B. Science Throughout the article there are citations of hopelessly flawed studies funded by the NutraSweet Company (owned by Monsanto Company) or organizations with financial ties to the NutraSweet Company. In addition, there are points made and values quoted which do not match what is listed in the references. I will take each area one-by-one to point out some of the more obvious mistakes. 1. By-Products and Breakdown constituents From the article: "Let's begin the safety question by examining aspartame's components: aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. This is an inaccurate picture of the chemical composition of aspartame-containing products at the time of consumption. Aspartame is created from aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol to form the chemical, L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester. However, what is consumed is much different than what was created in the laboratory. Aspartame in Solution --------------------- As soon as aspartame is dissolved in liquid is becomes unstable and begins to break down into its individual components as opposed to keeping a single stable chemical structure. In addition, aspartylphenylalanine diketopiperazine begins to form. (Note: There are different forms of diketopiperazines (DKPs), but to simplify terminology, we will, from now on, refer to aspartylphenylalanine didetopiperazine simply as "DKP.") The rate of breakdown is dependant upon several factors, mainly temperature and pH (Stamp 1989a). G.D. Searle, the company which originated aspartame, conducted their own stability research and forwarded their results to the FDA as part of the effort to get aspartame approved in carbonated beverages (Federal Register 1983). According to the information provided by G.D. Searle, when carbonated beverages are stored for eight weeks at 68oF (20oC), 11-16% of the aspartame will break down into various chemicals such as aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and significant amounts of DKP. (The breakdown into free methanol -- wood alcohol -- occurs at higher temperatures, and otherwise, always occurs in the small intestine after ingestion.) At 86oF (30oC) for eight weeks of storage, 38% of the aspartame will break down into its components. At 104oF (40oC), over 50% of the aspartame stored for nine weeks will break down forming large amounts of DKP, methanol and free amino acids. In 1983, the National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) drafted a document objecting to the use of aspartame in soft drinks (NSDA 1983). In that document they described in detail the many mistakes that were made by G.D. Searle when testing for aspartame's by-products and breakdown constituents. A selection of problems found by the NSDA follows: a. "Only in the cases of APM [aspartame] and DKP did Searle use high pressure liquid chromotography (HPLC). For the other four known principal breakdown products, Searle used thin-layer chromotography (TLC). HPLC is a far superior analytical method relative to TLC and numerous HPLC methods exist for the detection and quantification of amino acids. . . . The unfortunate and inexplicable choice of an inferior analytical technique, when superior and recognized methods are available, has resulted in inadequate characterization of [aspartame's] decomposition products." b. "Aside from its choice of TLC over HPLC, the anaylses conducted by the petitioner [Searle] to identify and quantify the breakdown products of [aspartame] in soft drinks are plagued by numerous significant deficiences which result in clear and unmistakeable inadequacies in the detection and quantification of the major decomposition products of [aspartame] in soft drinks." [The NSDA goes on to list six major deficiencies in Searle's HPLC testing procedure and analysis.] c. "Likewise, the TLC analyses are deficient (these deficiencies are in addition to the inherent limitations of the TLC method). [The NSDA goes on to list three major deficiencies in Searle's TLC testing procedure and analysis.] d. "The inability to account for as much as thirty-nine (39) percent of [aspartame's] decomposition porducts is significant. With such a high unknown factor, judgments about the safety of [aspartame] in soft drinks cannot be made confidently." e. "Searle has not characterized the decomposition products of [aspartame] in soft drinks under temperature conditions to which the beverages are likely to be exposed in the United States." More recent independent tests by Tsang have shown how quickly aspartame can break down in carbonated beverages stored near room temperature (Tsang 1985). One of his tests was conducted on a diet cola with aspartame stored at 71.6oF (30oC). The following are relevant figures for a one liter (1.057 quarts) bottle of diet cola. Sampe 1 Sample 2 Date of 6 Months 36 Months Bottling After Bottling After Bottling Aspartame 550.0 mg* 155.34 mg 19.70 