This is a letter from Jack Samuels regarding a letter in the Wall Street Journal in December, and also CSPI.

What bothers me about CSPI is they really don't get behind the dangerous products. Yet, they have someone who spends time on Capital Hill and reporters call them for their opinion. Many asked CSPI years ago to get involved in the aspartame issue, as I did. They not only refused for years but when the first Ramazzini Study came out they took an opposite position. It was then that I released an article that Michael Jacobson had published years earlier showing that he had known all the dangers of aspartame while still recommending diet drinks as he did on ABC. Here it is along with my letter.

http://www.wnho.net/cspi_1.htm and http://www.wnho.net/cspi_2.htm After publishing this the following day Michael Jacobson asked for a probable ban.

Then when I was interviewed by Atlanta Magazine for their August issue Doug Monroe decided to interview Michael Jacobson. http://www.mpwhi.com/tenacious_b.htm While he now supports the research showing aspartame to cause cancer the article states: "But he does not believe there is scientific evidence to support Martini's views that it causes a wide range of other maladies in addition to tumors." Yet when he wrote about aspartame he wrote about other maladies such as:

"Several months after FDA approved aspartame in soft drinks, news media ran major stories about possible dangers of the additive, and hundreds of consumers wrote to Wurtman, FDA, Monte, and others. These consumers complained of such symptoms as dizziness, headaches, epileptic-like seizures, and menstruation problems. One Yale physician told me that after drinking a can of Diet Coke her "head felt like it was coming unscrewed." She had never experienced that sensation prior to drinking Diet Coke, and it never- recurred once she stopped drinking Diet Coke." Further he wrote about the agitation of a child:

"Dr. Keith Connors, of Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., has been investigating the behavioral effects of venous sweeteners. In February 1985, the New York Times reported that Dr. Connors "has studied two young children who suffer extreme agitation following doses of aspartame equivalent to the amount found in a six-ounce serving of Kool-Aid sweetened with NutraSweet. One of the children becomes so agitated he has to be restrained."

The point, of course, is that Michael Jacobson has known about aspartame and the problems it causes for years and years. I use to send him quite a bit of information including the fact that Dr. Roberts has a 1000 page medical text of the problems. Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic. Put aspartame in Google and get millions of posts. How could he not know?

Michael Jacobson even recommends Splenda, the chlorocarbon poison that liberates chlorine. http://aspartame.worldwidewarning.net/www/archives/39 There is now a billion dollar suit against them in California. I certainly wouldn't try consuming this product unless you like bleach.

Today CSPI has a letter to the FDA signed with 12 toxicologists asking for the ban of aspartame. This is commendable but why didn't Michael Jacobson do something about aspartame two decades ago. He wouldn't even put a warning on his web site no matter how much evidence you sent him.

I have found that most companies who use names that lead people to believe they are on the consumer's side really aren't. CSPI stands for Center for Science in the Public Interest but most of the time it isn't.Calorie Control Council might make a person think they are interested in controlling calories when, in fact, they push aspartame knowing it causes weight gain. When Purdue University came out with the study linking artificial sweeteners with weight gain, CCC took an opposing side. They are a large front group and testified against the bill to ban aspartame in New Mexico and in Hawaii. Here's an excellent letter from Dr. Russell Blaylock about CCC: http://www.wnho.net/mh_aspartame_letter.htm

All my best,

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.
Founder, Mission Possible World Health International
9270 River Club Parkway
Duluth, Georgia 30097
770-242-2599
E-Mail: BettyM19@mindspring.com
http://www.wpwhi.com
http://www.whno.net
http://www.dorway.com

Aspartame Toxicity Center: http://www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

Jack Samuels' Letter:

From: Jack Samuels
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:05:15 EST
Subject: The Wall Street Journal/CSPI
To: bettym19@mindspring.com

Betty:

Perhaps you saw the horrendous, misleading article on MSG that appeared in the December 8-9 weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. The article was based on information from glutamate industry sources -- So much for balanced reporting.

The article included a quote from Michael Jacobson of CSPI. I thought that you might appreciate seeing the following article that can now be accessed from the home page of our Web site ( http://www.truthinlabeling.org ).

Jack

_______________

NOW THE TRUTH IS OUT

(Shame on the Center for Science in the Public Interest)

Many years ago, the Truth in Labeling Campaign approached the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), led by its director, Michael Jacobson, to ask for their help and support in making people aware of the toxicity of MSG and to require full disclosure of MSG on food labels. We approached this nonprofit agency because the agency is well known in congress, and well known by many health conscious people.

At that time, the people at CSPI claimed to be well aware of the dangers of MSG, and gave us the impression that they would be supportive of our work. However, as time passed, Michael Jacobson and his staff began to defeat our cause. In one case, a respected independent journalist was going to cover testimony at a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) meeting organized to hear testimony on the subject of the safety of MSG in food. He told us he was going to prepare an extensive article on MSG for publication in one or more respected magazines and/or newspapers. However, on the day before the meeting, the journalist called CSPI's Michael Jacobson for his thoughts about MSG, and Jacobson told the journalist that MSG was a non-issue and that he would be wasting his time by attending the meeting. He apparently stated it strongly since the reporter called me that evening to cancel his coverage of the MSG issue. (It was surprising to find that the first speaker at the FASEB meeting was a CSPI staff member.)

On another occasion when we believed that the FDA was moving toward action on the MSG issue, a staff member of CSPI wrote to advise the FDA that more research on the subject needed to be done before any action should be taken on the issue. Their letter totally ignored the fact that there are large numbers of peer reviewed studies that have concluded that MSG is dangerous while, at the same time, studies supporting the safety of MSG are industry funded and flawed to the point of being worthless.

It is of interest to note that all during this time, CSPI was championing the use of no fat foods, foods that, with relatively few exceptions, need some form of MSG to make them palatable. Also, CSPI newsletters regularly promote foods that contain "hidden" forms of MSG with no mention of its presence.

Most recently, in the December 8-9 weekend edition, The Wall Street Journal published a two page article promoting the use and safety of MSG. In that article, we read Michael Jacobson's view on glutamate. Jacobson stated "I don't see normal amounts of MSG as posing a risk to the vast majority of people."

Perhaps Jacobson will better understand the scope and severity of the MSG issue if every MSG sensitive person who subscribes to his newsletter immediately cancels his or her subscription.

Jack Samuels
President
Truth in Labeling Campaign