I POSTED A 90-MINUTE VIDEO AT THE END OF THIS BLOG, AND HOPE VERY MUCH THAT YOU WATCH IT AND SHARE IT WITH THOSE YOU LOVE, THOSE YOU CARE FOR.
DESPITE THE OBVIOUS INTENTION OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS (HEAVILY LOBBIED BY MONSANTO AND OTHER GMO LOBBYISTS, OWING QUITE HEFTY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GMO PRODUCERS AND BIG PHARMA, TO THE BANKS WHICH FUND BOTH) TO ALLOW THIS CHEMICAL INTO OUR MILK SUPPLY UNLABELED, THE AMERICAN CONSUMER NEEDS TO KNOW ALL THE INGREDIENTS IN ALL OUR FOOD AND DRINK SO WE CAN DECIDE FOR OURSELVES WHAT WE'RE WILLING TO GIVE TO OUR CHILDREN, OR TO INGEST OURSELVES.
WE HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW ABOUT HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES IN OUR FOOD AND DRINK, AND ASPARTAME IS EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS!
[SEE THIS ARTICLE: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/286683-watchdog-fights-to-keep-milk-labels]
WOULD AMERICAN PARENTS KNOWINGLY TAKE THE RISK THAT THEIR OFFSPRING'S DEVELOPING BRAINS WILL BE SERIOUSLY AND IRREVERSIBLY AFFECTED BY THIS CHEMICAL WEAPON, OR THAT OUR CHILDREN WILL CONTRACT CANCER FROM THIS LETHAL SWEETENER?
AND DID YOU KNOW THAT DONALD RUMSFELD, THE DONALD RUMSFELD OF "IRAQ HAS WMDs" FAME, RUMSFELD WHO FOR YEARS WAS SO CLOSELY TIED TO THE PENTAGON IT WAS SICKENING, WAS APPOINTED CEO OF SEARLE IN 1977 AND ENLISTED AID FROM HIS OLD CRONIES TO GET ASPARTAME PASSED BY THE FDA?
ASPARTAME WAS ONCE LISTED AS A BIOWEAPON!
Numerous studies have linked aspartame to mood alterations including anxiety, agitation, depression, headaches, insomnia, seizures, memory and learning problems, and brain tumors.
BRAIN TUMORS...SEIZURES...DEPRESSION...
ARE THOSE GOOD FOR OUR CHILDREN...OR FOR US?
OUR GOVERNMENT AND OUR CONGRESS MUST THINK SO!
[SEE:“Aspartame: By Far the Most Dangerous Substance Added to Most Foods Today”, Mercola.com , November 6, 2011.]
Even worse, not long after aspartame won approval in 1981 the company, G.D. Searle, that manufactured aspartame was bought by Monsanto – NOT hard to believe – and much of today’s aspartame sold on the market HAS BEEN AND STILL IS genetically engineered. Despite Monsanto's early connection with aspartame, they sold the company in 2000 and no longer produce it.
While the FDA finally approved aspartame in 1981, it was over a very large outcry of scientists and public health safety advocates who were concerned over its safety, and the uncovering of fraudulent scientific studies that were originally submitted to the FDA.
The approval of aspartame was one of the most contested and controversial approvals in the history of the FDA.
While aspartame was initially approved by the FDA in 1974, the discovery that S.G. Searle company scientists knowingly submitted flawed data to the FDA from improperly conducted scientific studies, which found brain tumors in animals, and a lack of studies for long-term health effects on humans forced the FDA to retract its approval.
It should have ended right there!
By 1980, Searle had spent millions of dollars to win approval, but the FDA had serious concerns and "recommended against approving aspartame at that time, citing unanswered questions about cancer in laboratory rats."
Then in 1981, aspartame finally won approval after resubmitting scientific data under the Reagan administration and in 1985 Searle was taken over by our "friends" at Monsanto.
The story could end here, but by the 1990s, Monsanto switched from being one of the world’s largest chemical company to a biotech company and one of the products Monsanto genetically engineered early on was aspartame, something they were reluctant to inform the world and their millions of consumers about.
