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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1312
the beginning of the end? USA diet soda volume sales up only 0.4% last 52
weeks, after years of big jumps -- awareness of aspartame as toxic
methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid source?:
Melanie Warner, New York Times: Murray 2006.03.03


"After milk, eggs, bread and bananas, soda is the highest-volume item in
grocery stores. In recent years, sales of regular soda have been declining,
while sales of diet soda have boomed. But even more recently, diet soda
sales have tapered off, with unit volumes up just 0.4 percent for the 52
weeks that ended Jan. 28, according to ACNielsen."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/03/business/03walmart.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/03/business/walmart.php

letters@...; nytimesnews@...
Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved

What Wal-Mart wants, Wal-mart gets for its shelves
By Melanie Warner The New York Times
FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 2006

Last year, Coca-Cola was preparing to introduce a new diet soda, to be
called Coke Zero. But executives at Wal-Mart Stores, the largest U.S.
retailer, thought they had a better idea.

They wanted a drink that contained Splenda, an artificial sweetener that had
been selling extremely well at Wal-Mart, especially to women. Coke Zero was
sweetened with aspartame, an older, low-calorie sweetener.

So Coke executives went back to the drawing board and in May introduced a
new drink called Diet Coke with Splenda. The company used the name Coke Zero
on another new drink a month later.

Coke's new game plan underscores Wal-Mart's growing power in the grocery
business. With nearly 2,000 supercenters in the United States and plans for
280 more this year, Wal-Mart is the country's largest food retailer,
according to Retail Forward, a research firm in Columbus, Ohio. Figures from
food and beverage companies indicate that Wal-Mart represents 14 percent to
18 percent of all food and beverage sales.

As Wal-Mart hunts for ways to take costs out of its grocery business and
offer popular items that can help lure customers into its stores, the
company has become more involved in creating the products it sells and
deciding how those products get onto Wal-Mart's shelves.

Wal-Mart has a similar collaboration with Pepsi, and has even pushed Coke to
change the way it distributes its sports drink, Powerade, to Wal-Mart.

This approach mirror's Wal-Mart's general strategy of urging vendors to
provide the products Wal-Mart wants, at the price it wants.

In the laundry detergent business, for instance, Wal-Mart has been pushing
manufacturers to make superconcentrate versions that require less packaging
and shelf space.

Wal-Mart would not comment for this article.

Other supermarkets typically collaborate with large food and beverage
manufacturers to promote products and create special in- store displays,
though they rarely play a role in new product offerings or distribution.

But Wal-Mart is special. "Wal-Mart is the 800-pound gorilla," said Ted Taft,
managing director at the Meridian Consulting Group of Westport, Connecticut.
"You're going to want to do more things for a customer who is growing as
fast as Wal-Mart is."

Food and beverage makers are finding that playing ball with Wal-Mart is
wise. If they cooperate, they stand to do more business with Wal-Mart, get
better and larger space on Wal-Mart shelves - and increase sales. "If you
don't respond," Taft said, "your competitor will."

The enormous leverage Wal-Mart has with its vendors is evident in
Bentonville, Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based. The vendors, including Coke
and Pepsi's largest bottlers and other food and beverage makers, occupy
nearby office buildings.

The migration has turned Bentonville's once-quiet rural landscape into a
booming metropolis.

Kraft and Kellogg, for instance, both get 14 percent of their company's
total sales from Wal-Mart. General Mills gets 16 percent.

Pepsi, Coke's rival, has responded similarly to a Wal-Mart product request.
Wal-Mart executives asked Pepsi sales representatives in Bentonville to come
up with a new diet soda in flavors not widely available.

PepsiCo, which gets 11 percent of its North American sales from Wal-Mart,
said that after the request from Wal-Mart, the company quickly set about
creating a new diet soda line called Slice One, initially to be sold only at
Wal-Mart, starting this month. The beverage contains Wal-Mart's preferred
sweetener, Splenda, and comes in orange, berry and grape flavors.

A Pepsi spokeswoman, Nicole Bradley, said that if the test of Slice One in
Wal-Mart is successful, the soda will be sold by other retailers. "Pepsi is
willing to undertake similar efforts for any retailer interested, provided
it makes economic sense," Bradley said.

