Aspartame: Bill would ban food containing sweetener [in New Mexico]: Diana Heil, The New Mexican: 69 citizen comments: Murray 2006.01.15

[Rich Murray]

*******************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1280
Aspartame: Bill would ban food containing sweetener [in New Mexico]:
Diana Heil, The New Mexican: 69 citizen comments:
Murray 2006.01.15

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/37758.html

News: 2006 Legislature, Santa Fe / NM

Aspartame: Bill would ban food containing sweetener
[ 69 comments ]

By Diana Heil | The New Mexican
January 14, 2006

If passed,
halt on sale of products with aspartame in state will begin July 1 . . .

Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, is sponsoring a bill that
would ban the sale of food products containing aspartame.
The popular sweetener, sold under the brand names of NutraSweet
and Equal, is found in thousands of products, including diet sodas,
but the bill calls it a poison.

The measure cannot be heard in the 30-day legislative session
beginning Tuesday unless it is put on the governor's call,
but Ortiz y Pino is hoping for that. Even if legislators take up the
matter, though, he admits that, "It's going to be an uphill battle."

Under the draft bill, no food containing any amount of the sweetener
could be manufactured, sold or delivered in New Mexico, starting
July 1. "The manufacturers will have to prove to our satisfaction that
it is not a carcinogen before we start putting it in our food again,"
Ortiz y Pino said.

Santa Fe gallery owner Stephen Fox is leading the push to prohibit use
of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved substance.
He says new research suggests aspartame is a toxin that can harm
human health.

Fox's hope for a hearing on the issue was thwarted this month when
the state Environmental Improvement Board postponed a hearing it
had scheduled for next July on his request to ban aspartame products
or put a warning label on them. At its first meeting in the new year,
the board postponed the hearing for six months until next January
to wait for legal advice.

"I'd be thrilled if the legislature wants to take this on," Gregory Green,
a board member and environmental activist in Albuquerque,
said in an interview Friday. "Let them have it."

The New Mexico Legislature established the board in 1978 to handle
rules on the state's food and water supply, liquid waste, air quality and
radiation control.

The EIB said in October that it had the necessary power to handle
Fox's petition. Then on Nov. 9, the board asked in writing for Attorney
General Patricia Madrid's opinion on whether state law gives it the
authority to regulate aspartame and whether the board could carry out
Fox's request to outlaw or put warning labels on products that contain
the sweetener. The board has not received an answer.

Any elected or appointed state official -- as well as the legislature --
can request a written opinion on questions of law, and the attorney
general is required to provide such an opinion if the matter is not in
court, said Chief Deputy Attorney General Stewart Bluestone.
The AG's opinion does not have the force or effect of law, and courts
can disagree with it, he said.

Green said he later realized that the EIB had left an important question
out of its request to Madrid: Does federal law allow this?

Because of his concern, the board requested legal advice from the
AG's office this month on whether states have the authority to override
the Food and Drug Administration as well as interstate-commerce laws.
Because of the question's complexity, the board delayed the hearing.

Contact Diana Heil at 986-3066 or dh...@sfnewmexican.com.

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Comments

By Liz Bluhm (Submitted: 01/15/2006 5:38 pm )

How many people are killed on NM roads every week due to drunk
driving accidents? Why don't we ban all alcohol from New Mexico?
Take beer and liquor off store shelves. Isn't this a more "toxic and lethal"
substance than aspartame??? Give me a break Senator!

By Linda Bence (Submitted: 01/15/2006 4:45 pm )

I am tired of having my rights abridged. It is possible that the artificial
sweetners can harm you if you take them in excess but so can nearly
every other food on the market. My neighbor will die if he eats nuts.
Should we remove and ban all nut products from NM?
Anything in excess will harm you.

Someone who is drinking 10-12 diet sodas or who is consuming
2 liters of diet soda a day, probably has an eating disorder and is not
eating a well-balanced diet in the first place. Anything eaten in excess
is bad. I believe in the moderation policy of eating a variety of foods
in moderate quantities. On the whole, I have found the make-believe
foods like Weight Watchers mayo or cookies with artificial sweetners
not very good tasting and won't buy them but every so often and never
more than one a day, I crave the feeling of a cold-fizzy drink. I don't
wish to take in a cup of sugar drinking a regular coke, so I will go for
a diet soda.

What will Steven Fox target next, chips, cookies, ice cream, meat,
non-organic vegetables? It is time for the government to leave us alone
to make a few decisions for ourselves. This bill should fail.

Steve Fox has TOO MUCH TIME on his hands. He should find
himself a hobby other than aggravating people.

I don't believe that some idiot who lives on fast foods, most likely drinks
and possibly smokes cigarettes or other controlled subjects, should
blame aspartame on their deformed children. Some people just have
bad genes and should NEVER procreate!

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/15/2006 11:45 am )

Fear and denial

By Sean Knight (Submitted: 01/15/2006 11:17 am )

There seems to be a lot of heat around this issue. Some of the people
expressing anger that someone would want to take this poison away
from them are probably reacting from a great amount of fear.
They have been poisoning themselves, and they may at some time in
their life get very sick or die from the aspartame poisoning.
Their fear makes them react angrily to the bearers of the bad news:
"Say it ain't so! Take it back!". Some of them may even be feeling guilty
because friends or acquaintences may have told them in the past about
aspartame's toxicity, and they discounted it, because it wasn't in the
media, so it must not be much of a deal. But now, it is in the media,
and respected health professionals and officials are weighing in.

The comparisons to Big Tobacco are apt, as there will be many who
can no longer say that they didn't know they were complicit in causing
their own cancers and other health problems. Many, however, like so
many smokers, will continue in denial, and react ever more angrily to
any mention of the toxicity of aspartame. Let us be somewhat gentle
with them, as their fear is punishing them enough already.

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/15/2006 9:23 am )

BTW, Beckie, that wasn't a trick question...I saw an unexplained
accident in SAF on I-25 occur right in front of me...you know how
sometimes it's a small world. This was last March, or so. Woman
driving alone...just veered off into the median and rolled several times,
though she was seemingly not seriously injured at the time when we
stopped to render aid. Surely, not.....

By randy echter (Submitted: 01/15/2006 7:48 am )

You lose me with all the scientific jargon but I avoid products with
aspartame because at least in the case of soft drinks, they taste lousy to
me. Whether they make you sick or whatever, who knows. I also prefer whole
grain breads, brown rice, sort of a more natural diet. They just
seem more flavorful and probably better for you. In a "FREE" society,
you probably have to let people decide if they want to eat sweeteners
from laboratories or from plants or bees (in the case of honey).
Trouble is, consumers don't take the time to think about the all the junk
they're sucking down daily that may not be so good for them---
everybody's too busy trying too pay the bills and support the immoral
war of the Bushman...

Here, as in so many cases, consumer awareness and descretion must
be encouraged. Since so many people are using aspartame already,
it's going to be pretty hard to make it illegal. But when I sit down in
a restaurant and go to doctor my coffee, I avoid aspartame like the
plague....it tastes like crap!

Really, prohibition of aspartame should be done at the national level
and it's sort of bogus to try it as a state. What are food industry
suppliers going to have to do....maintain systems that always monitor
for this substance for non-shipment to New Mexico? The logistics of
a ban would be huge. Have any other states banned aspartame yet?

The American diet is so full or additives, artificial colors, preservatives,
etc., why single out aspartame when the whole food supply is full of
chemicals? Let the buyer beware.... and give me a big old mug of Starbucks
finest with half & half and a nice spoonful of rich, thick near
black raw pecan honey from Rodeo, N.M. like I've got here anyday
and, aspartame junkies...EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!!

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/15/2006 7:23 am )

Ms. Cobos...I think you have issues other than caused by aspartame.
But am curious, did your run off the road episode occur in Santa Fe
on I-25?

By Rich Murray (Submitted: 01/15/2006 3:36 am )

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1234
Not so sweet (aspartame): Jerry Ortiz y Pino, NM State Senator,
D-Albuquerque: Fox: Murray 2005.10.14

From: "Stephen Fox" <ste...@santafefineart.com>
To: "Rich Murray" <rmfo...@comcast.net>
Subject: N/A
Date: Friday, October 14, 2005 9:33 AM

http://www.alibi.com/editorial/section_display.php?di=2005-10-13&scn=news#13049

Not So Sweet:
The state's Environmental Improvement Board will hold hearings
on the dangers posed by a household sweetener

By Jerry Ortiz y Pino je...@alibi.com
[ New Mexico State Senator, D-Albuquerque ]

Stephen Fox can be a real pest.
The Santa Fe gallery owner is a familiar presence in legislative
hallways, at public hearings of regulatory bodies and in
letters to the editor sections in newspapers around the state.
It is a safe bet that if New Mexico's top dozen corporate lobbyists
sat down and ranked their 10 least favorite citizens in the state,
Fox would make all 12 lists.

We owe him big time.

He is that most valuable of citizens; the tireless, never-discouraged
blower of whistles and asker of inconvenient questions. When the
watchdogs at the henhouse gate start yawning and begin to lay their
sleepy little heads down for a quick nap, the whistleblower makes sure
they don't drowse off. We need a lot more Stephen Foxes because the
fatigue level among our henhouse watch staff is always too high.

When the governmental regulatory agencies start approving drugs,
additives and medicines that aren't demonstrated as safe, the asker of
inconvenient questions raises an alarm we all benefit from. Vioxx,
asbestos and several dozen other now-discredited "miracles of modern
science" might have been kept at bay if answers to the inquiries of
pests like Stephen Fox had been required before they got into our
national bloodstream.

Now Fox is zeroing in on aspartame (e.g. Equal, NutraSweet), and to
his everlasting credit he will not rest until the stuff is removed
from stores around the country. When you realize that this artificial
sweetener is now used in over 6,000 processed foods and drinks
currently on the market, you begin to understand the serious challenge
he faces.

You also realize the economic power of the multinational corporations
that are arrayed against him. But the team of scientific skeptics from
around the globe whose work on the risks entailed in ingesting
aspartame is also impressive. Fox used their research and the
testimony of pediatricians and scientists to persuade New Mexico's
Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) to hold hearings next summer
on the dangers posed by aspartame.

Just getting those hearings scheduled is a victory of major
proportions. The EIB is charged with protecting the purity of our
food, air and water supplies, but this is the first time in its
history that it has actually been challenged to take a look at a food
additive. That they are starting with one with several decades of
FDA-approved use on record is a mighty big bite.

