Debate rages over sugar substitute

We found none. Instead, the label was in unknown spots in the chromatograms, which plainly indicates that the incorporation of label into DNA and protein was NOT through the incorporation of methyl groups, i.e. the one-carbon folate pathway. Other ways of label incorporation should explain the attachment of the label. The most logical explanation (justified by innumerable studies that show that formaldehyde attaches to protein and other molecules) was that aspartame-derived formaldehyde was chemically bound to protein and DNA, inactivating (embalming, in fact) proteins and altering DNA structure causing mutations.

The experimental studies show that the theory is faulty. No counter-experiments were published showing our possible "errors", nor the theory of folate pathway incorporation has been proved experimentally (it is fairly easy to demonstrate, it only needs to be true, however). This is why I felt insulted. It is an insult to the intelligence of anybody with even a thin varnish of scientific knowledge to discard proven facts and stick to self-fulfilling harebrained theories. If what the aspartame lovers say about the fate of aspartame carbon is true, why nobody has proved it experimentally? It is easy to carry out and much less expensive than hiring lawyers to defend bad science with top dollar legal expertise

I used as heading the famous initial words of the second Catilinary by Cicero, which I remember from my early high-school Latin. Since probably most Americans were lucky enough not to study Latin when 10-11 years old, I provide an approximate translation: "Up to when do you, Catilina, will abuse our patience?", substitute Catilina for the present aspartame producers and probably it fits very well the picture.
Good luck on the banning of this menace to our collective health.
Best regards,

--------------------------
Dr. Maria Alemany
Departament de Nutrici i Bromatologia
Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona

continued: This is explained in elementary physiology and biochemistry courses, it is unbelievable that this is maintained as a "serious" scientific position by somebody that got a PhD, unless this is not a discourse of science but of economy.

Theories are nice, but have to be proved true. The one Dr. Garst exposes here is that maintained by pro-aspartame fellows for decades. This is how they explained the incorporation of aspartame label into protein and DNA in the earliest experiments on aspartame using tracers that were published (none was published by this group thereafter). This theory fits very well with the story of a harmless aspartame, but it has been proven untrue. We did it, and this is why our study was so damaging. If the theory recycled by Dr. Garst were true, then, the carbon of the methyl alcohol of aspartame would enter the one-carbon path mediated by tetrahydrofolate, this can be done via formaldehyde or via formate. These one-carbon units may be processed (depending on demand) to methyl groups, such as those found in carnitine, thymine and methionine (the only amino acid that can get back methyl groups in mammals), thus explaining the presence of label in protein (methionine) or DNA (thymine). We gave labeled aspartame to rats, and got their DNA and protein from a number of tissues, and found large proportions of label. So far no differences with the Aspartame-lovers theory. However, we hydrolyzed the protein and DNA and looked for label in thymine iand found large proportions of label. So far no differences with the Aspartame-lovers theory. However, we hydrolyzed the protein and DNA and looked for label in thymine in DNA and methionine in protein. We found none.

If that were the case, why not get the FDA approval for aspartame as a drug/vitamin substitute? This is an outright fallacy (or better said bull-manure).

Third. Please, not again the tale of the methyl-esters of pectins! It has been proved to nausea that most of the methyl-alcohol esters of uronic acids remain esterified through intestinal passage, and that freed in the large intestine by the action of the flora is majoritarily and keenly used by these microbes for their profit. The remaining methyl alcohol leaving the intestine is largely detoxified by the liver (this is a physiological mechanism well known and proved effective for millennia). Aspartame, however, is not fully hydrolyzed in the intestine, being absorbed in part intact. After the intestine-portal vein-liver trap is surpassed, the body protection against methanol wanes, and the tiny liberation of methanol in tissues yields little amounts of formaldehyde that cause serious damage, precisely because it behaves very differently from the natural products methanol. Even in cases of wood-alcohol (methanol) intoxication, the liver helps to stem the overflow of toxic. Methanol inhalation or injection is much more dangerous, because it goes directly into the bloodstream and tissues jumping the liver barrier. This is explained in elementary physiology and biochemistry courses, it is unbelievable that this is maintained as a "serious" scientific position by somebody that got a PhD, unless this is not a discourse of science but of economy.

part 5 continued

Part 4, Dr. Maria Alemany, Departament du Nutricio I Bromatologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, who was the researcher for the damning Trocho Study wrote that he was deeply insulted by Garsts propaganda. Remember that Dr. Alemanys study proved the formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol embalms living tissue and damages DNA. As we know when you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. So concerned for the public was Dr. Alemany that after his study he reported it to the authorities. He told me personally that he was concerned aspartame could kill millions and I said has killed millions. After all aspartame can trigger all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases and tumors and can precipitate diabetes. Even the FDA found many types of tumors and brain cancer on original studies and the Ramazzini Study in 2005 confirmed FDA findings reporting the study showed aspartame to be a multipotential carcinogen. Dr. Alemany is a hero to the world and proved beyond a shadow of doubt what aspartame experts believed for years.

