"The London Sunday Express, with a circulation of 2 million, recently ran a front page headline calling for proof that the diet sweetener was safe. They even have a Member of Parliament interested in this crime of the century."

by Lucy Johnson, Sunday Express, London, UK.

IN AGONY:
Lyn Hunter's pain was so bad it nearly drove her to suicide. She cut out aspartame and it disappeared.

My two years of hell on low calorie drinks

Dozens of people have contacted the Sunday Express claiming they have suffered adverse reactions from Britain's best-selling low calorie sweetener aspartame.

This follows our revelations last week that a growing number of scientists, consumer groups and MPs are questioning its safety.

One reader, Lyn Hunter, says she regularly drank aspartame-flavoured soft drinks and chewed aspartame-sweetened gum. Two years ago she began to suffer pain in her feet. The pain spread to her hands, wrists, elbows, neck and shoulders.

Her doctor carried out blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis. Although the tests were negative, he treated her for the condition anyway. But the pain grew worse. Lyn, 49, of Liverpool, said: "It got to the stage where I was ready to commit suicide. Nothing could combat the ache. I
couldn't sleep, dress or wash myself. My body was just screaming in agony."

She also suffered headaches, lack of concentration, confusion, excessive tiredness and insomnia. She saw various doctors, including a hypnotherapist and rheumatologist, but it seemed nothing could help. "I was taking maximum strength, maximum dose painkillers daily along with my medication but it had no effect," she said. Last September a work colleague suggested Lyn may have an allergy.

Her own research led to the discovery that joint pain had been reported as a side-effect of aspartame. So she removed it from her diet.

"I noticed a difference within days and after a week most of my symptoms had almost disappeared," she said. Lyn is just one of a number of people who have complained of a series of debilitating symptoms such as headaches, joint pains, depression and poor vision which they believe could be linked to aspartame. Two of the alleged victims have engaged lawyers to investigate whether they may be able to sue the manufacturers.

Aspartame is produced by a number of firms, including the US multi-national Monsanto. Sold under the brand names NutraSweet or Canderel, it is widely used in products such as diet drinks and yogurts. It has been linked with more than 90 adverse reactions, including brain tumors and blindness.

Monsanto is confident that existing research has proved its safety. It says: "This product has been approved by health and regulatory authorities across the world. No credible, well-controlled independent research shows any link between health risks and aspartame."

INVESTIGATION By Lucy Johnston

The Sunday Express today demanded a Government inquiry into the safety of aspartame, Britain's best-selling low calorie sweetener after mounting concern that it poses a health risk. The sweetener - sold as NutraSweet and Canderel and found in products such as diet drinks and desserts - has been linked with more than 90 adverse reactions including brain tumors and
blindness.

Aspartame has been used for 18 years but no study has properly analyzed the affects of long-term exposure. It is now being questioned by a growing number of scientists, consumer groups and members of Parliament

The evidence is still inconclusive and its manufacturers Monsanto, are confident existing research has declared it safe. A spokesperson said: "This product has been approved by health and regulatory authorities across the world. No credible, well-controlled independent research shows any link between health risks and aspartame."

But most of the studies that declare it safe are funded by the food industry. An analysis of studies in America until 1996 found that 92 per cent of independent research papers expressed concerns.

From: "Carol Guilford" <carolg8@worldnet.att.net>

We must not sugar the pill over artificial sweetener worries...
There is little more important to us than the food that we eat and drink. If we cannot be sure that it is safe then we are in a dangerous mess. That is why the Sunday Express launched its Faith In Our Foods campaign last year. So far we have had nothing but success. Our first task, to ensure that food labeling was accurate, was accomplished when the minister, Baroness
Hayman, pledged to take the necessary action. We take her at her word.

As we promised then, today we return to the campaign by calling for a review of the safety of the country's best-selling low-calorie sweetener, aspartame, which is sold under brand names such as NutraSweet and Canderel. Aspartame has been linked with more than 90 health problems from brain tumors and blindness to cancer.

Monsanto, which manufactures Nutrasweet, denies that there are any risks. Certainly, research funded by the food industry rules out any dangers. Other independent research, however, paints a more worrying picture.

We, the consumer, are left not knowing what to believe. Now the only satisfactory way forward is for an exhaustive government study from the new Food Standards Agency. This could clear up once and for all whether this widely used additive is safe.

We hope such a study would provide good news. But we need to know for sure.

From: "Carol Guilford" <carolg8@worldnet.att.net>

Bitter War of Words Over Safety of $1 Billion Sweetener
By Lucy Johnston

The Giant corporation vigorously defends its billion dollar chemical. The  mere suggestion of "health risks" can prompt threatening letters from its lawyers.

The company is Monsanto, the American multi-national. It is protecting the reputation of aspartame - a confected chemical compound which has one extraordinary property: it is very sweet.

Aspartame is the artificial sweetener which has revolutionized the low-calorie food and drink industry in the Western world. Most people would know it under brand names such as NutraSweet and Canderel. Unlike sugar, it isn't fattening and doesn't have the unpleasant aftertaste of its once-dominant competitor, saccharine.

