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From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: More Perils of NutraSweet (with reference to another article)
Message-ID: <225@bbncc5.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 21-Jul-85 12:48:47 EDT
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Posted: Sun Jul 21 12:48:47 1985
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I thought Mark Garrett's summary of the Atlantic article was very
informative, and I intend to purchase it.  However, one quote
doesn't make any sense to me at all:

> On the subject of aspartame being composed of two amino acids which occur
> naturally as constituants of protein, a Seymour Kaufman of the National
> Institutes of Mental Health is quoted:
> 
> 	"There's a bad misconception that aspartame is the same thing as
> 	protein," he says.  "The trouble is that the taking of aspartame
> 	is not at all to be equated with the eating of protein.  Phenyl-
> 	ketonuria is believed to be the result of an imbalance of amino
> 	acids, and this can be mimicked when we take aspartame.  it cannot
> 	be mimicked by eating meat."
> 	...

Phenylketonuria is due to a deficiency in an enzyme which metabolizes
phenylalanine.  It is most definitely a chronic disease which leads to
mental retardation and neurological deficits if a low phenylalanine regimen
is not started aggressively during infancy.  I have a feeling that Kaufman
is either being misquoted or being misleading.  What I believe to be the
case here is that administration of free phenylalanine is not quite the
same as administration of protein containing similar amounts of
phenylalanine, because of competition by amino acids for transport across
the blood-brain barrier.  Granted.  What is not addressed by Kaufman's
comments is whether doses of aspartame even higher than those recommended
by the FDA produce brain phenylalanine levels comparable to those seen in
phenylketonuria and, indeed, whether the developmental and neurological
deficits seen in PKU are due to phenylalanine levels alone (which
presumably decrease rapidly in an ordinary individual) or to a general
toxic effect of chronic high phenylalanine levels.

Also, when aspartame is consumed with protein-containing foods, one
would expect to see brain phenylalanine levels typical of protein alone.
I'd like to hear from more informed medical and research sources who
might have more facts.

For the record: I still would regard infants and small children off-limits
to aspartame, and I DON'T "think it tastes great straight."  I am inclined
to believe that much of this controversy is academic, given the typical
use of aspartame by adults in the North American diet, but am open to
scientific research which indicates otherwise.
-- 
/Steve Dyer
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