[ minor typos and unclear sentences have been edited, and links added
by Rich Murray, Moderator.

I will post critical responses, pro and con,
that are specific, relevant, informed, referenced, and civil.  See also:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1032
Tagatose and diabetes: James D. Bowen, MD 10.8.3

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1030
tagatose (Naturlose), a "natural" sweetener: wired.com Ratliff:
Murray 10.24.3 rmforall

http://www.bowendrjim.com
http://www.bowendrjim.com/index.cfm#46 ]

http://www.aspartame.ca/Brain%20Cell%20Damage.pdf
Brain Cell Damage from Amino Acid Isolates:
A Primary Concern about Aspartame-based Products and Artificial
Sweetening Agents  NutraSweet ~ Equal ~ "Sugar Free" ~ Neotame
May 6, 2002
James D. Bowen, M.D., specializing in the applied biochemistry of
aspartame
Arthur M. Evangelista, former FDA investigator

Forward
This article is a review of long-standing intensive research into the
brain chemistry effects of aspartame, a toxic artificial sweetener
consumed daily by hundreds of millions of unsuspecting individuals.

We acknowledge the uncounted and unnecessary suffering, illness, and
death, associated with the marketing of a trio of neurotoxic
ingredients,
collectively known as aspartame,
[ L- aspartyl - L - phenylalanine methyl ester ], also called:
NutraSweet, Equal, "Sugar Free", and Neotame, et al. [Canderel,
Spoonful, E951], a food additive in over 8,000+  food products
worldwide.

The three toxic ingredients of Aspartame are methanol (wood alcohol),
phenylalanine and aspartic acid; both the latter are amino acid
isolates.

Moreover. we hold accountable the U.S. Food and Drug Administration;
G.D.
Searle, the original maker of aspartame; Monsanto; and the numerous
corrupted politicians, government officials, physicians, and health care
organizations that have literally sold themselves for greed of wealth
and
power. This was done knowingly, at the expense of the health of millions
of infants, children, and adults, who needlessly suffer the debilitating
effects of this known neurotoxin.

This article is for the education of the public at large, and for the
physicians and health specialists who have the integrity and intellect
to
understand the implications of aspartame's ingredients and their
biochemical and pathological effects upon brain nerve cells and tissues,
which result in serious neuro-endocrine disorders and other
symptomologies.

We hope that all people will cease consumption of this deadly product
and
become self-educated in order to protect their own health against an
array of marketed food and environmental toxins.  It is our hope that
all people will live healthier and more fruitful lives, and maintain the
freedom and wisdom to choose what they put in their mouths and feed
their children.

Protein and Amino Acids
Proteins are nature's building blocks of life. Proteins are used for
producing and maintaining muscle, tissue, blood, hormones, and enzymes,
including the body's organs, skin, and healing processes.

Proteins are large, complex organic compounds made up of many groups of
amino acids linked together. There have been twenty-two (22) amino acids
identified as necessary for normal human growth and development.

The body can make fourteen (14) of these amino acids, which are named
non-essential amino acids. The other eight (8) amino acids must be
received through outside sources, as in the foods we eat. These amino
acids are called essential amino acids.

Proteins are broken down during the process of digestion into their
component amino acids or into very small groups. The amino acids are
then
used by the body for maintaining health.

Amino acids also play a key role in--

neurotransmission,

solute concentration and balance (especially in areas of the brain),

calcium pump (gate) effectors in cells,

production and expenditure of ATP (the cell's energy stores),

overall body nerve cell conduction systems.

The amino acids that are released into the blood stream are competitive.
This means that the various types of amino acids compete for attachment
sites on enzymes and cell structures. It is this competition, which
restricts any one type of amino acid from becoming too dominant and
causing an inbalance in the normal ratio of the different circulating or
cellular amino acids.

The enzymes, which are located throughout the body, including the brain
and nerve cells, are responsible for ensuring that the amino acids get
to their proper end destination to be utilized by body tissues.

Many key factors, including food additive excitotoxins and environmental
poisons,  play a role in nervous system degeneration. Collected evidence
and accumulated non-industry funded research leaves no doubt that the
powerful excitotoxin, aspartame, and its breakdown products,  have a
central or predominant role in creating or exacerbating
neurodegenerative or neurocarcinogenic diseases.

