and everyone is just sold. I meandered to your site and wish you the best kicking your addictions. For what it’s worth it might be worth noting that I read on Dr Mercola that most fizzy drinks probably contain the poison benzene, this occurs when the drink contains both potassium benzoate and vitamin C. So if you like your soft drinks, don’t only watch out for aspartame and saccharin but also these two additives. Start a new addiction: yummy flouride free water.
And the PDF that Dr. Gorst refers to (Magnuson2007.pdf) is just an evaluation and REVIEW. It uses data from whatever “objective studies” were conducted by “whomever” to compile this report. Dr. Gorst keeps saying “Next month, next month,” but if it’s this same sort of magic and mirrors that’s in the PDF file, it’s pretty worthless. As would be, of course, his opinion. I’m not paranoid, but he’s involved.
I’ve worked in the medical field writing study protocols, and evaluating their efficacy and projected outcomes. If the inclusion/exclusion criteria is adhered to, you have a START at a viable study.
Sure, I’d like to have seen more information on the “My Aspartame Experiment” by Victoria Inness-Brown. Stuff like temperature control of habitat, cleaning of cages, ingestion… yes, she did say it was mixed into their drinking water, but how does she KNOW that each rat got their “fair share?” Maybe one drank more than all the others.
And even so, studies generate numbers, and numbers can be manipulated. Can you see them printing all 92 possible symptoms and side effects on every sweetener package?
John E. Garst left a comment on my blog as well when I talked about Pepsi and Coke being bad for you. Read it here: http://jesuscansuckmycock.blogspot.com/2008/03/taste-one-thats-forever-young.html
Methanol expert, Dr. Woodrow Monte wrote to the Aspartame Victim Support Gouup at Yahoo that no amount of folic acid (Garst’s cure for aspartame poisoing) cab counteract the free methanol (10 percent of aspartame)
Garst, indeed goes around to anti-aspartame web sites insisting aspartame is safe. Weird, to say the least.
For any believers who think diet soda is safe, check out this private study.
http://myaspartameexperiment.com
Aspartame is perfectly safe used as directed in healthy people. First, all the misguided concern about aspartame has been wrongfully created by a combination of errors that started with the original Searle work, were perpetuated by a misguided aspartame internet conspiracy theory, and supported by two also wrongly designed 2006 and 2007 studies. In the eyes of misguided FDA evaluators of the original Searle work, there were tumor concerns evident in the original Searle safety study. Then the internet conspiracy theorists have kept this fable alive for twenty years. But those original results were simply false positives stemming from an error that nobody, even FDA, caught. The Searle work and everything since (including both highly quoted Soffritti et al (that is Rammazini), 2006 and 2007 studies) used a simple, yet wrong experimental design. They used control rats (fed no aspartame) and treated rats (fed different, graded doses of aspartame to get a dose response). The problem with this design is that it is simply improperly balanced. Even a high school science fair student can recognize this fact once it is made clear. Methanol from aspartame degradation is converted to formaldehyde. Formaldehyde has long been known to react with and deplete a portion of the vitamin folate in exposed rats, but that issue is resolved if folate is replaced by daily and microgram sustenance supplements. But this degradation of folate only happens in the treated animals, because only they get the aspartame source of the methanol. Control animals were not given equivalent methanol. The consequence is that only the rats receiving the aspartame will show a dose-dependent increase not in tumors arising from aspartame, but from a dose-dependent induction of folate deficiency induced tumors. Proper design would involve feeding folate supplements; it would best have used three groups, control rats, aspartame treated rats, and folate supplemented, aspartame treated rats. This design would not have given rise to tumors, because the rats would not have been depleted of folate, which causes exactly those tumor types reported in the 2006 and 2007 lifetime exposures.
Second, all the matter above deals with the rat experimental studies, but there is another totally separate issue, human safety. That issue only exists because of the false claims that aspartame causes problems including tumors in humans. In a corollary of the first line, the fact of the matter is that many people in this country are not healthy; they are intrinsically susceptible to a natural cause of tumors that internet conspirators have wrongly attributed to aspartame. Many people, particularly women, are deficient in this vitamin (folate) and some are seriously deficient in it. The “health weight” trend not to eat sweet rolls, doughnuts and other grain products that have been fortified with folate since 1998 only worsens the underlying problem. Still others have biochemical issues with their folate processing enzymes called polymorphisms that raise their susceptibility to folate deficiency. Widespread folate deficiency, not aspartame, is the real problem causing much of the tumors and cancers epidemic in America today. And alcohol abuse by women is a major factor in increased folate deficiency and contributes greatly to the incidence of breast cancer today.
There have recently been calls for a second round of grain product fortification to again overcome these problems. But the only real solution to the many folate deficiency linked tumors is use of folate supplements. Folate is made not by us, but by bacteria in our gut; given even a folate rich diet (“healthy living”), we simply cannot make sufficient folate to prevent the widespread occurrence of disease associated with folate deficiency. Then, many dietary substances including antibiotics, abusive levels of ethanol, and many commonly used pharmaceuticals (antiepileptic and others) adversely affect either folate or the bugs that generate the folate; they only make us more deficient.
