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From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.kids,net.med
Subject: Re: Re: The Perils of Nutrasweet
Message-ID: <234@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jul-85 23:53:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncc5.234
Posted: Tue Jul 23 23:53:49 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 00:31:03 EDT
References: <771@burl.UUCP> <394@petrus.UUCP> <182@steinmetz.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 19

>  Most people can deal with phenylalanine, but there is
> a significant portion of the population (>10%?) which cannot.  These are
> "phenylketonurics".  There's even a warning on most things which use
> Nutrasweet which says:
> 	"Phenylketonurics: This product contains phenylalanine."

From the Merck Manual, 12th ed, p. 1111:

"Phenylketonuria (PKU) is transmitted by an autosomal recessive gene;
it is caused by a deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase.  The condition
occurs in 7:100,000 births in the general population of the USA, with
the incidence being considerably lower among Negroes and Askenazi Jews."

7/100000 is many times lower than >10%? (unless this is a kind of
notation I've never seen before!)  
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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