After milk, eggs, bread and bananas, soda is the highest-volume item in
grocery stores. In recent years, sales of regular soda have been declining,
while sales of diet soda have boomed. But even more recently, diet soda
sales have tapered off, with unit volumes up just 0.4 percent for the 52
weeks that ended Jan. 28, according to ACNielsen.

Bill Bishop, president of Willard Bishop Consulting, a retail consulting
firm in Barrington, Illinois, says Wal- Mart's product ideas are often
inspired by sophisticated product sales data from Wal-Mart stores.

"It's a collaborative process, where Wal-Mart gives vendors all this data
and then they help Wal-Mart analyze it," Bishop said.

Diet Coke with Splenda, which is sold at other retailers as well, has sold
between 20 million and 25 million cases in total, said John Sicher, the
publisher of Beverage Digest. Sicher said that was a "modest" performance
for a new soda.

Sometimes Wal-Mart's demands can cause unhappy ripple effects for a
supplier. When Coke agreed to Wal- Mart's request to change its delivery
system for Powerade, some of its smaller bottlers felt burned.

Coke and its largest bottler, Coca- Cola Enterprises, say Wal-Mart asked
them to start delivering Powerade directly to Wal-Mart warehouses. Wal- Mart
declined to explain its reasons for the new distribution system. But a
bottling executive, who requested anonymity for fear of alienating Wal-
Mart, said the retailer thought it could do a better job of stocking and
promoting Powerade in its stores than the bottlers could.

"They're saying, 'I've got better ability to execute it through my stores
with my people. So if you can fit into my world, I can help you,'" the
executive said.

Another beverage industry executive who also did not want to be named said
that Wal-Mart executives were upset because when Powerade Option, a diet
drink, was introduced last September, not all of its stores were initially
able to obtain the product. Unlike Coke's soft drinks, which are produced by
75 bottling companies around the country, Powerade is made at Coke- run
facilities and then distributed through the many bottling companies.

A group of Coca-Cola bottlers has filed suit to block a national
introduction of the new distribution system, saying the arrangement violates
their contract.
Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune www.iht.com
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1311
California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2004
rejected poor 2003 NTP studies of aspartame (methanol, formaldehyde)
carcinogenicity (highly praised by industry PR): Murray 2006.03.03


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1307
formaldehyde from 11% methanol part of aspartame or from red wine
causes same toxicity (hangover) harm: Murray 2006.03.03

"Of course, everyone chooses, as a natural priority,
to actively find, quickly share, and act upon the facts
about healthy and safe food, drink, and environment."

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

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
group with 151 members, 1,311 posts in a public, searchable archive
http://RMForAll.blogspot.com http://AspartameNM.blogspot.com

Dark wines and liquors, as well as aspartame, provide
similar levels of methanol, above 120 mg daily, for
long-term heavy users, 2 L daily, about 6 cans.

Within hours, methanol is inevitably largely turned into formaldehyde,
and thence largely into formic acid -- the major causes of the dreaded
symptoms of "next morning" hangover.

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). If 30% of the methanol is turned
into formaldehyde, the amount of formaldehyde, 37 mg,
is 18.5 times the USA EPA limit for daily formaldehyde in
drinking water, 2.0 mg in 2 L average daily drinking water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition: Bouchard M
et al, full plain text, 2001: substantial sources are
degradation of fruit pectins, liquors, aspartame, smoke:
Murray 2005.04.02

Any unsuspected source of methanol, which the body always quickly
and largely turns into formaldehyde and then formic acid, must be
monitored, especially for high responsibility occupations, often with
night shifts, such as pilots and nuclear reactor operators.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1291
European Food Safety Authority to decide aspartame safety by May:
caffeine diet drinks cause female hypertension, WC Winkelmayer et al,
JAMA 2005.11.09: PubMed lists 50 items for "diet soft drinks" since
2004 Oct.: Murray 2006.01.24