(Information detailing the fatal error in all rat aspartame research is new. It was presented in March, 2008 at the national Society of Toxicology meeting in Seattle and last week (2008) at the Agriculture & Food Chemistry section of the national American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans).
I sure love Google; after John E. Garst wrote a scathing attack on my blog, I searched for him online and found out that’s pretty much all he does–attack anyone who questions the safety of aspartame.
The ultimate goal we all have, including Dr. Garst I am sure, is to keep people are healthy. After almost dying from aspartame poisoning, I really want to know what caused it. Be it aspartame or a genetic folate problem, I want the truth. I am angry that I was told I had Graves then MS then seizures! I was dying and the doctors had no idea why.
I absolutely detest what Rumsfeld did with aspartame! But, if we are going to all work together in exposing the dangers of artificial sweeteners and other horrible food additives, lets stop making this a political issue by saying he is also a war mongar! These irrelevant unnecessary side bar comments will only detract from our mission to expose the cartel between the food & drug industry, and the FDA where corruption runs rampant! The horrendous consequences of Aspartame effects both liberals and conservatives equaly. Lets just keep politics out of the equation and just go after who ever the greedy bastards are no matter what their political persuasions! OK! Or nobody is going to survive. Lets stick together, Jim
Swine Flu Scare:
Just more phony hype so some huge drug company can make a ton of cash on dangerous vacines and toxic medications!
Don’t believe or trust the greedy liars at the FDA or the drug company’s that push that crap!
They couldn’t care less about your health, Jim
Sorry, I haven’t been back sooner, but for any concerned reader, the author has absolutely no financial or biasing connection with the aspartame, the soft drink or their related industries and have made not one penny from my opposition, unlike many antiaspartame critics who sell books and offer irrelevant treatment. Their clearly stated goals are lawsuits, where none are justified. The author has an undergraduate degree in chemistry (with emphasis in organic and biological chemistry) from the University of Kansas, a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry (Pharmacy) from the University of Iowa, postdoctoral experience at Yale University (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry) and two postdoctoral fellowships at Vanderbilt University (physiology-pharmacology (mentor moved), then nutritional toxicology) and taught nutritional toxicology at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, UIUC) besides having conducted federally funded research at Vanderbilt, UIUC, and at several other universities before recently entering into semi-retirement.
Dr. Garst,
Your Ph.D is testament to your discipline and perserverence and you mention it here to garner cerdibility and to impress readers, but with all do respect, I’m not impressed. Even though you say otherwise on this and other sites, I am not convinced that you don’t receive money from aspartame or its affiliates, or from someone who does receive money from at least one of them. If you don’t, as you say you do, and you truly beleve in the perfect safety of aspartame, why do you search out sites that attest to the dangers of it, and emphatically denounce them? If aspartame won’t hurt anyone, why are you so emotional at times? If aspartame is safe, and you are not affiliated with it in ANY way, why does it matter to you so much that people think it’s dangerous? How does that hurt you? I have found sites where you have endeavored to denounce the dangers of aspartame, not mentioning even on negative aspect of it. Not one. I am not a doctor, but there are many doctors who would disagree with you, (Dr.H.J Roberts, Dr. James Bowen, Dr.Sandra Cabot, Dr. Julian Whitaker, Dr Blaylock, and I’m sure there are many more) and they would be just as emphatic, precise, and scientific in their explanations. They would have a reason to be emotional about it. Their motivation is the protection of humanity. What’s yours?
I’m curious, why do you refer to yourself in the third-person, as the “the author”?
I keep hearing from him too regarding my ‘aspartame, Sipping On Poison’ Posts. The level of defense is incredibly suspect and I think I will now start signing my name everywhere with every title I have ever earned, from daughter straight up to Natural Health Care and Disease Prevention Head Cheerleader (okay- maybe working towards that last one- but who really decides anyway?). I suppose though, if Dr. Garst can keep convincing people to eat poisons like Aspartame and MSG- then as a toxicilogist, he keeps himself working… though indirectly, keeps all of us working for disease prevention working too.
It seems obvious to me that Dr. Johnny is on the take.
Please see my comments accidentally directed to another–about the third comment down.
You are just flat out WRONG. I don’t care about ‘research’. This poison makes people sick and I am living proof.
You should be ashamed for what you are doing.
Hay folks, The coming Food & Vaccine Revolution needs a Poster Child?