Lawyers and lobbyists for the big soft-drink companies and the
chemical giant Ajinomoto (a Japanese conglomerate that is the largest
manufacturer of the substance in the world) argued to the EIB that it
shouldn't spend time on the issue, because the FDA has spoken and that
should be enough.

This last statement might have been the final straw;
the nail in the coffin.
No New Mexican appointed official worth their salt would
agree that you can trust the feds.
So the EIB, to most observers' surprise, will hold hearings.
And it should be a fascinating process.

No corporate hired gun in the country wants hearings like this about
their product. While the chances of the EIB actually doing something
to stop this stuff from reaching New Mexicans' digestive systems are
remote, the three-re that will surround the testimony, the stark
stories from research labs about the presence of formaldehyde in
aspartame and the neurodegenerative afflictions, cancers and other
tumors that have been linked to this substance are a corporate press
agent's worst nightmare.

So you can expect that there will be court action to prevent our state
hearings into the safety and long-term effects of this chemical. The
argument (and it shouldn't surprise anyone that it is being parroted
by the Albuquerque Journal, that sleepiest of sentinels for public
health concerns when corporate bottom lines might be affected) is that
if the FDA has approved aspartame, that ought to be good enough.

Except the FDA approval itself may have been
over the objections of its own experts.
Except the FDA's recent track record of protecting us
from bad chemistry is far from sterling.
Except the corporate donations to political campaigns
of policy makers seems to carry more weight
with FDA decisions than the real-world experiences
of victims of dangerous substances.

I don't know enough about the chemistry involved in aspartame to say
one way or another, but I think holding hearings is a good idea.
Shining the light on the findings of recent investigations into the
consequences of our widespread use of these sorts of artificial
substances ought to be automatic.

When we have all the information out on the table we'll be able to
make informed decisions. Even if the government chooses not to outlaw
aspartame, if the evidence shows it entails a risk, individuals can
choose to avoid it.

What we mustn't let happen, though, is for Americans to eat, drink and
absorb chemicals that damage our health -- and all the while be
falsely reassured by the government and the profiteers that we have
nothing to fear.

There's a whole lot of cancer treatment going on in this country.

A little emphasis on cancer prevention makes sense.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. je...@alibi.com
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http://legis.state.nm.us/lcs/legdetails.asp?Name=309&Submit=Search
[ photo ]

Senator: Gerald Ortiz y Pino
District: 12
County(s): Bernalillo
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By "gumby" mil (Submitted: 01/15/2006 3:13 am )

david, thank you for that link on the "other side of the story".

i read it and re-read it and then stood on my head and read it one more time
just to be sure.. and guess what? i don't see anywhere in that article where
they mention people developing webbed feet after injesting aspartame. i
guess i could have missed it, but i don't think so.

i bet the fda is withholding this information from us.. just like they did
about the ALIENS!!!

(-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-)

(-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-)

(-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-)

(-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-) (-_-)

"ooOoOoOooOOOooooooOOoOOOoooo... pretty scary!"

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:46 pm )

I could answer a lot of things about why the federal government is or
isn't doing about a lot of things. But we're not supposed to go off
subject.

Why are some people so all fired up about name calling and
finger pointing.

We're all supposed to be adults here. I'm here to tell you sometimes it
seems I'm talking with kindergarders and second graders. Simply review the
facts and decide for yourselves. Whether pro or con, make your decision and
move on. Some of you act like you're being victimized
instead of helped.

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:39 pm )

By Jim Aamodt (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:43 pm )

"Banning aspartame is stupid, period. If someone is allergic to aspartame
don't buy it. If someone needs an artificial sweetener and does not want
aspartame there are other substitutes like sucralose or even good old
saccharine. For the people like me (Jim Aamodt) that can take aspartame
without problems and who like it and want it, I say, LEAVE THEM
(me) ALONE!
I'm so tired of alarmists (good citizens who care about their health
and the health of others) like Ms. Cobos whose only real agenda
is to interfere with other people's lives." (do what is right and ban
aspartame as it should never have been marketed in the first place)

TRANSLATION:

Not banning aspartame is stupid, period. If someone is allergic to
something, they should keep using it. If someone needs an artificial
sweetener and doesn't want aspartame, there are others they could
use so let's keep this one on the open market.

For the people like me that can take aspartame without noticable
problems and who like those bad health problems, and still want them anyway,
I say LEAVE ME ALONE! EVEN WHEN I'M SICK AND DYING! I'm so tired of people,
who care that they are eating deadly poison; whose only real agenda is to
try and warn others, so they don't
get sick and die.

By Jim Aamodt (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:43 pm )

Banning aspartame is stupid, period. If someone is allergic to
aspartame don't buy it. If someone needs an artificial sweetener and
does not want aspartame there are other substitutes like sucralose or
even good old saccharine. For the people that can take aspartame
without problems and who like it and want it, I say, LEAVE THEM ALONE! I'm
so tired of alarmists like Ms. Cobos whose only real
agenda is to interfere with other people's lives.

By "gumby" mil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:26 pm )

beckie.. one question for you.

if this aspartame is SOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD, why isn't the federal government
doing anything about it?

do you HONESTLY think they are incompetent? do you HONESTLY think there is
some type of coverup here?

who are you going to believe? some wacko, or the worlds top researchers????

i'm sorry beckie.. i'm not going to 'feel your pain' on this one.

nothing personal, but i believe in science.. not witch doctors that throw
chicken bones and read the patterns...

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:22 pm )

Here is the "other side" of the story:

http://www.ific.org/publications/brochures/aspart amebroch.cfm

Who's telling the truth??

I won't copy and paste because I know that the on-line community here clicks
on my links.

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:44 pm )

Sad, isn't it, how some can find such ill humor in the suffering of others..

What I don't understand is how some can sit by knowingly, watching
their loved ones, children even, just die a slow death. One day that
alarm will sound in your heads and then what? Stephen Fox may not
be around anymore and just maybe you won't know where to begin
to get the ball rolling again.

What a sad day that will be if this doesn't get passed. I just hope I'm
not around to see it. I don't want to have to say I told you so.

By "gumby" mil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:27 pm )

you people are forgetting your earlier mission of red dye #2.

if you eat a car painted with red dye #2, you are still going to die...

... aren't you going to finish that movement first?

and i notice you still won't address the problem of the 2nd floor west
wing at the aspartame research facility. you remember.. where you had those
8,000 white mice on aspartame? well, you mercifully took them
off that evil aspartame... but now, because of that you have a worse
problem...

the sugar they began eating in copious amounts after you denied them
their aspartame put so much energy into their little bodies, that they
went from a population of 8,000 to TWO MILLION in only 4 weeks!
and if that wasn't enough, those poor little white mice each now weigh
between 250 and 285 POUNDS!

what are you going to do about this?!?

men! we got a problem on our hands! and i'm not talking tribbles here...

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 6:30 pm )

My guess, even in spite of good intentions, is that this will never see the
light of day, even in committee because this is a 30-day session. The
governor is talking about packing 90 days of work into this 30-day
session.

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 5:44 pm )

Mr. Lopez,

Education and awareness are the main objective here to get this
information out and get this thing passed and stopped! How can we
fight for what we don't know or can't comprehend?

Point is aspartame kills and the longer we wait the more lives will be
lost to it.

How many people are aware and yet do nothing to push this issue.
All the while our loved ones continue to eat, drink and die.

Are we really satisfied when the reports come back for cause of
death...ie...brain tumor, MS, Lou Gherigs..etc..? I happen to know someone
with Lou Gherigs disease. It's not a fun situation at all.

Have we become so numb that we can't face our fears and truths
head on? Have we become so numb that we can no longer feel,
especially when it's the truth!?

It's a start in the right direction and if we have to, we will find another
way to re-invent sugar with safer possibilities. Given todays
technology, you can't convince me someone doesn't already have
the solution. Maybe his or her hands are tied by the FDA.

In all actuality Mr. Eldon Howell, diet Dr. Pepper was precisely what
I was drinking the day I had that seizure for no apparent reason and
ran off the highway.

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 5:20 pm )

I said "rat poison" I meant "arsenic." But regardless which you prefer,
begin consumption today with your 3 meal a day diet plan and get back
to me in let's say...a month? 2 months? 3 months? 6 months? In either
case, I won't be waiting.

By christena parisoff (Submitted: 01/14/2006 5:11 pm )

My Parkinson's Disease medication - contains ASPARTAME!??

www.parcopa.com

I was given this drug for Parkinson's disease about 6 months ago by my
neurologist - after having extreme headahes and nausea,
for much too long -

I called the pharmacy - for it was not labled
with any warning label of any kind?

The pharmacy said - yes it contains aspartame!

I am having very bad withdrawl from this very - UNACCEPTABLE practice... -
no warning labels...

I called the Schwarz Pharma, and made an official complaint -

from the site - fyi

Help Get Moving with PARCOPA

A Proven Drug in a New Delivery System

Welcome to http://PARCOPA.com, a website designed to provide patients and
their healthcare professionals with information about Parkinson's disease
and PARCOPATM (carbidopa-levodopa orally disintegrating tablets).

PARCOPA benefits from the innovative RapiTabTM technology.
These orally disintegrating tablets dissolve rapidly on the tongue.
They can be taken any time, anywhere with or without water.

PARCOPA has all the benefits of carbidopa-levodopa in an orally dissolving
formulation.

If you are currently taking SinemetŽ (carbidopa-levodopa) Tablets, you
should know that PARCOPA is a therapeutic alternative to SinemetŽ Tablets.
It is available in the same strengths as SinemetŽ Tablets. Your doctor can
prescribe PARCOPA using the same dosing and
administration schedules as SinemetŽ Tablets.

This site is not intended to take the place of your healthcare professional.
He or she is always your best source of information. Ask your doctor if
PARCOPA is right for you.

Each 10/100 mg and 25/100 mg tablet contains phenylalanine 3.4 mg;
each 25/250 mg tablet contains phenylalanine 8.4 mg.
[ That's 6.8 and 16.8 mg aspartame, about 20 % and 50% of a pack of Equal,
37 mg aspartame. ]

Most common side effects with PARCOPA include involuntary
movements and nausea.

Additional Information:

> Important safety information

> Complete Prescribing Information on PARCOPA (PDF)

> Important patient information

RapiTabTM is a trademark of SRZ Properties, Inc.

SinemetŽ is a registered trademark of Merck & Co., Inc.

