USE OF PRODUCTS CONTAINING ASPARTAME(NUTRASWEET) BY DIABETICS

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" JoAnn Guest " <angelprincessjo

Wed Nov 26, 2003 11:41 pm

H. J. ROBERTS, M.D., CONCERNING

USE OF PRODUCTS CONTAINING ASPARTAME(NUTRASWEET) BY PERSONS WITH

DIABETES

 

 

 

 

H. J. ROBERTS, M.D.,F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P.

 

H. J. ROBERTS,M.D., P.A.

300 27TH STREET

WEST PALM BEACH, FL 33407-5299

(407)832-2408

FAX (407)832-2400

 

DIPLOMATE, AMERICAN BOARD OF INTERNAL MEDICINE (RECERTIFIED)

 

STATEMENT OF H. J. ROBERTS, M.D., CONCERNING THE USE OF PRODUCTS

CONTAINING ASPARTAME (NUTRASWEET) BY PERSONS WITH DIABETES AND

HYPOGLYCEMIA.

 

I have treated many patients with diabetes mellitus and hypoglycemia

(low blood sugar) in my

capacity as a Board-certified internist and an endocrinologist

member of the Endocrine Society). Since both groups shold abstain

from sugar, I initially rejoiced that these persons had an

acceptable and presumable safe sugar substitute in aspartame.

 

Unfortunately, many patients in my practice, and others seen in

consultation, developed serious metabolic, neurologic and other

complications that could be specifically attributed to using

aspartame products. This was evidenced by:

 

*The loss of diabetic control, the intensification of hypoglycemia,

the occurrence of presumed insulin reactions (including convulsions)

that proved to be aspartame reactions, and the precipitation,

aggravation or simulation of diabetic complications (especially

impaired vision and neuropathy) while using these products.

 

*Dramatic improvement of such features after avoiding aspartame, AND

the prompt predictable recurrent of these problems when the patient

resumed aspartame products, knowlingly or inadvertently. I have

cited many instances of severe complications in patients with

diabetes and hypoglycemia caused by the use of aspartame products in

my books and scientific articles. Here are few illustrations.

 

A 21 year-old insulin-dependent teacher suffered more frequent

insulin reactions both at school and at home, while drinking many

aspartame colas daily. He reported: When we cut down on aspartame, I

stopped having so many reactions. A diabetic man suffered severe

changes in vision when he was drinking four liters of aspartame soft

drinks daily. An opthalmologist assured him that there was no

detectable diabetic retinopathy. The patient then chanced to read an

article about aspartame-related eye problems. He promptly improved

after avoiding these beverages, an unlikely event if the problem was

primarily a diabetic retinopathy.

 

A 46 year-old man with insulin-dependent diabetes had been in good

control for three decades until he began using several aspartame

sodas and packets of tabletop sweetener daily. He summarized his

experience in these terms: My diabetes went haywire, and I had

terrible insulin reactions. His diabetes was fully controlled within

one week after abstaining from aspartame products.

 

A 12 year-old boy with known diabetes required multiple

hospitalizations for diabetic coma while consuming considerable

aspartame products. Physicians at a university hospital had

difficulty in stabilizing his insulin requirements while he used

them.

 

In the light of this experience, I now advise ALL my patients with

diabetes and hypoglycemia to avoid aspartame products. A number of

alternatives are available.

 

I regret the failure of other physicians and the American Diabetes

Association (ADA) to sound appropriate warnings to patients and

consumers based on these repeated fininds which have been described

in my corporate-neutral studies and publications. This is largely

due to these factors:

 

1) It has been virtually impossible to get on the programs for

national meetings of diabetologists and other professional groups in

order to describe these observations. Indeed, the ADA (of which I

have been a member for over three decades) even refused to print an

abstract of adverse reactions I encountered in 58 diabetic patients

that was submitted for its 1987 annual meeting.

 

This abstract subsequently appeared in CLINICAL RESEARCH (Vol. 3:

489A, 1988)...six years ago.

 

2) Journals devoted to diabetes and internal medicine have refused

to publish my manuscripts on this subject due to negative comments

from peer review. The likelihood that some of these reviewer-

authorities had self-serving interests in denying publication is

suggested below.

 

3) The AMA, the FDA, and the ADA dogmatically continue to express

the unequivocal opinion that aspartame is completely safe for

diabetics - and nearly everyone else.

 

4) Manufacturers and producers accomplished the marketing miracle of

the 1980s through highly effective PR campaigns, the underwriting of

numerous research projects (a number involving flawed protocols) by

investigators they granted on contracted with, and enormous

biopolitical clout in order to protect their billion-dollar market.

 

I detailed these matters in my two books on the subject: ASPARTAME

(NUTRASWEET): IS IT SAFE? (Philadelphia, 1989, the Charles Press)

and SWEETNER DEAREST: BITTERSWEET VIGNETTES ABOUT ASPARTAME

(NUTRASWEET) (West Palm Beach, 1992, Sunshine Sentinel Press, PO Box

8697, 1-800-814-9800). They are also summarized in my two-tape

lecture, IS ASPARTAME (NUTRASWEET) SAFE? A MEDICAL, PUBLIC HEALTH

AND LEGAL OVERVIEW (West Palm Beach, 1992, Sunshine Sentinel Press,

PO Box 8697, 1-800-814-9800).

 

I have discussed some of the reasons aspartame might aggravate

diabetes and hypoglycemia in these books. The possible mechanisms

include the following:

 

* Marked changes in appetite and weight as reflected by paradoxic

weight gain or severe loss of weight.

 

* Excessive insulin secretion and depletion of the insulin reserve

 

 

* Possible alteration of cellular receptor sites for insulin, with

ensuing insulin resistance

 

* Neurotransmitter alterations within the brain and peripheral

nerves

 

* The toxicity of each of the three components of aspartame

(phenylalanine; aspartic acid: the methylester, which promptly

becomes methyl alcohol or methanol), and their multiple breakdown

products after exposure to heat or during prolonged storeage

 

I have asserted in my publications, and in testimony both to

Congress and FDA advisory group, that the current wholesale

ingestion of aspartame products by over half the adult population

constitutes an imminent public health hazard. Yet, this warning

continues to be ignored by the medical profession and the FDA.

 

Accordingly, informed and concerned consumers are justified in

criticizing the industrial-medical complex that 1) refuses to

acknowledge the problem of aspartame disease, and 2) fails to warn

high-risk groups about the potential dangers. In addition to

patients with diabetes and hypoglycemia, they include pregnant

women, children, patients with epilepshy, liver, kidney disease and

eating disorders, older persons with memory impairment, and the

relatives of aspartame reactors, diabetics and patients with

phenylketonuria.

 

 

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