In article <Pine.SUN.3.96.990119234525.13795A-100000 at sunspot.tiac.net>,
Mark Gold <mgold at tiac.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Jan 1999, Richard Norman wrote:
>> > Aspartame is a methyl ester of a dipeptide,and so can metabolize into
> > methanol. However, one can (12 oz = 355 ml) of non-diet soft drink
> > usually has something less than 40 g of sugar. Since Aspartame is
> > about 160 times as sweet as sugar, the same diet drink would have
> > something less than 250 mg of Aspartame (the exact amount is not
> > revealed on the label). This amount would metabolize to about 25 mg
> > of methanol, perhaps 1/2 drop. The lethal amount is ordinaly over
> > 25 g.
>> Richard,
>> I hesitate to address this because there may be some knee-jerk responses,
> but I disagree (as you might expect) with your analysis.
>> A much smaller dose than 25 grams of methanol has caused death. If a
> person drinks a liter of aspartame-containing beverage (e.g., "big gulp"),
> they will obtain approximately 60 mg of methanol. That is approximately
> 1/100th the lethal dose in some situations. As you are no doubt aware,
> there is such a thing as chronic, low-level poisoning, especially when it
> comes to methanol and its metabolite, formaldehyde.
1/100th of the lethal dose in some situations? Do you expect anyone to
take this seriously? Do you know that 1 L of water is much more than
1/100th of the lethal dose of water in most situations? Yet people safely
consume 1L of water a day for many years, without ever worrying about the
effects of 100L consumption.
As far as the journal reference you included, Life Sci is an awful
journal, it's the kind of place you send something when you don't want
anyone to see it. You should try to find some decent references, not that
you will find any supporting this view, which belongs in the alien
conspiracy newsgroup. Try these:
Am J Gastroenterol 1993 May;88(5):737-43
Biochemical and clinical effects of aspartame in patients with chronic,
stable alcoholic liver
disease.
Hertelendy ZI, Mendenhall CL, Rouster SD, Marshall L, Weesner R
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener completely metabolized in the gut and
absorbed as aspartate, phenylalanine, and methanol. Phenylalanine is
thought to mediate or
exacerbate hepatic encephalopathy, and an impaired liver may not be able
to cope with the ammoniagenic properties of the amino acid constituents,
or adequately metabolize
methanol. Thus, we compared the clinical and biochemical effects of a
single ingestion of aspartame (15 mg/kg) to skim milk (phenylalanine
content equimolar to
aspartame) and placebo in patients with chronic, alcoholic liver disease
in a randomized, crossover study. Aspartame produced an elevation of
plasma phenylalanine
significantly greater than milk and placebo (Cmax 14.55 +/- 7.38, 10.95
+/- 4.95, 8.84 +/- 4.55 mumol/dl, respectively; p < 0.01). However,
quantified encephalopathic
changes were observed only with milk (p < 0.05). Plasma aspartate,
methanol, formate, and ammonia levels remained unchanged after all
treatments. The lack of clinical
derangements in encephalopathic indices, methanol accumulation, or
biochemical changes in liver status suggests that a single large dose of
aspartame (representing 5 times
the average daily intake of adults) may be used safely by patients with
chronic, stable liver disease.
- let's see, no detectable methanol even in patients with chronic liver
disease??
But it get's worse!! Let's see what happens when we give people aspartame
equivalent to 10 L of diet Coke per day for half a year!!!
Arch Intern Med 1989 Oct;149(10):2318-24
Safety of long-term large doses of aspartame.
Leon AS, Hunninghake DB, Bell C, Rassin DK, Tephly TR
Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Safety of long-term administration of 75 mg/kg of aspartame per day was
evaluated with the use of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled,
parallel-group design in
108 male and female volunteers aged 18 to 62 years. Subjects received
either aspartame or placebo in capsule form three times daily for 24
weeks. No persistent changes
over time were noted in either group in vital signs; body weight; results
of standard laboratory tests; fasting blood levels of aspartame's
constituent amino acids (aspartic
acid and phenylalanine), other amino acids, and methanol; or blood formate
levels and 24-hour urinary excretion of formate. There also were no
statistically significant
differences between groups in the number of subjects experiencing symptoms
or in the number of symptoms per subject. These results further document
the safety of the
long-term consumption of aspartame at doses equivalent to the amount of
aspartame in approximately 10 L of beverage per day.
Gee, nothing again!!?? 24 week consumption of 10L of diet beverage per day?
Sounds like the "anti-aspartame cult" is full of crap as usual.
Cheers,
Stephan
>> There are a number of studies showing chronic, low-level poisoning from
> exceptionally small doses of formaldehyde -- as low as 0.75 mg per day.
> So, I think it is more appropriate to compare the doses obtained from
> aspartame to the levels that can cause chronic, low-level poisoning (not
> immediate death).
>> Secondly, I believe it is important to consider synergistic reactions.
> Aspartame also breaks down into a *free-form* excitotoxic amino acid which
> is not absorbed like amino acids from food because of its quick
> absorption. Formic acid (a methanol metabolite) is an ATP inhibitor.
> Some researchers believe that excitotoxic amino acid toxicity play an
> important role in cell death from low-level methanol toxicity.
>> As some of you know, I advocate some alternative medicine techniques such
> as stress relief, healthy diet, meditation, etc. I have information about
> these ideas on my web page. But I also have a detailed web page about
> aspartame toxicity, including very detailed and well-reference pieces
> relating to aspartame toxicity:
>>http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/>> In the scientific documents section of this web page are the scientific
> FAQs. It's a good place to start if you are interested. I am now adding
> documents to that section on a regular basis. You may want to print out
> and read some of the sample toxicity reaction reports to get a clinical
> sense of the issue.
>> And now :-) ... a toast to aspartame self-embalming! :-)
>> "These are indeed extremely high levels for adducts of
> formaldehyde, a substance responsible for chronic deleterious
> effects that has also been considered carcinogenic.
> ....
> "It is concluded that aspartame consumption may constitute a
> hazard because of its contribution to the formation of
> formaldehyde adducts."
> [Life Sciences, Vol. 63, No. 5, pp. 337+, 1998]
>> A few comments from independent research scientists regarding this
> and other recent aspartame research:
>> "It was a very interesting paper, that demonstrates that
> formaldehyde formation from aspartame ingestion is very
> common and does indeed accumulate within the cell,
> reacting with cellular proteins (mostly enzymes) and
> DNA (both mitochondrial and nuclear). The fact that it
> accumulates with each dose, indicates grave consequences
> among those who consume diet drinks and foodstuffs on a
> daily basis."
> Russell Blaylock, MD [Neurosurgeon and Neuroscientist]
>> "...following aspartame ingestion, methanol or formaldehyde
> is distributed all over the place. Even more striking is
> the fact that formaldehyde accumulates. That's scary."
> [Neuroscience Researcher]
>> - Mark
>mgold at tiac.net