By Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator

What would you say if a company would create a chemical product masquerading as a potent sweetener to insidiously poison a large segment of the population, generate billions of dollars of medical bills and, in the process, force millions of people to live a miserable life and die prematurely, after suffering from blindness, Alzheimer, Parkinson's Disease, diabetes or any of a number of other serious health problems?

And how would you react if you knew that this company has been able to buy its way through the FDA approval process to successfully saturate the food market - it is now found in well over 5000 different food products (more than 9000 worldwide according to some estimates) - and many vitamin supplements tainted with this toxic product, a neurotoxin so lethal and powerful that it has been proven to be responsible for the onset or the aggravation of a vast number of health disorders such as multiple sclerosis, seizures, brain tumors, lupus and birth defects?

You would immediately think that the people responsible for such a monstrous scheme should be immediately arrested and thrown into jail and the damn product entirely taken out from the market and banned forever. Yet, on the contrary, the people culpable of such an inhumane crime live the posh life of millionaires and are fully protected by a network of accomplices ranging from the governments, the medical and pharmaceutical industries, the food processing and pop beverage giants of the world, and even, to a certain extent, by the media.

You see, many wealthy people have a vested interest in keeping the people ill and diminished so as to both better drain them of their money and keep them under the spell of so many diseases that they barely have time and attention to consider questioning the status quo and their dictatorial power over our lives.

Now if you wonder why the author of these lines links this treacherous chemical named aspartame with the powerful elites that strive to run the world, the reason is that it's the only sensible way to explain why there has been for so many years such a tight cover up of this whole mess. But now, thanks to the heroic dedication and courage of just a few people who have been recently branded "Toxic Cyber-Terrorists" by the US national press and on CNN last January 29, 1999, and thanks to the Internet-facilitated people power, this situation is beginning to show signs of hope.

Betty Martini, a lady from Atlanta, Georgia (USA) who discovered first-hand the intoxicating effects of aspartame (see her personal story below and read also - if you have not seen it yet - the document by Nancy Markle widely circulated on the Internet which sparked a renewed interest for this issue but which was actually a transcript from a conference given by Betty Martini), began in 1992 to actively campaign to wake up America and the world to the debilitating effects of this chemical calamity, and founded the activist group "Mission Possible". Another hero of this protracted fight is Dave Rietz, from South Carolina, who has created one of the most extensive websites on this issue at www.dorway.com and who is also campaigning and writing non-stop to raise hell against the complacent US federal authorities who chose in 1981 to close their eyes on the dangerous potential of aspartame for creating havoc with the human central nervous system as demonstrated in some initial FDA studies -- which reported 92 documented symptoms from coma to death triggered by aspartame.

Since then, a number of independent studies and medical reports by reputed physicians have clearly revealed the broad range of health problems that can be directly traced back to a regular intake of aspartame-laced products, ranging from diet soft drinks to all kinds of diet food (if it says "No sugar", take a closer look!), adults and children vitamin supplements and a number of pharmaceutical products.

Here are some examples of those reported observations.

In neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock's book "Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills," he writes that aspartame causes major neurological changes, and in heavy users, may even precipitate lupus and methanol toxicity, which at first appears to be multiple sclerosis. The ingredients in NutraSweet literally stimulate the neurons of the brain to death causing brain damage of varying degrees. Methanol is mentioned here because, when heated beyond 86 F, aspartame, which is not chemically stable, degrades into a number of by-products such as methanol (used as an industrial solvent and in automobile antifreeze - it is also a severe metabolic poison), DKP (cause brain tumor), aspartate, formaldehyde and formic acid. The infamous Gulf War Syndrome has even been attributed by some to the large quantities of diet soft drinks the affected US military personnel drank during this war operation. Because those beverages were stored under extremely hot desert temperatures, the aspartame it contains metamorphosed into the witch brew of poisonous chemicals mentioned above.

So who are we to believe? The activists who are almost single-handedly turning the table around and now successfully putting the culprits in the dock for everyone to see what they have done, or the industry p.r. teams who try to make then look like "Toxic Cyber-Terrorists"? The thousands of people who got so much better when they stopped using aspartame or the belated last-ditch efforts of the FDA and industry spokespersons who, like the tobacco industry CEO liars in chief, persist in pretending that all their studies show that this product cannot harm you?

You have a responsibility, if you choose to believe the former rather than the latter, to use whatever means at your disposal to alert everyone you cherish to this public menace and make sure no one ever continues to suffer and die needlessly when the solution is so simple. Just say "NO" to aspartame and all those who would like you to believe their falsities. Some may want to seek compensation for what they have endured and that is their rightful choice. Justice must be rendered. But for now, let's make sure we put an end to the suffering and keep our eyes and ears open to never let another such tragedy and violation of our right to a safe food supply ever happen again.

We must not forget either that, for purely commercial motives, nearly 80% of our food supply already contains some genetically manipulated plants with potential consequences that may far outstrip the short term financial benefits sought by an elite minority. The synthetic bovine growth hormones (rbGH) which is still being used in the USA to boost milk production in cows has been definitely banned in Canada and Europe because its resulting by-products in the milk and meat have been found to be dangerous for human health. The list of food products which now routinely undergo intense irradiation to prolong their shelf life with no benefit and all risks for the population is quickly growing with no one ever informed of this through proper labeling to let, like in Europe, the consumers choose which food they prefer to eat. Chemical products by the hundreds are still routinely used in the agribusiness industry to boost production, kill pests and make the fruits and vegetables look good. But are they really that good for your heath? Only certified organic products can insure you and your children that you won't get poisoned by cancer-producing chemicals.

The road to health is fraught with terrible dangers today and the choices that must be made as to the safety of what we eat and drink is quickly slipping out of our hands. Shall we let faceless government officials and industry traffickers make those choice for us?

The answer to this crucial question lies in your heart my friend...