(NaturalNews) The controversy surrounding one of the world's most
popular artificial sweeteners, aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), continues
some 30 years after the chemical was rammed through the regulatory
process by pharmaceutical interests, despite its well-documented
dangers. And yet to this very day, many people are still unaware of the
chemical sweetener's sordid history, not to mention what aspartame is
actually made from and how it affects the body and brain.
To
many, aspartame is just another FDA-approved sugar alternative that has
to be safe, otherwise it wouldn't be on the market. But the truth about
aspartame is much more sinister, including how the chemical sweetener
gained market approval http://www.fda.gov.
And there's so much more to the aspartame story that you've probably
never heard before, thanks to government collusion with powerful drug
interests.
1) Aspartame is converted by the body into formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical.
Composed
of three unique compounds, aspartame is a synergistically toxic
chemical, meaning the sum of its individual parts is exponentially more
toxic than each one by itself. And yet even in isolation, the three main
constituents found in aspartame -- aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and
methanol -- are idiosyncratically toxic in their own right.
Free
methanol in particular is highly toxic, converting first into
formaldehyde and then into formic acid upon consumption. Unlike the
methanol found in alcoholic beverages and various fruits and vegetables,
the methanol produced by aspartame is not accompanied by ethanol, which
acts as a protector against methanol poisoning. By itself, methanol
embalms living tissues and damages DNA, and can cause lymphoma, leukemia, and other forms of cancer.
2) Aspartame causes obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Artificial
sweeteners are typically viewed as a safe alternative to sugar, which
many people now recognize as a cause of weight gain and metabolic
disorders like diabetes when consumed in excess. But a number of
scientific studies have found that chemicals like aspartame are perhaps
even more damaging, as they promote weight gain in ways unrelated to
caloric intake.
A study published in the journal Appetite
back in 2013 found that compared to sucrose, a form of sugar, aspartame
is actually worse in terms of promoting weight gain. Similar research published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (YJBM) found that aspartame alters the body's natural production of hormones, increasing both appetite and sugar cravings.
3) Reagan-appointed FDA commissioner helped get aspartame approved despite evidence showing its toxicity.
Believe it or not, aspartame
was an accidental discovery made by scientists working on the
development of an ulcer drug for G.D. Searle and Company, a
pharmaceutical corporation that was later acquired by Monsanto in 1985.
When researchers discovered that the chemical had a sweet taste, G.D. Searle presented it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for commercial approval.
But
the earliest safety studies conducted on the chemical found that it
caused grand mal seizures and death in monkeys, findings that were
withheld from the FDA.
When FDA scientists discovered on their own that aspartame was unsafe,
G.D. Searle made a strategic move, waiting for a new FDA commissioner
appointed by the late Ronald Reagan to force the chemical through the
approval process.
The details of this political transaction are
spelled out in the following document posted at the FDA's own website,
but suffice it to say that aspartame was never proven to be safe. It was
only through corruption that this artificial sweetener ended up making
its way into more than 9,000 consumer products, many of which still
contain it today:
http://www.fda.gov
4) Aspartame is made from the feces of genetically-modified (GM) E. coli bacteria.
Another disturbing fact about aspartame is that it is produced from the feces of genetically-modified E. coli bacteria.
Similar to the fermentation process, E. coli are modified with special
genes that cause them to produce unnaturally high levels of a special
enzyme that, as a byproduct, produces the phenylalanine needed for
aspartame production.
5) Aspartame crosses the blood-brain barrier, potentially causing permanent brain damage.
Aspartame
is composed of roughly 40 percent aspartic acid, a free-form amino acid
that has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. When excess
amounts of this compound via aspartame enter the body, brain cells are
bombarded with an excess of calcium. The result is neural cell damage
and even cell death, which can lead to serious brain damage.
In
extreme cases, exposure to aspartic acid, also known as aspartate, can
cause neurological conditions like epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease, and
is also implicated in causing diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) and
dementia. Endocrine disorders, or imbalanced or inadequate hormone
production, are also linked to so-called "excitotoxin" exposure, or
exposure to free-form amino acids like aspartate that overstimulate the
brain.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.fda.gov
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387446/
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666312004138
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2892765/
http://www.upi.com
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7290308
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