Hello, and welcome.
My name is Dave Rietz. I am a 66-year-old, and a victim of 15 years of self-poisoning from products containing the substance generically called ASPARTAME. Read my discovery and my fight against what I believe is aspartame-induced cancer.
What is ASPARTAME you ask? Only the most popular fake sweetener around... now in over 9000 products being distributed in over 100 countries. (a.k.a Equal, NutraSweet, Spoonful, Equal Measure, and now that the patent has expired... who knows!)Yes... aspartame is bad for EVERYONE! It is a cumulative toxic poison. You say you can't believe that the FDA would allow such a thing to happen? Ha... the 1981 FDA commissioner Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes is the PRIMARY reason this poisonous substance laces so many items of food and drink. In 1981 he approved it for use in everything except liquids and heated/baked goods. Two years later he approved it for use in beverages and other liquids... and then went to work for a Searle PR firm at $1000 a day. You figure that one out, OK!Liquid products that use aspartame have a short shelf life. This is because the aspartame slowly changes from the 10% methanol content into formaldehyde. Regardless, because once it is consumed there is NO natural antidote of ETHANOL (as there is in fresh fruit) to counter the methanol... so the liver readily changes it into formaldehyde. Then, if the formaldehyde doesn't get stored in the fat with a bit of water (that's called "weight gain"), the body changes it into formic acid (otherwise known as ant sting poison). Nice cocktail, eh? Dr. Hayes had to over-rule his own board of inquiry in order to approve it for "limited" use. Then, two years later he approved it for use in beverages over the protests of the National Soft Drink Association who wrote a 30 page protests that aspartame was too unstable, lowered the levels of serotonin (that provides that "full feeling") which could lead to INCREASED consumptions of foods. Six of those pages were read into the congressional record!
BUT THAT IS NOT THE WORST, FOLKS! On 27 June, 1996, Dr. David Kessler, without public notice or fanfare, quietly informed the Monsanto/Searle/NutraSweet group that the long ban on using aspartame in heated and baked goods was being dropped... and now they can put this toxic sludge in anything on the supermarket shelf! He did this, KNOWING FULL WELL that aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde more quickly with the application of heat. With "friends" (under charter to protect us from this sort of action) like this we sure don't need enemies! It took a Freedom Of Information Act request to pry the list of 92 FDA acknowledged symptoms of aspartame poisoning from their control. At one time, despite the fact there was NO requirement for reporting adverse reactions to aspartame, over 75% of complaints were on that product. Yet they did nothing about it. They are now in a "cover-up" mode and they do it with plenty of crass, echoing the falsehoods, distortions and omissions of truth put out by Monsanto/Searle/NutraSweet, and further echoed by the likes of the AMA, ADA, IFIC, and a whole lot more organizations that either accept something of value from those who push this toxic poison, or who gain from the damage it causes.The ONLY cure for this problem is to rid the diet of everything containing aspartame... regardless of the name. Sometimes they get so cute with the labels the only way you know it is aspartame is by the mandatory "PHENYLKETONURICS: Contains phenylalanine" warning label. However, after approving aspartame for heated and baked goods, one yogurt manufacturer petitioned the FDA for permission to exclude ALL references to aspartame on their labels. Knowing that the FDA is NOT looking out for the public, you can probable expect this to happen all too soon!As a victim, who was lucky enough to discover the cause of my many problems BEFORE it caused my death, I now spend money once used for useless doctor visits to obtain scripts for exotic and expensive drugs (that are all but useless against aspartame disease) on a DEDICATED WEB site I call "DORway to Discovery!" DORway is over 450 pages totalling over 25 megabytes (mostly text, and yes, that is MEGABYTES) of information on aspartame. Below are links to the more important pages:http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html Most of the 92 FDA acknowledged symptoms of aspartame poisoning, and how it does its dirty deeds [think methanol (wood alcohol that makes skid row drunks go blind), formaldehyde (do-it-yourself embalming) and formic acid (better known as ant sting poison)]. It should be noted that a Freedom of Information Act request was required to obtain this document from the DHHS/FDA.http://www.dorway.com/asprlink.html Links many other sites http://www.dorway.com/books.html Links to books on aspartame http://www.dorway.com/stevia.html Assorted alternative sweeteners http://www.dorway.com/reprtfrm.html Report your experience to the FDA http://www.dorway.com/possible.html Mission Possible Files http://www.dorway.com/allaspr.txt Excellent text 0verview of DORway
Before you go... why not capture the makings of an excellent pamphlet that explains most of the problems with aspartame... and what to do about it!
Oh... one last item. There is NO history of prostate cancer on either side of my family. One grandfather lived to be 92, my dad lived to 84, and neither had problems. Another significant item... I never had excess testosterone. Finally, I did not eat a diet rich in fats and oils. How is it, then, that I contracted Prostate Cancer in my late forties? Personally, I cannot hold aspartame blameless because I feel it played a significant role. Something to think about! Regardless, prostate cancer on the loose is a scary, expensive situations that SUCKS!