I wish I had been much better informed.

sincerely, christena parisoff

By "gumby" mil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 5:09 pm )

eldon, i believe you did notice that i fell off the 'aspartame ban wagon',
huh? well.. i quit my aspartame branded cherry colas and aspartame branded
cherry pies, and i soon fell for the hard stuff.
yup. before i knew it, i was hitting the nutrasweet branded rc colas and
nutrasweet branded moon pies... forty.. fifty.. sixty a day. well, before i
knew it, i had my extra foot sticking out of the side of my head again.

at first it bugged me having that extra foot sticking out the side of my
head, but then i got used to it.

the real problem i found was that whenever i absentmindely reached up
to scratch my head, i tickled the foot, and it made me giggle.

and that's when people would look at me. they didn't notice the bare
foot sticking out the side of my head, they noticed the giggle...
so that was the drawback. but then, there was a bonus in this too.

being aspartame challenged (like i am), with that extra foot sticking out
the side of my head enabled me to immediately count 5 higher without calling
miss judy at the library for assistance. pretty sweet, huh? (again no pun
intended)

so think about it eldon... there are sacrifices and bonuses if you want to
be an aspartame rebel like me... you gotta want it!

By STEPHEN FOX (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:54 pm )

I am glad to see the comments are getting smarter, and thereby, more of the
truth gets out to readers.......I want to assure the readers that my
comments are not "cut and paste." I take the time to respond with
original remarks....I think the author of this article, Diana Heil, should
do another one, and talk with several physicians, DR. ROBERTS,
DR. BLAYLOCK [Author of Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills],
Dr. R.G. Walton, who has investigated the interocular bleeding that
blinded Sarah Seiderman whose letter appears below;
Dr. Grant La Farge, Santa Fe Pediatric Cardiologist;
Dr. Ken Stoller, Pediatrician Santa Fe;
Dr. Voorhees at the DOHealth;
Dr. Mack Sewell, NM Epidemiologist;
any neurotoxicologist at the University of New Mexico Medical School, even
local Internists will know the symptoms of aspartame poisoning,
since it is metabolized as methanol, then formaldehyde.
I would explain the difference between naturally found formaldehyde
and that in diet drinks, etc., but folks, I have 3 bills to get passed this
legislative session, and thus almost no time....if you think such an effort
is twilight zone or crazy, you are entitled to your opinion.....no problem:
last I check about 24 hours ago, we still have the First Amendment
and the Freedom of Speech intact.

To understand this bill's impetus, read the Tenth Amendment to the
US Constitution and read the New Mexico Food Act, NMSA 25-2-7. See you
around the Roundhouse....

Stephen Fox

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:53 pm )

David, 30 ml of 37% habanero peppers will probably kill an adult, too.
I pay taxes so the FDA can test the products I consume for safety and
effectiveness. I then get to hear from any detractors and make up my
own mind. I don't want to deny you that priveledge...don't attempt to deny
it to me. No one is shoving it down your throat.

Have a great Sunday you guys!!

By Cris Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:43 pm )

Almost as good as the wood rosin in my can of Squirt.

By christena parisoff (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:23 pm )

A copy of my faxed letter:

To - Governor Bill Richardson
Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail Room 400 Santa Fe, NM 87501
fax: (505) 476-2226

1/9/2006

To the Honorable Governor Bill Richardson,

I, Christena Parisoff, ask you please,

do not allow the aspartame vote to be done away with, this toxic chemical is
a poison and is in blue packets for unsuspecting people to use to sweeten
their foods, also known as NutraSweet/ Equal, and this toxic sugar is added
to many foods with out any warning labels of of any kind.

Many foods on shelves in Grocery stores that are misleading and detrimental
to the state of New Mexico's health, and in the greater
picture our Nation and World.

Aspartame is a detriment to my once good health. After an exposure to
excititoxins, which has a exact correlation to several neurodegenerative
illnesses and My Parkinson's Disease.

I was an avid Diet Pepsi drinker - I stopped drinking it because of the
warnings I heard that it caused severe reactions in some people including
severe headaches, of which I was having after drinking the product.

I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease after three long years of
severe shaking, and the doctors said at 29 in 1991 - I was too young for
that older persons illness.

Finally, after much testing including an M.R.I I was diagnosed with the
neurodegenerative illness in 1994, that has not been cured by pharmaceutical
drugs.

I am now 43 - my life has changed dramatically by the effects of a poisoned
world, and medications I need to live and function somewhat normal. I have a
young son, I love very much.

Many young onset friends of mine - I being one, went to Washington DC, in
2000 to speak to congressman and senators, at the asking of Michael J. Fox
and Joan Samuelson of P.A.N.

While in DC, I made a strong contact with a great man - Congressman Lane
Evans, an Illinois Representative, who was also diagnosed
"a Young Onset Parkinson's patient".

Congressman Evans is also a Marine and Veteran of Foreign Wars and very
concerned with - Gulf War Syndrome and PTSD - Post traumatic stress
disorder, that is a great concern to our soldiers who have been victimized
by aspartame.

Congressman Lane Evans is in an our award winning Parkinson's disease
documentary - called - "In Search of a Champion" - along with many of
my friends who have this illness.

www.pwnkle.com/champion.htm

the url above is an online version that may be viewed - free -

also with hope and expectations for cures, Congressman Evans invited
me to meet with President Clinton at the White House in 2000, with Dr. Greg
Gerhardt, to speak about funding Parkinson's Disease Research
for cures, through the Morris K Udall Centers of Excellence.

One New Mexico's finest Representatives.___________

Also from the medical journal "The Lancet" -the discussion about Food
Pollution -

IE - ASPARTAME
Pages 889-896 (June 1999)
Food Pollution
25 of 47

Abstract

Food can influence the human body in many ways, both positively and
negatively. Several key elements of contemporary food cultivation and
production are presented, along with their potential consequences to our
health. The history of food cultivation and consumption is contrasted
between early hunter-gatherer societies and modern day societies.

Natural nutrient-rich foods produced from the soil in early societies have
been replaced with artificial supplements and treated with pesticides and
herbicides to control plant disease.

The evolution of pesticides is chronicled from the synthesis of DDT
in 1870 to present day.

Several commonly used chemicals are described along with their documented
side effects. A number of methods of pest control from ancient to modern day
are offered as alternatives to polluting chemicals. Integrated pest
management is proposed as a promising, economically feasible method of pest
management, reducing pollution and risk to
wildlife and human health.

(Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 1999;120:889-96.) Food pollution

ABSTRACT
CITATION ALERT
CITED BY
RICHARD J. TREVINO

Please - do not allow this letter of extreme concern for the innocent
children who are exposed to aspartame in hundreds of children's
pharmaceutical and over the counter medications, and in the diet drinks
their parents consume and share with their children out of the lack of
knowledge, and the blind faith we have put in the FDA.

Governor Richardson, please put the aspartame ban bill on your call to the
Legislature of the State of New Mexico...

By doing this you will be opening the door for many states to follow you and
heal our nation from this poison - called Aspartame.

Thank You, Sincerely, a Parkinson's Disease Advocate for cures,

Ms. Christena Parisoff

When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest,
strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be
applied. -- Herophilus

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:07 pm )

Beckie, thank you very much for an orginal post on this topic.

It gets very tiring to have to see the same copy-paste post over and over.
Believe me, most of the negative reaction here is because those posts are
more than annoying, regardless of the message.

Yes, no formaldehyde is best and from what I've read 30 mL of 37%
formaldehyde solution will kill an adult.

The debate is whether or not the formaldehyde we are exposed to after
consuming a reasonable about of aspartame really causes damage, either
short-term or long term.

just about every other post on the ban side of this debate in past stories
make more than one of us wonder if this is just chemical fear.

Though, as a type 2 diabetic, I won't drink sugared soda, I will and do
think twice before drinking more than 2 diet soda per day. I have been
exchanging some of my lunch carbs for sugar in my coffee. I have had
high liver enzymes the last two times I had blood work done. You have given
me something to consider, thank you.

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/14/2006 4:01 pm )

gumby, you have me rolling on the floor...possibly a side effect of that
diet Dr. Pepper I just finished! VErrrry good! Your post, too!
By Karen Ulehla (Submitted: 01/14/2006 3:39 pm )
By Karen Ulehla, MSLS

Consumer Beware

As a medical librarian, I began to conduct research on the safety of
aspartame in January 2005 at the request of the family of a terminally ill
brain tumor patient. The patient consumed at least 2 liters of diet soda
per day for several years without obvious adverse effects until the rapid
onset of symptoms related to her illness. Initially, I did not believe that
this FDA approved additive could be linked to brain tumors or to the
plethora of other illnesses that have been linked to aspartame, such as
multiple sclerosis.

After completing an exhaustive medical literature search, I began to
contact federal agencies such as the National Toxicology Program, research
scientists, physicians, pharmacists and toxicologists and my awareness of
the adverse effects of aspartame began to change.

The following are examples of what I found:

1) Through correspondence with a research scientist, I learned that
suppression of critically important research facts and inaccurate
information have been exploited by the food and pharmaceutical
industries to manipulate and wield influence over federal agencies.
On April 18, 2005, I received a letter from an eminent university
professor that provided insight into the industry's techniques.
In very precise and illuminating words, the research scientist stated:

"We carried out the experiments that provided a solid basis for the
explanation of the toxicity of aspartame. Unfortunately, high politics,
extremely powerful and aggressive commercial interests and other
no less menacing actions convinced us that the continuity of our
research had to be outside the concrete study of aspartame.
Thus we left the field due to the brute force of lawyering and constant
references to FDA authority. I truly cannot understand how it was authorized
in the first place and how it can continue being authorized
when there is so much evidence against it. This case demonstrates that
a given laboratory needs to have friends in high places and aggressive
lawyers instead of thorough scientists in order to get high money."

2) The opinion of a licensed pharmacist:

"Aspartame is poisonous, and here is why. One of the toxic ingredients
of Aspartame is wood alcohol. When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86
degrees F, the wood alcohol in the Aspartame is converted
to formaldehyde, and then to formic acid, which in turn can cause metabolic
acidosis. Formaldehyde is grouped in the same class of poisons as Cyanide
and Arsenic - which are very deadly toxins.

3) Results of National Institutes of Health, National Toxicology
Program aided research: In new research published in November 2005
in the highly respected, peer-reviewed National Institutes of Health's
Environmental Health Perspectives, the authors demonstrated the
multipotential carcinogenic effects of aspartame and they call for
"urgent reevaluation of the current guidelines for the use and
consumption of this compound."
NIH, NIEHS and NTP are highly credible federal institutions.

