NOHA Board Member Adrienne Samuels, PhD, has carefully studied the research on "glutamic acid (found in all hydrolyzed protein products), aspartic acid (found in aspartame), and L-cysteine (currently used as a dough conditioner and proposed for use as a color preservative for fresh fruit). . . . There are . . . double-blind studies suggesting that these amino acids are safe. A review of studies relevant to the safety and toxicity of glutamic acid, however, suggest that many of them are flawed."¹ For example, "in the case of MSG toxicology studies, the placebo used to test the excitotoxin glutamate is NutraSweet®, which contains the excitotoxin aspartate. It has been clearly shown in a multitude of studies that aspartate produces the identical destructive reactions on the nervous system as MSG. It would seem obvious even to the layman that you would not use a control substance to compare to a known toxin if the control contained the same class of chemical toxin. But that is exactly what is being done."²

___________

¹Samuels, Adrienne, "Excitatory Amino Acids in Neurologic Disorders," The New England Journal of Medicine, 331(4): 274-5, July 28, 1994.

²Blaylock, op. cit., p. 200.