From 1985 to 1999, Monsanto owned the chemical sweeteners branded as NutraSweet and Equal after purchasing G.D. Searle, LLC. And now it could take artificial sweeteners to a whole new level because it had cornered the market on two of the chemicals in the most popular artificial sweeteners out there, Saccharin and Aspartame. 

The Monsanto Company was originally formed to produce the artificial sweetener, Saccharin. On November 30, 1901 with a mere $5,000, "John Francisco Queeny founded Monsanto Chemical Works in St. Louis, Missouri with the goal of  producing Saccharin for Coca-Cola". (Quote taken from the GMO-Awareness website article entitled "Monsanto's Dirty Dozen")

Here is the Saccharin story:

Saccharin was the first artificial sweetener discovered. Just like Aspartame, "it was accidentally found in 1879 by a chemistry research assistant, Constantine Fahlberg.  Fahlberg was working on new food preservatives when he accidentally spilled some of the compound he had synthesized on his hands.  When he went back home that night and ate his dinner, he noticed the intense sweetness of the compound.  He named the compound Saccharin after the Latin, Saccharum, which means sugar.  He went back to the lab, tracing his steps until he was able to synthesize Saccharin in bulk." In 1884, Fahlberg got his U.S. Patent to manufacture Saccharin. In that era, U.S. Patents were granted for 17 years with no extentions, so exactly to the year that Fahlberg's Saccharin Patent expired, Monsanto was born to produce Saccharin for the Coca-Cola company. (Quote taken from article entitled  "The History of Artificial Sweeteners" on the monsanto.unveiled.info website. Information regarding Patents taken from the United States Patent and Trademark Office Patent Term Calculator page) 

Except for filling orders for the Coca Cola company, the newly formed Monsanto company had to wait patiently until World War I broke out  in July of 1914 before Saccharin could take the world by storm. The war started the rationing of sugar so it could be sent to the troops. "When World War II hit, sugar rationing started again, leading to another significant increase in Saccharin use and a proliferation of products that used the sweetener.  Saccharin use continued upward during World War II and afterwards." (Quote taken from article entitled  "The History of Artificial Sweeteners" on the monsanto.unveiled.info website) 

Then Comes The Attempts to Ban Saccharin, the Politics and the Love/Hate Relationship with this Artificial Sweetener.

"Starting in 1907, the  USFDA began investigating Saccharin as a direct result of the  Pure Food and Drug Act.  Harvey Wiley, then the director of the bureau of chemistry for the USFDA, viewed it as an illegal substitution of a valuable ingredient (sugar) by a less valuable ingredient. In a clash that had career consequences, Wiley told President  Theodore Roosevelt, 'Everyone who ate that sweet corn was deceived. He thought he was eating sugar, when in point of fact he was eating a coal tar product totally devoid of food value and extremely injurious to health.' But Roosevelt himself was a consumer of Saccharin, and, in a heated exchange, Roosevelt angrily answered Wiley by stating, 'Anybody who says Saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot.' The episode proved the undoing of Wiley's career."  (Quote taken from Wikipedia page on Saccharin)

"In 1911, the Food Inspection Decision 135 stated that foods containing Saccharin were adulterated. However, in 1912, Food Inspection Decision 142 stated that Saccharin was not harmful." During this one-year timeline, the U.S. Food Inspectors appeared to be quite schizophrenic when it came to Saccharin. (Quote taken from  Wikipedia page on Saccharin)

In 1945, the Cumberland Packing company was born and started it's company producing tea bags. By the early 60's, "using modified tea bagging equipment, the company was the first to package sugar in packets, breaking tradition with less-sanitary sugar bowls that were common on restaurant tabletops at the time." The patent for Saccharin had long ago expired, so Cumberland was free to invent one of the most popular artificial Saccharin sweeteners on the market today, Sweet'N Low, which they packaged in this new and convenient way. (Quote taken from Wikipedia page on Cumberland Packing Corporation)

 

It wasn't until the 1960's that studies with lab rats suggested that Saccharin could cause bladder cancer; and the FDA made a move to limit its use. At the time, Saccharin was the only artificial sweetener on the market, so there was a backlash from the consumers who were already hooked. 

"Its use was banned in Canada in 1977 after the Canadian Health Protection Branch Study was completed on Charles River Sprague-Dawley rat specimens concluding lymphoma in the blood cells". (Quote taken from Wikipedia page on Saccharin Study and Labeling Act of 1977)  

The FDA also considered banning Saccharin in 1977 based on this animal research.  However, Congress placed a moratorium on the ban to allow for more research on it's safety. This moratorium was extended seven times due to continued consumer demand." Instead of a ban on Saccharin, the Saccharin Study and Labeling Act of 1977 was passed causing Saccharin to carry a warning label. 