But Monsanto’s secret GMO aspartame didn’t stay secret for long. In 1999, a top political correspondent for the UK Independent revealed that Monsanto had been manufacturing aspartame through genetically engineering bacteria to create the sweetener at its US production facilities.
[SEE: “World's top sweetener is made with GM bacteria”, The UK Independent, June, 20, 1999.]
Sure, the FDA now says that aspartame is perfectly safe and that it’s one of the “most tested” food additives ever. But if that’s the case, why is the dairy industry trying to SNEAK it into our milk UNLABELED?
IF IT'S JUST FINE, WHY NOT SHOW US IT'S IN THERE? BECAUSE THEY KNOW MANY OF US ARE AWARE OF THE DANGERS OF ASPARTAME AND WOULDN'T INGEST IT IF IT WAS THE LAST SUBSTANCE ON EARTH!
For those unfamiliar with the story as it is playing out today, in the 1990s, a former Monsanto attorney found himself appointed to a position at the FDA just in time to write the federal guidelines that not only kept GMOs unlabeled, but also allowed Monsanto’s genetically engineered synthetic growth hormone rBGH onto the market – also without appropriate labels.
BGH IS ABSOLUTELY BANNED IN MOST EUROPEAN NATIONS AND IN CANADA!
The attorney went so far in doing his job for his former employer that he actually drafted a new rule that FORBADE dairy farmers or milk companies to put a label on their milk that said –
“Does not contain rBGH.”
That man’s name is Michael Taylor, who is magically back at the FDA once again, now under the Obama administration as the Second in Command. Taylor’s title is now "Deputy Commission of Food and Veterinary Medicine".
"FOOD AND VETERINARY MEDICINE"? HE'S A LAWYER, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
You may start to have that sinking feeling, that something is not quite right with the agency governing our food and pharmaceuticals in the U.S., but don’t worry it gets worse.
READ, READ, DO READ THIS INCREDIBLE ARTICLE BELOW!
IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIVES!
THE ECOLOGIST
SEPTEMBER 2005;
Cover Story, pages 35-46
ASPARTAME - The Shocking Story of the World's Bestselling Sweetener
<<Aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history. The most recent evidence, linking it to leukemia and lymphoma, has added substantial fuel to the ongoing protests of doctors, scientists and consumer groups who allege that this artificial sweetener should never have been released onto the market and that allowing it to remain in the food chain is killing us by degrees. PAT THOMAS REPORTS
Once upon a time, aspartame was listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent. Today it's an integral part of the modern diet. Sold commercially under names like NutraSweet and Canderel, aspartame can be found in more than 5,000 foods, including fizzy drinks, chewing gum, table-top sweeteners, diet and diabetic foods, breakfast cereals, jams, sweets, vitamins, prescription and over-the-counter drugs. This means that there is a good chance that you and your family are among the two thirds of the adult population and 40 per cent of children who regularly ingest this artificial sweetener.
Independent scientists say aspartame can produce a range of disturbing adverse effects in humans, including headaches, memory loss, mood swings, seizures, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's-like symptoms, tumors and even DEATH.
~AUTUMN 1967
GD Searle approaches eminent biochemist Dr Harry Waisman, director of the University of Wisconsin's Joseph P Kennedy Jr Memorial Laboratory of Mental Retardation Research and a respected expert in the toxicity of phenylalanine (which comprises 50 per cent of the aspartame formula), to conduct a study of the effects of aspartame on primates. Of seven monkeys fed aspartame mixed with milk, one dies and five others have grand mal epileptic seizures.
~SPRING 1971
Dr John Olney, professor of neuropathology and psychiatry at Washington University in St Louis School of Medicine, whose research into the neurotoxic food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG, a chemical cousin of aspartame) was responsible for having it removed from baby foods, informs Searle that his studies show that aspartic acid, one of the main constituents of aspartame, causes holes in the brains of infant mice. One of Searle's researchers, Ann Reynolds, confirms Olney's findings in a similar study.
