Did
you know that Aspartame was banned by the FDA twice? How is this product legal
now?
The
bittersweet argument over whether Aspartame is safe or not has been
going on for a long time. On one side we have medical evidence that suggests we
should avoid using it and on the other side we lean on the FDA’s approval that
suggests it is safe. Since generally that seems to be the factor that many
continue to hold trust based upon, I thought we could look into the Aspartame
story to find out how it came to be accepted as safe by the FDA. You would
think that something so widely used and so well accepted would have quite the
pristine story leading to its acceptance. I imagine one will discover otherwise
after reading this post.
It
all starts in the mid 1960′s
with a company called G.D. Searle. One of their chemists accidentally creates
aspartame while trying to create a cure for stomach ulcers. Searle
decides to put aspartame through a testing process which eventually leads to
its approval by the FDA. Not long after, serious health effects begin to arise
and G.D. Searle comes under fire for their testing practices. It is revealed
that the testing process of Aspartame was among the worst the investigators had
ever seen and that in fact the product was unsafe for use. Aspartame
triggers the first criminal investigation of a manufacturer put into place
by the FDA in 1977. By 1980 the FDA bans aspartame from use after having
3 independent scientists study the sweetener. It was determined that
one main health effects was that it had a high chance of inducing brain
tumours. At this point it was clear that aspartame was not fit to be used in
foods and banned is where it stayed, but not for long.
Early
in 1981 Searle Chairman Donald Rumsfeld (who is a former Secretary of Defense..
surprise surprise) vowed to “call in his markers,” to get it approved. January
21, 1981, the day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, Searle took the steps to
re-apply aspartame’s approval for use by the FDA. Ronald Reagans’ new
FDA commissioner Arthur Hayes Hull, Jr., appointed a 5-person
Scientific Commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It did not
take long for the panel to decide 3-2 in favor of maintaining the ban of
aspartame. Hull then decided to appoint a 6th member to the board, which
created a tie in the voting, 3-3. Hull then decided to personally break the tie
and approve aspartame for use. Hull later left the FDA under allegations of
impropriety, served briefly as Provost at New York Medical College, and then
took a position with Burston-Marsteller. Burstone-Marstella is the chief public
relations firm for both Monsanto and GD Searle. Since that time he has never
spoken publicly about aspartame.
It
is clear to this point that if anything the safety of aspartame is
incredibly shaky. It has already been through a process of being
banned and without the illegitimate un-banning of the product, it would not be
being used today. Makes you wonder how much corruption and money was involved
with names like Rumsfeld, Reagan and Hull involved so heavily. In 1985,
Monsanto decides to purchase the aspartame patent from G.D. Searle. Remember
that Arthur Hull now had the connection to Monsanto. Monsanto did not seem too
concerned with the past challenges and ugly image aspartame had based on its
past. I personally find this comical as Monsanto’s products are banned in many
countries and of all companies to buy the product they seem to fit best as they
are champions of producing incredibly unsafe and untested products and making
sure they stay in the market place.
Since
then, aspartame has been under a lot of attack by scientists, doctors,
chemists and consumers about it’s safety and neurotoxic properties. Piles
of comprehensive studies have been completed that show aspartame is a cause for
over 90 serious health problems such as cancer, leukemia, headaches,
seizures, fibromyalgia, and epilepsy just to name a few. We have written
several articles discussing various effects of aspartame.