Aspartame

March 9, 1999

This "article" was found on the internet by one of my co-workers. He was handing it out to anyone he saw drinking a diet soda. This article purported that aspartame (used in Nutrasweet and other brand name sweeteners) was causing symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus in individuals. This was attributed to "methanol toxicity," which was supposed to be slowly killing people.

This "article" has all the elements of your typical health scare. It uses some scientific truths (aspartame does indeed breakdown into methanol and other chemicals) to justify wild accusations (the FDA is conspiring with corporate america to allow a posion to be sold to our people). It also uses the "if you have these symptoms" clause, with a grocery list (spasms, shooting pains, depression, anxiety attacks, tinnitus, . . . , blurred vision, or memory loss) for one to pick from. How could you NOT have this disease.

This article has reached the ears of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. Dr. David Squillacote, a senior medical advisor with the MSF, has written a response to this article in which he:

1. catagorically denies that the MSF is involved in any lawsuit with the FDA or Monsanto
2. denies any involvement with the "World Environmental Conference"
3. denies any connection to Ms. Markle

This response is on the web at:

http://www.msfacts.org/aspart.htm

His response is eloquent in first responding to the allegation that the MSF is in a lawsuit, then proceeds to effectively demolish the arguements made in the Markel article. His effort involved basic research, using the MEDLINE search engine to find information on aspertame (none supporting the major contentions of the Markel article) and illustrating basic scientific principles (he actually states how much aspartame is in a diet drink (about 200 mg), and what the tested "safe dosages" were (about 10,000 mg)).

My personal anger about the Markel article comes from having to deal with individuals who take a piece of information from the internet and, without checking, proclaim its validity and try to use it to preach to you (yes, I drink diet Coke). It took 5 minutes to find the MSF website and get this response article. Dr. Squillacote obviously took a little longer, but it showed that by a little searching, a "panic" caused by a rumor can be stopped by never starting it.

Related Information

• Urban Legends Reference Pages: Aspartame

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