Product Description

This documentary is a close examination into what some consider to be a "hoax": aspartame toxicity. This documentary attempts to look at what is definitively known about aspartame and discovers that the label "hoax" in this case is a dangerous misconception. This controversial documentary is sure to open eyes to the possible dangers of what lurks in our food. System Requirements:Running Time 90 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 881394501027 Manufacturer No: DOC50102

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19658 in DVD
• Brand: CINEMA LIBRE DISTRIBUTION
• Released on: 2006-01-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 95 minutes

Customer Reviews

Good Documentary but Not Great. Scare Yourself!
This documentary has effectively made me give up Aspartame. I am very reluctant to believe one side of the story. In fact, I did a little research supporting the safety of aspartame. The evidence against aspartame is much more compelling. Then I went to the kitchen and poured out all my products containing aspartame.

This video effectively scares you from using aspartame. Which is the reason why I watched it, because I was concerned with how much I liked sugar free products containing aspartame.

At the beginning of the video the people they interview seem to be naturally accident prone people. For me, they seemed like people that if wasn't aspartame it would be something else. So I they didn't convince me. The convincing part was just how long it took to approve aspartame, which is no secret. There were various stipulations on aspartame until last decade even though it was developed in the early 70's.

Yes I am grateful that this video has forced me off of diet soda and I think I will never or very seldomly drink it for the rest of my life. The reason I gave it 4 stars is because this is quite possible the least stimulating documentary I've ever seen. I was falling asleep sitting at a reasonable time of the day for me. I almost fell out of my chair! But I guess this video would blame it on the aspartame and not its quality.:p

Amature production of health hysteria
As a health and fitness professional, I am keenly interested in matters of food addatives and their potential health effects. Aspartame is one of the most common of these addatives and as such the video peiqued my interest.While the argument given by the documentary is seductive (evil corperations secretly poisoning the populous with an untried and dangerous chemical)the video does a very poor job of supporting it's self with anything but bad logic and statistical gymnastics.

The first red flag for me was that many if the talking heads revealed a personal grudge toward the producers of aspartame (the psychiatrist was given the corperate run around when trying to design his study)and there was a conspicuous absance of the opposing veiw point. I am not saying it should have been fair and balanced ( all documentaries are opinion pieces)but the counter arguments were never even presented to be dismissed.

Another problem I found through out the video (it was shot on video not film) was the misunderstanding of basic physiolgical processes. Toxin storage, the effect of creatine, dehydration and others were explained by non-experts in completely erroneous ways or not explained at all. The proposed mechanism for the ill effects of Aspartame were logical and seemingly conclusive, but never were backed up with any hard data. the only studies(to the best of my recolection) directly related to aspartame, were statistical or critiques of other studies.

The accusations of corperate crime are well founded and easily ferreted out with some curorary research. these companies did royally screw up their tests and did push it through to get it on the market before adiquite trails were performed. This is unlawful and unforgivable but also completely irrelavent to the case in point: is aspartame so hazzardous that it should be banned from human consumption. All it shows is that corperations are shady cheat factories that are devoid of feeling for the safety of the public. Who didn't know this?

The actual facts of the studies with Aspartame are less dramatic than the video would like to believe. Contrary to the documentary 9it claims that the only positive studies done on Aspartame were done by the companies that sell it) many many studies and trials have been performed since it's release into the consumer market. Of recent, only one study showed a dose- response relationship and that study was summarily dismissed because of major flaws in the colony of rats used as well as methidology. the grand majority of experiments done the world over have been unable to provide a consistant link between aspartame and cancer risk.

The other major mechanism that the video proports is the production of methly alcohol and it's matabolisation into formic acid (they rutinely say formaldehyde but that is actually the stage prior to the adverse effects. But this hypothesis was refuted in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 281-290. 1981 by Stegink LD, Brummel MC, McMartin K, Martin-Amat G, Filer LJ Jr, Baker GL, Tephly TR from Harvard medical school intheir published study: Blood methanol concentrations in normal adult subjects administered abuse doses of aspartame. They found that the levels of methynol and formic acid went up in abuse doses (far more than even the heaviest drinker of Coke Zero consumes)but returned to normal 8 hours after the dose was admisinstered. No detrimental biological or biochemical effects was noted.

Caution is always advised when dealing with addatives. It is best to avoid them when possible. But it does no one any good to spread unsupported hyseria no matter how important the possible implications could be. The actual science behind it and the true debate in scientific circles is far more complex and subtle than the documentary leads one to belive.

It is also produced with the technical proficiency of a freshman college project. Very boring and overwrought.

important and sobering...
In Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, film maker Cori Brackett charts the insidious, deadly and exceedingly profitable hoax perpetrated by the pharmaceutical giant JD Searle and Company Inc., (now owned by Monsanto) to advance the global wide use of Aspartame as an artificial sweetener. Aspartame, aka Nutra Sweet, Splenda, or Equal forms the "diet" component of Pepsi, Coca Cola, Kool-Aid, Crystal Lite and countless other products routinely imbibed by people throughout the planet. Brackett details the destructive impact this chemical has had upon those who have used it and documents how greed-induced Washington insiders circumvented the banning of this substance by the FDA.

Donald Rumsfeld emerges as a key figure in this process. From 1977 to 1985, Rumsfeld served as CEO, President, then Chairman of JD Searle based in Skokie, Illinois. Along with Aspartame, Searle's products, include: Metmucil, Dramamine and the oral contraceptive Envoid. A 1980 Board of Inquiry comprising three independent scientists who, serving under Jimmy Carter concluded that Aspartame "might induce brain tumors." Rumsfeld launched a counter-attack against this report. As a former Congressman and powerful insider, Rumsfeld wielded tremendous influence in Washington and these political assets enabled him to eventually secure FDA approval of Aspartame. Rumsfeld saved a foundering JD Searle and his success in this endeavor earned for him acclaim as the Outstanding Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical industry from the Wall Street Journal (1980) and Financial World (1981). Throughout the film, we learn how Aspartame kills brain cells- particularly in the hypothalamus which controls feeding behavior. According to experts interviewed and cited by Brackett, three hundred or more people die each year from the effects of Aspartame.

This important and sobering film does her enormous credit. I do wish Brackett had utilized the services of an editor and writer capable of re-arranging and condensing frequently long-winded and tiresome interviews into a more cohesive, comprehensible and engaging whole. These weaknesses notwithstanding, and for the sake of the health and welfare of people worldwide, Sweet Misery deserves to gain the widest possible audience so that heightened awareness may finally spearhead a movement designed to ban this highly profitable, low-cost, calorie-free mass poison from the global marketplace.