~AUGUST 1974
Before aspartame can reach the marketplace, Dr John Olney, James Turner (attorney, consumer advocate and former 'Nader's Raider' who was instrumental in removing the artificial sweetener cyclamate from the US market), and the group Label Inc (Legal Action for Buyers' Education and Labeling) file a formal objection to aspartame's approval with the FDA, citing evidence that it could cause brain damage, particularly in children.~24 MARCH 1976
The FDA task force completes its 500 page report on Searle's testing procedures. The final report notes faulty and fraudulent product testing, knowingly misrepresented product testing, knowingly misrepresented and 'manipulated' test data, and instances of irrelevant animal research in all the products reviewed. Schmidt says: '[Searle's studies were] incredibly sloppy science. What we discovered was reprehensible.'
~10 JANUARY 1977
FDA chief counsel Richard Merrill formally requests the US Attorney's office to begin grand jury proceedings to investigate whether indictments should be filed against Searle for knowingly misrepresenting findings and 'concealing material facts and making false statements' in aspartame safety tests. This is the first time in the FDA's history that it requests a criminal investigation of a manufacturer.
~8 MARCH 1977
Searle hires prominent Washington insider Donald Rumsfeld as its new CEO to try to turn the beleaguered company around. A former member of Congress and defence secretary in the Ford administration, Rumsfeld brings several of his Washington colleagues in as top management.
~1 AUGUST 1977
The Bressler Report is released. It focuses on three key aspartame studies conducted by Searle. The report finds that in one study 98 of the 196 animals died but weren't autopsied until later dates, making it impossible to ascertain the actual cause of death. Tumors were removed from live animals and the animals placed back in the study.
~8 DECEMBER 1977
Despite complaints from the Justice Department, Conlon stalls the grand jury prosecution for so long that the statute of limitations on the aspartame charges runs out and the investigation is dropped. Just over a year later Conlon joins Searle's law firm, Sidley & Austin.
~30 SEPTEMBER 1980
The FDA's PBOI votes unanimously against aspartame's approval, pending further investigations of brain tumours in animals. The board says it 'has not been presented with proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive'.
~JANUARY 1981
Rumsfeld states in a Searle sales meeting that he is going to make a big push to get aspartame approved within the year. Rumsfeld vows to 'call in his markers' and use political rather than scientific means to get the FDA on side.
~20 JANUARY 1981
Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president of the US. Reagan's transition team, which includes Rumsfeld, nominates Dr Arthur Hull Hayes Jr to be the new FDA commissioner.
~21 JANUARY 1981
One day after Reagan's inauguration, Searle re-applies to the FDA for approval to use aspartame as a food sweetener.
~19 MAY 1981
Arthur Hull Hayes Jr, appoints a five-person commission to review the PBOI's decision. Three of the five FDA scientists on it advise against approval of aspartame, stating on the record that Searle's tests are unreliable and not adequate to determine the safety of aspartame. Hayes installs a sixth member on the commission, and the vote becomes deadlocked.
~15 JULY 1981
Hayes ignores the recommendations of his own internal FDA team, overrules the PBOI findings and gives initial approval for aspartame to be used in dry products on the basis that it has been shown to be safe for its proposed uses.
HE OUTRIGHT LIED, HE KNEW THE STUFF WAS LETHAL ENOUGH TO BE BANNED AS A BIOWEAPON BY INTERNATIONAL TREATY!
~8 AUGUST 1983
James Turner, on behalf of himself and the Community Nutrition Institute, and Dr Woodrow Monte, Arizona State University's director of food science and nutritional laboratories, file petitions with the FDA objecting to aspartame approval based on possible serious adverse effects from the chronic intake of the sweetener. Monte also cites concern about the chronic intake of methanol associated with aspartame ingestion.
YES, METHANOL IS IN THERE!
~SEPTEMBER 1983
Hayes resigns as FDA commissioner under a cloud of controversy about his taking unauthorised rides aboard a General Foods jet (General Foods was and is a major purchaser of aspartame). He serves briefly as provost at New York Medical College, and then takes a position as senior scientific consultant with Burston-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for both Searle and Monsanto.
