From: Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum., Bettym19@mindspring.com
To: personalprogram@womentowomen.com
Date: Mon, Jan 28, 2008 9:05 pm
Subject: To Marcelle Pick: Diet Soda: How Healthy Is It? Response
Dear Marcelle,
That's quite a story, and especially because you're in OB/GYN, I wanted you to have our Report For Schools: http://www.wnho.net/report_on_aspartame_and_children.htm These are several articles by world experts on aspartame to help get Diet soda and any aspartame product out of the school system. We also send this to pediatricians and OB-GYN. Aspartame first is an endocrine disrupting agent, stimulates prolactin, changes the menses and causes infertility. Then if a woman gets off of aspartame and gets pregnant, and uses it again she may lose it as aspartame is an abortifacient. If she carries it, it's a teratogen causing birth defects and mental retardation. One woman had an autistic child and an ADD child so I thought she had used it during pregnancy. She said she had stopped right before getting pregnant but her physician told her it built up in her system.
The formaldehyde converted from the free methyl alcohol in aspartame embalms living tissue and damages DNA. Here is that study: http://www.mpwhi.com/formaldehyde_from_aspartame.pdf I think by now you probably realize one Diet Coke is one too many. On web we have so many articles on what this does to the brain of the unborn. In fact, here is Dr. John Olney's 49 page report to the Board of Inquiry of the FDA explaining how aspartame will destroy the brains of the fetus and our children: http://www.wnho.net/dr_olney1.doc The FDA agreed with Dr. Olney who founded the field of neuroscience called excitotoxicity and tried to prevent the approval of this chemical poison. Here is the actual Board of Inquiry Report of the FDA that revoked the petition for approval: http://www.mpwhi.com/fda_petition1.doc
Why is it on the market? Because of Don Rumsfeld who at the time was CEO of Sear;e and said he would call in his markers and get it on the market. The aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, http://www.soundandfury.tv explains how he did. Read the commentary before the Board of Inquiry report.
The FDA list alone admits to 92 documented symptoms including death: http://www.mpwhi.com/92_aspartame_symptoms.pdf The medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic by H. J. Roberts, M.D., is over 1000 pages and has even more, and chapters on what it does in pregnancy, to children, drug interaction, etc. Aspartame not only interacts with drugs but also vaccines. With 70 per cent of the population using it and 40% of children you can understand the problems you see in the population.
Aspartame is masquerading as an additive but what it is in reality is an addictive excitoneurotoxic carcinogenic drug. The two amino acids, aspartic acid, an excitotoxin, and phenylalanine, a neurotoxin as an isolate, are genetically engineered in E.coli bacteria. It is bound by methanol. It's made into a black toxic sludge and then pressed into a white powder according to Dr. Bill Deagle who has seen the factory. The molecule breaks down to DKP, a brain tumor agent which triggered brain tumors in original studies.
Aspartame Disease has caused incredible epidemics of MS and lupus which are discussed in Dr. Roberts medical text as well as Dr. Russell Blaylock's medical text, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, http://www.russellblaylockmd.com Both doctors have other books and tapes on the issue.
As to what you discussed about obesity, aspartame is low cal weight gain. Here's is Dr. Sandra Cabot's excellent article on the issue: http://www.mpwhi.com/aspartame_makes_you_fatter.htm This article about says it all.
This is a very important paper to read on the MS issue: http://www.mpwhi.com/new_report_at_neurology_conference.htm Cori Brackett who made Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World used diet drinks for years, had one of the largest lesions, was in a wheelchair and could hardly talk. Eight months off aspartame her large lesion all but disappeared. She is now out of her wheelchair, of course, and you can save so many women with this knowledge in this report.
The great state of Hawaii has now written a bill to ban aspartame: http://www.mpwhi.com/hawaii_moves_to_ban_aspartame.htm We tried last year in New Mexico but the capital was saturated by lobbyists with senators addicted to Diet Coke, drinking it as we testified. Maybe your organization can help in Hawaii. I know you will want to help save the children.
The Ramazzini Study in 2005 showed aspartame to be a multipotential carcinogen confirming the original studies FDA had. Then they did another one showing it only takes a little bit of aspartame, and if a woman uses it in pregnancy and the baby survives she can grow up and get cancer.
Woman to woman - let's help get it off the planet. Below my signature and before your article is one I wrote for a magazine on birth defects I know will interest you.