Amino Acid Isolates
The focus of our report is an overview of excitotoxic effects upon brain
chemistry due to aspartame's amino acid isolates.

Amino acid isolates have been artificially separated from the rest of
their protein chains.  Two are part of the aspartame compound. Aspartame
is then added to foods during the manufacturing process.

Thus, these amino acids exist by themselves (isolated), as single or
dipeptide molecules.

This is very different than the long 80-300 amino acid chains that form
from natural proteins from dietary sources.

Some examples of genetically modified (rDNA) or manufactured amino acid
isolates are glutamic acid or glutamate (i.e., monosodium glutamate,
MSG), aspartic acid or aspartate, and phenylalanine, among others.

The isolates differ from dietary amino acids from foods, because dietary
amino acids are absorbed from the gut.  The body's digestive action
breaks down the long amino acid chains in proteins and then absorbs
them. Thus, through the body's natural regulation of its metabolism,
proteins from foods are broken down slowly, and always into a nutritious
mix of other amino acids in the proper enzyme-regulated proportion for
use by the body.

Following digestion of normal food proteins, the broken amino acid
chains
are slowly released into the body. Since they are in competition with
one
another for the enzyme sites, as earlier discussed, the body ensures
that no one amino acid dominates the others.  However, it has been noted
that
phenylalanine is the strongest competitor for many of these enzyme
sites.

Moreover, the effect of a dosed amino acid isolate cannot be used in
synthesis of proteins in the same manner as food amino acids, because
the
body requires the "variety of the mix" to prepare and manufacture
proteins, including the availability of many different enzymes and
intermediary structures.

The excitotoxic effects of glutamic acid isolates are well studied and
widely known. Some beneficial uses of amino acid isolates, such as
L-lysine for use against oral herpes virus (SI) are also well known.

It is important to recognize the difference between natural, dietary
amino acids from foods, and pharmaceutically produced (including rDNA)
amino acid isolates.

It is also important to recognize that the isolates of aspartame are
incorporated into a compound containing free methanol, a dangerous
carcinogen and mutagen, which readily breaks down into formaldehyde and
formates inside the human body.

The hazards of ignoring the pharmacological nature of amino acid
isolates
are best illustrated by the phenylalanine isolate, 50% by weight of
aspartame. A can of soda pop yields about as much phenylalanine as a
large helping of beans.

NOTE:  One 12 oz. can of diet soda contains 200 mg of aspartame.

Phenylalanine =  100 mg   50%

Aspartic Acid =   80 mg   40%

Methanol      =   20 mg   10%

It should also be noted that the pharmaceutical isolates of amino acids
in aspartame are produced from genetically modified bacteria (E.coli).

About Phenylalanine
The dietary phenylalanine from the beans would only be harmful to the
person with PKU (phenylketonuria), an inherited genetic condition caused
by one of several enzyme deficiencies. This creates/allows increased
plasma levels of phenylalanine (overload), leading to the formation of
destructive neurotoxic effects.

In healthy individuals, the fact that dietary phenylalanine is in
competition with the other amino acids and is absorbed slowly over ten
to
twenty hours from the digestive tract, makes it helpful rather than
harmful for them.

In contrast, the phenylalanine (isolate) from the can of aspartame-laced
soda pop is absorbed in about five minutes. This goes to the portal vein
in the liver, with virtually no other competitive amino acids. Amino
acid
release from the liver is through an enzyme-linked channel. Without any
competition from any other amino acids, this phenylalanine is released
into the blood stream as an overwhelming bolus, or flood.

Even when ingested with foods, aspartame substantially increases the
plasma phenylalanine (and aspartic acid) levels, due to their
pharmaceutical make-up as isolates, and due to phenylalanine's strong
competitive affinity for the enzyme mediators and transmitter catalysts.

Synergistic damage also results from the absorption-metabolism sequence
of methanol, turned into formaldehyde and then formic acid.  Methanol
and
formaldehyde are carcinogenic and mutagenic.  As a metabolic poisons,
formaldehyde alters both mitochondrial DNA and nucleic DNA by binding as
adducts. This may be a strong initiator of disease states, because DNA,
damaged by formaldehyde adducts,  may not allow cells to function
properly or maintain homeostasis.