The FDA withdrew the ban in 1991, but the moratorium stayed in effect until the year 2002. Products with Saccharin carried the warning label that said it had caused cancer in laboratory animals until that label was removed in 2000. (Quote taken from article entitled "The History of Artificial Sweeteners" on the monsanto.unveiled.info website) 

In 2001, Saccharin was delisted from the California list of chemicals known to cause cancer. It originally got on that list as a result of Proposition 65, which was passed in California in November of 1986 with the aim of listing all carcinogens.

 

Back to Monsanto and Aspartame:

In 2000, Monsanto sold its chemical artificial sweetener company called NutraSweet. By this time, NutraSweet's patents on Aspartame were about to expire so the NutraSweet company had aquired a wide range of patents related to a new chemical they developed which mimics Aspartame but doesn't require the pesky label that must be placed on all Aspartame products (to be explained below). This new chemical is called Neotame (neo, as in new). It's the new Aspartame.

Monsanto sold their NutraSweet company to a private equity firm called J.W. Childs Equity Partners, which also owns the Sunny Delight Beverages company, Fitness Quest, Brookstone, Mattress Firm and several other companies. (Information taken from the Natural News website article entitled "Equity company that helped buy NutraSweet from Monsanto also funds Sunny Delight, Fitness Quest and Mattress Firm")

Then J.W. Childs formed a new company called Merisant from the Monsanto Company's NutraSweet tabletop sweetener business. It's amazing how convoluted the trail became.

Presently, Merisant is straddling two worlds of the sweetener business--sweeteners accepted as healthy, like stevia (more about stevia in Part 6) derived products and Aspartame and Neotame sweeteners, that are not considered to be healthy. In 2009, Merisant Worldwide filed for bankruptcy to restructure and invest in its new stevia-derived sweetener, PureVia, which emerged the following year. In addition to PureVia, Equal and Canderel, Merisant markets its products under 18 other brands in over 90 countries. Canderel is the brand name of an Aspartame sweetener that was first marketed in France in 1979. 

It could be said that our worldwide sugar addiction is what created Monsanto in the first place, fueled its growth and launched it into becoming the monster it is today. If we look at it that way, we the consumer, who is so in need of that sugar taste and rush, are somewhat culpable in our own demise. 

The demand for no calorie and low calorie sweeteners is huge and the market is now full of products to meet that demand. The aim of this segment is to inform you of what's in the more popular brands and which ones to avoid like the plague. So once again let's start with the artificial sweeteners that contain Aspartame.

The artificial sweetener products containing Aspartame are NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure and Canderel. These are only the products which require you to administer the poison yourself. You put them into your coffee, tea or other drinks you want to sweeten. Aspartame is also put in lots of off-the-shelf products for you as you can see from the picture above with diet sodas, cookies, candy, yogurt and many other processed packaged goods. Deep Roots is a website that lists 50 plus Aspartame containing products to avoid. So why is Aspartame bad for you?

Known in Europe by the E number, E951, Aspartame is made up of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. It is an Excitotoxin. Excitotoxins, like aspartic acid, literally stimulate neurons to death causing brain damage of varying degrees. These are chemicals! There's no food here. Was the human body made to ingest toxic chemicals? Aspartame is 200 times sweeter than sugar. Big Food loves it because it costs less to sweeten their products due to the intensity of the sweetness. Here's one description of how it's made:

"The deadly artificial sweetener, NutraSweet, is produced by feeding fossil fuel oil to ecoli that are genetically modified to defecate Aspartame as feces." (Quote taken from The Gaia Reports article entitled "How Sweet It is! Monsanto Sells Their Aspartame Business to Pfizer")

And here's another mind blowing quote about Aspartame from Dr. Mercola: "Aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent!" We're speechless. (Quote taken from Childhood Obesity News website article entitled "The Unnatural Sweetener")

The list of possible side effects from ingesting Aspartame is too long to include here. Just click this link to read it for yourself. Or read the book by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock called "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills". Dr. Blaylock says this in his introduction: "Suppose evidence was presented to you strongly suggesting that the artificial sweetener in your diet soda may cause brain tumors to develop, and that the number of brain tumors reported since the wide-spread introduction of this artificial sweetener has risen dramatically?" (Quote taken from Dr. Blaylock's book, "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills")

So why does Aspartame have to be labeled? We'll make this as brief as possible. Some people are born with a condition called PKU. "The absence or deficiency of certain enzymes responsible for processing the essential amino acid phenylalanine is the primary characteristic of PKU in human beings. With normal enzymatic activity, the body converts phenylalanine to the amino acid tyrosine, which is then utilized by the body. However, when the phenylalanine hydroxylase enzyme is absent or deficient, phenylalanine abnormally accumulates in the blood and becomes toxic, typically lethal, to brain tissue." 

