Many diabetic patients conducted "self-experiments" with aspartame products, and independently confirmed my observations.
A woman with Type I diabetes decided to "experiment with the use of aspartame from time to time to satisfy my own curiosity about its effects on my body." She stated "Invariably, if I use aspartame - just one or two diet sodas per day and a few sticks of aspartame gum - my former symptoms of aspartame poisoning return with a vengeance. My blood sugars go haywire. Only one tiny unit of insulin would drop my blood sugar over 100 points in less than half an hour, sending me into a series of hypoglycemic reactions. Rebound into high blood sugars followed. The tingling along my spine and under my breast bone, which had disappeared after I gave up aspartame, returned. And my menstrual periods, which had been very irregular prior to giving up aspartame but came every 28 days for three days like clockwork after giving up aspartame, came on two weeks early, then three weeks early, two days after re-introducing aspartame into my diet."
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
Public Health Ramifications
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported a striking 33 percent rise in the incidence of diabetes nationally between 1990 and 1998. While various factors were incriminated (most notably overweight, stress, fast foods and less exercise), the possible contributory role of aspartame products was apparently not considered.
Consumption of Aspartame and Sugar by Diabetics
FDA Commissioner Dr. Frank E. Young testified as to the United States Committee on Labor and Human Resources on Nov. 3, 1987 that 60 percent of diabetics were using aspartame products, compared to 35 percent of the total sample population. Yet, Farkas and Forbes (1965) concluded there was "...no basis for generalizing on the effect that the use of non-caloric sweeteners has or will have on adherence to a carbohydrate-restricted diet by patients with diabetes in the age range of 40 to 70 years."
There has been a paradoxical rise in the consumption of all sugar products over the past two decades, concomitant with the dramatic increased use of artificial sweeteners. The Department of Agriculture noted that the per capita consumption of sugar in 1985 was 130 pounds compared to 118 pounds in 1975. (The consumption of artificial sweeteners, including aspartame and saccharin, rose from 6.2 pound in 1975 to 17.0 pounds in 1985.) Many diabetics add aspartame to coffee or tea, which they then proceed to take with cake, pie, or ice cream.
The excessive use of aspartame products helps explain the proneness of women with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) to bulimia (Stancin 1989). Such behavior involves self-induced vomiting, the taking of laxatives, diuretics and enemas, and even the intentional reduction of insulin in order to lose weight (Chapter IX-B).
Legal Ramifications
The problems considered in this chapter have potential legal ramifications. Special mention is made of pregnant women, children, older persons, epileptics, and other high-risk groups. Several examples are cited.
- An insulin-dependent diabetic who suffered seizures after using an ATS sued the manufacturer for alleged breach of an "implied warranty" that these sweeteners were "fit for ordinary use" (The Grand Rapids Press March 6, 1986, p. C-6).
- Aspartame-related hypoglycemia may have caused or contributed to the "dead-in-bed syndrome" in diabetics with hypoglycemia unawareness.
Diabetes: A Brief Overview
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease in which there is insufficient insulin - total or relative (resistance to insulin action) - for deriving adequate energy from ingested food. It tends to be familial.
There are more than ten million diabetics in the United States, but less than half have been formally diagnosed. Most (85 percent) do not require insulin, and are termed "Type II." Paradoxically, many persons in this category, especially when overweight, release considerable insulin after taking sugar or a meal, and then experience reactive hypoglycemia ("low blood sugar attacks"). I have used the term diabetogenic hyperinsulinism (see Introduction and Chapter XIV) to describe this transitional phase (Roberts 1964, 196, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971b, 1973). The remaining 15 percent are referred to as having "Type I" insulin-dependent or juvenile-type diabetes.
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