LOONY LEFTY'S LINKS LAUGHABLE

My favourite journalist and soon-to-be-published author recently linked to that "great resource" Bad Corp, which reveals that – shock, horror – evil corporate empire Philip Morris has changed its name to Altira. Scrolling down the page reveals lots more scary information, including:

Tricon Global Restaurants, owners of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut is becoming Yum! Brands.

Agricultural Insecticide and Fungicide Association, a lobbying and trade association representing the nation's 78 pesticide manufacturers will hide behind the friendlier CropLife America.

Dun & Bradstreet asked to be known as D&B, although it retained the full name officially.

Monsanto Specialty Chemicals, a spin-off of Monsanto, who is destroying the entire planet, is now Solutia.

Unaware that Monsanto is destroying the planet, I thought it best to follow the link to check out the threat. One of the featured items is on the planet-destroying Monsanto product, NutraSweet (aspartame). Here's the whole scary story:

Since April 1995, the U.S. FDA has reported over 10,000 volunteered consumer complaints stemming from NutraSweet (aka Equal, Aspartame) which is owned by Monsanto. Among the symptoms listed are blindness, seizures, memory loss, loss of limb control, slurred speech, skin lesions, extremity numbness, depression, mood swings, anxiety attacks, coma and death.

Absorbed very quickly into the bloodstream, NutraSweet metabolizes into six to eight byproducts including methyl alcohol and the class A carcinogen, formaldehyde. The early research history of aspartame was plagued with deception. Although the US FDA gave the product approval, it later emerged that the results of animal experiments conducted when researching the chemical, had been manipulated to improve them.

Damn, that NutraSweet sounds like dangerous stuff. Better check it out.

Snopes debunks the aspartame adverse health effects stories and links to a July 1999 letter to The Lancet from Anthony Zehetner and Mark McLean, Department of Endocrinology, Westmead Hospital, Sydney NSW 2145, Australia. The letter pulls no punches:

Sir - Patients at our diabetes clinic have raised concerns about information on the internet about a link between the artificial sweetener aspartame and various diseases. Our research revealed over 6000 web sites that mention aspartame, with many hundreds alleging aspartame to be the cause of multiple sclerosis, lupus erythematosis, Gulf War Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, brain tumours, and diabetes mellitus, among many others. Virtually all of the information offered is anecdotal, from anonymous sources and is scientifically implausible.

Aspartame, a dipeptide composed of phenylalanine and aspartic acid linked by a methyl ester bond, is not absorbed, and is completely hydrolysed in the intestine to yield the two constituent amino acids and free methanol. Opponents of aspartame suggest that the phenylalanine and methanol so released are dangerous. In particular, they assert that methanol can be converted to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, and thus cause metabolic acidosis and neurotoxicity.

Although a 330 ml can of aspartame-sweetened soft drink will yield about 20 mg methanol, an equivalent volume of fruit juice produces 40 mg methanol, and an alcoholic beverage about 60-100 mg. The yield of phenylalanine is about 100 mg for a can of diet soft drink, compared with 300 mg for an egg, 500 mg for a glass of milk, and 900 mg for a large hamburger (1). Thus, the amount of phenylalanine or methanol ingested from consumption of aspartame is trivial, compared with other dietary sources. Clinical studies have shown no evidence of toxic effects and no increase in plasma concentrations of methanol, formic acid, or phenylalanine with daily consumption of 50 mg/kg aspartame (equivalent to 17 cans of diet soft drink daily for a 70 kg adult) (1, 2).

The anti aspartame campaign purports to offer an explanation for illnesses that are prominent in the public eye. By targeting a manufactured chemical agent, and combining this with pseudo-science and selective reporting, the campaign makes complex issues deceptively simple. Sensational web site names (eg, aspartamekills.com) grab the browser's attention and this misinformation is also widely disseminated via chat groups and chain e-mail.

People consult the internet about medical issues for various reasons and many users regard online sources as being authoritative and valid. The medical profession has a role in teaching our patients to be discriminating consumers of the information offered there.

Gee, you'd reckon someone trying to sell himself as a journalist and author would be a bit more selective with the stuff he links to.

Update: There's also a link to a lefty American academic blogging from Jordan – not a Jordanian blogger, as claimed – that "debunks" the "myth" that Palestinian children are taught to hate Israel and Jews. Funny isn't it, Palestinian children are used as suicide bombers and for military support but they aren't taught to hate.