The Untold History and Toxicity of the Diet Sweetener

The Aspartame's Nexus to Iraq War

Aspartame’s Sordid History and Connection to Iraq War

Marketed under the trade names Equal, NutraSweet, and Canderel, aspartame is an ingredient in approximately 6,000 foods and beverages sold worldwide, from diet soft drinks, to cereals, chewing gum, desserts, juices, vitamin supplements, pharmaceutical drugs and diet yogurts.

When the former US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, best known as the mastermind of US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and a proponent of invading Iran, died last year, some of his critics called his death karma because he died of multiple myeloma, one of the cancers linked to aspartame, the product that would not exist without Rumsfeld. Here are some excerpts from a great article by Morgan Sykes posted on The Virginia Tech Undergraduate Historical Review¹ :

“Ninety-eight out of 196 infant mice died after exposure to aspartame in a 1977 Food and Drug Administration investigation. The results, published in a document known as the Bressler Report, revealed these FDA findings as well as numerous other troubling data submitted to the FDA by the primary producer of aspartame, G. D. Searle & Company. Astonishingly, just four years later, the FDA approved aspartame for human consumption in dry foods, and two years after that authorized its use in carbonated beverages. To this day, every time someone consumes a diet soda, they are putting this potentially toxic chemical into their body…. In 1981, Ronald Reagan, with help from members of his transition team, including the CEO of G. D. Searle, Donald Rumsfeld, appointed Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. as the new FDA commissioner. Just weeks later, Rumsfeld submitted a reevaluation of aspartame and Hayes, ignoring the recommendations of several doctors, approved the substance for human consumption.”

The article posted on the Virginia Tech website argues that the numerous conflicts of interest within the government and big business allowed aspartame to be approved for human consumption even when it was demonstrated to be a carcinogen and a cause of other harmful side effects in animals.

When Searle was absorbed by Monsanto in 1985, Donald Rumsfeld reportedly received a $12 million bonus, a large amount in those days.

Aspartame’s Dangerous Chemistry

The artificial sweetener aspartame (Equal, NutraSweet), which is added to many medications, diet foods and diet sodas, consists of two amino acids phenylalanine (50%) and aspartic acid (40%), as well as an alcohol: methanol (10%):

1. Aspartic acid is a precursor to Glutamate, the excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS), and can therefore disrupt its natural balance and lead to neurological disorders such as headaches, insomnia and seizures.

2. Methanol, which forms 10% of the broken down Aspartame, is converted in the body to formate, and possibly formaldehyde, diketopiperazine (a carcinogen) and a number of other highly toxic derivatives.

3. Phenylalanine plays an important role in neurotransmitter regulation and causes changes in regional brain concentrations of catecholamines, which include norepinephrine, epinephrine (adrenaline) and dopamine. Disruption to these neurotransmitters can have serious implications as explained below.

A Sugar Alternative, More Addictive than Sugar?

As explained in my recently-published book, sugar as a pure (concentrated/denatured) form of energy (calorie) shares dopaminergic brain circuitry (dopamine is our motivation and reward neurotransmitter) with addictive drugs like cocaine. But aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sucrose (sugar) delivers our brain the sweetness it craves “with almost no calories.” So without the evolutionarily- “motivating” calories, can aspartame be as rewarding or addictive as sugar?

There are 4 calories in 1 gram of Equal Sweeteners (aspartame) so a can of diet soda (with about 185 milligrams of aspartame) contains less than 1 calorie in contrast to 150 calories in an average can of regular (sugary) soda.

But replacing sugar with phenylalanine is a form of cheating. The sweetness and density of calories in sugar indirectly trigger the release of addictive dopamine but phenylalanine, the main metabolite of aspartame, directly generates the addictive substance (dopamine). In the dopaminergic cells in the brain, phenylalanine is a precursor to tyrosine, itself a precursor to L-DOPA and then dopamine (as well as other monoamine neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine — noradrenaline— , epinephrine — adrenaline — , and the skin pigment melanin).

So while diet products contain fewer calories than regular sugary food, they may actually contribute directly, through production of pure dopamine precursors, to addictive behavior such as binge eating. Aspartame has been shown to increase subjective hunger ratings and appetite compared to glucose or water. In contrast, it has been shown that diabetic, overweight and obese individuals report significantly lower levels of hunger and appetite when they are depleted on tyrosine/phenylalanine. Ingesting aspartame has also been shown to be associated with increased overall energy intake, suggesting overcompensation for the expected caloric reduction. So the diet products may actually be a foe, not a friend, to overweight and diabetic populations.

In fact, a 2009 study posted in Diabetes Care found a strong association between diet sodas and diabetes factors. Another study in individuals aged 65 and older, posted in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, looked at the long-term effects of diet soda on waist size, an indicator of visceral or belly fat.

Neurological Disorders, Cancer and Early Menarche

Weight gain, high blood sugar and appetite, and addictive behavior are not the only problems associated with disruptions to our dopaminergic systems. Unnatural alterations in L-DOPA and dopamine metabolism are linked to Parkinson's disease, a brain disorder disrupting our coordinated motor functions. As I elaborated in my book, the concept was brilliantly captured in Awakenings, a 1990 movie, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and inspired by true events.

Phenylalanine is also seriously toxic to people who suffer from phenylketonuria (PKU), and lack the enzyme needed to break down phenylalanine. The severe brain and mental disorders associated with phenylketonuria, intellectual disability, seizures and behavioral problems, are the result of elevated levels of phenylalanine in the blood and deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine and skin pigment melanin.

Consumption of aspartame-sweetened soft drinks has been shown to be positively associated with risk of early menarche (menstruation onset) in young females, which is a harbinger for adult chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and hormone-related cancers.

Aspartame consumption also causes dysbiosis in gut microbiota which harvest energy for the host in the intestinal tract through the production of microbial metabolites especially short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as propionate and butyrate. As a result, it has been suggested that a link exists between microbiota-gut-brainaxis and immune dysregulation associated with aspartame.

Also, aspartame can inhibit the synthesis and release of neurotransmitters, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which are known regulators of neurophysiological activity. Aspartame acts as a chemical stressor by elevating plasma cortisol levels and causing the production of excess free radicals.

Another research paper has linked long-term aspartame administration in lab animals to degenerative neurological changes affecting mainly the myelin sheath, in the form of focal and extensive demyelination; disruption and splitting of myelin lamellae with loss of compact lamellar structure.

Also, according to a long-running study on aspartame as a carcinogen in humans, consuming even one diet soda per day may increase the risk for leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. For this study, researchers prospectively analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study for a 22-year period. A total of 77,218 women and 47,810 men were included in the analysis, for a total of 2,278,396 person-years of data.

In my book, I share, in simple language, the main neurological and hormonal feedback loops that connect our body and brain. I explain how self-balancing feedback loops lead to health but broken feedback loops lead to diseases and disorders such as diabetes, dementia, depression, addiction, anxiety, constipation, infertility, etc.

1. Sykes, Morgan. 2015. “THE ASPARTAME CONTROVERSY OF 1981 the Hidden Truth Behind the Not-so-sweet Artificial Sweetene”. The Virginia Tech Undergraduate Historical Review 4. DOI: http://doi.org/10.21061/vtuhr.v4i0.33