LETTER TO THE MIAMI HERALD CONCERNING ASPARTAME
By Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.Web Site: http://www.russellblaylockmd.com
Posted: 24 Apr 2004
Miami Herald
02 February 2004
Dear Editor,
It has come to my attention that the Calorie Control Council, a front group for the NutraSweet Company, recently suggested that aspartame was safe for women to use during pregnancy, as well as by those with serious liver disease and phenylketonurics. This is the most serious breech of public trust in the history of this nation. There is not one long-term study of aspartame safety ever conducted on the offspring of pregnant women consuming aspartame. Yet, there are numerous studies indicating aspartame could pose a serious danger to both mother and infant.
For example, according to the National Collaborative Study for Maternal PKU, blood levels of phenylalanine, a major component of aspartame and a developmental brain toxin, should not exceed 6mg./dl. In a study of pregnant women it was found that aspartame consumption at commonly consumed amounts reached these levels in 42% of normal women and 100% of PKU carriers. One in fifty people are PKU carriers and do not know it. This same group concluded that levels of 10mg/dl held a serious risk of infant brain impairment. In this same study 15% of pregnant women reached this toxic level of phenylalanine and 36% of PKU carriers.
This means that fully a third of all babies born to PKU carrier mothers consuming aspartame foods and drinks risk varying degrees of brain damage. It is also known that the amount of toxic phenylalanine reaching the baby is twice as high as that in the mother's blood because the placenta concentrates the toxin. In addition, numerous metabolic breakdown products of aspartame are known to damage the developing infant's brain, including methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid, diketopiperizine and phenylacetate. Aspartame has been shown by several studies to damage DNA, which can lead to cancer and degenerative brain disorders later in life. The risk of increased brain tumors in such a child would be enormous. Similar mechanisms of damage would be expected in those with liver disease. Studies on aspartame safety have shown that the product increases tumors throughout numerous organs, especially the brain. It was shown that brain tumor incidence increased over 47X in animals exposed to aspartame.
With the public concern over childhood obesity and diabetes, few are being told of the overwhelming evidence that early exposure to excitotoxins (as found in aspartame) consistently produce gross obesity and insulin resistant diabetes, just as we are seeing in our youth.
The promoters of aspartame use have been lying from the beginning and continue to use their money and political clout to cover up the real and present dangers of this toxic product.
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
Neurosurgeon
Ridgeland, MS 39157
(Dr. Blaylock is author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health & Nutrition Secrets to Save Your Life and Cancer Strategeries, http://www.russellblaylockmd.com)
USED BY PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
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Dr. Russell L. Blaylock answers these questions and poses some startling evidence as to the eventual consequences of a heavy MSG-diet in his book _Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills_. In basic terms, MSG (and other, similar agents) pierces the blood-brain barrier and over-stimulates the neurons of a brain to a deadly degree. Habitual intake among animal experiments has shown the development of tumors, memory loss, and a whole host of neurodegenerative diseases as the end result of excess excitotoxin intake, including Alzhiemer's, Parkenson's, Lou Gerhig's etc. Walk into any gas station in the United States (or grocery store, for that matter) and, upon close investigation, you will find that 75%-90% of the available food has been 'enhanced' to some degree by excitotoxins. The chemical agents are often disguised by such ambiguous terms as 'spice' and 'natural flavors' or, my personal favorite, 'hydrolyzed vegetable protein.' A consumer society must have consumer slaves to keep it functioning; MSG is the crack cocaine of the food industry...and it is legally perpetuated by slush-fund advocates and a pork-glutted FDA. As proven again and again, money talks, ... [you can finish the maxim for me]. Blaylock's thesis is written in a technical style, but the use of repetition throughout each chapter hammer in his myriad points into the reader with precision and power. An important book for anyone concerned with the health of self and family. You are what you eat---but do you know _what_ it is you are eating, below the surface of taste/fulfillment?
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If you or someone you know
drinks diet soda check out the
Aspartame Victims Support Group at
http://presidiotex.com/aspartame