http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1081
Splenda (sucralose) vs Equal (aspartame) sales and toxicity, Forbes Magazine,
Deborah Cohen: Murray 2004.05.05 rmforall

"... it passes through the body without being broken down. "

http://www.forbes.com/business/newswire/2004/05/02/rtr1355948.html

http://www.expressresponse.com/cgi-bin/forbes/displayArticleWebForm.cgi
send comments
Forbes.com employee e-mail addresses are formatted: first initial last
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http://www.reuters.com

5/5/04 4:04:00 PM ET

FEATURE-Splenda takes sweet ride on Atkins coattails
Reuters, 05.02.04, 9:23 AM ET By Deborah Cohen
Deborah Cohen, U.S. Consumer Team, 312-408-8136, deborah.cohen@...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - It doesn't get much sweeter than this.

With no special advertising or publicity, Splenda, the sugar replacement from
Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Nutritionals Worldwide division, is riding the
hottest trend in food today -- low-carbohydrate eating popularized by the Atkins
Diet.

"It's wild," Colin Watts, McNeil's president, said in a recent interview. "We've
doubled the business within just the most recent 18 months."

Drug maker J&J doesn't break out Splenda's results. But sales surpassed those of
rival Equal in early 2003, and now command about a 47-percent share of U.S.
sugar substitute market at retail, according to Watts. The market is worth an
estimated $1 billion.

Watts, 38, forecasts that within a few years, Splenda itself will grow to at
least $1 billion in sales at retail and to restaurants and other food service
outlets, in part because historical sugar junkies are cutting back on calories
and carbs amid the growing U.S. obesity crisis.

Splenda is getting much of its lift from Atkins and its more moderate offshoot,
the South Beach diet, whose dieters embrace the product because of its ability
to withstand the high heat of baking and cooking without breaking down or losing
flavor.

Splenda's little yellow packets recently became a staple at Starbucks coffee
shops around the United States and it has gained increased popularity as a
sweetener in low-carb foods such as Unilever Plc's Wishbone Carb Options
dressings.

"The product is growing like gangbusters," said Bruce Cranna, a Leerink Swann
analyst. "It almost sells itself."

The reason: Splenda is made from sugar by a process that bonds the sugar
molecule sucralose with chlorine atoms. The result is that the sweetener has no
calories and less than one carbohydrate gram per teaspoon; it passes through the
body without being broken down.

It received U.S. regulatory approval as a general purpose sweetener in 1999 and
McNeil took it national in 2000. Splenda's zealous following claim that it
tastes more like real sugar than Merisant Co.'s Equal and Nutrasweet brands,
made from aspartame, or Cumberland Packing Corp.'s Sweet 'N Low, the granddaddy
of artificial sweeteners, which contains saccharin.

"Sweet flavor, no aftertaste or funny flavors," wrote Lisa Shea, a reporter for
Bella Online, a women's issues Web site.

Much lighter in weight than sugar, Splenda is sold in two concentrations, the
one-to-two equivalent found in the small packets and a measure-for-measure
formulation.

Still, some health professionals are not convinced, and have called for more
reserach. They note that aspartame has been proven to pose a small health risk
to people with a rare inherited metabolic disorder, while saccharin in extremely
high doses has been linked to cancer.

FARMING IT OUT

In February, McNeil made a deal to hand over Splenda's manufacturing and its
business as an ingredient in other packaged foods to British sweetener maker
Tate & Lyle Plc . McNeil remains in charge of marketing and selling Splenda in
grocery, club stores and other retail venues.

Tate & Lyle makes Splenda at a single plant in Alabama and handle accounts such
as Diet RC Cola, Log Cabin Sugar Free Low Calorie Syrup, and Ocean Spray
Lightstyle fruit drinks, all of which feature the sweetener as an ingredient.

In its first such deal with a leading soda company, Splenda will be used in
PepsiCo Inc.'s Pepsi Edge, a soft drink touting 50 percent less sugar by using a
mix of Splenda and corn syrup.

"We are joined at the hip," said Watts, who would not discuss the financial
nature of Tate & Lyle deal. Tate & Lyle declined to comment, saying that the
relationship was too new.

Watts said McNeil has no plans to market Splenda as a low-carb panacea, even
though the low-carb trend has strong momentum. "I believe we may be on top of
the bubble," he said. "You have to make sure you have flexibility in your 'go to
market' model."

