Washington Post: Safety of sugar subsutitute.

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Washington Post: Safety of sugar subsutitute.

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The Washington Post & The Daily Record, 1987

New fuel for NutraSweet debate

Researchers clash over findings on safety of sugar subsutitute

 

By SANDY ROVNER-The Washington Post

 

Daily Record Newspaper Monday June 1, 1987

 

WASHINGTON˜A series of scientific studies in this country and abroad

is stirring new concern among some scientists over the safety of

aspartame, the immensely popular sugar substitute marketed as

NutraSweet. But a spokesman for the company cited the same studies

as evidence that the product is safe. An estimated 4,000 tons of the

sweetener, some 200 times sweeter than sugar, is consumed every

year, and sales are estimated now at more than $l billion annually

and increasing rapidly. Last month, at a scientific conference that

was closed to the press, researchers reported that heavy aspartame

use appears to increase migraine headaches and seizures in

susceptible individuals, cause changes in electroencephalogram (EEG)

readings and may even be related to birth defects and retardation.

However, Dr. Frank Kotsonis, head of research for the NutraSweet

Co., said he found the studies either seriously flawed or used to

support unwarranted conclusions. And Dr. Bennett A. Shaywitz, chief

of pediatric neurology at Yale University, said he found the

ambience at the conference " similar to past meetings on the

usefulness of the Feingold diet as a cure for hyperactive

children. „There was a fanaticism there that made me very

uncomfortable.‰ Shaywitz is conducting a study of aspartame in

seizure-prone children between the ages of 5 and 12 but so far has

been unable to demonstrate any adverse effects from the sweetener. G

D Searle, which manufactures aspartame, and the NutraSweet Co, which

markets it have maintained that the substance‚s 1981 Food and Drug

Administration approval came with more safety studies than any

product in history. Some researchers believe, however, that because

the tests were looking for acute deleterious effects they missed the

more subtle effects that may occur over a long period of time. Dr.

Paul Spiers, a clinical neuropsychologist of the Behavioral

Neurology Unit and the Harvard Medical School‚s Comprehensive

Epilepsy Center at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, presented at the

meeting some preliminary evidence that use of aspartame over a

period of time might affect intellectual functioning in normal

users. In an interview Spiers said the findings had been something

of an accident. He had been planning to study the effects of

aspartame on individuals who reported that they had suffered

seizures after ingesting aspartame. However, he was first ethically

bound to run the tests on normal control subjects to confirm their

safety. " For that reason, " he said, " we went out and selected people

specifically who had a history of using NutraSweet products and were

not aware of it having any adverse effects on them. We picked normal

neurological histories, no history of psychiatric illness and no

physical problem˜nothing, in fact, that would suggest that we would

expect to have problems.

 

The group was given aspartame capsules up to the FDA's maximum

allowable limit˜50 milligrams per Kilogram of weight˜three times a

day for 12 days. Unexpectedly, the researchers began to

find " cognitive deficits " in some of the neuropsychological tests

then done on the group. Among the tests was a sophisticated computer

test called " Think Fast, " which requires comparisons, copying and

recall of patterns of blocks and sequences of letters. Spiers

describes it as " quite demanding and self-paced, becoming

increasingly difficult. Normally when a test like this is repeated,

subjects tend to improve in their performance as they learn how the

test is done. " Nevertheless the subjects on aspartame failed to

improve and some of them frankly showed a reverse pattern where

their performance got worse. " Although he was admittedly dealing

with only a few subjects and checking performances on only a small

number of the tests that were administered, Spiers believes the

findings are important A second group of volunteers who were given a

placebo instead of aspartame showed none of the problems manifested

by the aspartame group The computer test and others measured

functioning of the bra1n's frontal lobe, Spiers said, " simulating

what the brain does in everyday life. "

 

" We are wondering whether in fact this substance may be capable of

having a subtle effect on cognitive functioning that people may not

necessarily be aware of. Think of the implications, for example, on

an average college student who starts consuming a liter of this

stuff during examination period, and it may in fact he interfering

with his concentration and attention skills. " Said Spiers; " This

kind of neuro-psychological cognitive examination has never been

used to investigate the effects of new drugs of any kind. Now we

have food additives that are more like drugs than foods are

introduced into the dietary chain but have direct effects on the

brain's neurotransmitter system. But because the chemical industry

is 20 years ahead of the regulators, thus far no one has attempted

to apply more sophisticated methods of testing brain functions to

these problems. "

 

NutraSweet's principal ingredient is an amino acid called

phenylalanlne (PHE), which is found, along with other amino acids,

in protein. There is a genetic disorder called phenylketonuria (PKU)

in which the ability to normally process the amino acid is impaired.

Without careful dietary restriction of protein, PKU babies may

suffer severe, irreversible mental retardation. All products

containing NutraSweet must warn against its use where PKU exists.

Now, however, specialists and researchers believe that there may be

many more people who carry the gene for PKU but show no symptoms

who, however, may be unable to deal with the extra load of PHE that

comes from using products containing NutraSweet. Dr. Reuben Matalon,

a geneticist and pediatrician at the University of Illinois warned

those at the conference that perhaps millions of PKU carriers are at

risk of varying reactions to aspartame, as are the fetuses of

pregnant carriers.

 

Another major study presented at the conference suggested that the

use of aspartame could increase the frequency of migraine headache

fourfold. However, both Kotsonis and Shaywitz said they believed the

study was poorly conducted. They cited another study done at Duke

University, now awaitingpublication that found no link between

migraines and NutraSweet. (Funded by manufacturer.) Dr. Richard J.

Wurtman, neurophysiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology and one of the organizers of the conference, called for

more studies of the 3,000 people who have complained of reactions to

NutraSweet. " Except for the migraine study, which is preliminary, at

this point we cannot say aspartame is responsible for all those

anecdotes. Still, given the basic science findings and the

anecdotes, " Wurtman said, " the index of suspicion is high. " Said

Spiers: " I think it is in everyone's interest to do good research on

this. It may turn out that it is just a labeling issue, that the

warning needs to be broader. People still smoke, but they smoke

knowing the consequences. The difference here is that people have

not understood the consequences " " How many people even know that

the FDA has attached a limit to aspartame consumption? " asked James

Wagoner. Legislative aide to Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, (Ohio).

Metzenbaum has introduced legislation requiring that labeling

include information about how much NutraSweet is contained in a

serving of a given product. The FDA‚s limit of 50 milligrams per

kilogram of body weight translates to about four liters of a diet

drink for an adult but only to about three cans for a child who

weighs about 30 pounds.

 

" Americans,'' Wagoner said at the conference, " drink over 20 billion

cans of diet soft drinks a year. And that doesn't count the gum,

pudding, breakfast cereal, chewable vitamins, tooth paste, juices,

frozen pops - all sweetened. with NutraSweet "

 

Researchers reported last month that that heavy aspartame use

appears to increase migraine headaches and seizures in susceptible

individuals cause changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) readings and

may even be related to birth defects and retardation.

 

'We are wondering whether in fact this substance may be capable of

having a subtle effect on cognitive functioning that people may not

necessarily be aware of. Think of the implications, for example, on

an average college student who starts consuming a liter of this

stuff during examination period, and it may in fact be Interfering

with his concentration and attention skills.

 

Dr. Paul Spiers

http://www.sweetpoison.com/articles/sugar-subsutitute-safety1.html