All my best,
Betty
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
ASPARTAME CAUSES BIRTH DEFECTS AND MENTAL RETARDATION
Aspartame, AKA NutraSweet, Equal, E951 and under numerous other aliases is an addictive excitoneurotoxic carcinogen masquerading as an additive. The chemical liberates methyl alcohol, (methanol} the deadliest of the alcohols, commonly known as wood alcohol. It's so toxic a single ounce can kill or blind an adult, and it's a cumulative poison that alters the dopamine system of the brain creating addiction. The methanol, CH4O, loses two hydrogens to become CH2O, formaldehyde, which is next metabolized to create CH2O2, formic acid: fire-ant venom. But that's just the beginning.
Half of aspartame is phenylalanine, which floods the brain, a neurotoxin, lowering the seizure threshold. It depletes serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems and interacts with all drugs and vaccines. http://www.wnho.net/aspartame_interacts.htm Today our children are medicated instead of educated.
Dr.Louis Elsas, an eminent Pediatric Professor, Genetics, told Congress on 11/3/87 he had spent 25 years in the biomedical sciences "trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defects caused by excess phenylalanine. And herein lies my basic concern, that aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet undefined dose, will both reversibly in the adult and irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects."
The third component is aspartic acid, a powerful neurotransmitter that excites the brain's neurons into hyperactivity until they exhaust and die. So there you have it, a bouquet of brain and neurological destroyers packed in little blue envelopes, sitting on every restaurant table in the western world, harvesting enough money to buy whatever bureaucratic blessings are necessary to kill us.
Aspartame produces the deadly brain tumor agent diketopiperazine. Such malignancies now sprout like mushrooms across America. In original studies it also triggered uterine, ovarian, pancreatic, thyroid and testicular tumors. The 3-year Italian Ramazzini Study on 1,800 rats confirmed original FDA findings that this chemical is "a multipotential carcinogen" causing leukemia, lymphoma, cancer of the kidney and peripheral nerves. Only rats fed aspartame developed malignant brain tumors. It was peer reviewed by 7 world experts. This excellent research was exceptional in that it did not kill the rats at the customary 24 months, but allowed them to die naturally. Cancer is a disease common to the final third of life.
Said Neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock M.D., author of Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, "The new study released in the European Journal of Oncology by Morando Soffritti and co-workers should terrify mothers and all those consuming aspartame sweetened products. This was a carefully done study, which clearly demonstrated a statistically significant increase in several types of lymphomas and leukemias in rats. Both of these malignancies have increased significantly in this country since the widespread use of aspartame.
"This study confirmed the previous study by Dr. Trocho and co-workers, which also found the formaldehyde from aspartame to be damaging to cellular DNA and that this damage was accumulative.The type of damage was a duplicate of that associated with cancers. Along with this most recent study, this means that drinking a single diet cola sweetened with aspartame every day could increase one's risk of developing a lymphoma or leukemia."
An army of renowned MDs and researchers have verified the cry of alarm, one deliberately smothered by the heartless monsters making and selling the poison.
Aspartame destroys families. Its an endocrine disrupting agent, stimulates prolactin, changes the menses and causes infertility. Women who desperately want children throng fertility clinics sipping Diet Coke, the reason they're there. Dr. Madelon Price, Biochemist, explains this infertility: "I was concerned about aspartic acid, one of the major breakdown products. Aspartic acid, like glutamic acid (mono sodium glutamate, MSG, Accent) readily passes from the blood into the circumventricular organs of the brain. ...sexual dysfunction is associated with aspartame and MSG. If enough arcuate neurons are lost, that dysfunction is irreversible. Rodents that ingest high levels of aspartate or glutamate when young become infertile adults."
So many parents never have the children they long for because aspartame is peddled without even the decency of a warning. But let's say the woman stops using it for a time and does get pregnant. Dr. James Bowen says, "At every point in the fertility process aspartame destroys, beginning with the gleam in Mom and Pop's eyes: it ruins female sexual response and induces male sexual dysfunction. Beyond this, aspartame disrupts fetal development by aborting it or inducing defects. And if a live child is born aspartame may have heinously damaged the DNA of the baby, cursing future generations."
Psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Walton said "Aspartame is a multipotential toxin and carcinogen. The dipeptide component of the molecule can alter brain chemistry, significantly changing the ratio of catecholamines to indolamines, with resultant lowering of seizure threshold, production of carbohydrate craving and in vulnerable individuals leading to panic, depressive and cognitive symptoms."
From the aspartame documentary, Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, is this clip with Dr. Russell Blaylock, neurosurgeon discussing aspartame and pregnancy: http://www.soundandfury.tv/pages/blaylock.html Available from amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Soon to be released, Sweet Remedy.
