Sweet Misery Video Review

Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, is a documentary covering the history and present day dangers of one of the most widely used sugar alternatives: Aspartame. No substance has created more controversy in the history of food additives, and probably no other substance has the ability to derive such massive profits for its producers.

The documentary starts it focus on the dangers of consuming Aspartame, and brings out the big guns first with a direct link between its widespread marketing in 1983, and the sudden spike in brain cancer cases seen in 1984. In fact, the list of adverse reactions from Aspartame received by the FDA is dominated by neurological illnesses.

Aspartame is a sweetener and commonly used as a sugar replacement in almost every diet product on the planet, and a number of ‘health’ products too. It has been re-branded under many names, including the commonly known ones of NutraSweet and Equal. Many interviews are done with former Aspartame consumers who had adverse reactions, including a women who wanted to lose weight and consumed diet products, and ended up having grand mal seizures.

Other common issues arising from Aspartame consumption are lupus, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and even blindness. These conditions can occur within minutes, hours, or days, and the consumer will almost always be relieved of the problem when they stop consuming products with Aspartame, including blind people being able to see again.

THE CHEMISTRY

Sweet Misery also digs deep into the chemical composition of Aspartame. That’s right, its not actually a food, as it is a chemical substance. Its molecule consists of 3 parts: Phenylalanine, Aspartic Acid, and Methyl Ester. The Methyl Ester will turn into Methyl Alcohol, also known as Methanol, which in turn will produce Formaldehyde, one of the most toxic substances known to man. The poisonous effects of Methyl Ester are well known, but the other two substances are also highly dangerous.

Aspartic Acid is basically an excitotoxin. When our body receives an over-concentration of excitotoxins, they excessively stimulate the brain cells and cause them to burn out and die. Ultimately this will lead to holes in the brain, and some degree of mental retardation. It is universally agreed that MSG is an excitotoxin which leads to brain damage, and the Aspartic Acid component of Aspartame works in exactly the same manner. It is so dangerous that even a pregnant women consuming Aspartame products is risking conceiving a brain damaged child. It is so powerful that it is even known to penetrate the blood-brain barrier.

Phenylalanine readily converts to Diketopiperazine in the human body, which is a known tumour agent and has been directly linked to brain tumours. Due to the well-known publicised effects of Diketopiperazine, fake studies were performed in an attempt to demonstrate its safety, but the producers of Aspartame were caught out, as they were a number of other times.

MANIPULATING DATA

Aspartame was produced by a company called GD Searle. Sweet Misery shows they knew that Aspartame was unsafe for human consumption, and that they went to great lengths to cover up the dangers of consuming their product by handing effectively fake studies to the FDA when seeking approval. The Diketopiperazine incident was just one incident where they were caught red-handed. The Diketopiperazine was mixed in with animal food in their experiments, and the animals often just ate around the blobs of Diketopiperazine. Even when it was mixed in properly and the animals did eat the Diketopiperazine, the Searle scientists just fed Diketopiperazine to the control group as well.

Searle also submitted a study to the FDA where Aspartame was fed to mice. Some of the mice died, and the scientists didn’t perform an autopsy for over a year, in which time the animals bodies had significantly decomposed. Upon completion of the autopsies, the deaths were reported as normal. It was also later found out that some mice had grown tumours, and these were cut out and reported as never having had tumours. Full details of Searle’s Aspartame cover-up can be found in The Bressler Report.

The earliest known study was done back in 1970. It was a 52 week oral study on monkeys. They were fed the Aspartame in milk, which was no doubt a deliberate tactic as milk is known to slow down the absorption. The use of primates was another key, as they are highly resistant to Methyl Alcohol. In the end, neither of these tactics proved useful, as from the 7 monkeys who were studied, 5 had grand mal seizures and 1 died. You can read the full study details in the RAO Report.

One of the interviewees was a doctor who performed his own independent testing with human subjects. Unfortunately his participants experienced severe reactions, with two having damaging eye trauma. It was the same old story for all independent researchers, while studies completed or funded by Searle miraculously showed conflicting results.

ASPARTAME TIMELINE

Sweet Misery provides a detailed timeline of the history of the Aspartame approval process. It was approved for limited use in 1974, and soon after GD Searle was charged by the US Attorney for deletion, manipulation, and falsification of records. The appointed attorney let the case slide for a long period before quitting, and the following appointed attorney did the same until the statute of limitations expired on the charges. Both attorneys were subsequently hired by GD Searle. This was also the case for a number of key individuals in the FDA and Bureau of Foods who manipulated the legal process for Aspartame approval.

In 1977, Donald Rumsfeld was appointed as the President of GD Searle. He put a stop to the legal mess by bringing in a team of politicians. They shifted the focus from science to politics, and were no doubt helped by the FDA’s lack of requirements to test the effects food additives had on the brain. The political influence was seen most prominently following the 1981 vote to decline Aspartame’s approval application.

The FDA scientists voted 3-2 against, but the FDA director then decided to add himself to the approval board and make the vote 3-3, and later used his power to overrule the decision entirely and approve Aspartame. It came as no surprise to see him quit his post and be hired by Searle’s PR Firm on a $1,000/day consulting contract.

DEVASTATING EFFECTS

In addition to the previously mentioned health conditions in humans that are caused by Aspartame consumption, a CDC investigator also found that it causes cardiac arrest, liver disease, seizures, mood alteration, and even death, stating that more neurological studies need to be performed. However the CDC is not so willing to share these same opinions, and will only provide a contradicting summary of this investigation to the public. However, the full report has now been obtained through a FOI request and it is clear to see the CDC have also played their part in the Aspartame cover-up. You can read the summary and comments in the CDC Aspartame Report text.

Somehow, the FDA considers products which cause 1 in a million people to die as Safe. So in a country such as the USA, 300 or so people can die each year from Aspartame consumption and they wouldn’t even blink at the problem. But death is just of the end-results when people take Aspartame laced products, with a great deal of other major health issues being caused. The FDA are well aware of the problems and symptoms of Aspartame ingestion, as they have compiled the following document based on consumer complaints they received.

The most heartbreaking moment in Sweet Misery is the prison interview with Diane Fleming. She has been sentenced to 50 years in jail for the murder of her husband, who died from Methyl Alcohol poisoning. The prosecutors managed to convince a jury that she made her husband drink some cleaning fluid, which by the way was still unopened, as it was the only substance in her house which could have contributed to the massive amounts of Methanol in his system.

However, at the time of her conviction the Aspartame connection was not known by her legal team. Her husband was a massive Aspartame consumer, drinking diet drinks, gatorade, and creatine which is a bodybuilding formula. Now that it is known Aspartame breaks down into Methyl Alcohol, it seems to be the likely cause of his death, and this is yet another incident of an innocent person being stuck behind bars while big industry gets off scot-free.

Sweet Misery is a must watch documentary, not just for the information on Aspartame, which could definitely save your life or help you avoid serious medical conditions, but also to gain the knowledge that governmental health regulatory agencies are commonly bought and paid for. Agencies such as the FDA and CDC do not care about your health, and instead are only there to ensure big businesses are allowed to make big profits at the expense of consumers lives.

Sweet Misery has a follow-up documentary Sweet Remedy, which delves into the issue further and also presents safe alternative products which can be used as sweeteners.