~MARCH 1984
Public complaints about the adverse effects of aspartame begin to come in. The FDA requests that the US agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) begins investigations of a select number of cases of adverse reactions to aspartame.
~JULY 1984
A study by the state of Arizona Department of Health into aspartame is published in the Journal of Applied Nutrition. It determines that soft drinks stored at elevated temperatures promote more rapid deterioration of aspartame into POISONOUS methanol.~21 APRIL 1986
The US Supreme Court, headed by Justice Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto attorney, refuses to consider arguments from the Community Nutrition Institute and other consumer groups that the FDA has not followed proper procedures in approving aspartame, and that the liquid form of the artificial sweetener may cause brain damage in heavy users of low-calorie soft drinks.
~16 OCTOBER 1986
Turner files another citizen's petition, this time concerning the risk of seizures and eye damage from aspartame. The petition argues that medical records of 140 aspartame users show them to have suffered from epileptic seizures and eye damage after consuming products containing the sweetener and that the FDA should ban aspartame as an 'imminent hazard to the public health'.
~21 NOVEMBER 1986
The FDA denies Turner's new petition, saying: 'The data and information supporting the safety of aspartame are extensive'
SO WAS THE DATA ON IT BEING A KILLER, A BIOWEAPON, A KNOWN TOXIN, A CARCINOGEN!
~12 OCTOBER 1987
United Press International (UPI), a leading global news-syndication organization, reports that more than 10 federal officials involved in the decision to approve aspartame have now taken jobs in the private sector that are linked to the aspartame industry.
~3 NOVEMBER 1987
A US Senate hearing is held to address the issue of aspartame safety and labelling. The hearing reviews the faulty testing procedures and the 'psychological strategy' used by Searle to help ensure aspartame's approval. Other information that comes to light includes the fact that aspartame was once on a Pentagon list of prospective biochemical-warfare weapons.
Numerous medical and scientific experts testify as to the toxicity of aspartame. Among them is Dr Verrett, who reveals that, while compiling its 1977 report, her team was instructed not to comment on or be concerned with the overall validity of the studies. She states that questions about birth defects have not been answered. She also states that increasing the temperature of the product leads to an increase in production of DKP, a substance shown to increase uterine polyps and change blood cholesterol levels. Verrett comments: 'It was pretty obvious that somewhere along the line, the bureau officials were working up to a whitewash.'
~14 OCTOBER 1989
THE FDA HAS NOW RECEIVED OVER 4,000 COMPLAINTS ABOUT ASPARTAME!
Dr. H.J. Roberts, director of the Palm Beach Institute for Medical Research, claims that several recent aircraft accidents involving confusion and aberrant pilot behavior were caused by ingestion of products containing aspartame.
~20 JULY 1990
The Guardian publishes a major investigation of aspartame and delivers to government officials 'a dossier of evidence' that draws heavily on the transcripts of the Bressler Report and demands that the government review the safety of aspartame. No review is undertaken. The Guardian is taken to court by Monsanto and forced to apologize for printing its story.
~1991
The US National Institutes of Health publishes Adverse Effects of Aspartame: January '86 through December '90, a bibliography of 167 studies documenting adverse effects associated with aspartame.
~28 FEBRUARY 1994
Aspartame now accounts for the majority (75%) of all the complaints in the US adverse-reaction monitoring system. The US Department of Health and Human Services compiles a report that brings together all current information on adverse reactions attributed to aspartame. It lists 6,888 complaints, including 649 reported by the CDC and 1,305 reported by the FDA.
~APRIL 1995
Consumer activist, and founder of anti-aspartame group Mission Possible, Betty Martini uses the US's Freedom of Information Act to force the FDA to release an official list of adverse effects associated with aspartame ingestion. Culled from 10,000 consumer complaints, the list includes four deaths and more than 90 unique symptoms, a majority of which are connected to impaired neurological function. They include: headache; dizziness or problems with balance; mood change; vomiting and nausea; seizures and convulsions; memory loss; tremors; muscle weakness; abdominal pains and cramps; change in vision; diarrhea; fatigue and weakness; skin rashes; deteriorating vision; joint and musculoskeletal pain. By the FDA's own admission, fewer then 1 per cent of those who have problems with something they consume ever report it to the FDA. This means that around 1 million people could have been experiencing adverse effects from ingesting aspartame.