In an effort to save the children, aspartame experts have written new reports on how it destroys their brains so we can email the vital information to schools, pediatricians and OB-GYN. Here's the "Report to Schools": http://www.wnho.net/report_on_aspartame_and_children.htm These articles include information from the ADD folks who banned aspartame a couple of years ago. Many pediatric Rx and over-the-counter drugs contain this toxin as well as pediatric vitamins. Pediatricians need to be alerted so they won't prescribe these drugs.
Be particularly concerned with Wrigley's gum as most of their brands contain aspartame and sometimes blended with other dangerous sweeteners such as Splenda, a chlorocarbon poison, and acesulfame potassium, which caused cancer and leukemia in original studies. According to Dr. H. J. Roberts because it's buccal and goes directly into the mouth, it works like nitroglycerin, goes through saliva straight to the brain.
Dr. Roberts wrote the medical text, Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, http://www.sunsentpress.com, and discusses children's abnormal behavior from this toxin. "Irritability, aggression, hyperactivity ("the need to keep moving"), crying, whining, impulsivity, slurred speech, and learning problems have been associated with or aggravated by the use of aspartame products. Some concerned teacher-correspondents attributed the increased frequency of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and declining school grades to their widespread consumption. These changes have been various referred to as "Jekyll and Hyde behavior" and "the Halloween effect." His CD "Mommy Links" will also help young mothers.
Be sure to monitor what your children eat during the holidays. Keep your little ones far from harms way. For children who cannot use sugar there are safe substitutes like the herbal sweetener, Stevia, which helps in the metabolism of sugar. And the new Just Like Sugar is available in Whole Foods. A recent analysis showed it to be free of MSG and aspartic acid, excitotoxins. It's made of only chicory, orange peel, calcium and Vitamin C. No need for anyone to consume deadly chemical sweeteners.
Recently released is Dr.Blaylock's DVD on "Nutrition and Behavior" - http://www.atavistik.com This will help parents and schools understand how damaging some of these additives are. Dr. John Olney wrote a 49 page report to the FDA Board of Inquiry a quarter of a century ago explaining what would happen if aspartame was approved. Unfortunately his prophecy has been fulfilled. http://www.wnho.net/dr_olney1.doc Our children must be saved from this toxin.
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
DIET SODA HOW HEALTHY IS IT?
By Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP
It's hot, and you're thirsty, and if you are like most Americans the first drink you reach for will be a soda pop a carbonated soft drink. If you're worried about your sugar or caloric intake, your choice will likely be a diet soda. Companies have spent billions of dollars convincing all of us that diet soda is the healthier, lighter choice that all we have to lose is the calories, ergo the weight. And since so many of us are struggling with weight gain, who can blame us if diet soda seems like a dream come true?
But in my experience, it's actually a wolf in sheep's clothing, fooling women into thinking they are doing something good for their bodies when they are actually sabotaging their own best efforts.
Diet soda may not have the sugar or calories of regular soda, but it's chock-full of other health-draining chemicals, like caffeine, artificial sweeteners, sodium and phosphoric acid. This is even more concerning when parents give their growing and chemically vulnerable children diet soda in a noble effort to avoid sugar.
And while I admit that diet soda may have its uses in the short term particularly if you are dealing with a sugar addiction I encourage you to resist it as your default beverage, especially if you are trying to lose weight. Different studies have been flying around on this subject, but a majority show that diet soda may actually set you up to gain even more weight.
If you really want to do something good for your body and your BMI, exchange that can of diet soda for a cool glass of filtered water. If this sounds like deprivation to you, I can sympathize. Let's discuss diet soda and how you can begin to give it less of a starring role in your nutrition.
America's love of soda
Americans buy and consume a tremendous amount of soda. According to Beverage Digest, overall sales of soda (sugar and diet) were 10.2 billion cases in 2005; that rounds out to be about 828 eight-ounce servings a year (or 2-1/2 servings per day) for every man woman and child. And that number is actually down from 849 last year, mostly due to the rise in energy drinks which come with their own concerns. As a population, soda is our mainstay: caloric, non-caloric and "reduced-calorie." Stand in the soda aisle of the supermarket and just try to count all the varieties it's staggering.
A regular 12-ounce soda contains the equivalent of nine teaspoons of sugar, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Imagine drinking a 12-ounce glass of iced tea with nine teaspoons of sugar stirred into it, or eating nine teaspoons of sugar, one after another? That's essentially what people do when they drink a sugared soda. It is liquid candy, ruthlessly advertised and manufactured to give our jaded taste buds an even sweeter sensation.
Is it any wonder that we are gaining unprecedented amounts of weight and even our children are developing type 2 diabetes? We have the dubious distinction of being the most overweight of all economically developed nations. With statistics like these, who wouldn't believe that choosing a diet soda is the healthier choice? But consider this: we are also the number-one consumer of artificial sweeteners in the world.
