Aspartame, Behavior, and Cognitive Function in Children with Attention Deficit Disorder

by Bennett A. Shaywitz, et. al

This study was published in the January, 1994 issue of Pediatrics.   Fifteen children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD were given a large single daily dose of aspartame or placebo for alternate two-week periods.  The researchers report they found no clinically significant differences between aspartame and the placebo for seven different tests administered to the children.

There is an editorial in Pediatrics following the Shaywitz paper.  It is typical of the scathing commentaries which have often accompanied studies producing results favorable to industry.  The writers cited this single effort as proof positive that those who dare to connect diet with behavior, or to suggest that there may be a link with Alzheimer's disease are 'self-proclaimed nutritional gurus espousing 'pseudoscientific nebulous belief systems', etc, etc, (Editor's note: And I thought science was the pursuit of truth, offering an open forum of scholars engaged in the exchange of information, grounded in respect for the opinions of colleagues.)

Interestingly, Dr. Feingold did not see dramatic change in most children after consuming the neurotoxin MSG.  But as Dr. Blaylock points out in his book, Excitotoxins, the taste that kills, the effects of neurotoxins such as MSG and aspartame are generally cumulative.  He emphasizes that the effects from excitotoxins consumed by children "usually do not show up until many years later, even during adulthood..."  "this damage is slow and cumulative, with each dose of MSG or aspartame damaging a number of important brain areas."  One reason the FDA has not issued warning about the consumption of these additives by children, he points out, is that there are generally no obvious effects, in an individual who consumes it, or in the newborn, as was the case with birth defects caused by Thalidomide.

Blaylock names one study where newborn rats clearly reacted with hyperactive behavior to injections of MSG; he cites another (using a rhesus monkey) which produced no obvious behavioral change, but resulted in significant damage to the animal's hypothalamus.  Other researchers have linked damage in this portion of the brain to various learning problems and "injections of minute amounts of glutamate into the hypothalamus of animals has been shown to produce sudden rage."  Although children are not exposed to MSG via infection, findings such as these are reason for concern.

Aspartame effects not so "sweet" for sensitive member

Aspartame (NutraSweet) Is It Safe?

Feingold Association - Pure Facts, October 1995