Effect of Nutrasweet on health.

[afc at gnv.ifas.ufl.edu]

In article <CArBCv.L0A at cunews.carleton.ca>, wcsbeau at superior.carleton.ca (OPIRG) writes:
> When investigating the excitotoxicity of glutamate and nutrasweet a
> couple of months ago, I became aware of a charming little paradox.
> Apparently doctors and biochemists disagree on the absorbability of
> Nutrasweet in humans.
> 
> N.B.      When I contacted John Olney's collegue Marilyn Price, at the U. of
> Washington, in St. Louis, she said that it is common knowledge in all
> biochemistry textbooks, that aspartic acid *is* taken up across the
> gut wall.  Yet several medical researchers (mostly neurophysiologists)
> have assured me that the medical texts are equally adamant that it
> *isn't* absorbed.
> 
> Any argument about the neuroteratology and/or other  effects
> (neuroendocrine) of nutrasweet depends on the substances getting into
> the bloodstream. So... Can someone please cite any current studies
> showing that the compound either *is* or *isn't* taken up across the gut?
> 
> Surely this is definitively known by now.  Or is it?
> 
> Any help on this little biochemical/medical paradox would be most
> appreciated,
> 
> Thanks,
> Dianne Murray

This is not published, but...

My wife discovered that *something* in Nutrasweet is taken up through
the gut wall and passed out in breast milk.  When she was feeding our
baby, we noticed that feeding within a few hours of taking any Nutrasweet
lead to an incredibly cranky baby.  We reproduced this many times over a
period of several months.

One of our baby advice books had mentioned that there was anecdotal evidence
for artificial sweeteners causing digestive problems.  I had disbelieved
that, since it seems ludicrous to think that saccharine, cyclamates, and
aspartame could all have the same mode of action.  I suspect that the
true villian is aspartame.

Andrew Cockburn