4) International opinion is changing: On December 15, 2005, MP Roger
Williams, Doctor of Law and Member of the UK Parliamentary Select Committee
on Food and the Environment called for emergency action
to ban aspartame, the artificial sweetener used in food, drink and
medicinal products. The Democrat MP Roger Williams said that there
was "compelling and reliable evidence for this carcinogenic substance
to be banned from the UK food and drinks market altogether.
In licensing aspartame for use, regulators around the world have failed
in their main task of protecting the public, he told Members of
Parliament. I received an email from Roger last week and he said:
"The media and public attention that this issue has generated has been
truly staggering, and I am continuing to work towards achieving a total
ban."

5) Statements by former director of NIEHS: David Rall, former director
of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and overseer
the NIH National Toxicology Program for 19 years, commented on aspartame:
"The FDA that helped fund the Toxicology Program
repeatedly opposed further studies of aspartame. It's a wonderful way
to ensure that aspartame isn't tested.
Discourage the testing group from testing it and then say it's safe."

As consumers, we have to take responsibility for our own health.
Some may say, live and let live. That may be fine for the general
population, however, we have a responsibility to protect the most
sensitive among us -- our children, our pregnant and nursing mothers
and of course, our elderly.
Is it appropriate, for the benefit of society, to keep the population
uninformed?

By Rich Murray (Submitted: 01/14/2006 3:03 pm )

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message /1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte [red blood cell]
membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al, two studies in 2005,
Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14: 2004 research review, RL Blaylock:
Murray 2006.01.14

By "gumby" mil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 2:59 pm )

i too have a story about aspertame.

i and 148,000,000 of my friends used to drink colas sweetened with it.

and that is when all 148,000,001 of us noticed that a foot had grown out of
the side of our heads. i thought to myself, "how odd", and the 148,000,000
of my friends said collectively to themselves, "how odd", and then as an
experiment, all 148,000,001 of us quit drinking colas with aspertame.

and lo and behold, all 148,000,001 feet sticking out of the sides of me and
my 148,000,000 million friends heads went away.

it was a miracle!!!

personally, i think all you wannabee scientists led by your wacko friend fox
posting on this story should go work for the food and drug administration,
because it's pretty clear they need your help.

after all.. the fda are only a bunch of amateurs.. and fox.. well fox
obviously knows what he's talking about!

so now before we go our separate ways.. let me grab my nutrasweet cherry
cola here.. psssst, "ahhhhh....", and now let me pick up my slice of
sugarfree nutrasweet cherry pie.. "mmm.. mmm.. mmmmmm..." and now realizing
that parting is such sweet sorrow.. (no pun intended);

"bon appétite!"

By Rich Murray (Submitted: 01/14/2006 2:56 pm )

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message /1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte [red blood cell]
membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al, two studies in 2005,
Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14: 2004 research review, RL Blaylock:
Murray 2006.01.14

By Miguel Vigil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 2:55 pm )

Folks, look at the sign post up ahead......... we have entered the aspartame
twilight zone, doo doo doo doo....

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/14/2006 2:55 pm )

Rat poison is usually Coumadin, a common blood thinning agent taken by heart
patients. They just OD the rats on it and they hemorrhage to death,
internally. It metabolizes out of the system gradually. No big deal...just
has the word "poison" on the rat version.

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 2:22 pm )

David:

Have you policed the eating habits of America's obese society? Can you
honestly tell me that Americans don't consume above and beyond the average
recommended daily intake allowance at one sitting or in a single day? How
about a week, month or year? You have no way of documenting that everyone
has a normal average intake in the privacy
of their homes.

Obesity can lead to diabetes, and most obese people tend to use food
as a comfort for coping habit. I've seen cases where some individuals
will sit and consume a full tables worth of food in one sitting; whereas,
a normal person would never imagine such a thing.

I've worked in healthcare for over 25 years and have witnessed a great many
cases to that effect. Just how much formaldehyde one consumes
on a daily basis is up to that certain individual. Just how much
formaldehyde constitutes a lethal dose before the body can deal with
it in these given situations?

None, is better than some and some, is worse than none. Why are we
even talking about this? This should never have happened in the first
place. It is like some of you people are condoning this. It's not ok to
know something is bad for you and allow someone to market and profit from it
anyway. It's almost criminal, if not? What a barbaric concept?

Who is to say how little or how much? Why does it even exist in the
first place? It shouldn't and we shouldn't be facing this issue right now,
but we are and we must take immediate intervention and try to prevent
a far worse dilemma.

Should this pass it would still be a problem because there are many
who don't realize how they are hurting themselves. It will take some time
to reach the masses but it is an effort in progress and if the nation gets
behind it as a whole so many lives will be spared. That is what matters most
in the end run. To live a longer, healthier, more enjoyable life is far
greater.

We're allowing them to kill us and by allowing such antics, we're killing
ourselves! How can anyone claim someones best interest at heart and allow
this to continue? How can you claim you have your own best interests at
heart and not face facts? How, knowing the facts are staring you right in
the face, can someone go out and condone such a thing?

How much formaldehyde one consumes, wouldn't even be an issue if it didn't
exist for edible consumption.

About 8 years ago I had high liver enzymes show up in my lab work. I recall
the doctor asking me if I drank a lot of diet sodas, saying this
could cause the liver enzymes to elevate but not much was known as
to why.

In a matter of days, my levels reached 495
whereas the norm was 31-33.
I went from 56 to 195 to a whopping 495 in a matter of days.
Once I cut off the diet sodas my levels returned to normal
and I have no more pain in my liver.
I was facing a liver biopsy and now have no need for one.

Another time, I was driving on the highway, when I suddenly went into
a full blown seizure for no apparent reason and went off the road.
It was a long drive so I had a few too many diet sodas and string cheese
along the way. I was supplying the refreshments in the town I was
visiting, so I had plenty with me.

I can think of no other reason for why that would happen out of the
blue like that? Doctors couldn't figure out why I had this episode
and I haven't had any since I stopped consuming the infamous formaldehyde
cocktail.

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 1:37 pm )

Becky, that formaldehyde indeed is quickly converted to CO2 and
water. It is not toxic unless you consume it in quantities that will cause
damage before the body can deal with.(?)

That rat poison may very well bioaccumulate, not cuasing damage until
it accumulates to a toxic level.

I will grant you this. The action of converting formaldehyde to CO2
and water probably happens in the liver. If there is liver damage caused
by excesive aspartame "digestion" it may appear that peer reviewed
studies of this need to be peformed.

It is a "no brainer".

By Sarah Seiderman (Submitted: 01/14/2006 1:05 pm )

I am amazed that absolute proof will not impress some of the "ostriches" who
are commenting on this story. If you want to drink poison, go
ahead, but your choice will only hurt YOU.

My story is typical. I was a slightly overweight woman who had used
diet foods and drinks for many years. I believed the terrible falsehoods
put out by the FDA condemning saccharin and switched to aspartame when it
came out, thinking that it had to be safe, since it had been approved.

As I continued to gain weight over the years, I frequently satisfied my
appetite with diet sodas, 10-12 a day. Suddenly, at the age of 65,
I was told I had diabetes! I was shocked but trusted the FDA
(foolishly) and continued to use diet foods and sodas. Meanwhile,
other strange symptoms began to appear.

I had violent headaches, hour after hour; my scalp erupted in many
tiny cranial tumors; my hair fell out; my blood pressure zoomed,
along with my chlorestorol; my hands began to tremble violently;
I was so depressed that I contemplated suicide and was put on Prozac
for several years; my arms, legs and back were racked with
arthritic-like pains but x-rays did not show any arthritis;
my heart developed a terrible arrythmia, and, then, one day in
2002, my left eye suddenly became blind -- attributed to the hardening
of the artery that led to the retina -- and my right eye developed a large
black circle which makes my vision very poor.

Doctors had no answers for my problems. It was not until I began to
hear of the dangers of aspartame that I began to see a pattern.
I BECAME INFORMED (not like so many nay-sayers on this list)
and I began to eliminate aspartame and other sugar-substitutes from
my diet.

Within three months, my diabetes had disappeared! My blood pressure and
chlorestorol dropped to normal. My body shed 40 POUNDS!
My tremors and irregular heartbeat are much diminished.
My depression vanished the first week and I discarded the Prozac.
Sadly, my vision cannot be restored so, at the otherwise-healthy age
of 72, I am hampered and distressed because I no longer have two
good eyes! Must use a guide dog, cannot drive and so on....
in other words, I have been left terribly scarred and injured by my
use of this chemical!

What is amazing to me is the audacity of the FDA to put a poison
on the market that can and has maimed and killed thousands of
Americans! If there were only one or two complaints, or even a dozen,
it would be understandable....but this is nationwide!
And worldwide! We cannot even know of the thousands of children
and adults who have suffered, or died, of this dreadful poison
that are UNREPORTED!

We must bring this situation out into the open and this chemical (and
its look-alikes) must be withdrawn from all of the 6,000 foods and products
that contain it today. I bought some Alka-Seltzer for a cold
and had to throw it away. Why they would need to put aspartame in
that product, I do not understand.

Please, New Mexicans, support this movement.
Get behind your state officials and SET THE PRECEDENT for the
other states to follow.

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 12:40 pm )

And the alternative to Aspartame is what? Sugar???

Think again:

http://www.beyondhealth.com/sugar-poor-choice.htm

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 12:30 pm )

Someone posed these questions earlier:

So, really, does the small amount of formaldehyde produced from the methanol
by-product of Aspartame metabolism post a health risk?

Sure, formaldehyde is a poison, but do the levels produced (and
quickly converted to carbon dioxide and water) really have enough
resident time in the body to cause any ill effects?

If you ate rat poison one grain at a time would it accumulate in your
body? Would it really have ill effects on your system?

Would any other poisons consumed by the human body pose any ill
threats to our systems?

Let's see, you do the study and then get back to us..if your still around.

Duh! It's a no brainer people!

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 12:24 pm )

I for one am grateful to have someone bold enough to take the initiative
and not just sit by and watch people dwindle away and suffer unnecessarily.

Think of the lives that would be saved, not to mention the expenses that
would be curbed. It's high time we took the floor and spoke up for what we
want, think and know. We are afterall consuming this stuff. Why wouldn't we
want to question it, fight and get the answers and solutions
we so rightly deserve.

Thank you Mr. Fox for standing in the gap and raising the standard!

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 12:20 pm )

It's simple, the information is all too readily available just read it for
yourselves. Get educated people our future generations depend on your
immediate intervention!

I have nieces and nephews with very promising futures and I don't want
to see that cut short because someone was too ignorant to speak up.

You have a voice use it! My hats off to all who are..Woo Hoo!!

My aunt only discovered the truth behind aspartame late last year and
immediately after cutting herself from these death induced products, she
felt better. She had been confined to her home for 3 months and within a
week she was back in church.

