>From bettym19@mindspring.comThu Dec 21 13:35:43 1995 Date: Sat, 23 Sep 1995 22:34:41 -0400 From: Betty Martini Newsgroups: misc.health.diabetes Subject: Stevia Approved 9/18/95 Mission Possible is happy to advise that Stevia has been approved as a dietary supplement and should be made public on October 4. Stevia is a Brazilian shrub also cultivated in the orient and used in many countries as a sweetener. It is particularly beneficial for the diabetic because Dr. Robert Atkins (author of the famous Atkins Diet) says it metabolizes sugar and fights bacteria. It is used in South America to help diabetics. It has been banned in the U.S. we feel because the FDA wanted no competition for the chemical poison, aspartame, that is disastrous for the diabetic. The FDA refused to allow it through customs but what has been in the country has been sold. We have always had a Stevia resource on our auto-responder because of its beneficial affect on diabetics and because aspartame is disastrous for them. The methyl ester changes to methanol (wood alcohol) which in the body converts to formaldehyde and then formic acid (ant sting poison). This causes metabolic acidosis. Also, the methanol converts to formaldehyde in the retina of the eye and physicians thinking aspartame is safe have mistakenly thought the patient was suffering from diabetic retinopathy when, in fact, they were going blind from aspartame. Dr. Atkins originally thought it was safe and said so in his book but wrote a retraction in HEALTH REVELATIONS in April, l994. He said: "I have been giving advise that I can no longer stand behind, advise that I fear puts you at risk. I have endorsed aspartame, the synthetic sweetener you know as NutraSweet and Equal, as perfectly safe for general use. But from the time that one of my consultants (H. J. Roberts, M.D., diabetic specialist) I have studied volumes of information and talked with dozens of informed people. ..Aspartame has resulted in irreversible brain damage in lab animals. Taken in quantities consumed by the average sweetness addict, it can cause headache, dizziness, anxiety, depression, memory loss, confusion, visual loss and convulsive seizures. " "The Damage Done: Biochemically, aspartame contains 50% phenylalanine and 40% aspartate, both amino acids, and 10% methanol, a particularly dangerous form of alcohol, often referred to as wood alcohol, that in sufficient quantities is lethal. The FDA approved aspartame for human consumption based on the argument that the amino acids are safe and that methanol, when consumed in this small quantity, is harmless. Both assumptions are false. In normal, balanced amounts, aspartate and glutamate perform normal functions in the brain. However, both are so- called "excitotoxins," chemicals that, in sizable doses, so overly stimulate the electronic pathways in brain neurons that the cells in effect die from exhaustion." "In l980, Olney followed up his work with a paper - "Brain Damage in Mice from Voluntary ingestion of Glutamate and Aspartate" (Neurobehavioral Toxicology, 2: 125-129) - that showed the cellular damage from ordinary amounts of the excitotoxins could be seen during a brain autopsy. Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., a neurosurgeon, explores the pioneering work of Olney and others in a book - "Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills" (Health Press - 1 800 -643-2665)." "A Bona Fide Poison: Wood alcohol (methanol), the one certifiable poison in aspartame, is what alcoholics sometimes have made the mistake of drinking, only to end up blind or dead, two of the more notorious effects. Roberts suggests that methanol may explain why 25% of the people he studied had vision problems, including blindness." Robert Atkins, M.D. >From an article titled LIFE WITH STEVIA; HOW SWEET IT IS! by Dr. Daniel Mowrey, Health Store News - Rolling Press Feb/March 1994 "Safety Information: One of the most obvious indications of the safety of stevia is that there have never been any reports of ill effects in over 1500 years of continuous use by Paraguayans. A similar indication of safety is the observation that despite over ten years of widespread use of stevioside as a sweetening agent in Japan, years in which literally scores of tons of stevioside were ingested, not a single report of side effects of any kind has been reported. Compare that record to the track record of aspartame, which is the number one source of consumer food complaints made to the FDA." "Safety Data Conclusions: One might reasonably ask, based on these toxiological data, why efforts to make stevia the sugar substitute of choice in the United States and Europe have failed so miserably, and why, in fact, individuals who have attempted to produce high quality stevia liquid extracts in the United States have been threatened with prosecution. Here we have a plant, totally innocuous, posing no threat to human life and health, holding out in fact great hope for the production of a non calorie sweetener with the promise of incredibly important health benefits, yet is being systemically suppressed by bureaucrats who are apparently being backed by large money interests. Perhaps the time has arrived for consumers to begin insisting on their right to freely use this