Dr. Alemany said: First, Garst suggests that perhaps aspartame just affects people with a metabolic deficit. If that were the case (I doubt it, deficits may just enhance the effect of aspartame), why then has it not been studied? In the case of cyclamate, the ban on its use is based on the deleterious effects on only a fraction of the population

Second. Dr. Garst accepts that aspartame yields formaldehyde... then, why not give formaldehyde to the people to help them synthesize methyl groups? Did I understood well (after speaking of the double helix which has very little to do here unless for the binding of formaldehyde to its strands to induce mutation) that Dr. Garst suggests that aspartame may be beneficial because its derived formaldehyde may supply one-carbon units for methylations through the folate pathway?

Part 3: Dr. Maria Alemany, Departament du Nutricio I Bromatologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, who was the researcher for the damning Trocho Study wrote that he was deeply insulted by Garsts propaganda. Remember that Dr. Alemanys study proved the formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol embalms living tissue and damages DNA. As we know when you damage DNA you can destroy humanity. So concerned for the public was Dr. Alemany that after his study he reported it to the authorities. He told me personally that he was concerned aspartame could kill millions and I said has killed millions. After all aspartame can trigger all sorts of neurodegenerative diseases and tumors and can precipitate diabetes. Even the FDA found many types of tumors and brain cancer on original studies and the Ramazzini Study in 2005 confirmed FDA findings reporting the study showed aspartame to be a multipotential carcinogen. Dr. Alemany is a hero to the world and proved beyond a shadow of doubt what aspartame experts believed for years.

Dr. Alemany said: First, Garst suggests that perhaps aspartame just affects people with a metabolic deficit. If that were the case (I doubt it, deficits may just enhance the effect of aspartame), why then has it not been studied? In the case of cyclamate, the ban on its use is based on the deleterious effects on only a fraction of the population

Part 2 continued: H. J. Roberts, M.D., FACP a diabetic specialist has produced 20 books and his first text on medical diagnosis was used by 60,000 doctors to prepare for their Board examinations. In his response to Garst's allegation that aspartame sensitivity reflects folate deficiency, he wrote to the members of the New Mexico Legislature:

You have received correspondence concerning folate deficiency as the purported cause of aspartame disease. While folate plays a role in the metabolism of methanol (methyl alcohol), the severity and widespread nature of reactions to aspartame products suggest that this assertion must be tempered by the following:

*The methyl alcohol in aspartame is FREE (rarely found as such in nature.)

*The assertion that methanol concentrations never are very high after aspartame ingestion is erroneous. I devoted an entire chapter to methanol toxicity in my text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic (pp 668-685), and show in Figure XXI-1 the dose-related blood levels of methanollasting 8 or more hours.

*The assertion that many New Mexicans suffer from a folate deficiency is challenged. While I discussed such a theoretical deficiency in my text, there is no evidence that folate deficiency is widespread among Americans. For example, a Mayo Clinic study involving thousands of blood assays concluded that it was rare. Garst ignores the major roles of phenylalanine and aspartic acid in aspartame disease.

Enormous effort has gone into this constructive attempt to ban aspartame products. I believe that it constitutes an imminent health hazard for New Mexicans. You are to be congratulated for coming this far in the face of severe corporate resistance.

H. J. Roberts, M.D., FACP, FCCP

I have so politely put up with Mr. Garst's ostensibly scientific rants for so long, I really must respond, yet I know that such comments will no doubt offend him and/or hurt his feelings, but the truth must be told--------->>>>>

John Garst lives in Alamogordo, New Mexcio, a retired toxicologist in the small city closest to the Trinity Test site of the world's first atomic blast, from which I conclude the plutonium or maybe the plutonium and aspartame might have sadly addled his once formidable brain. He has chimed in on various aspartame matters during New Mexico legislative considerations over the past few years.