She didn't have the opportunity to know the exact link to why she was
feeling so poorly so suddenly. But she knew the difference in how much
better she felt after no longer consuming these products.

Unfortunately for her loved ones she will never know, because for no
apparent reason she lay down to sleep Christmas Eve
and never woke up.

We're stunned and question why such a vibrant and otherwise healthy,
beautiful individual could slip away without warning.

I have my theories!

By Beckie Cobos (Submitted: 01/14/2006 12:00 pm )

How can someone feel sorry about a healthier diabetic?
Granted, we all have the right to choose whether to purchase and
consume a product, but shouldn't it be a safe product to begin with?
If the USDA has known about this all this time, why wouldn't they
want to correct this.

If they knew about this going into it, how can they live with themselves?
A clear conscience far outweighs a guilty one, I'd think.
This is still a democratic nation a "government of the people,
by the people, for the people." We still have a voice here
and we should use while we still can.

It's apparent to me that many Americans still need to be educated in
this matter and once educated, why would they not choose to exercise
that knowledge before pushing it aside, just because something may
taste better?

I'd much prefer to live a longer, healthier life than to die an agonizing
death at a shorter term.

'It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
I know he's talking about freedom here but how can we fight for our
health if we're dead?

By Maria Leyba (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:40 am )

shine......

By Betty Martini (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:39 am )

There is a comment needed for those who say "If you don't like it, don't buy
it". When Rose in our aspartame information list drank diet pop
during pregnancy the label didn't say "causes birth defects".
Her mentally retarded daughter can't speak. When Kelli Motluck got married,
started a law practice and then had a baby she thought
she had a full life ahead of her. But then she started using aspartame
and later cried to me when she was dying from aspartame brain
tumors, "I want to live, I want to live, I want to live. ....how dare
they put something on the market that causes brain tumors."
She lost her life at age 28. When Dave Rietz used aspartame
he suffered joint pain (aspartame causes hardening of the
synovial fluids)so bad he had to build a room for a Jucuzzi
to stay in water. It was too painful to walk. He created
http://www.dorway.com (David Oliver Rietz) as a DORway to
Discovery so what happened to him would not happen to others.
It remains the largest of the anti-aspartame sites in his memory.
He died of aspartame cancer.
Linda Heming, Mission Possible Phoenix, has so many problems from aspartame
that even in her disability she helps others daily so what has happened to
her won't happen to others. She has Lyme Disease and had cancer and suffers
from all sorts of damaging disabilities from consuming this toxin. Attorney
Ed Johnson who worked in the Justice Department
is fortunate to be alive after the removal of an aspartame brain tumor
but he can no longer practice law. You will see him in the movie,
Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World,
http://www.docworkers.com And Cori Brackett, producer of this aspartame
documentary drank diet pop laced with aspartame for years until she was
diagnosed with MS with a huge lesion.
She decided to do her own research and got on
http://www.dorway.com and got off the toxin.
She walked out of her wheelchair to make Sweet Misery to alert the world.
Eight months later her lesion was all but gone off aspartame. Through the
Shadows are poems by Cori of her suffering all those years.

How many of these people wish somebody like Stephen Fox had come along to
have the courage to fight for the removal of this toxin to save
the people of their state. Mission Possible International and its operations
around the world have been alerting people for 15 years now.
Some of them didn't make it like Dave and Kelli.
The files and boxes of case histories, and messages from victims by
phone and computer all these years are unbelievable.
I once told the manufacturer one day I would have to rent a
warehouse for case histories. And I'm one person whereas MP organizations
are taking these cases in the US and other countires.
Millions of babies are being murdered in their mother's womb
because they don't have the decency to even put a warning
that aspartame is an abortifacient and causes birth defects.
Autism is epidemic. Parents Magazine in l999 wrote an article
"What's Happening to Our Children" and said almost every family is
involved. That's because aspartame triggers behavioral and
psychiatric problems, and learning disorders.
The medical text by Dr. Roberts, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored
Epidemic is over 1000 pages of symptoms and atrocities caused by
this deadly, deadly poison.

Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D., who wrote
Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills says in a lecture on
http://www.dorway.com that the reactions are not
allergic but toxic like arsenic and cyanide. It causes polychemical
sensitivity syndrome like MCS. By the FDA's own list also on
http://www.dorway.com there are 92 symptoms they admit to including
4 types of seizures, joint pain, mood change, memory loss, blindness,
male sexual dysfunction, shortness of breath, coma and
unconsciousness, hallucinations, neurolological problems,
difficulty breathing and death. An additive by law must be inert.
This neurotoxic drug is about as inert as nitroglycerin.
There are more than these 92 symptoms and the warning label would
have to be so long it only could summarize:
Genocide: Keep out of reach of humans. We are talking about a
deadly poison and the Trocho Study in l998 shows the
formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol accumulates
in the cells and damages DNA. There is page in the medical text
on pre-embalming by aspartame and when you damage DNA
you can destroy humanity. So if you're an addict
which is not your fault, we will help you, but don't speak for others
who have no idea they are ingesting a slow poison that can destroy
their life and their offspring.
One lady who used diet pop through 3 pregnancies has 3 autistic
children and she and her husband work two jobs for a trust fund
to care for them when they are no longer around.
Diane Fleming remains in a prison in Virginia because her athletic
husband who was an aspartame addict died of methanol poisoning
which it causes. They thought she poisoned him.
Doctors looking at the autopsy have written affidavits he died from
this toxin. You better believe Diane wishes somebody like
Stephen Fox had petitioned in Virginia to ban this toxin before
she lost her husband, her home, her children and her freedom.
She passed a lie detector test. Have some mercy for humanity.
Help in your state to have this banned. Contact Stephen Fox
or myself for a copy of the bill for your legislature.

Dr. Betty MartiniD.Hum., Founder, Mission Possible Intl,
9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097 770 242-2599
Bett...@mindspring.com
http://www.wnho.net and http://www.dorway.com
Aspartame Toxicity Center,
http://www.holisticmed.com.aspartame
Mission Possible National Capital Area,
http://www.aspartamekills.com
Aspartame Information List on
http://www.wnho.net subscribe on front page banner

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:24 am )

Dang, David...I just read further in your post. Add ethanol to your coke!???

Boilermakers at lunch time? I assume you know what ethanol is.

By Kenneth Stoller (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:23 am )

As a board certified pediatrician here in Santa Fe, I can tell you how
important it is not to have Aspartamized soda available for children.
At one time all soda-pops were called "slop" by those who understood their
pernicious properties. Today, mass-marketing and manipulation has so many
drinking a product that was originally classified as a chemical
warfareagent - yes, this is Aspartame.

This year the world will wake up to the truth about this horrible
chemical, and it will be pulled from the market, but the question
everyone needs to ask themselves is what they they weren't prepared
to do when it was pointed out to them that this chemical was so deleterious?
Did they take action to protect children?
the addiction to Aspartame?

Aspartame is not a diet product but a neurotoxic drug that makes you crave
carbohydrates so you gain weight.

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.

Aspartame is on the market because of unchecked corportate greed
and misanthropy brought on in a society asleep to the dangers of an
unholy alliance between corporation and state.

If this comes as a shock, then take your anger out looking at the
latest research on how aspartame causes cancer, reserach published
by the NIH!

Here are the links to the press release and full report of the
recentaspartame carcinogenicity study from the Ramazzini Cancer
ResearchCenter. This study has been peer-reviewed and published
on the US National Institute of Health's website.
The National Toxicology Program provided assistance.

The conclusion of the report, as quoted in the abstract is that
"The results of this mega-experiment indicate that APM (aspartame)
is a multipotential carcinogenic agent, even at a daily dose of 20 mg/kg
b.w., much less than the current acceptable daily intake (ADI).
On the basis of these results, a re-evaluation of the present guidelines
on the use and consumption of APM is urgent and cannot be delayed."

Press Release: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/press/111605.html

Abstract: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2005/8711/abstract. pdf

Full Report: http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/members/2005/8711/8711.p df

K Paul Stoller, MD, FAAP
President, International Hyperbaric Medical Assoc
Medical Director, Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico
http://www.hbotnm.com

By STEPHEN FOX (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:21 am )

Diabetics, more than any single group, should examine
Dr. HJ Roberts' book,
Aspartame Disease: an Ignored Epidemic, a 1038 page compilation
of all of his aspartame poisoning patients, particularly diabetics,
over 440 patients.
You can google his article on the clinical effects of this poison.
Further, add Diabetes to the google search. Perhaps, after doing some
rudimentary research of this precise matter, you might realize that Dr.
Roberts is to this subject what Linus Pauling was to Vitamin C, or Jonas
Salk was to Polio, or DeBakey was to Open Heart Surgery.

His patients are grateful to Dr. Roberts. He was knighted for his efforts.

Want a second opinion? Try googling or READ HIS BOOK, EXCITOTOXINS: THE
TASTE THAT KILLS.

Thus we gradually erode the staggering ignorance about this subject. Perhaps
those who comment so vehemently about their freedom of
choice to poison themselves could take a look at these two Internet searches
and come back to comment on what they might have learned.

A physician closer to home? Call Dr. Voorhees at the NM Department
of Health on Tuesday. He knows all about methanol poisoning and aspartame.

People die from the medical effects of this sweetener.....any good
plaintiff's lawyers out there?

Even if the Attorneys General of 50 states are slow at recognizing the
similarities between Big Tobacco and Big Aspartame [and many of them are
already on to this possibility, like New York's, Minnesota's, and
California's], there are fortunately a few private lawyers out there who can
recognize some medical causality, as in:

Big Tobacco>>>>>>lung cancer, emphysema>>>>$235 billion in judgements

Big Aspartame>>>>>neurodegenerative diseases>>>>? in judgements.

Stephen Fox

By ELDON HOWELL (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:20 am )

I don't want to get sucked in a long series of posts arguing with the
"aspartame paranoids", as Miguel so aptly describes them.

But I did note David's reference to formaldehyde as a poison.
Also known as formalin, it is commonly used to "fix" tissues for
preservation. When I was in college, for two and a half years I assisted
with autopsies, over 650 in all. Each time I prepared formaldehyde from
concentrate for use in preserving tissue specemins...I breathed it,
the place reeked of it, got it all over my hands and was generally pretty
marinated in it. Well, well, here I am writing this post decades later.
Last physical workup my doctor told me all parameters
are in the center of normal.

The stuff is very rapidly broken down in body tissues and converted to
formates, which are NON toxic, then removed through respiration and urine.