No one can deny that a diet soda has fewer calories than a regular soda. If you get a disproportionate amount of your daily caloric intake from soda and then you switch to diet soda, you may lose weight. But I emphasize the word may, because it appears that artificial sweeteners can actually set us up to gain more weight.
The myth of artificial sweeteners and weight loss
There are many different views in this matter, but a host of scientists agree that artificial sweeteners may interact with our body's sense of sugar satisfaction.
Some experts are now exploring the possibility that artificial sweeteners confuse our taste buds and all those brain measures of satiety upon which we base what we eat. Specifically, Sharon P. Fowler, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio have recently completed compilations of data that provided surprising results. Fowler and her team studied more than 1500 people between the ages of 25 and 64, looking at whether each consumed regular or diet soft drinks. It was no surprise to find a correlation between the daily consumption of multiple cans of all soft drinks and obesity which they did. But, as Fowler noted, "What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks; their risk of obesity was even higher" [than that of those drinking regular soft drinks]. In fact, Fowler found that for each can of diet soft drink consumed per day, the risk of obesity went up by 41%.
Other studies have found different variations, but a distinct pattern is emerging. Certain data indicate that the body learns to predict caloric intake by the taste and texture of certain foods. When artificial sweeteners are introduced into the mix, our body sends the appropriate sweet signals to the brain but never delivers the sugar punch.
The diet soda trade-off game
No expert is presuming that the diet sodas themselves are making people gain weight. But there does seem to be some connection, and what is being further explored is the idea that by offering our tastes buds something that seems sweet, and seems to signal other parts of our bodies that glucose sugars are on the way, we set ourselves up for cravings to which we eventually and often unknowingly, give in. In other words, consuming artificial sweeteners that seem real just might be setting us up to eat more later on.
This supposition has been borne out in a study conducted on rats at Purdue University. Professors Terry Davidson and Susan Swithers found that rats that were fed artificial sweeteners consistently ate more than the group fed high-calorie sweeteners.
Of course, there's also the possibility of our complicity in this trade-off, something Fowler and other researchers readily acknowledge. If we cut 150 calories here by opting for the diet soda instead of the sugared one, we may give ourselves permission for a little splurge along the way. (Think about how many times you've witnessed someone putting Sweet'n'Low in their coffee while tucking into an extravagant dessert.)
What's more, the 150 calories and nine teaspoons of sugar you forego in a diet soda are replaced with a host of other additives enlisted to make the beverage taste good and still provide a boost.
The extras you get and really don't want
With diet drinks, not only do you miss out on any nutrients provided by the real sugars your body might find useful if consumed in reasonable quantities, you also get a laundry list of suspicious ingredients that work against your body's effort to maintain healthy balance.
Foremost among these is caffeine. Many of the diet drinks are cola-based or otherwise have caffeine added. It's part of the mix created by manufacturers to make soft drinks particularly diet soft drinks seem more substantial. Yes, it gives you a sugar-like "boost," or seems to, but that caffeine buzz really isn't giving your body anything it needs. And the complications of caffeine consumption and addiction are legion, with fatigue, chronic anxiety, insomnia, and worsening symptoms of hormonal imbalance topping the list.
Additionally, caffeine is a diuretic, so while you may be thinking that a diet soda quenches your thirst and helps keep you hydrated, the opposite is true. Diet soda often contains sodium, which exacerbates thirst, while the caffeine causes you to lose fluid.
All carbonated sodas also contain calcium-leaching phosphoric acid, and so much acid in your system can tilt your pH balance to an unhealthy level. Healthy detoxification takes place in a slightly alkaline environment. Too much acidity will sabotage the detox process.
If you think I'm being an alarmist, try this experiment: Fill a glass with soda, diet or regular, and drop a nail into the glass. Watch it over the course of an hour or two. You'll find that the soda eats away at the nail in a surprisingly short amount of time. Now think of what it can do to living stomach tissue!
In Eastern medicine, overconsumption of soda particularly diet soda is considered to be highly corrosive to the GI tract and the root of many digestive disorders. This is particularly troubling to me when it comes to children, because their bodies are still maturing.
When is diet soda okay?
At my practice, I sanction the short-term consumption of diet soda when a patient is used to drinking several sugared sodas a day and has a real sugar addiction. The only other scenarios in which I find soda drinking to be the lesser of two evils is when you are traveling in areas where the drinking water is unsafe or when you are sick to your stomach. The old wives' tale rings true for some: Coke and ginger ale do help soothe nausea.
