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| On April 1, I took the cans of aspartame out of
the refrigerator, out of my room and out of the
incubator. That day I brought the samples to
Winston Laboratory for analysis.
I was going to do a taste 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 to label each sample with a number. I conducted the experiment but I did not know which sample each person was drinking. I put all of the cans in a cooler and covered them with ice sos that they would be served 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 new 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 actual results are to be found in table#1. Table #2 contains the results of the testing conducted on the samples analyzed by Winston Laboratories. In the sample that was in the refrigerator all that was left of the 0.06 per cent of the aspartame was 0.058 percent. That extra aspartame had turned into 0.001 percent DKP and 53.5 parts per billion of formaldehyde In the sample from my room, all that was left of the 0.06 percent aspartame was 0.051 per cent. The extra aspartame had turned into 0.002 percent DKP and 231 parts per billion of formaldehyde. In the sample that was in the incubator all that was left of the 0.06 percent aspartame was 0.026 percent. |
The extra aspartame had turned into 0.010
percent DKP and 76.2 parts per billion in the
formaldehyde.
DISCUSSION: There was an obvious preference for the newly purchased sample of Diet Coke. The scores for the sample in the refrigerator and room temperature were similar but were not as high as the new soda. The score for the incubator sample were very low. Nearly everybody hated the taste. There are taste differences. Ten people preferred the new soda to the other three samples. With 1 being the best and 4 being the worst, their average score for the new soda was 2.0. The aspartame contained in diet soda stored over time can break down into formaldehyde and DKP, two very dangerous poisons. Taste tests revealed a noticeable difference among tasters. The higher the heat of storage, the worse the taste. Diet soda stored for ten weeks loses flavor. Aspartame in that soda breaks down into two products, formaldehyde and DKP. The warmer the temperature, the greater the loss of aspartame and the greater the increase in DKP. Temperature creates two effects. First, the higher the temperature of storage, 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 stored in a refrigerator at cold temperature, the aspartame breaks down into formaldehyde. (See insert for tables and end of article) |
New Jersey Sixth-Grader Shows the manufacturers of Aspartame (the artificial sweetener now in over 9000 products) and the Food and Drug Administration, how to test a product for safety! THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT STORAGE TEMPERATURES ON THE TASTE AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF DIET COKE BY JENNIFER COHEN Jennifer Cohen is an eleven-year old student in Mrs. Simmons' sixth grade Oradell, New Jersey class. The principal of Oradell Public School is Scott Ryan. He may be reached at 201 261-1181. Jennifer conducted an experiment proving aspartame, the artificial sweetener in diet soda, breaks down into two deadly neurotoxins when stored at room temperature and under refrigeration. ABSTRACT: The level of aspartame in a can of Diet Coke was found to be 0.06% by a food testing laboratory. The remaining cans from one case of Diet coke were stored under three different heat conditions for 10 weeks. Seven cans were stored in an incubator (104 degrees Fahrenheit), seven cans were stored at room temperature (68-70 degrees Fahrenheit). At the end of 70 days samples were tested for levels of aspartame, formaldehyde and DKP (diketopiperazine). |
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The refrigerated sample contained 0.058
percent aspartame, 0.001 percent DKP and
53.5 parts per billion of formaldehyde. The
room temperature sample contained 0.051
percent aspartame, 0.002 percent DKP and
231 parts per billion of formaldehyde. The
incubator sample contained 0.026 percent
aspartame, 0.010 percent DKP and 76.2 parts
per billion of formaldehyde. In addition 10
human subjects tasted each soda sample plus a
new can of Diet Coke and rated each sample
for taste on a 1-4 scale with 1 being the best
and 4 being the worst. The new can of Diet
Coke received an average rating of 2.0. The
sample stored in the refrigerator received an
average rating of 2.6. The sample stored at
room temperature received an average rating
of 2.5. The sample stored in the incubator
received an average rating of 3.8. The effects
of heat on Diet coke produced the worst taste
and the highest amount of loss of aspartame as
well as the greatest increase in levels of DKP.
The most pleasing taste was for the new can of
Diet Coke. The room temperature sample and
the refrigerated sample scored almost the same
in the taste test. All samples revealed a
presence of formaldehyde. However, the
highest level of formaldehyde occurred in the
room temperature can. There was also
formaldehyde present in the refrigerated
sample.