That means continuing to promote the product to wider audiences, including the
growing U.S. diabetic population, one of its main targets. In addition to a host
of recipes, Splenda's Web site has separate sections just for diabetics and
healthcare professionals; there is no low-carb link.

Other key growth areas will be the food service market, where McNeil hopes to
lock up more blockbuster distribution agreements like the one it secured with
Starbucks Corp. It also has arrangements with restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday Inc.
and food service contractor Sodexho.

In addition, Europe got regulatory approval for Splenda in February; that's a
market Watts believes will be critical for growth.

"We're in the process of a number of pretty big deals," he said.

Copyright 2004, Reuters News Service
© 2004 Forbes.com Inc.T All Rights Reserved Privacy Statement
**************************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1071
research on aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity:
Murray 2004.05.05 rmforall

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA 505-501-2298

[ Excerpt ]

Finally, an intripid and much published team in Japan has found DNA damage
in 8 tissues from single non-lethal doses of aspartame (near-significant
high levels of DNA damage in 5 tissues) and many other additives in groups
of just 4 mice:

Mutat Res 2002 Aug 26; 519(1-2): 103-19
The comet assay with 8 mouse organs: results with 39 currently used food
additives.
Sasaki YF, Kawaguchi S, Kamaya A, Ohshita M, Kabasawa K, Iwama K,
Taniguchi K, Tsuda S.
Laboratory of Genotoxicity, Faculty of Chemical and Biological
Engineering, Hachinohe National College of Technology,
Tamonoki Uwanotai 16-1, Aomori 039-1192, Japan.
yfsasaki-c@... s.tsuda@...

We determined the genotoxicity of 39 chemicals currently in use as food
additives.
They fell into six categories-dyes, color fixatives and
preservatives, preservatives, antioxidants, fungicides, and sweeteners.
We tested groups of four male ddY mice once orally with each additive at
up to 0.5xLD(50) or the limit dose (2000mg/kg) and performed the comet
assay on the glandular stomach, colon, liver, kidney, urinary bladder, lung,
brain, and bone marrow 3 and 24 h after treatment.
Of all the additives, dyes were the most genotoxic.
Amaranth, Allura Red, New Coccine, Tartrazine, Erythrosine, Phloxine, and
Rose Bengal induced dose-related DNA damage in the glandular stomach, colon,
and/or urinary bladder.
All seven dyes induced DNA damage in the gastrointestinal organs at a
low dose (10 or 100mg/kg).
Among them, Amaranth, Allura Red, New Coccine, and Tartrazine induced
DNA damage in the colon at close to the acceptable daily intakes (ADIs).
Two antioxidants (butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated
hydroxytoluene (BHT)), three fungicides (biphenyl, sodium
o-phenylphenol, and thiabendazole), and four sweeteners (sodium
cyclamate, saccharin, sodium saccharin, and sucralose) also induced DNA
damage in gastrointestinal organs.
Based on these results, we believe that more extensive assessment of
food additives in current use is warranted. PMID: 12160896

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/934
24 recent formaldehyde toxicity [Comet assay] reports:
Murray 2002.12.31 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/935
Comet assay finds DNA damage from sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin in
mice: Sasaki YF & Tsuda S Aug 2002: Murray 2003.01.01 rmforall

[ Also borderline evidence, in this pilot study of 39 food additives,
using test groups of 4 mice, for DNA damage from for stomach, colon,
liver, bladder, and lung 3 hr after oral dose of 2000 mg/kg aspartame--
a very high dose.]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/961
genotoxins, Comet assay in mice: Ace-K, stevia fine; aspartame poor;
sucralose, cyclamate, saccharin bad: Y.F. Sasaki Aug 2002:
Murray 2003.01.27 rmforall [A detailed look at the data] ]
**************************************************

http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
Weekly Health Newsletter [free] Issue 182 Dec 3, 2000
"The Dangers of Sucralose" Joseph M. Mercola, DO support@...
http://www.mercola.com/
Optimal Wellness Center
1443 W. Schaumburg Road
Schaumburg, Illinois 60194

http://www.holisticmed.com/splenda/ Sucralose Toxicity Information Center

http://mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm

http://mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_products.htm

http://mercola.com/2001/jun/23/chlorine.htm

http://mercola.com/2003/aug/23/splenda.htm

http://mercola.com/2003/nov/8/splenda_dangers.htm

http://mercola.com/2004/jan/10/splenda_questions.htm

http://mercola.com/2004/feb/11/nutrasweet.htm

http://mercola.com/2004/mar/31/splenda_reaction.htm
**************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1017
sucralose, aspartame toxicity: Ted Showalter DC: Murray 2003.08.08 rmforall