I think some people must just be allergic to aspartame and the chemical
results of metabolizing it. Some people can't handle peanuts.

There is a website for every point of view, these days, and if you
are afraid of aspartame you have plenty of company.
If you are not, then true, as well.

The choice to use this useful product should be made at the checkout
counter, not by some piece of legislation. By the way...
Motrin children's suspension has not a molecule of aspartame in it.
It does, however, contain ethylene glycol...know that that is?
Anti-freeze! Maybe that will give you something new to pursue.

Anyway, if you don't like the brand name Motrin, look for other
ibuprofen containing products. Same thing.

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 11:20 am )

Formaldehyde does not accumulate in the body, since it is readily
metabolized to formic acid, and then to carbon dioxide and water.

So, really, does the small amount of formaldehyde produced from the methanol
by-product of Aspartame metabolism post a health risk?

Sure, formaldehyde is a poison, but do the levels produced
(and quickly converted to carbon dioxide and water) really have enough
resident time in the body to cause any ill effects?

Now if you do experience ill effects from drinking diet sodas, DON'T DRINK
DIET SODAS.

By Maria Leyba (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:46 am )

that high fructose corn syrup in everything we eat can have deadly
consequences for those with an allergy to corn products. And it's more
common than one thinks.

By Grace Servas (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:39 am )

For diabetics who require a sweetener other than sugar, this bill is a
disaster. Roberts and Pino should be sued by every diabetic in the state of
New Mexico. I will be the first. By The way, where is the peer review study
that supports H.R Roberts' claims????? Show me the valid references.

By Miguel Vigil (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:38 am )

Absolutely correct Josef, in fact if you notive the posts by the
aspartame paranoids, they are so long with cut and paste junk,
no one can figure out the rants in their convoluted accusations
and hyped pseudo-science. Just wait til these nuts start bending
solons ears about this non-issue. This is about the stupidest thing
that has ever happened to waste time and tax payers money.
We have real problem to deal with in NM, please let our
elected reps deal with them, not this junk science.

By Maria Leyba (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:38 am )

Drake? hmmm....

the writing style is the same......hmmmm.......

By David Lopez (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:26 am )

I guess that Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino thinks that if we ban the blue
packages and diet sodas that this problem is wasily solved.

WRONG!!

Aspartame is so integrated into our food/drug supply that it may be
impossible to remove. I just gave my daughter some Children's Motrin, which
contains aspartame. I guess the Senator wants us to give our kids unsweeeted
aspirin, thus exchanging the risk of one possible illness for a real one,
Reys syndrome.

Formaldehyde is clearly a poison, you can see that for yourself here:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MHMI/mmg111.html

There are very important questions to answwer before any ban
is in place, including what how much formaldehyde is produced
in the body when a diet coke is taken. Here is Rich's side of that story:

http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/fm.html

There is good news here. There is a sure-fire way to prevent the
methanol metabolites from forming. All you have to do is add ethanol
to your diet coke.

Here is the logic behind that:

From this web site:

http://www.the-testament-of-truth.co.uk/web/disti ll.htm

Methanol is carbinol is wood spirit is wood alcohol. Methanol itself
may cause inebriation but by itself in almost completely non-toxic.
The Methanol is metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase to
formaldehyde and then to formic acid. Clinical findings correlate better
with formic acid levels than with Methanol levels.

It is these two metabolites that cause toxicity, with formic acid being
more responsible. It is the formic acid that causes the profound
metabolic acidosis that is typical of Methanol poisoning.
The overall mortality of Methanol poisoning is approximately 20%
and among survivors the rate of permanent
visual impairment is 20-25%.

Poisoning with Methanol may be accidental or intentional. There have
been epidemics of Methanol toxicity in cases where illicit whiskey
has been sold to large populations or when the less expensive
Methanol was substituted for Ethanol in drinks.

Poisoning may occur from ingestion, inhalation or skin absorption. Symptoms
include anorexia, severe abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, increased
transaminases or increased amylase. Early visual disturbances
are the classic findings that are associated with Methanol intoxication
and include decreased vision or blurred vision.

Other complications of severe Methanol intoxication include coma, seizures,
blindness, oliguric renal failure, cardiac failure, and pulmonary edema.
Death may be rapid or may occur several hours after coma.
Death is associated with inspiratory apnea, terminal opisthotonos and
convulsions. Fatal dose 100ml.

Ethanol is used to decrease the metabolism of Methanol. Alcohol
dehydrogenase acts within the liver to break down both Ethanol and Methanol,
and is the rate limiting step in the metabolism of both these alcohols. The
enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, has a greater affinity for Ethanol than it
does for Methanol. Therefore, in the presence of Ethanol, the metabolism of
Methanol to its toxic metabolites is greatly slowed.

If there is a high clinical suspicion that a patient has ingested Methanol
it is appropriate to begin an Ethanol drip while awaiting blood levels of
Methanol. Ethanol drips are also indicated if the blood Methanol level
returns and is 20 mg/dl or above.
The target Ethanol level is 100-150 mg/dl
since this is the level that will saturate alcohol dehydrogenase.

By John Drew (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:15 am )

Stephen,

I just read the Ramazzini study and you are misrepresenting what it
demonstrates.

The legal limit in the US is 50mg/kw and the average intake in the US is
2.5mg/kw.

The only danger shows up when if, EVERY DAY, you feed rats EIGHT TIMES the
MAXIMUM allowed by the government (and 160 times
what the average consumption is) those rats are twice as likely to get
cancer. But that's only the female rats.

You've got to feed male rats 2,000x (40,000x average intake!) the
Fed max to get the same results.

I bet if you ate 40,000x the average daily intake of organic kale or
brown rice or anything you would croak too. You're being an alarmist Steven.

By paul klien (Submitted: 01/14/2006 10:15 am )

They need to ban High Fructos Corn Sweetner.
Go back to using real surgar in products.

By Betty Martini (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:59 am )

One person who commented said what about diabetics? This is just one problem
with aspartame, it can precipitate diabetes, simulates and aggravates
diabetic retinopathy and neuropathy, destroys the optic
nerve because of the free methyl alcohol, and causes diabetics to go
into convulsions. It also interacts with insulin. That's how diabetic
specialist, H. J. Roberts, found out aspartame is poison, his diabetic
patients became confused, their diabetes was out of control,
and they began going blind. He testified before congress, declared Aspartame
Disease a global plague and published the
medical text on it, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic,
http://www.sunsentpress.com or 1 800 827 7991

Aspartame should never have been approved, and the FDA themselves revoked
the petition for approval. It eventually was approved by
political clout instead of science as attorney James Turner discusses
in the film, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World,
http://www.docworkers.com
The National Soft Drink Assn admitted in their protest that aspartame
violated the federal adulteration statute, and this incidentally is a
criminal offense. And yet, they turned around and lobbied for NutraSweet,
which
is why the protest was added to the congressional record and you
will see it on
http://www.dorway.com
Why would they do such a horrible thing? They knew that methanol,
a neurotoxin, is also classified as a narcotic and is addictive.
They used Dr. Wurtman's affidavit on the subject in their protest. Aspartame
causes chronic methanol poisoning which affects the
dopamine system of the brain.

Somebody had to do something. Aspartame destroys families.
It causes male sexual dysfunction and ruins female response.
It is an abortifacient and if the woman carries the baby its a teratogen
and causes birth defects and mental retardation.
And even if a live baby is born it may have heinously damaged
DNA for generations to come.
It triggers ADD, ADHD, autism and Tourettes,
and interacts with all drugs and vaccines:
http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_interacts.htm

Someone wanted proof about cancer and peer review: Here it is:
http://www.wnho.net/new_aspartame_studies.htm In Sept the Italian
researchers at a conference added to leukemia and lymphoma, kidney cancer
and cancer of the cranial peripheral nerves. They declared it a
multipotential carcinogen. Only the rats who were fed aspartame got
malignant brain tumors. This study was peer reviewed by 7 world
experts. And the FDA knew all along. Even in Congress FDA
toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross said aspartame violated the Delaney Amendment
which forbids putting a product you know will cause
cancer in food or drugs.
The Bressler Report on http://www.dorway.com is the FDA audit
of the shenanigans pulled by the manufacturing including excising brain
tumors from rats, putting the rats back in the study,
and when they died, resurrecting them back on paper.
Try that with the millions who have perished from the tumors and
degenerative diseases, diabetes, etc. from aspartame.
FDA actually tried to have the manufacturer indicted
ut Searle hired the prosecutors and the statute of limitations expired.

Anyone using aspartame should read neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.,'s
report "What To Do If You Have Used Aspartame".

We have a large Mission Possible network in Europe and now a
member of Parliament has also called for an immediate ban
of aspartame from the UK.

The proof is all there that aspartame is a poison. You will find all the
evidence in the cemeteries, hospices and institutions caring for the
afflicted around the world.

Keep up with the subject by subscribing to the Aspartame Information List on
http://www.wnho.net Click on aspartame for more reports.

Viva New Mexico, Stephen Fox and all those fighting for the health
and life of New Mexicans. Other states are right behind you!

Dr. Betty Martini, Founder, Mission Possible Intl,
9270 River Club Parkway, Duluth, Georgia 30097 770 242-2599
http://www.wnho.net and http://www.dorway.com
Aspartame Toxicity Center, http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

By Josef Baushofer (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:49 am )

The is just another frivolous waste of lawmakers' time. How on earth
could this bill be allowed to be introduced in a 30-day session anyways? The
lawmakers have enough to do during this short session to be wasting their
time on this nonsense.

Mr. Fox - If you don't want to consume products with aspartame,
then don't.
Nobody is putting a gun to your head forcing you to drink a Diet Coke. But
don't try to tell me what I can and can't do - just mind your own business.

By Lance Drake (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:36 am )

Perhaps those promoting this bill would do us all a favor and move to France
where such nonsense is considered de'rigeur. Failing that, it they will
simply drop the matter I will do my best to forget this ill-advised. flawed,
meddlesome and unwelcome attempt at regulating my body chemistry.

By Rich Murray (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:09 am )

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and act upon the facts
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmfo...@comcast.net
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 149 members, 1,278 posts in a public, searchable archive

http://RoomForAll.blogspot.com http://AspartameNM.blogspot.com

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 100 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid.

