From the July 2004 Idaho Observer:

Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World

An Industry Case Study of a Food Supply in Crisis

This is a video review and an urgent commentary.

I will be blunt: Aspartame is a government-approved neurotoxic drug that is poisoning our people. I want this horrible substance removed from all foods, drinks and medicines and I want the people who knowingly pushed this poison through the government approval process to be held accountable for their crimes.

To get the ball rolling, The Idaho Observer, in cooperation with Mission Possible, published The Artificially Sweetened Times -- a 24-page expose' of how power politics trumped public health in the aspartame approval process and how devastating this substance is to the human frame.

To keep the ball rolling, former aspartame poisonee and present video production company co-owner Cori Brackett has given us “Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World.” Sweet Misery is a two-hour documentary comprised of interviews with people who have been adversely affected by aspartame. The victims' stories are supported scientifically through Brackett's interviews with neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, MD, James Bowen, MD, HJ Roberts, MD and clinical psychologist Ralph Walton.

Dr. Blaylock described the neuropathology of aspartame and cited the FDA's 1972 Bressler report, which noted the relationship between aspartame and brain tumors in lab rats. Dr. Blaylock stated that, in the U.S., since the approval of aspartame, there is “...an enormous increase in brain tumors in this country that is wholly unexplained by the medical community.”

The neurological disaster that describes aspartame is not an accident. Brackett also interviews former FDA investigator Arthur Evangelista and consumer advocate attorney James Turner. From their lips you hear the sordid, first-hand details of how aspartame was approved by the FDA.

Evangelista describes how elements within the FDA tried to prevent aspartame from being approved but large sums of money being “waved around” bought cooperation from key individuals in the agency. According to Evangelista, the FDA reasoned, “We will approve this stuff and let the people prove it's unsafe.”

While good people in the FDA attempted to block aspartame approval, attorney James Turner and former Searle scientist Dr. Robert Olney filed suit against Searle. In 1977, Searle hired Donald Rumsfeld to see to it that aspartame was approved. During his interview with Brackett, Turner describes Rumsfeld's role in the aspartame approval process. “Rumsfeld is a 'fixer.' Someone gives him a job and he does it,” Turner explained.

Brackett asked Turner if Rumsfeld knew how toxic aspartame was while pushing for its approval. Turner responded, “I don't know what Rumsfeld knew, he is not a scientist and seems to have no interest in science.”

Mission Possible founder Betty Martini shows copies of studies from the FDA and the CDC which prove those agencies know about the dangers of aspartame. She specified a 146-page CDC report on aspartame that details the problems with it and how the CDC posted a misleading analysis of the report to its website. Mission Possible has the entire 146-page CDC report on its website at www.dorway.com.

You then get to hear Evangelista and Turner describe the flurry of political activity that resulted in the approval of aspartame in 1981 -- against the advice of FDA scientists, independent researchers/physicians and consumer advocates. In fact, the day after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president, he signed an executive order preventing the sitting FDA director from taking action against aspartame. The move led to the appointment of Arthur Hull Hayes as FDA director and one of Hayes' first official actions was to approve aspartame.

Several months later, Evangelista explained, Hayes left the FDA and became a $1,000-a-day consultant for Searle.

This video asks a world-renowned neurosurgeon, two respected MDs and a psychologist to describe what aspartame does to the body and the brain. They all concur: Aspartame is poison.

This video also asks a former FDA investigator and a consumer advocate attorney to describe the aspartame approval process and they both concur: Money and power politics triumphed over public health and safety.

In a closing comment, Evangelista explains how pharmaceutical companies achieve approval of dangerous substances so they can sell drugs to cure the very ailments their products cause. “From womb to tomb, you will be paying money to these pharmaceutical companies,” Evangelista said.

Evangelista's interview ended with the comment that, in five more years we will be seeing a lot of unexplained sickness in this country.

From the published science of aspartame and the effects this government-approved poison is having on ourselves and/or people we know, Evangelista's prediction for a new wave of “unexplained” sickness within the next five years will inevitably come true -- if we do nothing to prevent it from happening.

Mission Possible's Betty Martini saw this coming 12 years ago and began searching the globe for every scrap of information and evidence that exists regarding aspartame. Her search got us to where we are today: Absolutely certain of aspartame toxicity and the dirty politics that delivered it into our bodies. Betty's tenacity also attracted the expertise of fearless and principled professionals who have advanced our understanding of aspartame biochemistry to the point that there are no valid arguments to counter our claims about aspartame.

It was the inspiration of this marvelous woman, Betty Martini, that prompted The IO to produce The Artificially Sweetened Times. Cori Brackett's inspiration to produce Sweet Misery also came from Betty.

If we do nothing to prevent it, in five years we will watch as people all around us begin to drop dead or slowly slip into insanity. If we do something, the trend will be reversed and we will have helped Betty, our inspirational leader, to spare our people from the coming plague.

I will be blunt again: Buy 100 copies of The Artificially Sweetened Times and give one to every person you see consuming a diet soda or other aspartame-sweetened product. Buy a copy of Sweet Misery (Contact The IO) and show it to anyone you know who is currently consuming products sweetened with aspartame. Share this knowledge with medical professionals and first responders. We have a real opportunity to make the world a better place with aspartame activism.

Help us save the world from Rumsfeld's disease type A.