People with this condition are subject to mental retardation if their diets aren't carefully monitored and they are called "Phenylketonurics". Treatment for PKU consists of a carefully controlled and restricted diet started during the first days or weeks of life. One of the main things to avoid is Aspartame because it contains phenylalanine, which is exactly what PKU people need to avoid. That's why diet soda labels carry the long, difficult to read warning: Phenylketonurics-contains phenylalanine. If you see this warning on a label, you know Aspartame is in the product. (Quotes taken from the Dr. Janet Starr Hull's website article entitled "Warning Phenylketonurics: Contains L-Phenylalanine")

Not true with the new Aspartame, called Neotame and its brand Newtame. Known in Europe by the E number, E961, Neotame is considered even more toxic than its Aspartame brother. Neotame is 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar and was based on the Aspartame formula. "Neotame is essentially aspartame plus 3,3-dimethylbutyraldehyde--the presence of which ends up reducing the production of phenylalanine, which allegedly makes it safe for those suffering from phenylketonuria (PKU). That means Neotame does not have the identifying warning label on it. That's right. Neotame is NOT labeled and "the FDA has decided that the public shouldn't be informed when Neotame is included in any product". (Quote taken from Gaia Health Online article entitled "Neotame, New Neurotoxic Sweetener")

Right now it looks like Neotame is being added in many processed and packaged products just like Aspartame but without a label. It's also being used in animal feed to replace the more expensive molasses. That animal food product is called Sweetos. It seems that the only way to avoid Neotame is to avoid processed foods altogether. The Merisant company, which now owns NutraSweet has ear marked India as the first country that will be honored with Neotame in self administering poison packets.

"Unfortunately, it may actually be an even more potent and dangerous neurotoxin, immunotoxin and excitotoxin than aspartame. Neotame is like Aspartame on steroids, so while you want to avoid both, Neotame appears to be more toxic. One way of avoiding all artificial sweeteners is to purchase foods bearing the USDA 100% Organic label." (Quotes taken from Dr. Mercola's website article entitled "Neotame: Is This More-Dangerous-than-Aspartame Sweetener Hiding in Your Food?")

Saccharin is also called Ortho-sulfobenzoic Acid Imide. There's that word, "acid" again. Saccharin is about 200-700 times sweeter then sugar and has a slightly bitter and metallic after taste. It's dominant artificial sweetener brand that is self administered is Sweet'N Low. There have been over 500 Billion  Sweet'N Low packets produced. "In toxicological studies, Saccharin has been shown to induce a greater incidence of bladder cancer in rats that have been fed the  sweetener at high levels." These studies caused Canada to ban its use in 1977. (Quote taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica website page on "Saccharin, Chemical Compound") Oh, and YES--it's a Chemical Compound, not a food.

Here's a quick summary of what we've presented so far:

                   AVOID:

ASPARTAME: Watch for the warning to Phenylketonurics (PKU) people to identify its presence in products like: NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, Equal-Measure and Canderel and lots of other processed, packaged foods.

NEOTAME: So far Newtame is the brand to avoid but more are coming.

SACCHARIN: An entire country, Canada, banned it after studies on rats concluded there was lymphoma in the blood cells. Don't use Sweet'N Low.

AVOID ALL PRODUCTS ADVERTIZED AS DIET! They are going to have artificial sweeteners in them.

In July and August, we've covered two of the culprits in this cartoon depiction of Big Food's underground cesspool of poisons--Aspartame and GMO's. But we're still working on the artificial sweetener group (Aspartame being just one of them), and there are several to still look at including Sucralose, Acsulfame-K, Advantame and any others that show their ugly heads. 

Those are the bad guys; but there's an emerging market of good sweeteners, too, like the stevia-derived products and then there's the new sugar alcohols (we'll let you know if they're good or bad). 

And we haven't addressed MSG yet either, so it looks like there's going to be a Part 6 of this Series on Obesity in America. 

In closing this section of the Newsletter, let's just look back to our July Newsletter, which was all about GMO's. Suddenly it makes sense that Monsanto actually believes they can get away with not labeling GMO's in the U.S. They've gotten away with it before. They got Aspartame approved in all products in spite of the push back for so many years. They got Neotame approveded without any labels. Through revolving door policies, they have positioned themselves within the FDA in such a way that they appear to be and feel impervious to the needs, wants and health concerns of the people of America. Right now in our country, we, the people, are Big Food's subjects. There is no Food Freedom in the U.S; and that's a really sad state of affairs. But help is coming!

Watch for this up-coming List of all the great angelic ones who have created websites that are out there to help us figure this all out and get one step ahead of the Sharks in our Food System.

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