It is the major cause of the dreaded symptoms of "next
morning" hangover.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message /1277
50% UK baby food is now organic -- aspartame or MSG with
food dyes harm nerve cells, CV Howard 3 year study funded
by Lizzy Vann, CEO, Organix Brands,
Children's Food Advisory Service: Murray 2006.01.13

By Judy Yelsky (Submitted: 01/14/2006 9:08 am )

Audra: the first sensible idea in this whole thread

By STEPHEN FOX (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:59 am )

REALLY INTERESTING COMMENTS. Those wishing to make
them should take the time to come to the various committee hearings
and say what they think. I feel sorry for the diabetics, frankly,
who have been duped into believing that ingesting
aspartame/formaldehyde is going to benefit their damaged pancreas.
If you are curious, please take the time to carefully read the articles on
New Mexico and Aspartame/formaldehyde at http://www.wnho.net, the website
for the World Natural Health Organization, or better yet, the Ramazinni
report on spartame/formaldehyde causing brain tumors,
which is posted on the website for the National Institute of Health.
If you concur, please ask Senator Bingaman to bring up the Ramazzini report
on the Senate floor, perhaps leading to the FDA rescinding aspartame's
approval. This happened before, in 1969, when Richard Nixon ordered the FDA
commissioner to rescind the approval for Cyclamates, BECAUSE THEY WERE
CAUSING CANCER.

I never thought I would miss Richard Nixon.

To answer Andrea Carr's very logical question, it is easier to legally
ban a neurotoxic substance within the context of New Mexico's
Food Act, than it is to require labeling. There is anothe effort going
on in California right now in which the California Attorney General,
Bill Lockyer, is trying to require 9 mega fast food corporations
to put labels on French Fries, stating that
"This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to
cause cancer." This is because potato starch turns to carcinogenic
acrylamide after it is heated to 400 degrees.

In term, our Attorney General will hopefully become so oriented to real
consumer protection.

If you disagree, have a feast of French Fries, "sugarless gum",
"diet Cokes" (and Pepsi), 200 bags of EQUAL, some "low-fat" yogurt, and
maybe some Children's Tylenol, and you can guzzle the Aspartame and
Acrylamide, and pray that you never have to read another label
again, since that old FDA is there to protect you, or someother such
crumbling mythologies.

Perhaps Ralph Nader's book from 1970 might help you,

The Chemical Feast. There is one copy in the Santa Fe Public Library.
The feast has worsened since 1970....

Stephen Fox

By g apodaca (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:49 am )

every session there seems to be one idiot who puts some rediculous
bill on the table. I think this guy did not get enough attention when he was
a kid.

If you dont like it dont buy it. Its that simple.

By audra carr (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:31 am )

Why not put labels on all products containing aspartame, labels that
describe it's potential dangers? Cigarettes are labeled with such
warnings and consumers are still allowed to purchase them.

By MARC COAN (Submitted: 01/14/2006 8:24 am )

Thoughts:

I feel sorry for all the diabetics...under the guise of making people
healthier, this bill would make it much harder for diabetics to enjoy life.
And, in case anyone forgot, we have a HUGE diabetes epidemic going
on in Amercia.

Since when is it New Mexico's job to tell the federal govt. what to do?

Doesn't this violate the Interstate Commerce clause of the constitituion?
If each state can pass laws regulating what is contained in products,
we'll have 50 sets of regs and manufacturers won't be able to comply. What's
the point of even having a federal govt. then?

I also feel sorry for all of the retailers who sell products containing
aspartame...they will see sales declines.

Aren't you tired of do-gooders? I don't need these people telling me
what's good for me. I am capable of making the decisions myself.

Where is the PEER-REVIEWED science to support these claims?
If it's there, show us.

And, most important: why don't the New Mexican's reporters ask key questions
like these? Isn't this their freakin' JOB?)

By Greg Varela (Submitted: 01/14/2006 7:52 am )

I used to drink diet pop 6 a day approx,was good for me I thought then
I had a stroke my joints hurt,my nurologist said stop drinking pop and
other artificial sweetners, I got over the stroke and the problems
associated with it. click on http://nutrasweet.com

By Troy Sammons (Submitted: 01/14/2006 7:35 am )

I am sick of all these crybaby people who feel they need to make everyone's
decisions for them. If I want to poison myself with
Diet Coke, that should be my choice. I don't prefer to tie myself
to a tree and eat granola and drink trendy, fruity health beverages.
Go back to California with this S**T!

By William Waites (Submitted: 01/14/2006 6:44 am )

Since products with aspartame will still be widely available in other
states, will NM have a "border patrol" to check the trunks of incoming
cars for contraband aspartame. Or has Mr. Fox already figured out that
he can set up a sweet smuggling operation if he can get it banned?
I say Equal rights for all.

By STEPHEN FOX (Submitted: 01/14/2006 6:20 am )

I once again thank the New Mexican and Diana Heil for this thorough
and accurate article. This bill represents many years of study and
coordination with legislators, physicians, nutritionists,
neurotoxicologists, plaintiff's lawyers, and above all, VICTIMS of aspartame
poisoning.
If you take the time to discover the grim truth in articles on aspartame's
effects by doctors like Russell Blaylock, M.D. and H.J.Roberts, M.D.,
all of which are easily available on the web, hard to believe anyone
could be so cavalier about continuing to guzzle their diet cokes
or any of the 6000 other products consumed by 70% of Americans!
No one at this point is stopping anyone from doing so,
but the Legislature is going to take a serious look at it, like Vioxx,
Celebrex, Thalidomide, Cyclamates, Asbestos, etc. should have been
scrutinized before they destroyed so many lives.

The bill will be posted on the NM Legislature website soon;
support if you wish, or continue to ignore this
grave public health scourge, if you must.

It is necessary to add a definition of aspartame to the bill:

Aspartame is a manufactured artificial sweetener. The technical name
of aspartame is L-aspartyl, L-phenylalanine, methyl ester.
It consists of three components: aspartic acid (40%),
phenylalanine (50%), and a methyl ester (10%),
which promptly becomes methanol.

Aspartic acid is an excitotoxin that stimulates neurons of the brain to
death causing brain damage and results in a variety of symptomologies
commonly diagnosed as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and
Lou Gehrig's disease, and symptoms including headaches,
loss of hearing, heart irregularities, seizures, memory loss, and blindness;

Methanol converts to formaldehyde and formic acid and is thus a neurotoxin.

Phenylalanine as an isolate is neurotoxic and floods the brain. It lowers
the seizure threshold and depletes serotonin. The methyl ester is
metabolized as methanol which then becomes formaldehyde, leading
to symptoms of headaches, dizziness, vertigo, chills, vision problems,
memory lapses, and shooting pains in the extremities.

Molecular weights are: Aspartic acid 116
Phenylalanine 147
Methyl ester 31
Total molecular weight of aspartame 294

Metabolism: After entering the body, the components of aspartame are
promptly released within the upper gastrointestinal tract by enzymatic
action. They then are transported across the wall of the small bowel and
finally into the general circulation. Aspartame gets into the blood stream
and crosses the blood brain barrier.

Aspartame breaks down into other toxins including diketopiperazine,
a brain tumor agent. Aspartame decreases the availability of
L-tryptophan (a precursor of serotonin) and alters its balance with
norepinephrine, another important neurotransmitter.
Its effects have been likened to a lesion in the lateral hypothalamus
that causes neuropsychiatric problems and eating disorders.

The ability of aspartame and its components to inhibit glucose-induced
release of serotonin can have profound effects involving satiety, food
choice, sleep and emotional behavioral.

By D Mulberry (Submitted: 01/14/2006 5:30 am )

Who is this Fox guy and who made him God to tell others how to live
their lives? If you want a diet coke you should have the right to make
up your own mind to have one and not some guy who is unknown..
an art gallery owner no less..to rule your life.
It is about time that the freedom of choice comes back to this country. Now
I will go back drinking my diet coke.
*******************************************************

January 14, 2006

Any unsuspected source of methanol, which the body always quickly
and largely turns into formaldehyde and then formic acid, must be
monitored, especially for high responsibility occupations, often with
night shifts, such as pilots and nuclear reactor operators.

In particular, the next review gives many recent mainstream
peer-reviewed studies that show formaldehyde,
always inevitably derived in the body from any methanol source,
including aspartame, causes endothelial injury,
ie, diabetic neuropathy -- among the most serious and complex
complications of diabetes.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1263
many studies on endothelial injury (diabetic neuropathy) by adducts of
formaldehyde derived from methylamine from many of the same sources
as also supply methanol (formaldehyde), including aspartame:
PH Yu et al: DJ Conklin et al: Murray 2005.12.04

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1237
ubiquitous potent uncontrolled co-factors in nutrition research are
formaldehyde from wood and tobacco smoke and many sources,
including from methanol in dark wines and liquors, in pectins
in fruits and vegetables, and in aspartame: Murray 2006.01.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/925
aspartame puts formaldehyde adducts into tissues, Part 1/2
full text Trocho & Alemany 1998.06.26
Universitat Autňnoma de Barcelona : Murray 2002.12.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1250
aspartame causes cancer in rats at levels approved for humans,
Morando Soffritti et al, Ramazzini Foundation, Italy &
National Toxicology Program
of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
2005.11.17 Env. Health Pers. 35 pages: Murray

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1271
combining aspartame and quinoline yellow, or MSG and brilliant blue,
harms nerve cells, eminent C. Vyvyan Howard et al, 2005
education.guardian.co.uk, Felicity Lawrence: Murray 2005.12.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1274
harm to fetus from formaldehyde from methanol from aspartame,
Woodrow C. Monte: Murray 2006.01.02

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte [red blood cell]
membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al, two studies in 2005,
Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14: 2004 research review, RL Blaylock:
Murray 2006.01.14

As a medical layman, I suggest that evidence mandates immediate
exploration of the role of these ubiquitious, potent formaldehyde
sources as co-factors in epidemiology, research, diagnosis,
and treatment in a wide variety of disorders.

Folic acid, from fruits and vegetables, plays a role by powerfully
protecting against methanol (formaldehyde) toxicity.

Many common drugs, such as aspirin, interfere with folic acid,
as do some mutations in relevant enzymes.

The majority of aspartame reactors are female.