In the case of sugar addiction, weaning off of sugar with the help of diet soda and other artificial sweeteners can really help but you may still have to deal with an addiction to caffeine. This is a short-term solution; my ultimate goal is to switch all my patients over to water and decaffeinated herbal teas as their go-to beverages of choice.
Another useful substitute, particularly for children, is to dilute 1-2 ounces of fruit juice with carbonated mineral water, slowly decreasing the amount of fruit juice. Weaning yourself and your family from soda is really weaning them from the taste of sweet. No one is discounting how difficult this can be, but substituting diet soda won't do the trick. It actually encourages the taste for sweet! Sugar itself is a fact of life it runs all living things. But just as I recommend eating foods that closely resemble their original form, I also encourage you to drink naturally sweetened beverages and always in moderation.
Xylitol a good alternative
My medical experience shows without a doubt that naturally occurring sugars are better choices than refined sugar and artificial sweeteners because they are metabolized. I am very enthusiastic about the polyalcohol sugar xylitol, also called wood sugar or birch sugar. It has long been used in Europe and Asia as a popular sweetener, and is popular with diabetics. Many sugarless gums are sweetened with xylitol because it helps prevent tooth decay and, perhaps, bone loss (There is a study in Finland looking at xylitol as a preventative for osteoporosis). Xylitol has about half the calories of sugar (3 calories per teaspoon) but it tastes sweeter, so you'll use less. However, it doesn't tweak the insulin receptors and contains some nutritive qualities much like maple syrup.
I also use stevia, but some of my patients have found they don't like the taste. The point is, there are other healthy alternatives out there. Opt for a natural sweetener and you may find you have fewer cravings!
On the other hand, if you are like so many women and you simply can't live without diet soda, have you thought of asking yourself why?
Breaking the diet soda habit
If you hardly ever drink soda or sweeten your beverages, I think it is fine even preferable to use real sugar or drink the occasional Coke. This can even be therapeutic if you have an upset stomach. If you must allow your children to have the occasional soda, I think "the real thing" is best here, too.
But, if you find you have a habit of reaching for a diet drink, you could be driven by the caffeine, or it could be a behavioral habit, the sort of thing where grabbing that soda is what you do when you stop to gas-up the car or take a break from work. But the physiological addiction to caffeine is very real, and habits can feed one another.
I encourage you to see your choice of beverages as an opportunity to tune in to your body. Chances are, if you have any degree of dependency on sugared or diet drinks, your body is sending you mixed signals and you react with mixed responses. So, the next time you reach for a soda, take a moment and think first: What can I drink to best serve my body's needs?
It may be time to make a transition to the best of all possible drinks: water. With the hectic schedule so many of us keep, it's possible that when you think you want a diet soda or sugary drink (or for that matter, an alcoholic beverage), you are simply thirsty.
Sometimes we forget how refreshing and satisfying a glass of cool water can be, particularly if your system is accustomed to drinks with all sorts of other ingredients. Water is also the key to weight loss. It not only hydrates all of the body's systems, but it cleanses the body of toxins. (In fact, it's probably flushing out some of the things left over from processing ingested artificial sweeteners!)
Water may not be all your body's asking for when you reach for that diet drink. Are you hungry? Hungry is okay we all need to eat. Even if you are trying to lose weight or otherwise monitoring your calorie intake, when you are hungry a healthy body will tell you so, and you should not be afraid to listen. Many of my patients are surprised to find that when they eat more of the right foods, they lose weight.
The bad, the better, the best and balance
Here are a few strategies toward more healthful choices:
The word "diet" means what constitutes the usual food and drink of a person or animal. For me, the most important part of that sentence is "usual" not "diet." To sustain a healthy weight and a healthy body, you need to support your body's natural balance. Chemicals and caffeine don't do this, no matter what the soda manufacturers tell you.
If you find that you like the occasional sugared or diet soda, don't be too hard on yourself. Try following the 80/20 rule: if you're healthy and making smart choices most of the time, the occasional indulgence is perfectly fine. We all do the best we can for ourselves and families; the key is to make the "best" the "usual" and avoid sodas as part of your daily routine. So take a few steps away from the habit of diet soda and see how you feel. Have a glass of cool clear water, then see if you really want that soda. Your vibrant health may be all the reward you need.
Our Personal Program is a great place to start
The Personal Program promotes natural hormonal balance with nutritional supplements, our exclusive endocrine support formula, dietary and lifestyle guidance, and optional phone consultations with our Nurse-Educators. It is a convenient, at-home version of what we recommend to all our patients at the clinic.
Original Publication Date: 06/20/2006
Principal Author: Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP