To: Mr. David Emery
The Mining Co.

I am writing this letter in response to an article recently posted at the Mining Co. site in the "Urban Legends" section (http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blasp.htm). It attempts to debunk claims that aspartame (Nutrasweet) causes long term health problems.

I am a person who is recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome caused in part by aspartame consumption. For more information, see my web site at www.cfs-recovery.org. For specific information on my experience with aspartame, see http://www.cfs-recovery.org/introduc.htm#BadAspartameReaction and http://www.cfs-recovery.org/aspartam.htm.

The article attempts to debunk an e-mail that has been making the rounds. I have never before seen an "urban legend" where the original author was identified by name and where supporting evidence is available on the web. The article does a huge disservice by addressing the e-mail in isolation when you are thoroughly aware that much more complete information exists at the "Aspartame (Nutrasweet) Toxicity Info Center" (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame).

You criticize the e-mail author as engaging in "conspiracy theory" by doubting the word of the FDA and others. I found this quote at the Toxicity Center site (http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/aspart.p8).

"They [G.D. Searle] lied and they didn't submit the real nature of their observations because had they done that it is more than likely that a great number of these studies would have been rejected simply for adequacy. What Searle did, they took great pains to camouflage these shortcomings of the study. As I say filter and just present to the FDA what they wished the FDA to know and they did other terrible things for instance animals would develop tumors while they were under study. Well they would remove these tumors from the animals."

FDA Toxicologist and Task Force member, Dr. Andrian Gross.

You cite a rather cursory MIT newsletter article. This article contains major problems that should be evident even to a person who is not a medical professional.

The MIT article you cite (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1998/sep16/aspartame.html) carries an impressive name, but a reading of the article yields significant flaws. One cannot follow up on the brief article since it does not indicate where the study was published, if indeed it was published.

The article states that forty-eight subjects were studied, but fails to indicate how many were in each of several groups. It is entirely possible that a minority of the population will have reactions. Since some people may be more sensitive than others, a group of 48, if subdivided may well be too small to detect such problems. There are over 100 million consumers of aspartame in this country alone. If only 5% of the population is sensitive to it, there will be millions of bad reactions.

The ages of the subjects were not discussed. In a college environment, the subjects may well have been in their early 20s and not as sensitive as older people.

All small studies of aspartame have a major shortcoming. Aspartame is the most widely consumed artificial product in the world. An estimated 100 million people use it on a regular basis in the United States alone. Even if only a few percent of the population experiences problems with it, this amounts to millions of bad reactions. Small studies such as the MIT study will rarely find such reactions.

You seem to put a great deal of faith in the medical community. Let me relay an example of an astounding failure by researchers. In the last few years it has been discovered that ulcers are caused by bacteria and can be treated with antibiotics. Ask any gastroenterologist what the current treatment for stomach ulcers is and you will find that what I say is true.

Doctors missed this for decades! Patients underwent needless surgery and many died during this period. The doctor who proved this had to infect himself with the bacteria to prove this was the case.

Meanwhile, veterinarians have been treating ulcers in pigs with antibiotics since the 1950s.

I sincerely hope you will research this matter further. I think that if you do you will find that there is considerable truth to the allegations against Nutrasweet.