He discovered a substance that was 200 times sweeter than sugar and had no calories. This was huge.
In a world taking it first faltering steps towards a preoccupation with looking thin this was the holy grail of dietary additives, and had the potential to make Searle a fortune.
But there were two problems.
a) To introduce this substance into foods requires approval by the food and drug administration.
b) It was comprised of Methanol, Synthetic Aspartic Acid and synthetic phenylalanine which made it a poison that caused brain tumors.
But Searle decided that public health should not stand in the way of corporate profits and began safety tests, eventually submitting numerous test results to the FDA showing that it was safe for human consumption. They called it Aspartame, you may know it as Equal or NutraSweet or the stuff in the little blue packet.
Trusting Searle’s test results the FDA approved the limited use of aspartame in dry goods in 1974
But how is this possible? How could something this dangerous this dangerous could get FDA approval
Well Jim Turner, consumer advocate and his colleague Dr. Olney wondered the same thing and began to investigate Searle’s Lab practices.
They discovered that large numbers of the test subjects (Monkeys and mice) had experiencing a range of adverse effects including seizures, brain lesions and tumors. Many had died suddenly during the tests. They even discovered that specimen that had developed brain tumors, were surgically operated on to remove the tumors and reintroduced back into the test as if nothing had happened to them. In short – Searle had provided the FDA with inaccurate conclusions resulting from manipulated data derived from poorly-designed studies.
Turner and Olney informed the FDA of their findings and the FDA immediately reversed its decision to approve aspartame in dry goods. Additionally they requested that the U.S. Department of Justice convene a federal grand jury to determine if Searle should be criminally indicted.
So things were not going at all well for Searle, and they realized that the solution was not to be found by white coated chemists but by blue suited politicians and in 1977 Searle hired a well connected politician as CEO and GD to run the company. This new leader had no chemistry or even business experience but did possess the necessary political connections. Three term US Representative, ex Secretary of defense, and exec assistant to President Ford.
His name was Donald Rumsfeld, and he made aspartame approval his top priority.
Now this guy really made things happen.
Samuel Skinner, the US Attorney heading the Grand Jury investigation suddenly resigned from the Justice Department’s and took a job with the law firm representing Searle.
But Rumsfeld’s big break came in 1981 when he was part of Ronald Reagan’s transition team, a team that hand picked The new FDA commissioner Dr. Arthur Hull Hays Jr.
One of the first things Hays did was to approve Aspartame for use in dry goods again. A difficult task considering that a decade’s worth of data proved conclusively that aspartame was deathly poisonous to lab animals and caused a statistically significant number of them to develop brain tumors
But Hayes’s FDA career was short lived and by 1983 he left the office in Scandal amid accusations that he was accepting corporate gifts for political favors. Imagine that!
His next job was in the private sector where he served as a high-paid senior medical adviser for Searle’s public relations firm, but not before he had approved aspartame for use in beverages.
For nearly 30 years this insidious poison, has been arguably the most dangerous food additive we know of.
Aspartame comprises over 80 percent of consumer complaints filed with the FDA.
The FDA has generated a list of 92 symptoms associated with aspartame consumption that include nausea, dizziness, irritability, insanity, blindness, deafness, weight gain and death.
Dementia among all ages (especially the elderly) and learning disabilities among children, in the U.S. and abroad, have been skyrocketing since 1981.
All metabolites of aspartame (formaldehyde, methanol, and formic acid) are toxic to the human body and are especially toxic to the brain.
As of today, the number of scientific studies showing that aspartame is, indeed, an underlying cause of chronic physical and mental illness and death out number studies proving its safety by at least 400 to zero.
Still want to put this stuff in your iced tea?