fine, delectable plant from Paraguay." Dr. Mowrey On June 2 I personally met with Congressman Newt Gingrich here in Atlanta and delivered to him a letter from Dr. H. J. Roberts (previously printed in this newsgroup) who said "I am writing you to request a new Congressional hearing in the near future concerning the documented harm being inflicted on many Americans, probably in the millions, from the use of products containing aspartame (NutraSweet)." I also talked to him about the approval of Stevia and left him with records on aspartame, case histories showing the lethal affects, Dr. Roberts book "ASPARTAME (NutraSweet) IS IT SAFE?" (Charles Press) and this letter: "Dear Mr. Speaker: Here is the documentation on our conversation, and my own request very respectfully submitted. In 1987 there were Congressional hearings on the dangers of aspartame when it was in about 600 products. Today the NutraSweet score is 5,000 and climbing. Americans have been mercilessly dosed with a deadly neurotoxin because the FDA has an incestuous relationship with NutraSweet/Monsanto. Please Mr. Speaker protect all Americans by the following actions: 1. Hold emergency Congressional hearings on aspartame with injured citizens and their doctors amply represented. Include followup on several hundred severe citizen complaints to the FDA about aspartame. 2. Require independent laboratory tests of aspartame and its breakdown chemicals particularly after storage in heat. Analyze the toxicity of Decomposition products in hot drinks, coffee, tea, chocolate is essential. 3. Dynamite the FDA approval logjam on STEVIA which has been used for centuries in other countries as a sweetener. 4. Investigate the FDA people/processes involved in aspartame approval. Particularly their criminal disregard for the thousands of consumer complaints about this poison. This travesty screams conflict of interest. 5. Institute a moratorium on aspartame sale and production until the matter is settled. Mr. Gingrich, this matter is a direct challenge to the freedom all Americans should enjoy from corporate/government collusion to destroy our health in the name of "protection." And it is an emergency. These requests are made in behalf of Dr. H. J. Roberts, NutriVoice, The Aspartame Consumer Safety Network, Mission Possible an all Americans. Thank you, Mr. Gingrich! OPERATION MISSION POSSIBLE Mrs. Betty Martini The only application that has ever been pending has been for a dietary supplement so this is what was approved. The embargo has been lifted and Stevia can now freely be brought into the country. If you would like further information on aspartame please email me for instructions to the auto-responder which will also give you a resource list on where to purchase Stevia. We know there will soon be many products that will contain this beneficial product. Stevia is a food and not an additive, one of the reasons it is so safe. The problem has been that the American Diabetic Association has recommended aspartame for diabetics although with full knowledge of its devastating affects on diabetics. In fact, they refused to publish Dr. Roberts abstract on diabetic aspartame reactors and he has been a member of the ADA for almost 40 years. The ADA is Monsanto funded. Last year on October 1 the ADA in Atlanta had a walk-a-thon sponsored by NutraSweet and many diabetics were wearing Equal shirts. Mission Possible gave our medical information on diabetes and aspartame and its devastating effects. Many diabetics called later to report their blood sugar had come under control and many of their medical problems had been eliminated when they abstained. The ADA saw the material. Yet this year they are doing it again, sponsored by NutraSweet. The ADA says there organization is to make the life of diabetics better. You don't do this by recommending to them a product that will make them go blind, containing wood alcohol, and that will ravage every organ in their body. We dedicated the day we exposed them to Joyce Wilson whose husband wrote in April 1994 in a local Atlanta newspaper: "Aspartame killed my wife. No words can express the agony and horror sweet Joyce endured. This poison destroyed her brain, ravaged all her organs and blinded her. She died at age 46 in 1991. .. I'm a man without a wife because the NutraSweet Company is a business without a conscience." Richard Wilson, Stockbridge, Georgia Joyce pleaded with Congress before she died to ban this poison so what happened to her would not happen to another human being. A week before the walk-a-thon her son married and on her empty chair was a long stem rose. We gave out press packets garnished with a long stem yellow rose and black lace for mourning. Last Saturday Mission Possible people gave out packets of information addressed to the diabetic and their physician with medical documentation on aspartame and diabetes to the walkers in the Juvenile Diabetic walk- a-thon. There were 2000 participants. It was sponsored by Coca Cola and they gave them a NutraSweet Dessert. This insanity must stop. Further information on request. And THANK YOU, Mr. Speaker! Betty Martini Operation Mission Possible Betty Martini Mission Possible International 9270 State Bridge Road Suite 215 Duluth, Georgia 30097 Email: bettym19@mindspring.com