By Jim Earles
Section of artical on
Neotame
Neotame, another product of
Monsanto’s Nutrasweet Company and also the
most recently approved sweetener, deserves several
red flags of caution. Also known as "superaspartame,"
it was first synthesized from a base of aspartame
and 3,3-dimethylbutyraldehyde by French scientists
Claude Nofre and Jean-Marie Tinti. In an amazing
display of sweetening power, neotame hits the scales
at 8000 times sweeter than sucrose, and its chemical
name is a mouthful--N-[N-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)-L-a-aspartyl]-L-phenylalanine
1-methyl ester.
Amazingly,
neotame doesn’t even come close to being the
sweetest compound that Nofre and Tinti synthesized.
Of their numerous other discoveries, carrelame,
bernadame, sucrononate and lugduname are the sweetest
substances known to man, ranging from 150,000 to
over 220,000 times sweeter than sucrose! There are
currently no plans to seek approval of these substances
for human consumption, but they may at some point
be utilized in other ways and thereby find their
way into the food chain.78
The chemical formula of neotame, published
in the February 10, 1998 Federal Register, reveals
that neotame is extremely similar to aspartame.
Essentially, neotame molecules are aspartame molecules
chemically combined with a neohexyl group. While
neotame has not yet been introduced into any markets,
critics surmise that all of the toxic effects of
aspartame and more will plague consumers of neotame.
NutraSweet petitioned the FDA in 1997 and received
final approval for a wide variety of sweetening
purposes in 2002.
In May of 2000, the NutraSweet Company
was purchased from Monsanto by the J.W. Childs Equity
Partners, LP.79 The new leadership at NutraSweet
must be quite excited about the approval of neotame,
as the patent rights on aspartame expired in the
1990s and generic versions have been allowed ever
since. It is estimated that neotame could replace
up to 50 percent of the current market share for
aspartame. We will all see soon enough how neotame
is received by the public.80,81,82
As a concluding remark on all five
of the FDA-approved non-nutritive sweeteners, it
should be noted that many animal studies on these
products only yield negative results when test animals
are fed the equivalent of several hundred artificially
sweetened products daily. Apologists for non-nutritive
sweeteners point to this as a way of dismissing
negative test data.
A quotation from the Holistic
Healing website explains the fallacy of this assertion.
"In order to estimate a potential safe dose
[of a chemical] in humans, one must divide the lowest
dose given to rodents that was seen to have any
negative effects. . . by 100. That dose is then
known as the maximum Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI)
for lifetime use. Keep in mind that the TDI is just
an estimate. Some chemicals are much more than 10
times more toxic in humans than in rodents (or will
cause cancer in humans in low-dose, long-term exposure
and do not cause cancer in rodents at all). A person
ingesting the TDI for some chemical may find that
it causes cancer, or immune system or neurological
problems, after many years or decades of use. So,
if the manufacturer claims that the dose was equivalent
to 50 diet sodas, then the TDI would be one-half
(1/2) of a diet soda, and even that dose may or
may not be safe."83
This article appeared in
Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing
Arts,
the quarterly magazine of the Weston A. Price Foundation,
Winter 2003.
References
(All web addresses were visited
on or before October, 12, 2003)
1. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
2. Ibid
3. www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2002/ANS01156.html
4. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
5. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
6. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
7. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
8. http://presidiotex.com/bressler/
9. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
10. http://presidiotex.com/bressler/
11. Ibid
12. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
13. Ibid
14. www.aspartamekills.com
15. http://www.dominion-web.com/directory.Top/Society/Issues/Business/
Allegedly_Unethical_Firms/Monsanto
16. www.karinya.com/neotame.htm
17. Fallon, Sally and Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nourishing
Traditions, NewTrends Publishing, 2001, Washington,
DC.