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_39516.asp
Dr. Showalter: Is Splenda Splendid?
by Dr. Ted Showalter posted August 6, 2003
[ Duff/Showalter Chiropractic and Optimum Health Clinic
8106 Standifer Gap Road, Suite E, Chattanooga, TN 37421
http://www.chirodc.com/ http://chirodc.com/biography.html
chirodcs@... 423-855-5053 fax 5856 ]

What is Splenda?
It's the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is sold under the name
splenda. It's one of the up-and-coming high-intensity sugar
substitutes. It is about 600 times sweeter than white table sugar and
is non-caloric. The sweetness can vary depending on the food
application from 320 to 1000 times sweeter than sucrose (white table
sugar). The intensity of sucralose is much more intense in sweetness
than sugar, even though it looks about the same as sugar.

How it is manufactured?
Sucralose is produced by chlorinating sugar (sucrose). This involves
chemically changing the structure of the sugar molecules by substituting
three chlorine atoms for three hydroxyl groups.

Safety Concerns
Very few studies exist on sucralose. According to Endurance News there
are only 19 studies that have been performed, yet sucralose was approved
or use by the FDA in 1998. Just to give you an example of how few
studies sucralose has, saccharin, which has been around for a while has
2374 studies according to Endurance News.

Many of the studies on sucralose have been reported by the FDA to have
"inconclusive" results.

Research in animals has shown that sucralose can cause many problems in
rats, mice, and rabbits, such as:

· Shrunken thymus gland (up to 40% shrinkage)
· Enlarged liver and kidneys
· Atrophy of lymph follicles in the spleen and thymus
· Increased cecal weight
· Reduced growth rate
· Decreased red blood cell count
· Hyperplasia of the pelvis
· Extension of the pregnancy period
· Aborted pregnancy
· Decreased fetal body weights and placental weights
· Diarrhea

Now you can't directly convert this to humans, but if it does that much
to an animal, I think it's safe to assume that it could affect the human
body in some manner.

One claim of sucralose is that it won't affect your sugar levels. Few
human studies exist on safety have been published on sucralose. One
small study using diabetic patients showed a statistically significant
increase in glycosylated hemoglobin (HgbA1C), which is a marker of your
average blood sugars over a 3-4 month period and is used to assess sugar
regulation in diabetic patients according to the FDA.

Is Sucralose Absorbed or Metabolized?
One of the other main things sucralose has been claimed by the
manufacturer's to do is go straight through the body without being
absorbed.
To the contrary, sucralose is significantly absorbed and
metabolized by the body. According to the FDA's "Final Rule" report, 11%
to 27% of sucralose is absorbed in humans, and the rest is excreted
unchanged in feces.
According to the Japanese Food Sanitation Council,
as much as 40% of ingested sucralose is absorbed.
About 20% to 30% of absorbed sucralose is metabolized.
The absorbed sucralose has been found to concentrate in the liver, kidney, and
gastrointestinal tract.

According to Dr. Mercola's website, "The manufacturer claims that the
chlorine added to sucralose is similar to the chlorine atom in the salt
(NaCl) molecule. That is not the case. Sucralose may be more like
ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides, but we will never know
without long-term , independent human research," of which there is
none. Some chlorinated molecules serve as the basis for pesticides such
as D.D.T., and accumulate in the body fat.

Does sucralose and any of the sweeteners on the market help with weight
loss? According to Consumers' Research Magazine "There is no clear-cut
evidence that sugar substitutes are useful in weight reduction. On the
contrary, there is some evidence that these substances may stimulate
appetite."

One of the major selling points of aspartame is a diet aid and currently
is in most diet drinks. Although some companies are changing to splenda
(i.e. Diet Rite). When aspartame is ingested with carbohydrates, such as
having a sandwich with a diet drink, aspartame causes the brain to
cease production of serotonin, which is the hormone that makes you feel
full after eating. Therefore you never feel full, thus increasing your
appetite. You then eat more foods, many containing aspartame, and the
cycle continues. Recent research on aspartame in Europe is showing that
ingesting aspartame leads to the accumulation of formaldehyde in the
brain, other organs and tissues (Formaldehyde has been shown to damage
the nervous system, immune system, cause irreversible genetic damage in
humans and is also used to preserve cadavers)!

