Diet Soda Gets Poisonous

by Jennifer Cohen

Earlier this year, Jennifer Cohen, an 11-year-old New Jersey sixth-grader, conducted a class science project proving that aspartame (the artificial sweetener commonly known as NutraSweet) breaks down into two deadly neurotoxins. This is an edited version of her report.

Suppose evidence was presented to you that strongly suggests that the artificial sweetener in diet soft drinks causes brain tumors. What if overwhelming evidence demonstrated that one of the main ingredients in this sweetener could cause the same brain lesions as does monosodium glutamate (MSG)? And finally, what if it could be proven that these chemicals can aggravate or even help develop many neurodegenerative brain diseases and abnormal conditions?

I think that all of us would be more than just a little concerned to learn that powerful brain toxins are added to our food and drinks to sweeten them and to boost sales. These additives have no other purpose than to enhance the sweetness of various diet products. Excitotoxins disguised as "natural flavoring" kill brain cells every time we sip that diet soft drink or bite into the low-fat foods that contain them.

The brain uses excitatory amino acids, as neurotransmitters. When neurons are exposed to these substances, they fire impulses so rapidly that they reach a state of extreme exhaustion. After several hours, these neurons suddenly die, as if the cells were excited to death.

Neuroscientists have named this class of chemicals "excitotoxins."

Neuron death increases the possibility that neurodegenerative brain diseases could arise. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), these diseases include "Parkinson's disease, ALS, Alzheimer's disease, and various brain and nervous system tumors. You would also be at particular risk if you have ever had a stroke, brain injury, seizure, tumor, or have suffered from hypertension or diabetes."

The chemicals that create this damage also were once added to baby food. The FDA decided that MSG should not be added to infant foods; so manufacturers removed it - and added three different excitotoxins in its place.

Aspartame Is the Name

In l965, Searle company chemist Jim Schlatter discovered aspartame. He was developing this drug for another use and, after accidentally licking his finger, noticed that the substance was sweet.

The FDA approved aspartame, asserting that an individual can safely consume 97 packets of aspartame every day. Aspartame is in many products, including some that children use, such as diet soda, low-calorie yogurt, vitamins, baked goods, puddings and gum.

Aspartame's ingredients are aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methyl alcohol. Methyl alcohol breaks down in high temperatures and becomes formaldehyde and DKP (diketopiperazine) - two chemicals known to cause problems in the nervous system. Aspartame's shelf life is 262 days at 77 F (25 C).

Today aspartame is consumed by more than 100 million people in the United States. The FDA gets more complaints about aspartame than any other food or drink. The symptoms of aspartame exposure are a lot like those of multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's. It has been known to cause headaches, nausea, vision problems, seizures and cancer in consumers.

Ever since the FDA approved aspartame in l985, brain tumors have increased. There is no direct proof that aspartame caused the brain tumors, but there is enough reason to suspect [a link]. In fact, the television show, "60 Minutes" recently aired a report linking the increase in brain cancer to aspartame use.

A Searle study demonstrated that 320 rats fed aspartame daily with meals for one year developed 12 brain tumors, while the 120 rats not fed aspartame remained free of brain tumors.

A University of Wisconsin research team fed rhesus monkeys aspartame every day for one year. After day 200, the monkeys developed epileptic seizures. When the study ended, the aspartame was discontinued, and the monkeys' seizures stopped.

How I Did My Experiment

On January 21, l997, I bought a new case of Diet Coke from the supermarket. I put seven cans in the refrigerator, seven cans in my room (about 69 degrees) and seven cans in a Boekel incubator (80 Watts, 120 AC volts, 0.75 Amps), setting the temperature at 40 C (104 F).

I had a thermometer next to each group of cans, and I checked the temperatures daily for the next 10 weeks.

I took the remaining three cans and brought them to Winston Laboratories in Ridgefield, New Jersey, to test for a beginning level of aspartame. The test results revealed that a can of diet soda normally contains .06 percent aspartame.

In l985, the National Soft Drink Association (NSDA) reported a similar experiment in which diet soda stored at 104 F turned into formaldehyde. In that experiment, the NSDA explained that 104 F was comparable to a daytime summer temperature in Phoenix, Arizona. The NSDA has recommended that aspartame not be approved for use in soda.

On April 1, I took the soda cans out of the refrigerator, out of my room and out of the incubator, and I brought the samples to Winston Laboratory for analysis.

I was going to do a taste test in my sister's fourth-grade class, but the school nurse said that I couldn't, because of all the bad things people say about aspartame; so instead I tested the samples on a group of adults.

I performed a double blind experiment. My mother helped label each sample with a number. I conducted the experiment, without knowing which sample each person was drinking. I put all of the cans in a cooler and covered them with ice in order to serve them at the same temperature. I gave each person a small cup of the soda from the refrigerator, from the incubator, from my room and from a can of soda fresh from the supermarket. I asked them to rate the taste on a scale of one to four, four being the worst and one being the best.

The Taste (and Waste) Tests

There was an obvious preference for the newly purchased sample of Diet Coke. The scores for the samples from the refrigerator and my room were similar to each other, but were not as high as the new soda. The scores for the incubator sample were very low. Nearly everybody hated the taste.

Since the aspartame in diet soda breaks down into formaldehyde and DKP, it makes sense that taste tests revealed a noticeable difference among tasters. The higher the storage heat, the worse the taste.

Winston Laboratories reported the following results from the samples they analyzed: In the refrigerated sample, just 0.058 percent (formerly .06 percent) aspartame remained. That missing portion turned into 0.001 percent DKP and 53.5 parts per billion formaldehyde. In the sample from my room, all that was left of the 0.06 percent aspartame was 0.051 percent. The missing portion had turned into 0.002 percent DKP and 231 parts per billion formaldehyde. In the incubator sample, there was only 0.026 percent aspartame, but 0.010 percent DKP and 76.2 parts per billion formaldehyde.

Temperature creates two effects. First, the higher the storage temperature, the higher the level of DKP in the soda. Second, room temperature seems to create the highest levels of formaldehyde in soda. At very high temperatures, the formaldehyde breaks down. However, even when refrigerated, the aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde.

After diet soda containing aspartame is purchased, it should not be stored in the heat or under any conditions for a long period of time.

Concerning aspartame, the FDA says, "We believe that based on all the information that we received to date that this is a safe product."

I say, "Decide for yourself."

The total cost of testing was $1,250. This may not be a lot of money to a drug company, but it is to me. As it is, I will be babysitting for the whole summer of 1997 to pay for the study.