18. www.aspartamekills.com/lydon.htm
19. www.aspartamekills.com
20. www.aspartamekills.com/lydon.htm
21. www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fdsugar.html
22. www.aspartamekills.com/lydon.htm
23. www.holisticmed.com/aspartame/summary.html
24. http://aspartametruth.com/92symptoms.html
25. www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html
26. Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language:
Deluxe Encyclopedic Edition. 1991.
27. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
28. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
29. www.finchcms.edu/biochem/walters/sweet/history.html
30. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem_ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
31. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
32. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
33. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
34. http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites
/2001/Saccharin/history.htm
35. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
36. Ibid
37. http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites
/2001/ Saccharin/BITTERSWEET.htm
38. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem_ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
39. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
40. http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites/2001/
Saccharin/history.htm
41. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
42. http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites/2001/
Saccharin/BITTERSWEET.htm
43. Ibid
44. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
45. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem_ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
46. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
47. www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html
48. Ibid
49. www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
50. www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html
51. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
52. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
53. www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html
54. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem_ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
55. www.archive.hoechst.com/english_3er/publikationen/future/ernaehr/art8.html
56. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
57. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
58. www.archive.hoechst.com/english_3er/publikationen/future/ernaehr/art8.html
59. www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm
60. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
61. www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html
62. www.ecit.emory.edu/ECIT/chem_ram/synth/Hodgin.htm
63. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
64. www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
65. www.finchcms.edu/cms/biochem/walters/sweet/history.html
66. www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
67. Ibid
68. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
69. www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
70. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
71. www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/pressctr/pressreleases.inc
72. Ibid
73. www.mercola.com/2000/dec/3/sucralose_dangers.htm
74. Ibid
75. Ibid
76. Ibid
77. Ibid
78. Low-Calorie Sweeteners: Present and Future (from
the World Conference on Low-Calorie Sweeteners).
Antonietta Corti (editor)
79. www.nutrasweet.com/infocenter/index.asp
80. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
81. www.holisticmed.com/neotame/whatis.html
82. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
83. www.holisticmed.com/splenda/
84. www.finchcms.edu/cms/biochem/walters/sweet/history.html
85. www.gnc.com/health_notes/Food_Guide/Non_Nutritive_Artificial_Sweeteners.htm
86. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
87. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
88. www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00155.html
89. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn O’Brien
Nabors (editor)
90. www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1992/0792DE.html
91. www.btinternet.com/~amcbryan/aspartame/comment1a.htm
92. www.foodproductdesign.com/archive/1992/0792DE.html
93. www.globalsweet.com/polyols.asp
94. www.ketofoods.com/updates/sugaralcohol_article.html
95. www.eridex.com/html/history/html
96. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
97. www.globalsweet.com/HealthyAlternatives.asp#p
98. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
99. www.drgreene.com/21_837.html
100. www.globalsweet.com/HealthyAlternatives.asp#p
101. www.daniscosweeteners.com/dsw/web/dsw/publicsite/presentation/home/
news_and_events/latest_news.html&newspath=/web/dsw/publicsite/content/news/
Stay_Cool_in_the_Summer_Heat.html
102. www.eatright.org/Public/GovernmentAffairs/92_adap0598.cfm
103. www.ketofoods.com/updates/sugaralcohol_article.html
104. www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/labeling_sorbitol.html
105. www.ketofoods.com/updates/sugaralcohol_article.html
106. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
107. www.tagatose.com/whatis.html
108. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition, Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
109. Ibid
110. Low-Calorie Sweeteners: Present and Future
(from the World Conference on Low-Calorie Sweeteners).
Atonietta Corti (editor)
111. www.chemopharma.com/citrosa.htm
112. Information taken from a personal e-mail exchange
with Overseal Color, Inc.
113. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
114. Information taken from Wisdom Natural Brands
stevia product brochures
115. www.gene.ch/gentech/1998/May-Jul/msg00060.html
116. Wisdom Natural Brands stevia product brochures
117. www.emperorsherbologist.com/steviahist.shtml
118. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
119. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
120. "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age," Whole Foods, June 2003, by Peilin Guo
and Dallas Clouatre.
121. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
122. www.chifaisgourmet.com/CFLoHanpage.htm
123. "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age," Whole Foods, June 2003, by Peilin Guo
and Dallas Clouatre.
124. http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_probiotic.html
125. Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
126. http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_probiotic.html
References Corresponding to
Better Options Addendum
112- www.overseal.co.uk/talin3.htm
113- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
114- http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad14sep98_1.htm
115- www.dsharma.org/biotech/bitter.htm
116- Information taken from a personal e-mail exchange
with Overseal Color, Inc.
117- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
118- www.emperorsherbologist.com/steviahist.shtml
119- Information taken from Wisdom Natural Brands
stevia product brochures
120- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
121- www.gene.ch/gentech/1998/May-Jul/msg00060.html
122- Information taken from Wisdom Natural Brands
stevia product brochures
123- www.wisdomherbs.com/faq/stevioside.htm
124- Information taken from Wisdom Natural Brands
stevia product brochures
125- www.emperorsherbologist.com/steviahist.shtml
126- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
127- "Sinfully Sweet?" article from New
Age Journal, Jan/Feb. 1996, by Linda and Bill Bonvie.
Available online at www.stevia.net/newagesweet.htm
128- ibid
129- ibid
130- www.emperorsherbologist.com/steviahist.shtml
131- "Sinfully Sweet?" article from New
Age Journal, Jan./Feb. 1996, by Linda and Bill Bonvie.
Available online at www.stevia.net/newagesweet.htm
132- www.gene.ch/gentech/1998/May-Jul/msg00060.html
133- "Sinfully Sweet?" article from New
Age Journal, Jan./Feb. 1996, by Linda and Bill Bonvie.
Available online at www.stevia.net/newagesweet.htm
134- "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age" article from Whole Foods, June 2003, by
Peilin Guo and Dallas Clouatre.
135- "Sinfully Sweet?" article from New
Age Journal, Jan./Feb. 1996, by Linda and Bill Bonvie.
Available online at www.stevia.net/newagesweet.htm
136- www.emperorsherbologist.com/steviahist.shtml
137- "Sinfully Sweet?" article from New
Age Journal, Jan./Feb. 1996, by Linda and Bill Bonvie.
Available online at www.stevia.net/newagesweet.htm
138- www.panda.fi/engl/licorice.htm
139- www.holisticmed.com/sweet/sweet.txt
140- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
141- Ibid
142- www.preparedfoods.com/literature/0006/mafco.htm
143- "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age" article from Whole Foods, June 2003, by
Peilin Guo and Dallas Clouatre.
144- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
145- www.chifaisgourmet.com/CFLoHanpage.htm
146- "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age" article from Whole Foods, June 2003, by
Peilin Guo and Dallas Clouatre.
147- www.chifaisgourmet.com/CFLoHanpage.htm
148- "Lo Han: A Natural Sweetener Comes of
Age" article from Whole Foods, June 2003, by
Peilin Guo and Dallas Clouatre.
149- www.ketofoods.com/updates/sugaralcohol_article.html
150- www.dainet.de/fnr/ctvo/byproducts/heming_hbi.doc
151- www.supplementwatch.com/supatoz/supplement.asp?supplementID=152
152- http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_glycerin.html#sweet
153- www.aubrey-organics.com/about/dictionary/v_diction.cfm
154- http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_glycerin.html#sweet
155- www.dainet.de/fnr/ctvo/byproducts/heming_hbi.doc
156- www.getbig.com/articles/nutritionbars.htm
157- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
158- http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_probiotic.html
159- ibid
160- www.vitaminretailer.com/VR/articles/Probiotics.htm
161- http://members.shaw.ca/duncancrow/inulin_probiotic.html
162- ibid
163- Alternative Sweeteners, Third Edition. Lyn
O’Brien Nabors (editor)
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