The Spin on Aspartame

I went first to his Web site. After the introductory quote from Hippocrates, you can find all sorts of interesting information there. In fact, he has very helpfully posted his entire curriculum vitae.

1. Wayne Callaway, M.D., received his medical training at Northwestern University, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and Harvard University. He’s board certified in Internal Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, and Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism and has held academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, Mayo Medical School, and George Washington University.

He served as chair of the Public Information Committee of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and the American Society for Nutrition Sciences, has been a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Nutrition, has been a committee member at the American Heart Association, has been an advisor to the American Medical Association.

He works with the Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the USDA; he was an advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General and helped develop dietary guidelines for the USDA.

And he’s served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, among other medical journals. His publications have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and the International Journal of Obesity, among others.

The separate biography on his site tells us that Dr. Callaway his opinions on nutrition and health are “frequently published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal, as well as in numerous magazines (Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, Vogue, Elle, Glamour, People, Self, Health, Prevention, and others).”

He “has offered his expert views on nutrition on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, ESPN, and numerous affiliates, and has appeared on the McNeill-Lehrer Newshour, the Today Show, Good Morning America, Phil Donahue, Larry King Live, and other nationally syndicated news and talk programs.”

Sounds impressive, until you start investigating, as we did. His CV says, “Dr. Callaway is a member of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition.”

Remember, he also served as chair of the Public Information Committee of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. But looking for the American Society for Clinical Nutrition takes you directly to the American Society for Nutrition, www.nutrition.org.

They publish the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “the highest ranked peer-reviewed journal in nutrition and dietetics,” and the Journal of Nutrition, “which provides the latest research on a broad spectrum of topics of vital interest to researchers, students, policymakers and all individuals with interests in nutrition.”

If you keep going deeper down that particular rabbit hole, you find that the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, A.K.A. the American Society for Nutrition, is supported by what they call “sustaining members,” which, they say, “[provide] corporate financial support for the society’s activities in education/training, scientific programs and professional outreach.” The site says that sustaining members have “the ability to sponsor educational opportunities, grants and other items.”

Let us now consider some of the sustaining members: Mars. McCormick. Monsanto (of course!). Campbell Soup Company. ConAgra Foods. Dannon.

The National Dairy Council. Nestle. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Cadbury Schweppes. Eli Lilly. General Mills. Gerber. GlaxoSmithKline. Kellog. Kraft. PepsiCo. POM Wonderful (maker of those nifty pomegranate juices). Procter & Gamble. The Sugar Association. Unilever. Wrigley. Wyeth.

Shortly, not to get confused, Dr. C. Wayne Callaway is a recognized expert in nutrition, such an expert, in fact, that he testifies before Congress and appears on national television to expound on his views on food and nutrition.

His views are published nationally, and frequently. He is, in short, a national expert, and his views are taken very seriously, and published in well respected medical journals. And he claims that aspartame is safe.

And he works with and writes for those who are supported by the food industry that uses aspartame. Indeed, he is a “medical expert” on the safety of aspartame, one hired by the aspartame industry to go before the mainstream media and tell us how safe aspartame is.

His resume furthermore states that he consults the following government agencies: the National Insitutes of Health, or NIH; the Department of Health & Human Services; the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences; the U.S. Congress; the USDA, and, oddly, the U.S. Postal Service.

And one that cannot be overlooked:  the FDA. His Web site also helpfully lists American Institute of Wine and Food; Mars; Mead Johnson Nutritional Group; the Milk Industry Foundation; the Monsanto Corporation; Nabisco, Inc.; the National Dairy Council; the Nestle Foundation for Nutrition and Health; Ocean Spray; Parke-Davis; Proctor & Gamble; Quaker Oats; the United Dairy Industry as others that he consults, a.k.a. “is paid by.”

One more! NutraSweet.

Since it may seem unbelievable, we need to sum up once more: a nationally recognized expert on nutrition who says, in his extraordinarily frequent public appearances, that aspartame is safe, is paid by Ajinomoto and NutraSweet, the two largest producers of aspartame, to say that aspartame is safe.

I said earlier that we were being misled in the name of corporate profits. Where do the profits come in? It is projected that the U.S. market for artificial sweeteners, with aspartame leading the charge, will be over $3 billion worldwide.

* * *

At the top of the home page for the Aspartame Information Center- actually one of the two biggest producers of aspartame, Ajinomoto, -we see this quote: “Few compounds have withstood such detailed testing and repeated, close scrutiny, and the process through which aspartame has gone should provide the public with additional confidence of its safety.”

It’s attributed to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.

And how do we know if a product contains aspartame?  As suggested by the Aspartame Resource Center, if aspartame is listed in the ingredient list, the product contains aspartame.  Indeed, the FDA requires that aspartame be listed on the label.

But we are here to enlighten you:  just in case a company hasn’t listed it, if the label mentions “phenylalanine” at all, which is a component of aspartame, then the product contains aspartame.

But you’ll need to be vigilant, especially given the tiny print on most ingredient labels. And given the propensity of aspartame to turn up where you least expect it, such as in the vitamins you give to your child, or your liquid antibiotics, or your Metamucil.

Our government and our medical experts are in the very deep pockets of the industry that makes and sells that dangerous product, and no help should be expected from them. The bottom line is, your vigilance is the only way to avoid unwilling ingestion of a dangerous product.

Check this video for additional information:

Source:

--www.aspartamesafety.com

--http://aspartame.worldwidewarning.net/

--http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/

--http://www.sweetpoison.com/

--http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18495230

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18495230

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22766026

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11408989

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22457081

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17354619

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23097267

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9714421

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17673349

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11991085

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-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17805418

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21376768

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23088901

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16352620

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19896282

-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18627677

-http://www.wnho.net/monkey_study.pdf

Want more information about the graphic? Check out Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen by GMO Awareness

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