~12 JUNE 1995
The FDA announces it has no further plans to continue to collect adverse reaction reports or monitor research on aspartame.
WHAT? IT WON'T COLLECT COMPLAINTS, IT WON'T MONITOR THIS KILLER?
WHY?
~27 JUNE 1996
The FDA removes all restrictions from aspartame use, and approves it as a general-purpose sweetener', meaning that aspartame can now be used in ANY AND ALL foods or beverages.
~NOVEMBER 1996
Drawing on data compiled by the US National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results program, which collects and distributes data on all types of cancer, Olney publishes peer-reviewed research in the Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology. It shows that brain tumor rates have risen in line with aspartame consumption and that there has been a significant increase in the conversion of less deadly tumors into much more deadly ones.
~DECEMBER 1996
The results of a remarkable study conducted by Dr Ralph G Walton, professor of clinical psychology at Northeastern Ohio Universities, are revealed. Commissioned by the hard-hitting US national news program 60 Minutes, it sheds some light on the absurdity of aspartame-safety studies. Walton reviewed 165 separate studies published in the preceding 20 years in peer-reviewed medical journals. Seventy-four of the studies were industry-funded, all of which attested to aspartame's safety. Of the other 91 non-industry funded studies, 84 identified adverse health effects. Six of the seven non-industry funded studies that were favorable to aspartame were from the FDA, which has a public record of strong pro-industry bias. To this day, the industry-funded studies are the ones that are always quoted to the press and in official rebuttals to aspartame critics. They are also the studies given the greatest weight during the approval process and in official safety reviews.
~13 MAY 1998
Independent scientists from the University of Barcelona publish a landmark study clearly showing that aspartame is transformed into formaldehyde in the bodies of living specimens (in this case rats), and that this formaldehyde spreads throughout the specimens' vital organs, including the liver, kidneys, eyes and brain. The results fly in the face of manufacturers' claims that aspartame does not break down into formaldehyde in the body, and bolster the claims of aspartame critics that many of the symptoms associated with aspartame toxicity are caused by the poisonous and cumulative effects of formaldehyde.~20 JUNE 1999
An investigation by The Independent on Sunday reveals that aspartame is made using a genetic engineering process. Aspartame component phenylalanine is naturally produced by bacteria. The newspaper reveals that Monsanto has genetically engineered the bacteria to make them produce more phenylalanine. Monsanto claims that the process had not been revealed previously because no modified DNA remains in the finished product, and insists that the product is completely safe; though scientists counter that toxic effects cannot be ruled out in the absence of long-term studies. A Monsanto spokeswoman says that while aspartame for the US market is often made using genetic engineering, aspartame supplied to British food producers is not. The extent to which US brands of low-calorie products containing genetically engineered aspartame have been imported into Britain is unclear.
~9 JULY 2002
The FDA approves the tabletop and general use of Neotame. The 'fast-track' approval raises eyebrows because, historically, the FDA takes at least 10 years to approve food additives. Neotame is also approved for use in Australia and New Zealand, but has yet to be approved in the UK.
~MAY 2004
The feature-length documentary Sweet Misery is released on DVD. Part-documentary, part-detective story, it includes interviews with people who have been harmed by aspartame, as well as credible testimony from advocates, doctors, lawyers and long-time campaigners, including James Turner, H.J. Roberts and renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock.
[See the entire film below]
~SEPTEMBER 2004
US consumer group the National Justice League files a $350m class action lawsuit against the NutraSweet Corporation (the current owner of aspartame products), the American Diabetes Association and Monsanto. Some 50 other defendants have yet to be named, but mentioned throughout the lawsuit is the central role of Donald Rumsfeld in helping to get aspartame approved through the FDA. The plaintiffs maintain that this litigation will prove how deadly aspartame is when it is consumed by humans. Little progress has been made so far in bringing the action to court. The NutraSweet Company reopens its plant in Atlanta, Georgia, (dormant since 2003) in order to meet increased demand for its sweetener. Aspartame, sold commercially as NutraSweet, Equal, Equal-Measure, Spoonful, Canderel and Benevia, is currently available in more than 100 countries and used in more than 5,000 products by at least 250 million people every day. Worldwide, the aspartame industry's sales amount to more than $1 billion yearly. The US is the primary consumer.