BACKGROUND: Aspartame was discovered in l965 by Searle chemist, Jim Schlatter. He was developing this drug for another use and after accidentally licking his finger found that aspartame was sweet. Today aspartame is consumed by more than 100 million people in the United States. |
This chemical (aspartame) has been approved by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who
said 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, light yogurt, Flintstone
Vitamins, baked goods, puddings, and
Winterfresh gum. It has been known to cause
headaches, nausea, vision problems, seizures and
cancer in its users
The ingredients in aspartame are aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methyl alcohol. Methyl alcohol is a chemical that breaks down in high temperatures and turns into formaldehyde and DKP (diketopiperazine), two chemicals known to cause problems in the nervous system. Aspartame's life is 262 days at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, or 25 degrees Celsius. The FDA gets more complaints about aspartame than any other food or drink. The symptoms of aspartame are a lot like the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Ever since aspartame was approved in l985, there has been an increase in brain tumors. There is no direct proof that aspartame caused the brain tumors, but there is enough reason to suspect that, and the television show, "60 Minutes" recently did a report linking the increase in brain cancer to aspartame use. The FDA reviewed Searle's studies of this artificial sweetener in which rats were fed aspartame daily with their meals for one year. There were 12 brain tumors in the 320 rats that were fed aspartame and no brain tumors in the 120 rats that were not fed aspartame. There was also a study done at the University of Wisconsin on rhesus monkeys. They were fed aspartame daily. After day 200 of a one year |
study the monkeys developed epileptic
seizures. After the study ended, the
aspartame was discontinued and the
monkeys were are fully watched for 60 days.
The monkeys had no more seizures.
METHOD: I did my own experiment on aspartame. On January 21, l997, I bought a new case of Diet Coke from the supermarket. I put 7 cans in the refrigerator, 7 cans in my room at room temperature (about 69 degrees) and I put 7 cans in a BOEKEL incubator (80 Watts, 120 AC volts, 0.75 Amps, catalog # 131500) and set the temperature at 40 degrees Celsius which is 104 degrees Fahrenheit. I left them in there for 10 weeks (70 days). I had a thermometer next to each group of cans and I checked the temperatures daily. I took the remaining three cans and brought them to Winston Laboratories in Ridgefield, New jersey to test for a beginning level of aspartame. When I got the test results back, they revealed that there was normally 0.06 per cent of aspartame in the can of diet soda I chose that temperature because in l985 the National Soft Drink Association reported a similar experiment in which diet soda stored at that temperature turned into formaldehyde. In that experiment they explained that 104 degrees Fahrenheit was equal to a daytime temperature in Phoenix, Arizona over the summer. The National Soft Drink Association recommended that aspartame not be approved for use by people in soda. They published this experiment and their recommendation in the Congressional Record. |
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| After diet soda containing aspartame is
purchased it should not be stored in the heat or
under any condition for a long period of time.
Further research should be performed with
more samples at different temperatures for
different time periods so that safety levels can
be determined.
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." Jennifer Cohen ************************** One of the first to see this as a new post was a fellow by the name of David Wheeler... who asked if he could help her out financially. I forwarded the message and here is her answer: Dear Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Rietz, Thank you very much for offering to help me! That makes me feel very good. I discussed this with my father and at first he said no. Then he said that I could do it if I use the money to tell people about my report. We talked about it and agreed that any money sent to me would be used just to print up my experiment and send it to people, newspapers and magazines. The more money, the more publicity! That will help people! Sincerely, Jennifer Cohen
My address is:
560 Oradell Avenue
Oradell, New Jersey 07649
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Table 1
AVERAGE 2.5 2.6 3.8 2.0 Table 2 BASELINE CAN 0.060% * * SAMPLE # 502 0.058% 0.0001% 53.5 (refrigerated) SAMPLE # 517 0.051% 0.002% 231.0 (room temperature) SAMPLE #540 0.026% 0.010% 76.2 (incubator) SAMPLE # 563 * * * (new can)* Sample #563 (new can of Diet Coke was not tested by the lab. It was used for the taste test only. The baseline can was not tested for formaldehyde or DKP because it was assumed that FDA would ban any new product containing poison. The total cost of testing was $1250. This may not be a lot of money to a drug company but it is to me. As it is, I will be baby-sitting for the summer of 1997 to pay for this study. -JC |
This pamphlet can be viewed/obtained from
the Internet at:
http://www.dorway.com/jcohen.html The "DORway to Discovery!" WEB site is a large collections of information on the substance called aspartame. It is now over 125 pages and around 3 megabytes of text mostly on this subject. One of the showcase pages is titled BADNEW and it lists the 92 FDA acknowledged symptoms of aspartame poisoning... at: http://www.dorway.com/badnews.html Other significant pages are: RECALL Demand! http://www.dorway.com/97recall.html IFIC Rebuttal (industry mouthpiece) http://www.dorway.com/offasprt.html Sordid history of getting to market http://www.dorway.com/enclosur.html NOTE: Standing permission to copy, reproduce and distribute this pamphlet, and anything on the DORway to Discovery WEB site is given, provided that the original message intent is not altered or destroyed. That messages is: "Aspartame is NOT a "safe food additive". It must be reclassified as a toxic substance and removed from the human food chain." |
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