IUBio

Betty Martini and Aspartame

Robert Rogoff rrogoff at ix.netcom.com
Fri Jul 14 16:44:25 EST 1995


Betty Martini <betty at noel.pd.org> wrote:

>They usually say the proof is in the pudding.  First of all Dr. Harry 
>Waisman studied the effects of aspartame on primates.  Seven infant 
>monkeys were fed the chemical in milk.  One died after 300 days, 5 others 
>had Grand Mal seizures.  Searle deleted these findings when they 
>submitted his study to the FDA.  The best way to understand NutraSweet is 
>to think of it as a minute dose of nerve gas that eradicates brain and 
>nerve function.

I'll bear that analogy in my mind and maybe even allow it to disperse.

>Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed 80 people 
>who suffered brain seizures after eating or drinking products with 
>Aspartame.  Said the Community Nutrition Institute:  "These 80 cases 
>meets the FDA's own definition of an imminent hazard to the public 
>health, which requires the FDA to expeditiously remove a product from the 
>market".

Holey brain ventricles--are you saying there's a department at MIT
called the Community Nutrition Institute and it compiled an
unsolicited recommendation report for the benefit of the FDA?  Praise
to tenured faculties everywhere!

>There are so many seizures from NutraSweet that a Worldwide Pilot Hotline 
>has been set up in Dallas (214 352-4268) just to take the calls of pilots 
>who have complaints about aspartame and to send a warning.  Over 600 have 
>already called the hotline, many of them because of grand mal seizures in 
>the cockpits of commercial airliners - with a plane full of passengers.

Yes, that is probably correct.  I think I saw a lady having a grand
mal seizure once en route to Michigan and in fact the flight
attendants did bring her into the pilot's cabin so as not to freak out
the rest of the passengers.

>Case histories flood in and MISSION POSSIBLE continues to fly packets 
>around the world to air traffic control to warn pilots and keep the 
>planes in the sky.  The U. S. Air Force warned all pilots off this 
>neurotoxin in their journal FLYING SAFETY, May 1992 which said:  "Some 
>people have suffered aspartame related disorders with doses as small as 
>that carried in a single stick of chewing gum.  This coul mean a pilot 
>who drinks diet sodas is moe susceptible to flicker vertigo or to flicker 
>induced epileptic activity.  It also means that all pilots are potential 
>victims of sudden memory loss, dizziness during instrument flight and 
>gradual loss of vision."  

The picture is getting darker.  BTW, I've noticed that some airlines
don't give you a choice of Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi--they only have one
or the other.  And let's do something about those barf bags too.  When
I want to spew, I don't want some stewardess running up to stick a
barf bag in my face.  I say let me barf in peace and have them clean
it up later, just like at a high class hotel.  Sure the stewardesses
in their pantyhose are cuter and prettier than the old hotel cleaning
ladies in their smocks, but then the hotel cleaning ladies don't
pretend to accidentally spill ice water on my tie just so they can
stroke my chest because they think I'm a doctor but I'm really just on
the same plane as the doctors going to the conference because I was
bumped from my actual flight.

>Oliver Wendell Homes aptly remarked in a lecture to the medical class of 
>Harvard University:  "The bedside is always the true center of medical 
>teaching." 

Well, after a stewardess spills ice water on you enough times, you
have no choice but to join her in the true center of medical teaching.
Or so I've heard.  Personally, I think now that society forces us to
always use a barf bag, some of the closeness of interpersonal barfing
gets lost in the translation.  But I guess if you don't practice safe
barfing these days, you won't find too many like-minded barf partners.
I really shouldn't be so obnoxious on this topic.  After all, barfing
is a serious matter, especially since those airline stewardesses have
to maintain strict weight requirements.  Binge, purge, binge, purge,
I've seen it all before.  I say if it keeps them from going anorexic
give em a Diet Pepsi and be done with it.

>It's hard to watch people having seizures while consuming aspartame and 
>say its not happening.  It triggered epileptic seizures in someone in my 
>own family.  They were constant until we warned her it was triggered by 
>NutraSweet.  She gave it up and now has markedly improved.  

I hope she didn't have grand mal seizures while she was drinking that
Diet Pepsi because if you barf while you're having convulsions you
could end up very embarrassed when you regain consciousness.

>The tests that say NutraSweet is safe are funded by the NutraSweet company!

The tests that say NutraSweet(tm) is safe were not funded by the
NutraSweet company, they were funded by G.D. Searle.  The NutraSweet
company is a subsidiary of Monsanto.  Get your facts straight.

>Betty Martini
>Domain:  betty at pd.org
>UUCP:  ...!emory!pd.org!betty







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