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1279
all three aspartame metabolites harm human erythrocyte [red blood cell]
membrane enzyme activity, KH Schulpis et al, two studies in 2005,
Athens, Greece, 2005.12.14: 2004 research review, RL Blaylock:
Murray 2006.01.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/939
aspartame (aspartic acid, phenylalanine) binding to DNA:
Karikas July 1998: Murray 2003.01.05 rmforall
Karikas GA, Schulpis KH, Reclos GJ, Kokotos G
Measurement of molecular interaction of aspartame and
its metabolites with DNA. Clin Biochem 1998 Jul; 31(5): 405-7.
Dept. of Chemistry, University of Athens, Greece
http://www.chem.uoa.gr gkokotos@...;
K.H. Schulpis inchildh@...; G.J. Reclos reklos@...;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1271
combining aspartame and quinoline yellow, or MSG and brilliant blue,
harms nerve cells, eminent C. Vyvyan Howard et al, 2005
education.guardian.co.uk, Felicity Lawrence: Murray 2005.12.21

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/925
aspartame puts formaldehyde adducts into tissues, Part 1/2
full text Trocho & Alemany 1998.06.26
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona : Murray 2002.12.22

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1250
aspartame causes cancer in rats at levels approved for humans,
Morando Soffritti et al, Ramazzini Foundation, Italy &
National Toxicology Program
of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
2005.11.17 Env. Health Pers. 35 pages: Murray

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1106
hangover research relevant to toxicity of 11% methanol in aspartame
(formaldehyde, formic acid): Calder I (full text): Jones AW:
Murray 2004.08.05 rmforall

Since no adaquate data has ever been published on the exact disposition
of toxic metabolites in specific tissues in humans of the 11% methanol
component of aspartame, the many studies on morning-after hangover
from the methanol impurity in alcohol drinks are the main available
resource to date.

Jones AW (1987) found next-morning hangover from red wine with
100 to 150 mg methanol
(9.5% w/v ethanol, 100 mg/l methanol, 0.01%,
one part in ten thousand).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/870
Aspartame: Methanol and the Public Interest 1984: Monte:
Murray 2002.09.23

Humans suffer "toxic syndrome" (54) at a minimum lethal dose
of <1 gm/kg, much less than that of monkeys, 3-6 g/kg (42, 59).

The minimum lethal dose of methanol
in the rat, rabbit, and dog is 9.5, 7.0 , and 8.0 g/kg, respectively (43);
ethyl alcohol is more toxic than methanol to these test animals (43)."

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1302
The Lowdown on Sweet? (Ramazzini Foundation, M Soffritti proof that
aspartame causes cancers), Melanie Warner, The New York Times:
Murray 2006.02.12

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1303
David L. Katz MD comments briefly with Diane Sawyer on ABC
Good Morning America re Ramazzini aspartame cancer study:
excellent opus at Yale U: mainstream research on aspartame
(methanol, formaldehyde, formic acid) toxicity: Murray 2006.02.14

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1304
to DL Katz MD, Yale U: M. Soffritti, Ramazzini F., did not mention that
humans are about 10X more vulnerable to aspartame than are rats:
found methanol and formaldehyde carcinogenicity 2002: human ADI
levels must be reduced hugely: Katz: Murray 2006.02.15

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1306
ban aspartame speech, Roger Williams MP, UK Parliament
2005.12.14: www.TheyWorkForYou.com: Murray 2006.02.20

As a medical layman, I suggest that evidence mandates immediate
exploration of the role of these ubiquitious, potent formaldehyde
sources as co-factors in epidemiology, research, diagnosis,
and treatment in a wide variety of disorders.

Folic acid, from fruits and vegetables, plays a role by powerfully
protecting against methanol (formaldehyde) toxicity.

Many common drugs, such as aspirin, interfere with folic acid,
as do some mutations in relevant enzymes.

The majority of aspartame reactors are female.

In mutual service, Rich Murray
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1310
Aspartame and smoking give the same toxic metabolite as does benzene,
Lin YS et al, U N Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2006 Jan.,
Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility: Murray 2006.03.01

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1309
History and origin of benzene in soft drinks, Ross E. Getman, Esq,
Wash DC and NY State Bars, http://argentina.indymedia.org:
Murray 2006.03.01

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1131
genotoxicity of aspartame in human lymphocytes 2004.07.29
full plain text, Rencuzogullari E et al, Cukurova University,
Adana, Turkey 2004 Aug: Murray 2004.11.06

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
[ 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. Methanol is the only component of aspartame that can
lead to DNA damage. ]
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