I’d like to share something with you and (if you would like) your readers. I hope the following helps you to get people to “think before they consume”.
Plus, I’d love to find out if others recall the news program. I certainly cannot be the only person alive who remembers this!
Back in the ’80s, when “NutraSweet” had first been approved by the FDA, I was in the process of going through tests, and it was right around that time I was finally, after a life time of seizures, definitively diagnosed with epilepsy originating in the temporal lobe. My neurologist, the man who persevered, went to bat for me, and finally made the diagnosis, was Dr Michael Weintraub of Briarcliff Manor, NY.
I’d been back and forth to Dr Weintraub’s office so many times, his face and voice had become a part of my regular life. And “NutraSweet” was all the rage, being touted as the new “safe” artificial sweetener, to replace the carcinogenic substance “saccharin”.
I was sitting at home one evening, watching the Eyewitness News program on ABC Channel 7 out of New York City (everyone must remember Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel?), when to my surprise, a very familiar face appeared on the screen. It was my own doctor, Dr Weintraub. The report was on Aspartame. Dr Weintraub had the papers in his hand, the study results, and the letters, from the neurologists who had been on the FDA review panel of those studies, strongly recommending that Aspartame NOT be approved. He went on to explain how Aspartame can cause seizures, and if a person has a personal or family history of any kind of seizure condition, can increase and seriously complicate existing symptoms. He showed the data, he discussed the studies, all of the facts where there. He then expressed his great dismay that, despite all of the medical professionals’ strong recommendation that approval be denied, the FDA approved it anyway. He warned that anyone with any history, or family history, of any kind of seizure condition stay away from anything with “NutraSweet” in it.
After the interview, the Eyewitness News Team stated that, the next night, a follow-up program would be aired on the same subject. I tuned in the next night. Nothing about Aspartame was mentioned. There was not even any indication that they’d done the show the night before. For some reason, the newsroom had shelved the story. I’ve tried searching old archives of Eyewitness News, and can find no mention of the story, and yet I clearly remember it, as did my Mom (who passed away several months ago). I have wished, many many times since, that I’d had the clarity of mind to give Dr Weintraub a call.
I had been drinking diet soda for a brief time before seeing the report — and had been having terrible trouble with my seizures (which are “simple partial” seizures) at that time. I’d have seizures that would literally come and go non-stop for days, and they would not only be extended in time, but of a severity that I’d never experienced before. I threw out the rest of the Diet Coke and gradually the seizures went back to “normal”.
Today, if I even accidentally get a few sips of Aspartame in diet soda, which has happened a couple of times when someone in a restaurant gave me the wrong beverage, I’ll launch into a prolonged and intense seizure episode. This is bad stuff, and I’ve had “Eyewitness” evidence that the substance was approved against all medical recommendation. Not only that, but now food manufacturers no longer have to put obvious labels on their products. Did you know that it’s become difficult to find a pack of gum, even the gums that are not labeled “sugar free”, without getting Aspartame? Even good old “Juicy Fruit”, which has been around for as long as there have been teeth to chew it, now contains Aspartame! It supposedly “makes the flavor last longer”! There is poison hiding everywhere!
When Sucralose/Splenda came out, a friend was gung ho on it, and bought me a box, claiming it was perfectly safe, just “modified” sugar, and had no aftertaste. I gave it a try. Well, to start with, it does have an aftertaste (though not as bad as Aspartame’s). After the first use, I waited. No seizures that day. Wow, could it really be true? So, I used it for a few days. The buildup was slow, not like Aspartame, which hits me right away. But within three days of using Splenda (and not even a lot of it, just a little sprinkling on my oatmeal, etc.) the seizures began. I also experienced horrible gas and stomach pains, and then diarrhea. I stopped using it, and the symptoms cleared up.
Not wanting to judge the product, which this friend to this day still raves over and thinks I’m “imagining things”, I’ve given Splenda several other chances, with the same results (only the symptoms begin faster) every time.
Poison is poison, and packaging it in a sunny yellow box doesn’t change that.
I don’t know if you’d be able to track down that old Eyewitness News story, or even others who witnessed the report. I’m not even sure where Dr Weintraub is today. We moved far out of the area almost twenty years ago, and I haven’t kept track of him. All I have is my own memory and my own word for you on the story. But I swear I was not imagining it, it was real, it was there, and I couldn’t have been the only one who saw it.
Good luck in your fight! I’m definitely lending my hopes and positive thoughts to your success.