So what should I use as a sweetener?
Stevia, which is a sweet herb, 300-400 times sweeter than sugar and does
not affect sugar levels. I would advise just to stay away from any
artificial sweeteners and to use something natural.
**************************************************************

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http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10621.asp

Low Carb
You Are Here: BellaOnline > Food & Wine > Low Carb > Articles

Lisa Shea is BellaOnline's Low Carb Host

Splenda Sucralose - an Atkins Sweetener
If you're watching your weight, Splenda is a name you're going to love. This
diet substance has extremely low calories and carbs, and tastes JUST like sugar!

I know I was very hesitant before trying yet ANOTHER artificial sweetener. It
seems that every artificial sweetener they've released over the years has caused
cancer or your hair to fall out or your teeth to turn black. The last thing I
wanted was to be a guinea pig for the latest sugar-free craze.

However, probably because of all those other fiascos, Splenda was subjected to a
HUGE testing protocol to prove its safety. It is now found in many products and,
I have to say, they taste AMAZINGLY good. I am now actively seeking out products
that have Splenda in them because I am so impressed. Sweet flavor, no aftertaste
or funny flavors.

Splenda is actually "sucralose", and is made by in essence altering real sugar.
They pull out some hydrogen-oxygen and replace it with chlorine. The result is
that the Splenda is extremely sweet - meaning just a tiny dose of it can give
the same sweetness as a ton of sugar. The claim is that the ratio is 600 times
as sweet.

At most doses the result is a zero carb, zero calorie intake. If you were to use
a full cup of Splenda in baking you would get 96 calories - the cup of sugar
would give you 770 calories. But again, since Splenda is so super-sweet, you
would use far LESS Splenda in the same recipe, meaning your calorie could could
in essence drop to zero.

This content was written by Lisa Shea. If you wish to use this content in any
manner, you need written permission. Contact Lisa Shea for details.
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This site helps make a low carb lifestyle easy by providing great recipes and
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It comes down to eating healthily. If you diet and then when you reach your
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This is the html version of the file http://www.leerink.com/news/cranna.pdf.

For Immediate Release July 18, 2002 Contact: Megan Burling Publishing and
Communications Leerink Swann & Company (617) 918-4528 www.leerink.com
webrequest@...

Leerink Swann & Company
One Federal Street, 37th Floor
Boston, MA 02110 Phone: (617) 248-1601 / (800) 808-7525
Fax: (617) 918-4900

Leerink Swann & Company
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Leerink Swann & Company
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San Francisco, CA 94105 Phone: 415-905-7400 Fax: 415-905-7402

Bruce Cranna Joins Leerink Swann & Company as Director - Analyst, Equity
Research Boston, MA, July 18, 2002 --
Leerink Swann & Company announced today the appointment of Bruce Cranna to the
position of Director - Analyst, Equity Research.

Most recently, Bruce was Director and Senior Analyst in Equity Capital Markets
at ABN AMRO Incorporated, where he was a Wall Street Journal All-Star and top
ten ranked analyst in the Reuters U.S. 2000 and 2001 Surveys.

Mr. Cranna will be concentrating on diversified medical supply and diagnostic
companies. "Leerink Swann has built a stellar reputation for unbiased
fundamental equity research inthe healthcare sector. As we continue to expand
upon our expertise in this industry, we are delighted to add analysts of Bruce's
ability to our well-respected Equity Research Group," said Jeffrey A. Leerink,
CEO and Chairman of Leerink Swann & Company.

"We expect Bruce's strong research in the medical supply sector to complement
our strength in cardiology and neurology, which is currently covered by Mark
Landy. Having worked with Bruce at ABN, I have had the opportunity to see his
research first-hand, and know that he will bring the same dedication and
objective research to Leerink Swann," said Peter H.Costa, Director of Equity
Research at Leerink Swann & Company.

During his five-year tenure with ABN AMRO, Mr. Cranna covered medical
technology, diagnostics and research instrumentation companies.

Prior to ABN AMRO, Mr. Cranna served as Vice President, Equity Capital Group at
The Chicago Corporation.

He also held the position of Senior Consultant at the former Coopers & Lybrand
for three years, in that company's Healthcare Financial Services Group.

In addition, Mr. Cranna served as Senior Analyst, Contract Financial Management
Department of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Mr. Cranna received his MBA in Finance, Magna Cum Laude, from Northeastern
University and his B.A. in Economics, Cum Laude, from the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst.