~JULY 2005
The Ramizzini Institute in Bologna, a non-profit, private institution set up to research the causes of cancer, releases the results of a very large, long-term animal study into aspartame ingestion. Its study shows that aspartame causes lymphomas and leukemia in female animals fed aspartame at doses around 20 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, or around half the accepted daily intake for humans.
Conditions Mimicked By Aspartame Toxicity (LISTED IN A SIDEBAR OF THE ABOVE ARTICLE)
§ Multiple sclerosis
§ Parkinson's disease
§ Alzheimer's disease
§ Fibromyalgia
§ Arthritis
§ Multiple chemical sensitivity
§ Chronic fatigue syndrome
§ Attention deficit disorder
§ Panic disorder depression and other psychological disorders
§ Lupus
§ Diabetes and diabetic complications
§ Birth defects
§ Lymphoma
§ Lyme disease
§ Hypothyroidism
IN THAT SAME ISSUE OF THE ECOLOGIST, PAGES 48-49:
<<ASPARTAME'S TOXIC CONTENTS
Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine, and methanol. The chemical bond that holds these constituents together is fairly weak. As a result, aspartame readily breaks down into its component parts in a variety of circumstances: in liquids; during prolonged storage; when exposed to heat in excess of 86° Fahrenheit (30° Centigrade); and when ingested. These constituents further break down into other toxic by-products, namely formaldehyde, formic acid and aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine (DKP).
Humans are five times more sensitive to the effects of aspartic acid (as well as glutamic acid, found in MSG) than rodents, and 20 times more sensitive than monkeys, because we concentrate these excitatory amino acids in our blood at much higher levels and for a longer period of time. Aspartic acid has a cumulative harmful effect on the endocrine and reproductive systems. Several animal experiments have shown that excitotoxins can penetrate the placental barrier and reach the fetus.
Methanol (wood alcohol) comprises 10 per cent of aspartame. It is a deadly poison that is liberated from aspartame at temperatures in excess of 86° Fahrenheit (30° centigrade)..>>
Aspartame is not a life-saving drug. It is not even an effective diet aid, as shown by widespread obesity in the West. Until the many concerns about it have been examined in 'corporate-neutral', large-scale, long-term, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trials (the gold standard of scientific proof) it should be taken out of our food.
IF YOU AGREE, CALL YOUR CONGRESSMEN, DEMAND IT BE REMOVED!
VOICE YOUR CONCERN ON THE BILL SOON TO COME UP BEFORE CONGRESS TO ALLOW THIS UNLABELED CARCINOGEN INTO OUR FOOD AND BEVERAGES.
CONGRESS ALREADY SIDED WITH MONSANTO AGAINST AMERICAN FARMERS, BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU!
MEANWHILE, DEMAND THAT ASPARTAME BE LABELED CLEARLY IN ALL PRODUCTS, IN EVEN THE SMALLEST AMOUNT!
IF THEY DON'T WANT TO LABEL IT, MAKE THEM TELL YOU WHY!
GO TO POPVOX OR ANY ONLINE SITE WHERE CITIZENS CAN SEND MESSAGES TO CONGRESS, AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD.
(A POPVOX LINK IS AT THE BOTTOM OF EVERY POST ON THIS BLOG.)
THIS GROUP ALSO HAS A CAMPAIGN TO STOP THIS:
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/tell_the_fda_to_reject_unlabeled_aspartame_in_our_milk/?akid=863.543968.T_XO2b&rd=1&t=7
DON'T LET THIS POISON AFFECT YOUR CHILDREN!
YOU AND ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THEM FROM SUCH AS THIS!
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