In mutual service, Rich Murray
*******************************************************

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and act upon the facts
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmfo...@comcast.net
505-501-2298 1943 Otowi Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 149 members, 1,279 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://RoomForAll.blogspot.com http://AspartameNM.blogspot.com

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 100 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid.
It is the major cause of the dreaded symptoms of "next
morning" hangover.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol -- 1,120 mg aspartame
in 2 L diet soda, almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg
methanol (wood alcohol). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1108
faults in 1999 July EPA 468-page formaldehyde profile:
Elzbieta Skrzydlewska PhD, Assc. Prof., Medical U. of
Bialystok, Poland, abstracts -- ethanol, methanol,
formaldehyde, formic acid, acetaldehyde, lipid peroxidation,
green tea, aging: Murray 2004.08.08 2005.07.11

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/835
ATSDR: EPA limit 1 ppm formaldehyde in drinking water July
1999: Murray 2002.05.30 rmforall

Aspartame is made of phenylalanine (50% by weight) and
aspartic acid (39%), both ordinary amino acids, bound
loosely together by methanol (wood alcohol, 11%).
The readily released methanol from aspartame is within hours
turned by the liver into formaldehyde and then formic acid,
both potent, cumulative toxins.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1141
Nurses Health Study can quickly reveal the extent of aspartame
(methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2004.11.21
[ Any scientist can get access to this data for free by submitting a proper
research proposal.
No one has admitted mining the extensive data on diet soda use
and many symptoms for decades for about 100,000 nurses. ]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1213
aspartame (methanol, phenylalanine, aspartic acid) effects, detailed
expert studies in 2005 Aug and 1998 July, Tsakiris S, Schulpis KH,
Karikas GA, Kokotos G, Reclos RJ, et al,
Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece: Murray 2005.09.09

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/939
aspartame (aspartic acid, phenylalanine) binding to DNA:
Karikas July 1998: Murray 2003.01.05 rmforall
Karikas GA, Schulpis KH, Reclos GJ, Kokotos G
Measurement of molecular interaction of aspartame and
its metabolites with DNA. Clin Biochem 1998 Jul; 31(5): 405-7.
Dept. of Chemistry, University of Athens, Greece
http://www.chem.uoa.gr gkok...@atlas.uoa.gr
K.H. Schulpis inch...@otenet.gr G.J. Reclos rek...@otenet.gr

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1088
Murray, full plain text & critique: chronic aspartame in rats affects
memory, brain cholinergic receptors, and brain chemistry, Christian B,
McConnaughey M et al, 2004 May: 2004.06.05

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1067
eyelid contact dermatitis by formaldehyde from aspartame,
AM Hill & DV Belsito, Nov 2003: Murray 2004.03.30

Thrasher (2001): "The major difference is that the Japanese
demonstrated the incorporation of FA and its metabolites into the
placenta and fetus.
The quantity of radioactivity remaining in maternal and fetal tissues
at 48 hours was 26.9% of the administered dose." [ Ref. 14-16 ]

Arch Environ Health 2001 Jul-Aug; 56(4): 300-11.
Embryo toxicity and teratogenicity of formaldehyde. [100 references]
Thrasher JD, Kilburn KH. toxic...@drthrasher.org
Sam-1 Trust, Alto, New Mexico, USA.
http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_embryo_toxicity.html full text

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1052
DMDC: Dimethyl dicarbonate 200mg/L in drinks adds
methanol 98 mg/L [ becomes formaldehyde in body ]: EU Scientific
Committee on Foods 2001.07.12: Murray 2004.01.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1131
genotoxicity of aspartame in human lymphocytes 2004.07.29
full plain text, Rencuzogullari E et al, Cukurova University,
Adana, Turkey 2004 Aug: Murray 2004.11.06

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1237
ubiquitous potent uncontrolled co-factors in nutrition research are
formaldehyde from wood and tobacco smoke and many sources,
including from methanol in dark wines and liquors, in pectins
in fruits and vegetables, and in aspartame: Murray 2006.01.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1264
fructose in rats increases uric acid, obesity, insulin resistance,
endothelial damage -- RJ Johnson et al, U. Florida: Murray 2005.12.07
*******************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1106
hangover research relevant to toxicity of 11% methanol in
aspartame (formaldehyde, formic acid): Calder I (full text):
Jones AW: Murray 2004.08.05 2005.09.28

Since no adaquate data has ever been published on the exact
disposition of toxic metabolites in specific tissues in
humans of the 11% methanol component of aspartame, the many
studies on morning-after hangover from the methanol impurity
in alcohol drinks are the main available resource to date.

Jones AW (1987) found next-morning hangover from red wine
with 100 to 150 mg methanol (9.5% w/v ethanol, 100 mg/L
methanol, 0.01%, one part in ten thousand).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1182
Joining together: short review: research on aspartame
methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray
2005.07.08 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1071
research on aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid)
toxicity: Murray2004.04.29 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1250
aspartame causes cancer in rats at levels approved for humans,
Morando Soffritti et al, Ramazzini Foundation, Italy &
National Toxicology Program
of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
2005.11.17 Env. Health Pers. 35 pages: Murray

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1226
USA National Institutes of Health National Toxicology
Program aids eminent Ramazzini Foundation, Bologna, Italy,
in more results on cancers in rats from lifetime low levels
of aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde), Felicity Lawrence,
www.guardian.co.uk: Murray 2005.09.30

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1186
aspartame induces lymphomas and leukaemias in rats, full plain text,
M Soffritti, F Belpoggi, DD Esposti, L Lambertini: Ramazzini
Foundation study 2005.07.14: main results agree with their previous
methanol and formaldehyde studies: Murray 2005.09.03

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1189
Michael F Jacobson of CSPI now and in 1985 re aspartame
toxicity, letter to FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford;
California OEHHA aspartame critique 2004.03.12; Center for
Consumer Freedom denounces CSPI: Murray 2005.07.27

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition: Bouchard M
et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources are
degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke:
Murray 2005.04.02
*******************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1070
critique of aspartame review, French Food Safety Agency AFSSA
2002.05.07 aspartamgb.pdf (18 pages, in English), Martin Hirsch:
Murray 2004.04.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/957
safety of aspartame Part 1/2 12.4.2: EC HCPD-G SCF,
EU Scientific Committee on Food, a whitewash; Murray 2003.01.12

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1045
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm
Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific
Committee on Food re aspartame ( 2002.12.04 ): 59 pages, 230 references

http://www.HolisticMed.com/aspartame mg...@holisticmed.com
Aspartame Toxicity Information Center Mark D. Gold
12 East Side Drive #2-18 Concord, NH 03301 603-225-2100
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/abuse/methanol.html
"Scientific Abuse in Aspartame Research"

Gold points out that industry methanol assays were too insensitive to
properly measure blood methanol levels. ]

http://www.eatright.org/Nutritive(1).pdf
J Am Diet Assoc. 2004 Feb; 104(2): 255-75.
Position of the American Dietetic Association: use of nutritive and
nonnutritive sweeteners. American Dietetic Association.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1068
critique of aspartame review by American Dietetic Association
Feb 2004, Valerie B. Duffy & Madeleine J. Sigman-Grant:
Murray 2004.05.14

"Survey of aspartame studies: correlation of outcome and funding
sources," 1998, unpublished: http://www.dorway.com/peerrev.html
Walton found 166 separate published studies in the peer reviewed
medical literature, which had relevance for questions of human safety.
The 74 studies funded by industry all (100%) attested to aspartame's
safety, whereas of the 92 non-industry funded studies, 84 (91%)
identified a problem. Six of the seven non-industry funded studies
that were favorable to aspartame safety were from the FDA, which
has a public record that shows a strong pro-industry bias.
Ralph G. Walton, MD, Prof. of Clinical Psychology, Northeastern Ohio
Universities, College of Medicine, Dept. of Psychiatry, Youngstown,
OH 44501, Chairman, The Center for Behavioral Medicine,
Northside Medical Center, 500 Gypsy Lane, P.O. Box 240
Youngstown, OH 44501 330-740-3621 rwalt...@aol.com
http://www.neoucom.edu/DEPTS/Psychiatry/walton.htm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/857
www.dorway.com: original documents and long reviews of flaws in
aspartame toxicity research: Murray 2002.07.31

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/858
Samuels: Strong: Roberts: Gold: flaws in double-blind studies re
aspartame and MSG toxicity: Murray 2002.08.01

http://www.truthinlabeling.org/ Truth in Labeling Campaign [MSG]
Adrienne Samuels, PhD The toxicity/safety of processed
free glutamic acid (MSG): a study in suppression of information.
Accountability in Research 1999; 6: 259-310. 52-page review
P.O. Box 2532 Darien, Illinois 60561
858-481-9333 adan...@aol.com

http://www.dorway.com/upipart1.txt
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/262
aspartame expose 96K Oct 1987 Part 1/3:
Gregory Gordon, UPI reporter: Murray 2000.07.10

http://www.dorway.com/enclosur.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/53
aspartame history Part 1/4 1964-1976: Gold: Murray 1999.11.06

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/928
revolving door, Monsanto, FDA, EPA: NGIN: Murray 2002.12.23

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/927
Donald Rumsfeld, 1977 head of Searle Corp., got aspartame FDA
approval: Turner: Murray 2002.12.23 rmforall
*******************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1280
Aspartame: Bill would ban food containing sweetener [in New Mexico]: Diana
Heil, The New Mexican: Murray 2006.01.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1276
NM EIB votes 7-0 to delay 5-day aspartame hearing until Jan 2007,
Diana Heil, The New Mexican: comment by Stephen Fox:
Murray 2006.01.04

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1273
citizens against aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde), made by
Ajinomoto, at Jan 3 hearing of NM EIB in Santa Fe: Lehrman:
Murray 2006.01.01

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1272
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorses Nutrition Council,
mercury ban, aspartame hearings: Lehrman, Fox, Stoller:
Murray 2005.12.27

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1248
Aspartame and Thimerosal getting banned in New Mexico
by the Pharmacy Board? with notes by Rich Murray: 2005.11.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1247
Aspartame quagmire quickly deepens, methanol (formaldehyde, formic
acid) toxicity facts spreading at the grassroots level,
3 items in The New Mexican,
and long article in Vanity Fair by Rich Cohen: Murray 2005.11.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1245
Fox, Stoller, Murray to give Citizen's Petition
to ban aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde) and mercury
in children's medicines and vitamins: New Mexico Board of Pharmacy,
2:45-3:45 pm Monday Nov. 14, Albuquerque: Murray 2005.11.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1228
NM EIB votes 4-2 for 5-day aspartame toxicity hearing July,
2006, requesting a Hearing Officer and a medical expert from
Environmental Dept. and legal advice from NM Attorney
General: Murray 2005.10.04
*******************************************************

[mattstr...@gmail.com]

Well all that I know about the product is that it is in the DIET pop you buy at the everyday store ie, Kroger and all the diet pop at the convience stores and the issue is that dr.oz said on one of his tv shows to someone that this will eat the enammel off of your teeth. Uncle nick is always right about something, wheither it is how long your eyes stare at the screen or something else.

Hope this helps Y'all

Matthew R Streit
http://matthewrstreit2014.webs.com/