Jegarst, I appreciate feedback, thank you for you...

2009-06-11T13:10:38.130-04:00

Jegarst,

I appreciate feedback, thank you for your comment.

There is always new evidence coming out in science concerning the chemicals we put in the foods we eat.

Most people in the real world and not in the medical field don’t have a perfectly healthy body/mind, and many will be deficient in folic acid or other nutrients…

Therefore, do have adverse reactions to the unnatural things such as sweeteners we put in our bodies.

As Sean (a Chemist friend of mine) teasing me will say, “You can go all natural if you wish; my family will keep eating the processed foods, as chemicals is what keeps me in business.”

My personal goal is to become as “Natural” as possible in my nutrition for better health. I am not there yet; but am personally trying to eliminate as many things with the word “artificial” in them.

tchrcoun: Concerning aspartame, you need to know t...

2009-05-17T14:08:00.000-04:00

tchrcoun:
Concerning aspartame, you need to know the latest facts. All aspartame research prior to 2009 is seriously and fatally flawed, because it was all done in a scientifically unacceptable manner. That was established by preliminary work presented at the Society of Toxicology (Seattle, USA) and the American Chemical Society (New Orleans, USA) national meetings in early 2008 and is currently being preparing for regular publication. In those locations it was demonstrated that inappropriate controls were used in all aspartame research starting with the original Searle work and extending through the Soffritti et al work published over the past several years (and even other work thereafter). The standard control-versus-treated animal experiments are invalid for aspartame, because aspartame is hydrolyzed to methanol and methanol has long been known to deplete a vitamin, namely folic acid. No properly done experiment can deplete a vitamin, but all experiments to date claiming problems have done just that! Hence, both controlled and treated groups of animals must be provided either the appropriate amounts of folic acid supplement to counter methanol-induced loss OR both controlled and treated groups of animals must be provided the same intake of methanol, one directly and the other from aspartame. However, the latter is an experimentally more challenging option. Various other studies found “no effect” from aspartame. Such animal studies were either of such short duration that folate depletion was not evident or more likely were performed with corn/soybean or other diets rich in folate and would not be expected to show any effect. While no work to date has done these experiments correctly, you should realize the suggested adverse effects claimed by antiaspartame critics in animals can be shown to stem entirely from an induced vitamin shortage. This includes “migraines, dizziness, shaking and tremors, seizures, mental confusion, change in mood, Alzheimer’s and permanent blindness” linked in your document to aspartame. A simple review of the primary literature at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ will show all these issues are far better connected to folate deficiency, folate genetics issues, and homocysteine accrual than to aspartame.

The second reality is that this same underlying issue explains human problems attributed by critics to aspartame. Many people are folate deficient, both because some people refuse to take vitamin supplements and avoid folate fortified grain products (donuts, etc), but also because some people (~20%) have genetic problems that increase their need for folate. Folate deficiency underlies birth defects, many cancers, and other conditions. It is these folate issues and not aspartame that explain much of this manufactured controversy, because most of the "symptoms" claimed for aspartame at various web sites are direct or indirect consequences of personal folate deficiency and related problems.

For either animal or man the consequences of the folate deficiency that result are the incorporation of structurally weak uridylate (uracil, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uracil) bases in DNA in place of stronger thymidylate (methyluridylate called thymine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymine) and/or the accrual of toxic homocysteine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homocysteine), most likely because of insufficient methylation of homocysteine to afford methionine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methionine). Much has been written about the “excitotoxic” amino acids in aspartame (phenylalanine and aspartic acid) by aspartame critics. However, those excitotoxic amino acids occur at far greater concentrations in everyday food, so neither of these amino acids are issues for most people. However, what seems to be consistently missed by the antiaspartame critics is that homocysteine is a far stronger excitotoxin than any constituent of aspartame.

In summary, there is no valid science questioning aspartame’s safety, but there is substantial direct and indirect evidence that any personal issues with aspartame reflect not aspartame per se, but a personal folate deficiency (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folate_deficiency), folate polymorphism genetic issues (for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylenetetrahydrofolate_reductase), and/or issues with related biochemistry linked to vitamin B12 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12). There is no data suggesting any adverse effect for aspartame than cannot simply and completely be explained by the folate deficiency, folate genetics, and homocysteine paradigm.

This new information only suggests aspartame is even safer, now that what I have reported above is known to all the regulatory authorities. Given these new, stronger indications of safety, science no longer has any reason to doubt the safety of aspartame. And the European equivalent of the US FDA on April 20 just validated the safety of aspartame again, http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1211902454309.htm.

John E. Garst, Ph.D. (Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Nutrition)

(FYI, the author has absolutely no financial or biasing connection with the aspartame, the soft drink or their related industries and have made not one penny from my opposition, unlike many antiaspartame critics who sell books and offer irrelevant treatment. Their clearly stated goals are lawsuits, where none are justified. The author has an undergraduate degree in chemistry (with emphasis in organic and biological chemistry) from the University of Kansas, a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry (Pharmacy) from the University of Iowa, postdoctoral experience at Yale University (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry) and two postdoctoral fellowships at Vanderbilt University (physiology-pharmacology (mentor moved), then nutritional toxicology) and taught nutritional toxicology at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana, UIUC) besides having conducted federally funded research at Vanderbilt, UIUC, and at several other universities before recently entering into semi-retirement.)

Thanks Bo!

2009-03-18T22:25:00.000-04:00

Thanks Bo!

Great post and good advice for anyone with a child...

2009-03-18T22:11:00.000-04:00

Great post and good advice for anyone with a child who has ADHD. There is more that can be done besides using medication.

Thanks
Bo Tipton
The Ornery Marketer

Thank you for posting your comment.

2009-03-17T21:25:00.000-04:00

Thank you for posting your comment.

Right On! Thank you for telling it like it is. Wor...

2009-02-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Right On! Thank you for telling it like it is. Working in the school system myself as a Instructional Asst. I am often asked when I am going to finish my education and become a teacher. For the many reasons you listed above and then some I would never aspire to go back and become a full fledge teacher. They are over worked, under paid, under appreciated, deal with too much red tape, many times do not have backing of parents, school officials and have to put up with disrespect from the children themselves. Become a teacher? No thank you! I will continue to support them, and try and make their loads a little lighter while helping anyway I can in their classrooms and with the childern they love to teach.:)

Thank you for posting this. This is great informa...

2009-01-08T20:08:00.000-05:00

Thank you for posting this. This is great information if I can only follow it.

Teaching, Counseling, and Nutrition

Jegarst, I appreciate feedback, thank you for you...

tchrcoun: Concerning aspartame, you need to know t...

Thanks Bo!

Great post and good advice for anyone with a child...

Thank you for posting your comment.

Right On! Thank you for telling it like it is. Wor...

Thank you for posting this. This is great informa...