About Leerink Swann & Company
Leerink Swann & Company is an investment banking firm that provides
institutional sales, healthcare equity research, corporate finance, and asset
management services for high-net-worth clients. Leerink Swann & Company was
voted Best Firm in both Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals/Specialty
Pharmaceuticals in the December 2001 Institutional Investor poll ranking the
best boutique and regional firms by sector. Through its consulting affiliate,
MEDACorp, Leerink Swann & Company provides biomedical-consulting services to
Life Sciences companies and to the institutional investment community. MEDACorp
is comprised of more than 4,000 consultants who are practicing physicians,
surgeons, and biomedical professionals.
Leerink Swann & Company is a member NASD/SIPC.

Peter F. Flynn, Leerink Swann & Company Tel: 617-918-4800;
Fax: 617-918-4979

John I. Fitzgerald, Leerink Swann & Company, +1-617-918-4564

http://www.medacorp.com/
http://www.medacorp.com/contacts.htm 617-918-4500

Rene Mora, M.D., Ph.D. Director & Chief Scientific Officer
renem@...

Lee S. Simon, M.D. Head Regulatory Consultant
lees@...
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Jeffrey J. Elton, managing principal of management consulting firm Integral,
Inc., on Board of Directors, Leerink Swann & Company

http://www.integral-inc.com/dt/cc.html info@...
agweb@... Analysis Group BOSTON 617-425-8000

http://www.analysisgroup.com/t_alph_a.htm#staff
**********************************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1071
research on aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity:
Murray 2004.05.05 rmforall

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA 505-501-2298

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/927
Donald Rumsfeld, 1977 head of Searle Corp., got aspartame FDA approval:
Turner: Murray 2002.12.23 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1039
three-page review: aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde) toxicity:
Murray 2003.11.22 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1026
brief aspartame review: formaldehyde toxicity: Murray 2003.09.11 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1025
aspartame & formaldehyde toxicity: Murray 2003.09.09 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1067
eyelid contact dermatitis by formaldehyde from aspartame, AM Hill & DV
Belsito, Nov 2003: Murray 2004.03.30 rmforall [ 150 KB ]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1070
critique of aspartame review, French Food Safety Agency AFSSA 2002.05.07
aspartamgb.pdf (18 pages, in English), Martin Hirsch:
Murray 2004.04.13

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/957
safety of aspartame Part 1/2 12.4.2: EC HCPD-G SCF:
Murray 2003.01.12 rmforall EU Scientific Committee on Food, a whitewash

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1045
http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/scf2002-response.htm
Mark Gold exhaustively critiques European Commission Scientific
Committee on Food re aspartame ( 2002.12.04 ): 59 pages, 230 references

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/989 On 2003.04.10
the European Union Parliament voted 440 to 20 to approve sucralose,
limit cyclamates & reevaluate aspartame & stevia: Murray 2003.04.12 rmforall

http://www.eatright.org/Nutritive(1).pdf
J Am Diet Assoc. 2004 Feb; 104(2): 255-75.
Position of the American Dietetic Association: use of nutritive and
nonnutritive sweeteners. American Dietetic Association.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1068
critique of aspartame review by American Dietetic Association Feb 2004,
Valerie B. Duffy & Madeleine J. Sigman-Grant: Murray 2004.04.03 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
120 members, 1081 posts in a public searchable archive

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartame/messages
796 members, 16,857 posts in a public, searchable archive

It is certain that high levels of aspartame use, above 2 liters daily for
months and years, must lead to chronic formaldehyde-formic acid toxicity.

Fully 11% of aspartame is methanol-- 1,120 mg aspartame in 2 L diet soda,
almost six 12-oz cans, gives 123 mg methanol (wood alcohol).
The methanol is immediately released into the body after drinking--
unlike the large levels of methanol locked up in complex molecules inside
many fruits and vegetables.
Within hours, the liver turns much of the methanol into formaldehyde, and
then much of that into formic acid, both of which in time are partially
eliminated as carbon dioxide and water.

However, about 30% of the methanol remains in the body as cumulative
durable toxic metabolites of formaldehyde and formic acid-- 37 mg daily,
a gram every month, accumulating in and affecting every tissue.

If only 10% of the methanol is retained daily as formaldehyde, that would
give 12 mg daily formaldehyde accumulation-- about 60 times more than the
0.2 mg from 10% retention of the 2 mg EPA daily limit for formaldehyde in
drinking water.