I can think of several, but lets put Donald Rumsfeld (Rumvorkian) at the head of the pack. If you read Sherri Tenpenny’s incredible book called “Foul”, chapter 11 in particular will blow your mind! She beautifully documents how this creep navigated his way through DC for 35 years making himself a mutli millionaire by corrupting and disinfranchising the FHA more than any other SOB in Washington’s history. He broke the law by subverting the 1958 Delany Clause in order to get Aspartame approved in 1981 under the guise of deregulation! Now, 75% of all complaints to the FDA have to do with cancer causing, Aspartame! Thanks alot Rummy…Not much longer before you meet your maker and have to account for your horrendous acts of sin against humanity! You are the lowest of the low! You talk about crap on a stick….this guy takes the cake! I saw 3 children under 10 yrs old drinking diet soda last weekend at my 5 yr old daughters school’s animal fair. Their uninformed parents put trust in the FDA and people like Rumvorkian to protect them, but unfortunetly the gatekeepers of our food supply have been sold down the river for decades. Now you can’t even mention the word Aspartame on radio in fear of getting taken to court by Monsanto!
Jim:
With all due respect, it would help if you knew something about what you write.
First, aspartame is perfectly safe used as directed as determined time and time again by virtually all the world’s relevant regulatory authorities. The antiaspartame critics arguments have been blown away decades ago.
Second, the Delany Clause was rejected by science authorities decades ago not only because it was discovered that many things cause cancer in rats, but because the more we knew, the more we knew the mechanisms of many cancers in rats and rodents were impossible in humans. That extends to discoveries in Sprague-Dawley rats about aspartame.
Lastly, if you want to truly understand aspartame and its science, you should take a peak at a recent post of mine documenting that all issues with aspartame are really personal issues with folate and related vitamins, http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/10/why-the-fda-doesn't-ban-food-colors-bpa-and-other-chemicals/246011/ .
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)
Hay Garst, who’s paying you?
You fraud!
Monsanto?
It doesn’t matter what the S. C. says ….! The last I checked, Delaney has never been repealed …..that means Rumvorkian clearly broke the law for no other reason than to make Aspartame patent holder GD Searle stock skyrocket which he owned tons of at the time! It’s always about the money as it is with you in some way I’m sure! So I ask you again John, exactly who is paying you to lie?????
Jim, obviously you didn’t even look at the website I shared, so I doubt you would take the time to go here to answer your question,
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/10/why-the-fda-doesn't-ban-food-colors-bpa-and-other-chemicals/246011/#comment-327595268. I have never received even one cent for my comments. But along the lines of what you ask, the better question is who is paying for the anti-aspartame stuff? Perhaps it is those actually selling books, detoxification kits or the like?
Though many changes have been made over the years in the Delany Clause, it makes no difference whether Delany was repealed or not. Aspartame is perhaps the most studied substance in human history. No persuasive, repeatable science has ever found aspartame to cause cancer even in animals and many, even government studies, support that stance. Accordingly aspartame is approved by all relevant regulatory agencies in the western world.
I invite you to actually read what I wrote and try to understand that all perceived issues with aspartame likely stem instead from underlying personal vitamin and related issues. I have actually suggested elsewhere that aspartame sensitivity might well serve as a indicator of potentially serious vitamin issues.
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)
Notice how Garst who doesn’t deserve the respect of being called doctor, conveniently leaves out some crucial facts about Aspartame. First of all, Aspartame gives a person increased Methanal=to formic acid exposure which is highly toxic. Aspartame contains 10% Methonal (wood alcohol). Metnonal is a serious Metabolic poison which can make a person go blind & attack every organ in the body. If anybody thinks this isn’t true, Just check out the early history of some of the moon-shiners who went permanently blind after mistakenly concocting a brew of wood alcohol in their booze. Or how those skid row bumbs in the early 60s who went blind before 31 of them dropped dead after drinking “STERNO” to get a high from! Thats right, the STERNO which was an industrial cleaner had increased amounts of methanol in it! If you have any doubts about this, everything is well documented in Rundle V Feinberg court of appeals 3rd circuit June 2nd 1971 Case # 19251! And thirdly, a few years ago I noticed on TV, Glenn Beck holding a can of diet soda laced of course with Aspartame during one of his shows. A few months later Glenn made a shocking announcemet to his audience about the possibility of going blind and losing 100% of his vision. His doctor told him he had whats known as macular distrophy, and had no clue what was causing his condition. At that point, I promply made an attempt to contact Glenn on his radio program in Philidelphia. The call screener Kieth told me very politely that words like Apartame were nort allowed to be mentioned on the air for legal reasons. However, he did allow me to email the Rundle V Feinberg story and told me he would pass it on to Glenn himself. Call it coincedence, call it a miracle, call it what you will??? But the next time I saw Glenn holding a can of soda in his hand on his TV program, it was a regular soda and not Aspartam diet soda. And from that point on, he has never mentioned anything to my knowledge about going bling or vision problems. So I beg you readers to not pay any attention to this worthless clown Garst, and just follow your own God given instincts. You need to be your own doctor and expert label reader to protect youself and your precious children. It’s really easy to cut throw the deception if just invest a little time doing your own research!
All the best, Jim V. END
Hi all:
I left a comment in answer to Jim, but it disappeared. I wrote back with the same comment and the webpage said I said that before and wouldn’t take it again. People need to know about this issue.
John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)
Now my comment appeared after many days. Just strange?
John E. Garst