Posted by Larry Hoover on April 29, 2007, at 7:03:27
In reply to Aspartame - anybody quit and feel better?, posted by mattdds on April 29, 2007, at 5:13:16
Hey matt! Great to see you back. I missed you.
> I've been reading up on aspartame recently. I have been drinking diet sodas for years, and was a 'true believer' of the FDA's stance that it's harmless, etc.
....harmless based on data supplied by the manufacturer.
> I cannot seem to find a balanced view about this. All of the anti-aspartame sites are full of sensational claims. The FDA and manufacturer have obvious bias problems.
I think the most telling aspect of the whole situation was that Monsanto spun off a separate corporate entity which has one function: manufacturing Nutrasweet. Oh, and it coincidentally limits financial liability.
> I suspect the middle ground is somewhere inbetween the two. I doubt that it causes every disease known to man, as some claim. However, hypotheses that it causes psychiatric symptoms in some predisposed individuals through certain biochemical processes (excititoxicity from aspartic acid, serotonin depletion, etc.) seem plausable.
Well, there's this lone paper (below). I corresponded with the lead researcher, asking him why there was no follow-up research on such an apparently robust preliminary finding. Well, he applied for research funding, but the response he received was unexpected. His entire research budget was withdrawn. He was virtually forced into early retirement. Put out to pasture. Surely, that was a coincidence. Here is that paper:
Biol Psychiatry. 1993 Jul 1-15;34(1-2):13-7.
Adverse reactions to aspartame: double-blind challenge in patients from a vulnerable population.
Walton RG, Hudak R, Green-Waite RJ.
Department of Psychiatry, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Youngstown.This study was designed to ascertain whether individuals with mood disorders are particularly vulnerable to adverse effects of aspartame. Although the protocol required the recruitment of 40 patients with unipolar depression and a similar number of individuals without a psychiatric history, the project was halted by the Institutional Review Board after a total of 13 individuals had completed the study because of the severity of reactions within the group of patients with a history of depression. In a crossover design, subjects received aspartame 30 mg/kg/day or placebo for 7 days. Despite the small n, there was a significant difference between aspartame and placebo in number and severity of symptoms for patients with a history of depression, whereas for individuals without such a history there was not. We conclude that individuals with mood disorders are particularly sensitive to this artificial sweetener and its use in this population should be discouraged.
I contacted the Nutrasweet Corporation, and their reply was to send me a bound copy of an entire journal issue (Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 35(2), April 2002), dedicated solely to aspartame research funded by the corporation. There is a single paragraph which mentions the paper I cite, and they dismiss it because the study was both too small and terminated prior to completion. Uhhh, we knew that.
> I guess the way to find out is to go off of it for a few weeks and see how I feel.
That might be a very useful experiment indeed.
> I'd love to hear of any reports, either anecdotal or scientific.
>
> Thanks,
>
> MattI can't tolerate the taste of aspartame, so perhaps I'm lucky in that way. It certainly limits my exposure.
Best,
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:754354
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070426/msgs/754357.html