Actually, the folks in that part of the state are extremely conservative (most of the Republican and a third of the Democratic Legislators drink lots of Diet Cokes, almost as if it were the patriotic thing to do) and are more in line and in step politically with the folks in West Texas than any where else, and in January 2006, they were taking known or unknown "marching orders" to not agree to anything bad said about Donald Rumsfeld. Well, as you know, Rummy is the guy who profited $12-15 million off of forcing aspartame through the FDA, but he had to step down from Secretary of Defense the day after the 2006 elections in November, so in 2007 they were still marching to his tune in the Right Reaches of the NM Legislature, even though Rumsfeld was out of the picture. Of course, these same folks always do what Coca Cola wants them to do.

Pathetic, isn't it, that such people are still in charge of things like Consumer Protection statutes, so I tried working on Hawaii last year, and made some progress with that Resolution, Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 191, which you can read on the Hawaii Legislature website, and print out for your member of Parliament!

I must in conclusion ackowledge my appreciation for Dr. Betty Martini, the co author of the Resolution which should be sent or hand delivered to every Member of the New Zealand Parliament.

I commend Channel 3 for covering this more than would be possible in the USA, where people seem bored with neurutoxicity discussions and where Coca Cola and Big Junk food control the media, preventing such "radical" talk in toto.

The rent-a-toxicologist championing industry-paid-for "studies" is works for Coca Cola! She could never explain why Coca Cola and Ajinomoto of Japan (world's largest manufacturer of Aspartame as well as another neurotoxic additive, MSG) workers unloading Aspartame tankers must wear Hazardous Materials Suits.

Aspartame was forced on the market by now-disgraced Donald Rumsfeld and his crony Arthur Hull Hayes in 1981; google RUMSFELD'S BIOWEAPON LEGACY, plus medical texts by HJ Roberts and Russell Blaylock.

Formaldehyde: half life of 90 seconds, yet used to pickle organ specimens for hundred of years?) Why would diabetics knowingly consume chemicals metabolized as methanol and formaldehyde, which lodge in the mitochondria, reaking havoc on the chromosomes and the neurological functioning of the body?
The ghastly truth is totally obscene, no matter what disgusting baldfaced lies Coca Cola and Ajinomoto perpetrate,
they WILL be brought to court to pay for harm to hundreds of millions of people, like the USA's 1990's tobacco suits.

The 2008 Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 191 could be copied for NZ legislative action; ask your MP to cosponsor! Here is URL to read that Resolution, which I wrote:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2008/Bills/SCR191_.htm

Helen Clark and Annette King were duped into regurgitating these same corporate lies replying to my letters about aspartame 4 years ago about aspartame; still, NZ is closer to banning aspartame than any nation in the world; NZ's plummeting aspartame sales prove it! Abby's point about 92 aspartame attributed symptoms from FDA's own record was
interrupted by Coca Cola's hired gun. Please write Obama and his new FDA Commissioner asking them to ban it straightaway in 2009!

Aspartame is NOT a known carcinogen; that statement is blatantly false. So much said about aspartame is false! There are no data to claim any adverse effects from aspartame, because all animal testing, be it in monkey or rat, has been done incorrectly beginning with the original Searle studies through the 2006 and 2007 articles by Ramazzini (Soffritti et al). All used the same experimental design--control versus treated, but the treatment did something unappreciated until my reports at the Society of Toxicology and Am Chem Soc Meetings in Spring, 2008. Aspartame hydrolyzes to methanol, but methanol is known to react with the vitamin folic acid. In all cases this unexpected problem over a long time produces folate deficiency, but just in the treated animals. Folic acid must be added to both the control and treated animals, but it was not. All adverse effects claimed for aspartame originate with this flawed experimental design; most experiments have shown no effect, because animal diets at least in the USA are corn/soybean diets that have the needed folic acid. Hence, there are NO adverse effects from aspartame in all animal safety studies.

Comments about formaldehyde from trailers is irrelevant; it is a totally different route of exposure (inhalation) and is just as relevant as claiming potassium is a poison. When injected it can be used for executions, but it is almost never toxic orally. Metabolically generated formaldehyde is not toxic either.

Comments about formaldehyde from aspartame causing allergy are misleading. Were the people bitten by ants as a child? Are they allergic to hand lotions? Are they folate deficient? All are serious, independent factors in "formaldehyde" allergies; food sources of formaldehyde are rarely allergenic in comparison.

FYI, I have no financial connection to aspartame or any industry involved with this issue; I hate bad science!

John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology and Nutrition)

Why would you sub sugar, except diabetic's I understand, But if you are overweight, its not the sugar its lack of exersise and a general unhealthy lifestyle and diet.

I am yet to find a diet product that even tastes good. stay away from it people.