mg L-phenylalanine methyl 0.0 mg** 28.62 mg 13.01 mg DKP 0.0 mg** 135.66 mg 173.28 mg L-aspartylphenylalanine 0.0 mg** 158.31 mg 189.05 mg L-phenylalanine 0.0 mg** 42.22 mg 101.27 mg Total aspartame account for (%) 108.38 % 111.74 % *Amount of aspartame claimed on label of diet cola from Canada. **Trace amounts may be present at time of bottling. Other breakdown chemicals such as free methanol which were not included in the list above, appear in much larger amounts at temperatures over 145oF. It is not difficult to imagine that carbonated beverages being shipped in unairconditioned trucks or trains can be exposed to very high temperatures for significant periods of time. It is obvious that wharehouse and grocery store storage conditions can lead to significant temperatures or long storage times. Many stores have diet sodas stacked outside of the cooler in direct sunlight. Finally, a person, family, or group sometimes purchases large quanities of diet soda for indenfinate storage. The time from when the beverage was created to when it was ingested can be a significant length of time. I beleive that Pepsi is the only brand that stamps their date of expiration on their aspartame-containing products. On April 2, 1995 I saw a bottle of diet Pepsi which had a stamped date of May 23, 1994, 09:45am. Even in bottles where the expiration date has not passed, enough time has often elapsed for a significant amount of breakdown to occur. In their objection to approval of aspartame in carbonated beverages, the National Soft Drink Association addressed the issue of temperature exposure (NSDA 1983): "The range of temperature conditions to which soft drinks are exposed during the summer months in the southern United States is illustrated by a study conducted by the Coca-Cola Company's Corporate Packaging Department in 1976 and submitted to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (High summer temperatures are by no means limited to the southern states. During the period July 10 to July 24, 1983, for example, St. Louis, Missouri experienced 14 consecutive days of temperatures over 90oF, and 10 days of temperatures of 95oF or greater.) That study shows that during the summer months, soft drinks are often exposed to relatively high temperatures for certain time periods in the course of distribution from the bottling plant to the consummer. High temperatures do, of course, routinely occur in much of the United States, including the southern regions; conditions of storage and distribution for soft drinks can elevate these temperatures significantly. "In summary, the study assessed: (1) warehouse temperatures in Marietta, Georgia and Wichita Falls, Texas; (2) route truck temperatures in Wichita Falls; (3) full sun and outside ambient temperatures in Wichita Falls; and (4) parked car temperatures in Atlanta, Georgia and Wichita Falls. Each of these test environments is known to occur in practice and the tests were performed under actual, as opposed to laboratory, conditions. "Several significant conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, in those situations where the bottled beverage is heated only by conduction from the surrounding air (shaded location in a warehouse or in an automobile trunk parked indoors) the raio of product temperature to the termperature of the surrounding air would be 0.92 to 0.94. In enclosed environments exposed to sunlight, however, ratios much greater than one would be expected. For example, a ratio of product temperature to air temperature of 1.45 was found for a test car parked in full sunlight. In other situations where sunlight was a direct heating factor (e.g., open air service station promotions or open bay delivery trucks) typical ratios were 1.10 to 1.15. "The effects of these ratios on product temperature are domonstrated by using summer temperatures for Phoenix, Arizona, where the average daily high in July is 40oC (104oF). During July in Phoenix, a soft drink in full sunlight could reach a temperature of 49oC (120oF) (104oF x 1.15). The same product in a car parked in full sunlight could reach 66oC (151oF) (104oF x 1.45); soft drinks in a warehouse with an ambient temperature of 110oF could reach temperatures of 38oC (101oF) to 39oC (103oF) (0.92-0.94 x 110oF). "Overall, the study, considered together with representative historical temperature data show that soft drinks will frequently be exposed to temperatures of 32oC (90oF) to 49oC (120oF). In some cases product temperatures as high as 66oC (151oF) (especially in the southwestern United States) can be reached. "The effects of these high product temperatures on [aspartame] degradation and the formation of degradation products, and the effects of temperature variation (for example, soft drinks displayed at a service station may reach temperatures of 49oC (120oF) for most of the afternoon, drop in temperature overnight, and heat up again during the following