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Is the U.S. Food Industry
Purposefully Poisoning Us?
"Excitotoxins, the Taste
That Kills," is a shocking book by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, a professor of neurosurgery at the Medical University of Mississippi,
that claims certain ingredients found in most prepared food are poisoning us.
Blaylock's book inspired further research
in which a variety of other papers by notable experts strongly support his claims that a "food enhancer" called monosodium
glutamate (MSG), and an artificial sweetener called aspartame, are linked to a wide variety of human brain disorders. They are saying
these two popular supplements may be related to such horrors as brain cancer, stroke, high blood pressure, Parkinson's disease,
Huntington's disease, and Alzheimer's disease.
It has long been suspected that these so-called "food additives" also
are causing arthritis, lung, and reproduction disorders. They also are believed to cause allergic reactions in many people.
Asthmatics are especially targeted.
What is scary about this story is that both MSG and aspartame are so widely used,
it is difficult to find canned, frozen or prepared foods in the United States that do not contain either one or the other,
and sometimes both, mixed with the ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration approved these products as safe for public
consumption.
According to information supplied by Leading Edge International Research Group, a data collection organization,
food manufacturers skillfully hide MSG behind many ingredient names that are printed on food packages. The names include:
gelatin, calcium caseinate, textured protein, sodium caseinate, yeast nutrient, autolyzed yeast, hydrolyzed protein, carrageenan,
maltodextrin, malt extract, natural food flavoring, bouillon, natural chicken flavoring, natural beef flavoring, broth, ultra-pasteurized,
soy sauce extract, whey protein concentrate, pectin, and anything protein fortified, containing flavorings, enzyme modified,
or seasoned.
Leading
Edge also claims MSG reactions have been reported in soaps, shampoo, hair conditioners and cosmetics. In these products MSG
is hidden in ingredients that include the words "hydrolyzed" and "amino acids," the report said.
An organization called
Truth in Advertising also is expressing concerns that since 1997, farmers are even spraying MSG on growing vegetables, grains
and fruit, although the reason seems unclear. The group suggests that the spraying may be going on so the industry can "propagate
the fiction that MSG occurs naturally in food."
MSG, which has been around since its invention at the turn of the century,
has been popular because of its ability to enhance the flavors in soups and other foods. It also covers taste in spoiling
foods, thus gaining a false reputation as a food preservative.
James Schlatter, a chemist for the G. D. Searle Company
accidentally discovered aspartame in the 1970s, while he was testing an anti-ulcer drug. Monsanto Corp. bought out Searle and began marketing the chemical under the brand name NutraSweet
about ten years later.
Both MSG and aspartame are found in milk products, soft drinks, candy, chewing gum, health drink powders, some medications
and in binders for nutrients, supplements and both prescription and over-the-counter medicines.
Here are some of the
products known to contain aspartame: sugar-free foods, chewing gum, beverages, gelatin desserts, packaged sweeteners and ice
cream; breath mints, cereals, cocoa mixes, coffee beverages, frozen desserts, juice drinks, multivitamins, pharmaceuticals
and health supplements, instant teas and coffees, topping mixes, wine coolers and yogurt. Critics say aspartame also has been
found in products where it is not listed on the label.
If this information is accurate, anyone who eats processed
foods of any kind, shampoos their hair, or takes vitamins and nutritional supplements probably ingests large amounts of both
MSG and aspartame daily without knowing it.
These two substances are called excitotoxins because they "excite" brain neurons due to their chemical similarity to neurotransmitters
found in the body. Because of this, these chemicals turn into dangerous and addictive compounds that kill brain cells. People
enjoy the effect they get from excitotoxins because it produces a slight rush. For a brief time, the mind speeds up, the "victim"
finds he or she is thinking more clearly and reacting more sharply. Experiments have shown that people become addicted to
foods that contain large concentrations of both MSG, like the tomato paste used in pasta dishes, and aspartame, found in diet
soft drinks.
The
rush created by a mixture of aspartame and caffeine, which is found in many carbonated soft drinks and commercially sold coffee
and tea beverages, is especially toxic.
Dr. Blaylock warns that the food additives we love so much are slowly killing
our brains. While we think they are giving us a mid-day boost, the excitotoxins are busy stimulating the neural cells in our
brains to death.
A Leading Edge report said experiments show that within 15 to 30 minutes after neurons suspended
in tissue culture are exposed to high levels of glutamate, they swell up like balloons. The chemical process going on within
the cell releases free radicals that kill brain cells within three hours, the report said.
Lower doses of glutamate
produces the same effect, but it just takes longer; sometimes up to 24 hours before the cells die. "The normal concentration
of antioxidants in the brain is not enough to handle the excess free radicals produced in this way," the Leading Edge report
concluded.
Aspartame damages not only to the brain, but the entire body, according to articles that appeared in Nexus Magazine in 1995 and 1996.
In the 1995 report, author Mark Gold claims aspartame
"accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.
Many of these reactions are very serious including seizures and death, as recently disclosed in a Feb. 1994 Department of
Health and Human Services report."
There is a list of about 90 different reactions to this drug, including migraine headaches, dizziness,
seizures, nausea, numbness, muscle spasms, weight gain, rash, depression, fatigue, irritability, insomnia, vision loss, hearing
loss, heart palpitations, breathing difficulties, anxiety attacks, slurred speech, vertigo, memory loss and joint pain.
Like
MSG, the ingestion of excessive aspartic acid from aspartame appears to either trigger or intensify neurological disorders
such as: brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, mental
retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, and diabetes.
Aspartic acid is an amino acid, which makes it appear to be a natural
substance. However, when taken in its free form, or unbound to proteins, it causes a dramatic increase in the blood plasma
level. As stated earlier, high levels of this poison excites brain cells and eventually kills them.
About ten years
ago the FDA approved aspartame for public consumption, in spite of available evidence from the start that the product had
dangerous side effects. At about the same time, the agency banned the import of stevia, a natural leaf that has been used
for hundreds of years by the Japanese as an alternative sweetener. Stevia has never been shown to have adverse effects on
humans.
Why was stevia banned? Would we dare to think the FDA did it to prevent a safe and natural product from stealing
private company profits from aspartame?
In spite of the growing evidence that these additives are creating a society
of zombies and people slowly dying of a variety of crippling disorders, the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed
the production and distribution of them in our daily food supply.
What is going on here?
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