ADDITIVES: The Center for Science in the Public Interest published a list of “ten riskiest food additives” that appear to pose the greatest risk to sensitive individuals and the general population. These are acesulfame-K, aspartame, and saccharin, sugar substitutes, artificial colorings, especially Red#3 and yellow #5, BHA and BHT (preservatives), caffeine , MSG, propyl gallate (added to vegetable oil, meat products, potato sticks, chicken soup base, chewing gum and many other products), sodium nitrite (in most brands of bacon, hot dogs, bologna, ham and other processed meats), and sulfites (“a danger primarily to the 5 percent to ten percent of asthmatics who are sulfite-sensitive”).

To consider just one of these additives: aspartame releases into the bloodstream one molecule of methanol (wood alcohol),  a cumulative toxin, for each molecule of aspartame consumed. Children diagnosed with phenylketonuria (PKU) must not use aspartame, which is 56% phenylalanine. Aspartame is included in soft drinks, dry mixes for “Kool-Aid”, gum, chewable vitamins, and desserts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires the labeling – PHENYLKETONURIC: CONTAINS PHENYLALANINE – on products containing aspartame. Medications, however, are exempt from this requirement.

There is evidence in the medical literature that PKU heterozygotes (carriers for PKU) may experience  varying degrees of difficulty in metabolizing phenylalanine. PKU is the most common of known inborn errors of metabolism estimated to occur, in varying degrees of severity, in one out of seventy Caucasians.

An unusually high volume of complaints has been received by the FDA concerning neurological adverse reactions, including seizures, allegedly triggered by aspartame.

The Committee on Drugs of the American Academy of Pediatrics (Pediatrics, vol 99, no.1, Jan, 1997, p 268-278) include aspartame-induced headache and seizures among current problems encountered with “inactive” ingredients in pharmaceutical products.

Aspartame (L-asparty-L-phenylalanine methyl ester) marketed as Nutrasweet,  Equal etc. is made up of three components: phenylalanine, aspartic acid and methanol (wood alcohol).

When the compound in broken down in the body, phenylalanine is released. Persons heterozygous for the phenylketonuria (PKU) gene, most frequent in populations associated with mild damp climates, may possess a lowered tolerance of phenylalanine than others.

See: University of Arizona 1984 Aspartame Study, Woodrow C. Monte Food Science and Nutrition Laboratory, Arizona State University, Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol. 36, no.1, 1984

ANTI-NUTRIENTS IN PLANTS: To cite only one example of hundreds, broccoli and spinach contain oxalic acid, which interferes with calcium absorption. Oxalic acid is an insect repellent synthesized by the plant for its own preservation. Harmful effects of antinutrients and compounds that inhibit mitochondrial function (e.g. salicylic acid) are diminished by specific choices, as well as rotation, of plants.