Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Rumsfeld and Nutrasweet, the saga

"In 1979, the FDA established a public board of inquiry to investigate aspartame safety issues. The board determined that there was no 'proof of reasonable certainty that aspartame is safe for use as a food additive.' It's those darn tumors again. Thumbs down.

"Now go to 1981. The day after Ronald Reagan took office, Searle reapplied to the FDA for approval of aspartame (with no new data) because the company felt that this new administration would be more business-friendly. This wasn't a guess. They knew because they had an inside voice. Donald Rumsfeld was on Reagan's transition team. Donald Rumsfeld also happened to be the CEO of J.D. Searle. Hmm, welcome to Washington.

"So a new FDA head, Arthur Hull Hayes, and an entirely new advisory panel were put in place for a retry. Once again, the in-house FDA panel advised against approval. However, in 1981, Arthur Hull Hayes 'overrules the Public Board of Inquiry, ignores the recommendations of his own internal FDA team, and approves NutraSweet for dry products." (see FDA History (scroll down to 1981--we guess they forgot to take this down?)

Meanwhile, even the National Soft Drink Association lobbied the FDA not to approve Nutrasweet. They opposed it because when aspartame gets above 86 degrees F, it breaks down into a common poison known as free methanol (wood alcohol). Your body, as you know, is normally 98.6 degrees F. Methanol is a problem because it breaks down into formic acid (normally used to strip off epoxy) and formaldehyde (the embalming fluid). This means that every time you boil up your sugar-free Jell-O or put that little blue packet in your hot tea or coffee, you could be getting more than you bargained for...

"...Within 4 months [of approving aspartame in carbonated beverages in 1983], [Hayes] left the FDA and took a position as a consultant in Searle's public relations firm. This is how the FDA approved aspartame.

"...if it ain't food, don't eat it."

pp.200-201, Dr. Will Clower, The Fat Fallacy

Bold emphasis added by blogger.
Peace.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lot of manufacturers are replacing the aspartame poison with an equally poisonous sweetener called Sucralose (Splenda) and are pretending this means that they are watching out for our health and best interests.

Pink Liberty said...

Thank you anonymous! Yes, I had a friend use Splenda exclusively because she could not consume sugar and it bleached her skin in big spots. Awful stuff!!!