The Monsanto lawyers take an unequivocal stance. Twice they have written letters headed "Not for Publication" to the Sunday Express, stressing that aspartame is the most thoroughly-tested ingredient in our food supply. Those tests, their clients state, prove it is safe.

However, scientists, doctors, psychiatrists, campaigners and members of Parliament believe there are safety questions. They believe such a debate should not be silenced by lawyers protecting lucrative commercial interests.

In Britain we consume 10 billion cans of fizzy drink a year and a little under half of them are artificially sweetened. We take aspartame in jelly, chewing gum, yogurts, desserts, sweets, beer, spring water and vitamins. Monsanto points to 200 "objective" scientific studies which document the safety of its product. All other studies, it says, have been discredited. Many reports indicating aspartame is safe are financed by the food industry.

However, a scientific review of all the evidence available in 1996 found 92 per cent of the independent - non-industry-funded - medical data relating to health risks of aspartame identified safety concerns. These include fears that aspartame may be linked to illnesses such as brain tumours, blindness and seizures.

Professor Ralph Walton, chairman of the psychiatry department at Northwestern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, said: "I dispute Monsanto's assertion that there are no health risks. I believe aspartame increases risk of cancer. Virtually all the studies attesting to its safety
have been funded by the industry."

America's influential Food and Drug Administration and Britain's food safety watchdogs have always given the sweetener a clean bill of health--but that may not be the end of the story.

The discovery of aspartame, in 1969, was accidental. While testing a new chemical as a possible anti-ulcer drug, chemist James Schlatter  inadvertently smeared his hand with liquid from a flask. He licked his thumb clean and was surprised by how sweet it tasted. The compound was 200 times sweeter than sugar.

Aspartame seemed wonderful. It contained virtually no calories and tasted more like sugar than other sweeteners: ideal for the growing diet market. Sales under the brand name NutraSweet became worth more than $ 1 billion a year.

It had taken 16 years from Schlatter's discovery for his company, US drug giant Searle, to win FDA approval for the sweetener. Searle's safety research was one of the main sticking points. Doubts over its reliability prompted a special investigation by the FDA, which discovered some of the tests were "seriously flawed". A senior FDA toxicologist told a Congressional committee: "At least one test has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of producing brain tumors in animals."

IN 1981 an internal memo from three FDA scientists advised against approval of NutraSweet. That year President Reagan fired the FDA commissioner and gave the job to Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes. Three months later aspartame was passed for limited use and within two years was also approved for beverages.

The FDA's decision paved the way for 100 regulatory bodies in other countries to follow suit, including Britain. By 1985 Searle had been acquired by Monsanto - the company that invented Agent Orange - and aspartame became the market leader. As consumption of aspartame grew, with products such as Diet Coke and Wrigley's sugar-free gum, so did the concerns. The FDA has received reports of 92 different symptoms, claimed to have been triggered by aspartame. They include headaches, skin problems, gastro-intestinal problems, poor vision, depression, carbohydrate cravings, panic attacks, irregular heart rhythms, behavioral problems and seizures. The FDA stresses that none has yet been proved.

Dr. Hyman Roberts, of the Palm Beach Institute for Medical Research in Florida, had welcomed aspartame. "When it was introduced, I recommended it to diabetic patients because it contained no sugar, calories, cholesterol or sodium. It was a godsend," he said. However, he then saw more patients with problems such as chronic headaches, impaired vision and panic attacks. "We narrowed down the culprit to aspartame," he added.

The most common reaction among his 1,200 aspartame-sensitive patients has been headaches. "I also had numerous diabetic patients whose condition has been exacerbated by aspartame, including eye and nerve problems," he said. "When they were taken off aspartame, they improved dramatically."

During digestion aspartame breaks down into several constituents including methanol, which can act as a brain toxin, according to Dr Madelon Price, professor of neurobiology at Washington University Medical School. "Methanol can lead to visual problems, headaches and muscle cramps," she said.

Monsanto and NutraSweet argue that all the constituents of aspartame are in much greater quantities in natural drinks such as milk and tomato juice, not considered a health risk.

Four years ago an article in the American Association of Neuropathologists' journal claimed the sweetener was a "promising candidate" to explain a 10 per cent rise in brain tumor rates in America. The authors relied on an early trial in which some rats fed on aspartame developed brain tumors.

NutraSweet, said the report's authors had "manipulated" their data and pointed to other studies which showed its product was safe.

A British Government committee on carcinogenicity agreed there were flaws with the American study and rejected the allegation.

However, last month scientists at King's College in London began a three-year study to see whether aspartame could cause brain tumors in people with a certain genetic make-up.

Dr Peter Nunn, who is leading the team, said: "Some studies have shown a link between aspartame and primary brain tumors, and some have shown no link.

"This study does not set out to rubbish aspartame. It is a serious study into whether people with certain genes are more susceptible to these compounds than others."

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker has urged the Government to investigate. "We do not know whether aspartame is dangerous," he said. "But independent researchers have expressed serious concerns. Aspartame should be withdrawn immediately pending further investigation."