day) cannot be determined from the data submitted by Searle to the FDA." When aspartame in liquid is subjected to high temperatures, the breakdown of aspartame and the formation of large amounts of DKP happens very quickly as shown by Prudel (1986). In addition, Boehm and Bada showed that high tempatures can cause racemization of the free amino acids leading to significant amounts of unnatural D-type amino acids--much more than is produced through cooking normal, healthy foods (Boehm 1984). Gaines (1987) also showed that racemization can occur in the breakdown products of aspartame. The health affects of large amounts of these D- type amino acids are not well known. In a statement submitted to the U.S. Senate hearings on aspartame, Dr. Jeffrey Bada had this to say about aspartame decomposition (Bada 1987): "Aspartame, a dipeptide containing the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid, is prone to a number of decomposition/alteration reactions. Dominant are cyclization to the cyclic dipeptide or diketopiperazine [DKP] and stereochemical (racemization) inversion producing the unnatural D- stereoisomers of the amino acids. . . In some instances, however, these reactions are very significant, and the reaction products which are produced are not well-studied as far as their nutritional/toxicological properties are concerned. Some examples where these reactions could be significant are in soft drinks exposed to warm temperatures for prolonged periods and in consumer misuse of aspartame such as in cooking or baking." In an article for the Wednesday Journal, Jeffrey Bada, Ph.D. discusses some of his concerns relating to the chemical rearrangement of aspartame (Mullarkey 1992, page 10): "The chemistry of aspartame is changed when Boiled," says Bada. "There is internal rearrangement of its structure. The L-isomers of phenylalanine and aspartic acid change to unnatural D-isomers which are metabolized differently. How it is metabolized is anybody's guess. "Searle people," Bada Continues, "tend to dismiss stereo chemical inversion as unimportant. Chris Tschanz, director of aspartame clinical research, and Louis D. Stegnik, M.D. of the University of Iowa College of Medicine, visited me and admitted that nobody thought of looking at aspartame the way we did." In 1993, the FDA approved aspartame for use in tea beverages, baked goods and mixes, frostings and toppings (Mullarkey 1994a, page 51). There are many products on the market which contain aspartame and are heated to high temperatures. Therefore, Dr. Bada's comment of aspartame's "misuse" in cooking or baking no longer applies--it is now a condoned use of aspartame. Beta-aspartame is another breakdown product which has been found in aspartame-containing products which may contribute to health problems in some individuals (Lawrence 1987, Stamp 1989b). The fact that it occurs in small amounts does not necessarily mean that it is harmless. It has been shown that aspartame can react with other food additives to form chemicals of unknown health consequences. Hussein showed that aspartame reacts with aldehydes which are commonly found flavor compounds in sodas and chewing gum (Hussein 1984). Cha has shown that aspartame can react with vanillin used in foods (Cha 1988). These reactions are very important considerations. As an example of how additive reactions can cause the formation of toxic substances, researchers tested three different food additives individually on mice. None of the mice reacted negatively. When the three food additives were tested in pairs, the mice became ill. When all three food additives were tested at once, the mice died (Ershoff 1976). Aspartame In Solid Food Products -------------------------------- Graves showed that in a dried and acidified state, aspartame that is heated to 230oF breaks down into its components as described above (Graves 1987). It was also shown that other, previously unknown degredation products are formed when the dried product is heated to high temperatures. This type of aspartame breakdown would occur in baking goods that contain aspartame. Conclusion ---------- Aspartame-containing products which are ingested in the real- world are chemically very different than 98-100% aspartame which is given in laboratory experiments. The large amount of breakdown products such as DKP, free phenylalanine, methanol, and others may play an important role in aspartame's negative health affects. Aspartame's strong tendancy to react with other food ingredients to form unique chemical compounds and the tendancy of the free amino acids to racemize at high temperatures are also very important considerations regarding its toxicity. Please keep this in mind while you read the rest of this review. What people are ingesting in the real world IS NOT the same aspartame as it was originally put into the food, but a very different and possibly much more dangerous toxic chemical soup.