Bear in mind that the EPA limit for formaldehyde in drinking water is
1 ppm, or 2 mg daily for a typical daily consumption of 2 L of water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/835
ATSDR: EPA limit 1 ppm formaldehyde in drinking water July 1999:
Murray 2002.05.30 rmforall

This long-term low-level chronic toxic exposure leads to typical patterns of
increasingly severe complex symptoms, starting with headache, fatigue, joint
pain, irritability, memory loss, rashes, and leading to vision and eye
problems, and even seizures. In many cases there is addiction. Probably
there are immune system disorders, with a hypersensitivity to these toxins
and other chemicals.

J. Nutrition 1973 Oct; 103(10): 1454-1459.
Metabolism of aspartame in monkeys.
Oppermann JA, Muldoon E, Ranney RE.
Dept. of Biochemistry, Searle Laboratories,
Division of G.D. Searle and Co. Box 5110, Chicago, IL 60680
They found that about 70% of the radioactive methanol in aspartame put into
the stomachs of 3 to 7 kg monkeys was eliminated within 8 hours, with little
additional elimination, as carbon dioxide in exhaled air and as water in
the urine.
They did not mention that this meant that about 30% of the methanol must
transform into formaldehyde and then into formic acid, both of which must
remain as toxic products in all parts of the body.
They did not report any studies on the distribution of radioactivity in body
tissues, except that blood plasma proteins after 4 days held 4% of the
initial methanol.
This study did not monitor long-term use of aspartame.

The low oral dose of aspartame and for methanol was 0.068 mmol/kg, about 1
part per million [ppm] of the acute toxicity level of 2,000 mg/kg, 67,000
mmol/kg, used by McMartin (1979).
Two L daily use of diet soda provides 123 mg methanol, 2 mg/kg for a 60 kg
person, a dose of 67 mmole/kg, a thousand times more than the dose in this
study.
By eight hours excretion of the dose in air and urine had leveled off at
67.1 +-2.1% as CO2 in the exhaled air and 1.57+-0.32% in the urine, so 68.7
% was excreted, and 31.3% was retained.
This data is the average of 4 monkeys.
"...the 14C in the feces was negligible."
"That fraction not so excreted (about 31%) was converted to body
constituents through the one-carbon metabolic pool."
"All radioactivity measurements were counted to +-1% accuracy..."
This indicates that the results could not be claimed to have a precision of
a tenth of a percent. OK, so this is a nit-pick-- but I believe espousing
spurious accuracy is a sign of scientific insecurity.

The abstract ends, "It was concluded that aspartame was digested to its
three constituents that were then absorbed as natural constituents of the
diet."
Thus, the concept is very subtly insinuated that methanol, as a
constituent of aspartame, is absorbed as a natural constituent of the diet.
"Dietary methanol is derived in large part from fresh fruits and
vegetables."
This is a serious error, since the large amounts of methanol in fresh fruits
and vegetables are not readily released by human digestion. (W. C. Monte,
1984)
Nowhere in this report are mentioned the dread words, "formaldehyde" and
"formic acid".

Of course, methanol and formaldehyde toxicity studies are highly relevant to
the issue of aspartame toxicity. [ Aspartame has to be turned into its
toxic products, formaldehyde and formic acid, in the body, before it is
toxic, so some pro-aspartame reseach studies test aspartame outside the
body, and then proclaim that they have proved that it is not toxic. ]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/915
formaldehyde toxicity: Thrasher & Kilburn: Shaham: EPA: Gold:
Wilson: CIIN: Murray 2002.12.12 rmforall

Thrasher (2001): "The major difference is that the Japanese demonstrated
the incorporation of FA and its metabolites into the placenta and fetus.
The quantity of radioactivity remaining in maternal and fetal tissues
at 48 hours was 26.9% of the administered dose." [ Ref. 14-16 ]

Arch Environ Health 2001 Jul-Aug; 56(4): 300-11.
Embryo toxicity and teratogenicity of formaldehyde. [100 references]
Thrasher JD, Kilburn KH. toxicology@...
Sam-1 Trust, Alto, New Mexico, USA.
http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_embryo_toxicity.html full text

http://www.drthrasher.org/formaldehyde_1990.html full text Jack Dwayne
Thrasher, Alan Broughton, Roberta Madison. Immune activation and
autoantibodies in humans with long-term inhalation exposure to formaldehyde.
Archives of Environmental Health. 1990; 45: 217-223. "Immune activation,
autoantibodies, and anti-HCHO-HSA antibodies are associated with long-term
formaldehyde inhalation." PMID: 2400243
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