Dangerous Fake Sweeteners' Assault on Milk !

The news from America is unbelievable!  This past week my niece in California put me on to a disturbing article reporting the petitioning of the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) by two very powerful dairy organizations. The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) want the FDA to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label!

Aspartame, as you know from my February 24th posting, is made up of three components: 50% phenylalanine (a chemical that affects brain activity by transmitting impulses), 40% aspartic acid and 10% methanol (poisonous wood alcohol). Based on the FDA's track record in handling the aspartame issue, things are not looking good to stop approval of this outrageous measure. For one, back in 1996 when aspartame was first approved for use in thousands of food products, the FDA used 15 ''pivotal'' studies as the basis for its decision.

One of these pivotal studies involved oral dosage of aspartame to infant Rhesus monkeys for 52 weeks. The research was conducted by the University of Wisconsin Medical Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The monkeys were divided into three groups. A low dose group which received 1.0 hm of aspartame/kg of body weight per day, a medium dose group was receiving 3.0gm/kg per day and a high dose group receiving 4-6gm/kg per day. The monkeys were served their aspartame in an orally consumed milk based formula.

Starting about 7 months (218 days) into the experiment, ALL the medium and high dose monkeys began having brain seizures!  The lead researcher stated; All animals in the medium and high dosage groups exhibited seizure activity. Seizures were grand mal type.  One monkey, #m38, of the high dose group, died after 300 days of treatment. Grand mal seizures, also known as tonic clonic seizures are horrific -- a very dangerous seizure which affects the entire brain.'' The low dose monkeys might have started to have seizures as well, but the death of one of the researchers caused a lack of staffing, and the low dose monkeys were withdrawn from the test at 200 days which is before the seizures in the medium and high dose began occurring. As soon as the aspartame was withdrawn from the monkey's diets....the seizures stopped.

How the FDA could call a study ''pivotal'' for approving aspartame use in thousands of products where every single monkey suffered from grand mal seizures and one dying while consuming milk based formula containing this artificial sweetener is incomprehensible. According to Robert Cohen of Oradell, New Jersey who rediscovered this early study, stated, ''It's so obvious that the dairy formula/aspartame milk which the monkeys ingested would have been a key reason for the brain seizures.'' Cohen, who holds a degree in brain chemistry, suggests that the ingestion of dairy has the effect of elevating the pH of the stomach. He contends that drinking a single 12 oz glass of milk would have the effect of buffering the pH of the stomach from 2 to 6. When the stomach pH is 6, he explains, the simple proteins that comprise aspartame would pass through undigested and hence move into the blood stream intact. That would allow the brain to be at the mercy of Phenylalanine.

The Way I See It....it is not only Phenylaline that activated the seizures but the addition of Methanol to further insult the delicate brain tissue concerned with the optic nerve and vision. With aspartame, aka Nutrasweet, already used but still included on the label of many dairy products, it's not a big leap for the FDA to take it to unlabeled status based on the petition from uncaring Big Dairy.

This is especially probable given the FDA's backward interpretation of the Rhesus monkey study which it used to prove human safely and yet all the monkeys suffered from grand mal seizures while ingesting aspartame-laced milk. If these people don't come to their senses and switch to using Stevia in their flavored milks instead, then God forbid the affects on everyone's brain cells. People must write to the FDA voicing their concern.